A simple lagrangian PDF model for wall-bounded turbulent flows

A simple Lagrangian pdf model is proposed with a new numerical algorithm for application in wall-bounded turbulent flows. To investigate the performance of the Lagrangian model, we minimize model’s dependence on empirical constants by selecting the simplest model for turbulent dissipation rate. The effect of viscosity is also included by adding a Brownian random walk calculate the position of a particle. For the no-slip condition at the wall and correct near-wall behavior of velocity, we develop a new boundary treatment for the particles that strike the wall. By applying the model to a fully developed turbulent channel flow at low Reynolds number, we investigate the model’s performance through comparison with direct numerical simulation result.     

Active control of flow noise sources in turbulent boundary layer on a flat-plate using piezoelectric bimorph film

The piezoelectric bimorph film, which, as an actuator, can generate more effective displacement than the usual PVDF film, is used to control the turbulent boundary-layer flow. The change of wall pressures inside the turbulent boundary layer is observed by using the multi-channel microphone array flush-mounted on the surface when actuation at the non-dimensional frequency f_b⁺=0.008 and 0.028 is applied to the turbulent boundary layer. The wall pressure characteristics by the actuation to produce local displacement are more dominantly influenced by the size of the actuator module than the actuation frequency. The movement of large-scale turbulent structures to the upper layer is found to be the main mechanism of the reduction in the wallpressure energy spectrum when the 700v/u_τ-long bimorph film is periodically actuated at the non-dimensional frequency f_b⁺ =0.008 and 0.028. The biomorph actuator is triggered with the time delay for the active forcing at a single frequency when a 1/8″ pressuretype, pin-holed microphone sensor detects the large-amplitude pressure event by the turbulent spot. The wall-pressure energy in the late-transitional boundary layer is partially reduced near the convection wavenumber by the open-loop control based on the large amplitude event.     

Measurement of turbulent supersonic steam jet flow characteristics using TDLAS

Ejectors have no moving parts and are preferable to mechanical compressors in many applications, but ejectors typically have a relatively low efficiency. To aid in the ejector design process, thorough understanding of the turbulent mixing of multi-phase compressible jets is beneficial.This paper reports experimental results for Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) measurements derived from an axisymmetric supersonic steam jet apparatus.In this experimental work, a supersonic steam jet nozzle exit of a diameter 13.6 mm was surrounded by a low-speed flow of dry nitrogen. The TDLAS system was traversed through the flow at three different planes downstream from the ejector nozzle exit: 15, 20, and 30 mm distance. At each of the three planes, line-of-sight measurements were made with the laser passing through locations between 0 and 15 mm from the jet centreline.Through the analysis of the TDLAS data and application of the Abel inversion method, the radial distribution of the pressure, temperature, and the concentration of the water-vapour were obtained. The key findings are that it is possible to determine key physical parameters using experimental TDLAS measurements when combined with a suitable numerical optimization approach.     

一种基于涡街传感器的集成式水流控制装置

以涡街传感器为核心设计了一种水流控制装置,可以对焊枪冷却水系统的进回水进行动态检测,当系统出现泄漏,或者系统水流量达不到设置的焊枪最佳冷却效果时,控制装置的微型处理器将关闭供水和回水系统的水流,并发送信号给焊接控制器做出判断,停止焊接操作,对自动焊装生产线有重要的应用价值。     

Grid-independent large-eddy simulation of turbulent wake flow using explicit differential filters

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - Large-eddy simulations (LES) using explicit filtering are performed to obtain grid-independent solutions of turbulent wake flow behind a circular...     

Beam vibration control using cellulose-based Electro-Active Paper sensor

Cellulose based Electro-Active Paper (EAPap) has recently shown a great potential as an environment-friendly smart material due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility and flexibility. Lots of studies have been conducted to investigate the basic smart characteristics of EAPap, but its application has not yet developed well. In this paper, the possibility of cellulose-based Electro-Active Paper (EAPap) as a piezoelectric sensor was investigated by the vibration control of the cantilevered beam. The EAPap sample was attached at the root of the cantilevered beam and used as a vibration sensor. The piezoceramic patch was also attached at the root of the beam and played as an actuator. The voltage output of EAPap showed exact dynamic characteristics of the cantilevered beam. The frequency bandwidth and quality factor of EAPap were similar to those of piezoceramic patch, which results EAPap has similar sensing capability of piezoceramic patch. To find the application of EAPap sensor, beam vibration control was performed. EAPap sensor output was considered as a position error of the cantilevered beam and a simple PID controller was designed to suppress the vibration of the beam. The EAPap sensor output provided clear time response of the beam. The controlled system showed good vibration control performance of the beam. The results provided that the piezoelectric characteristic of EAPap has a great potential as a sensor and also as a new smart material.     

Measurement of fluid flow rate using nanocomposite silicone rubber sensor

This paper describes the use of an elastic nanocomposite sensor to measure the water flow rate in open and closed hydraulic circuits. A sensor was constructed of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersed in silicone rubber (SR) and subsequently tested to verify its ability to measure water flow rate. The results reveal that the correlation between the fluid flow rate and the pressure variation across the sensor entails that its electrical resistance can be correlated to the flow rate. The sensor constructed of 2 and 3 wt,% of MWCNTs in SR-based nanocomposite sensors exhibited a low percolation threshold. An electron microscope (HRSEM) was used to characterize the manufactured nanocomposite sensors and confirm the conductive networks. The variation in the electrical resistance of the sensor in terms of both water pressure and flow rate is described. The elastic sensor was calibrated to measure the water flow rate in the range of 0–35 l/min. The results show that an elastic sensor fabricated from MWCNTs dispersed in silicone rubber does exhibit sensitivity to the slight strain levels produced by dynamic water pressure and, as such, can be used to measure flow rate. In addition, the sensor's response to water flow in the presence of bubbles enables pump cavitation monitoring. This paper also investigates the reduction of sensor electrical conductivity in response to water immersion. The findings reveal that the elastic nanocomposite sensor could potentially be used as a liquid sensor to detect water leakage in hydraulic circuits.     

Numerical study on characteristics of turbulent two-phase gas-particle flow using multi-fluid model

The purpose of this research is to study numerically the turbulent gas-particle two-phase flow characteristics using the Eulerian-Eulerian method. A computer code is developed for the numerical study by using the k-ɛ-k _p two-phase turbulent model. The developed code is applied for particle-laden flows in which the particle volume fraction is between 10⁻⁵ and 10⁻² for the Stokes numbers smaller than unity. The gas and particle velocities and the particle volume fraction obtained by using this code are in good agreement with those obtained by a commercial code for the gas-particle jet flows within a rectangular enclosure. The gas-particle jet injected into a vertical rectangular 3D enclosure is numerically modeled to study the effect of the Stokes number, the particle volume fraction and the particle Reynolds numbers. The numerical results show that the Stokes number and the particle volume fraction are important parameters in turbulent gas-particle flows. A small Stokes number (St ≤ 0.07) implies that the particles are nearly at the velocity equilibrium with the gas phase, while a large Stokes number (St ≥ 0.07) implies that the slip velocity between the gas and particle phase increases and the particle velocity is less affected by the gas phase. A large particle volume fraction (α _p ≥ 0.0001) implies that the effect of the particles on the gas phase momentum increases, while a small particle volume fraction (α _p ≤ 0.0001) implies that the particles would have no or small effect on the gas flow field. For fixed Stokes number and particle volume fraction, an increase of the particle Reynolds number results in a decrease of the slip velocity between the gas and particle velocities.     

Numerical investigation of turbulent cavitating flow in an axial flow pump using a new transport-based model

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - With the aim to enhance the capability of predicting cavitating flows for conventional cavitation models, a developed alternative numerical model was...     

Real-time flow control using neural networks

In this paper, an on-line trained neural network controller is applied to control the flow rate of a process control rig. The neural controller replaces a conventional controller in the forward path. The overall performance of this controller is compared with that of a PID controller in the presence of noise and non-linearity. It is shown that as the non-linearity is added to the system, the PID controller cannot track the set-point changes, however, the neural controller copes well under various conditions.     

Doppler spectrum analysis and flow pattern identification of oil-water two-phase flow using dual-modality sensor

Horizontal oil-water two-phase flow widely exists in petroleum and chemical engineering industry, where the oil and water are usually transported together. As one of most importance process parameters to describe the two-phase flow, the flow pattern can reflect the flow characteristics of inner flow structure and phase distribution. The identification of flow pattern will contribute to develop more accurate measurement model for flow rate or phase fraction and ensure the safety and efficiency of operation in industry. A dual-modality sensor combining with continuous wave ultrasonic Doppler sensor (CWUD) and auxiliary conductance sensor, was proposed to identify flow patterns in horizontal oil-water two-phase flow. In particular, the oil-water flow characteristic was analyzed from Doppler spectrum based on the CWUD sensor. Besides, the dimensionless voltage parameter based on conductance sensor was applied to provide the information of continuous phase in the fluid. Several statistical features were directly extracted without any complicated processing algorithm from Doppler and conductance signals. The extracted features are put into a multi-classification Support Vector Machine (SVM) model to classify five oil-water flow patterns. The results show that the overall identification accuraccy of 94.74% is satisfactory for horizontal oil-water two-phase flow. It also demonstrates that the noninvasive ultrasonic Doppler technique not only can be used for flow velocity measurement but also for flow pattern identification.     

Two-point correlation estimation of turbulent shear flows using a novel laser Doppler velocity profile sensor

In this paper we describe, for the first time, a new method of two-point correlation estimations of turbulent flows using a laser Doppler velocity profile sensor. For the spatial correlation estimations the laser Doppler velocity profile sensor offers unique opportunities since a high spatial resolution of approximately 20 micron within the measurement volume is achieved. Furthermore, the low relative velocity measurement uncertainty of about 0.1% yields a high resolution of small velocity fluctuations and, therefore, allows correlation investigations where such high resolution is required. Moreover, a new virtual detection volume technique is presented which is only applicable in conjunction with the laser Doppler velocity profile sensor and offers the potential to achieve highly precise spatial correlation estimations. Measurements have been carried out in the turbulent wake of a circular. Both temporal as well as spatial correlation estimations have been calculated from the acquired velocity data yielding a longitudinal Taylor microscale of 3.53 mm and a transverse Taylor microscale of 1.84 mm.     

光纤传感器及其在流量测控中的应用

主要说明了光纤传感技术及在流体测量领域的应用及发展情况。概要地介绍了光纤传感器的原理和特点，当前光纤传感器在流量测控领域的应用，详细阐述了光纤涡轮流量计、光纤涡街流量计、光纤多普勒流速计、干涉型光纤流量计、光栅式光纤流量计和多相流量计的组成、原理和使用特点等。     

Laminar and turbulent channel flow simulation using residual based variational multi-scale method

We present a residual-based isogeometric variational multiscale method to solve laminar and turbulent channel flow. Residual-based variational multiscale method is a new finite element formulation for solving turbulent flows using a large-eddy simulation type modeling. Isogeometric analysis, a new finite element method using CAD blending functions as its basis functions, is employed for higher order approximation of the solution. First, laminar flow with Re _τ 0.55 = through flat channel is considered and linear, quadratic and cubic basis functions, which are C ⁰, C ¹, and C ²-continuous across element boundaries, respectively are employed and their accuracy is presented by the comparison with analytical result. Next, same methodology is applied to the turbulent channel flow with Re_r = 180. Current results are validated by the comparison of turbulence statistics using available DNS data.     

Large eddy simulation of turbulent premixed flame in turbulent channel flow

Large eddy simulation of turbulent premixed flame in turbulent channel flow is studied by usingG-equation. A flamelet model for the premixed flame is combined with a dynamic subgrid combustion model for the filtered propagation flame speed. The objective of this work is to investigate the validity of the dynamic subgridG-equation model to a complex turbulent premixed flame. The effect of model parameters of the dynamic subgridG-equation on the turbulent flame speed is investigated. In order to consider quenching of laminar flames on the wall, wall-quenching damping function is employed in this calculation. In the present study, a constant density turbulent channel flow is used. The calculation results are evaluated by comparing with the DNS results of Bruneaux et al.     

Numerical analysis of turbulent flow over a backward-facing step using reynolds stress closure model

Reynolds stress turbulence models are adopted and applied for calculating turbulent flow over a backward-facing step. For the diffusion term in the transport equations for the Reynolds stresses, two gradient-type models are employed and compared. In addition, investigations on the modified ∈ equations are carried out. The results of the computations are compared with the extant experimental data. As a consequence, it is concluded that the Reynolds stress models predict the flow field better than the standardk-∈ model in the recirculating region. However, after the reattachment the return to the ordinary turbulent boundary layer is shown to be too slow to predict the flow field irrespective of turbulence models.     

Identification of gas-liquid flow regimes using a non-intrusive Doppler ultrasonic sensor and virtual flow regime maps

The accurate prediction of flow regimes is vital for the analysis of behaviour and operation of gas/liquid two-phase systems in industrial processes. This paper investigates the feasibility of a non-radioactive and non-intrusive method for the objective identification of two-phase gas/liquid flow regimes using a Doppler ultrasonic sensor and machine learning approaches. The experimental data is acquired from a 16.2-m long S-shaped riser, connected to a 40-m horizontal pipe with an internal diameter of 50.4 mm. The tests cover the bubbly, slug, churn and annular flow regimes. The power spectral density (PSD) method is applied to the flow modulated ultrasound signals in order to extract frequency-domain features of the two-phase flow. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is then used to reduce the dimensionality of the data so as to enable visualisation in the form of a virtual flow regime map. Finally, a support vector machine (SVM) is deployed to develop an objective classifier in the reduced space. The classifier attained 85.7% accuracy on training samples and 84.6% accuracy on test samples. Our approach has shown the success of the ultrasound sensor, PCA-SVM, and virtual flow regime maps for objective two-phase flow regime classification on pipeline-riser systems, which is beneficial to operators in industrial practice. The use of a non-radioactive and non-intrusive sensor also makes it more favorable than other existing techniques.