Numerical modelling of 3D stratified free surface flows: a case study of sediment dumping

A three‐dimensional numerical model has been developed to simulate stratified flows with free surfaces. The model is based on the Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations with variable fluid density. The equations are solved in a transformed σ‐coordinate system with the use of operator‐splitting method (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 2002; 38 :1045–1068). The numerical model is validated against the one‐dimensional diffusion problem and the two‐dimensional density‐gradient flow. Excellent agreements are obtained between numerical results and analytical solutions. The model is then used to study transport phenomena of dumped sediments into a water body, which has been modelled as a strongly stratified flow. For the two‐dimensional problem, the numerical results compare well with experimental data in terms of mean particle falling velocity and spreading rate of the sediment cloud for both coarse and medium‐size sediments. The model is also employed to study the dumping of sediments in a three‐dimensional environment with the presence of free surface. It is found that during the descending process an annulus‐like cloud is formed for fine sediments whereas a plate‐like cloud for medium‐size sediments. The model is proven to be a good tool to simulate strongly stratified free surface flows. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element modelling of stratified flow in estuaries and reservoirs

Experiences relating to the application of finite element models for laterally averaged stratified flow are discussed and modifications to the basic approach are suggested that alleviate these difficulties. An example problem is used to demonstrate the revised model and to make a preliminary assessment of the hydrostatic pressure assumption when applied to reservoir analysis.     

RANS Simulations of a Series of Turbulent V-Shaped Flames using Conditional Source-term Estimation

In the present study, Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations are applied to a series of turbulent V-shaped flames. Two formulations of Conditional Source-term Estimation (CSE) are developed using singly and doubly conditioned averages for turbulent premixed and partially premixed flames, respectively. Detailed chemistry is included. Conditionally averaged chemical source terms are closed by conditional averaged scalars which are obtained by inverting an integral equation. The objectives are to study a turbulent premixed V-shaped flame using the premixed CSE approach and apply the Doubly Conditional CSE (DCSE) combustion model to a case of stratified combustion. The partially premixed implementation involves double conditioning on two variables, mixture fraction and progress variable. The present study represents the first application of DCSE for a series of turbulent stratified flames. First, CSE is analysed for fully premixed conditions. A sensitivity analysis on the number of CSE ensembles and different scalar dissipation model closures is performed. Good results are obtained in terms of velocity and progress variable profiles. Finally, the partially premixed formulation is applied to the stratified case at three different conditions, corresponding to two different turbulence grids and three different profiles of the equivalence ratio, providing promising results.     

Numerical Solution of Three-Dimensional Stability Problems for Elastic Bodies

A solution in Cartesian coordinates to plane and spatial stability problems for composites is obtained within the framework of the second variant of the three-dimensional linearized theory of stability of deformable bodies. Two mechanical models are used: a homogeneous anisotropic medium with averaged mechanical characteristics and a piecewise-homogeneous medium with orthotropic linearly elastic components. To solve the problems, a mesh approach is applied. Discrete models are constructed using the concept of a base scheme. The calculated results are analyzed     

Mechanical realization of the medium imitating electromagnetic fields and particles

A turbulent fluid exhibits elastic properties. Turbulence may generate in the medium a body force. Small perturbations of averaged ideal turbulence reproduce the electromagnetic field. The averaged fluid velocity corresponds to the magnetic vector-potential, the perturbation of the averaged pressure to the scalar potential, and the body force due to nonuniformity of Reynolds stresses corresponds to the electric field. Discontinuities of the medium model particles and electric charges. A vapor bubble can be taken as a model of the neutron. Under the action of turbulent fluctuations the bubble turns into the inhomogeneity of the elastic medium. The region of rarefaction of the medium thus formed produces in the turbulent fluid the field of positive perturbation of the turbulence energy. This medium defect may serve as a model of the proton. In order to maintain the energy balance the respective field of negative perturbation of the turbulence energy should be formed. This field can be viewed as generated by an isle of quiescent fluid. The latter singularity models the electron. Electromagnetic interactions may be concerned with the entrainment of the pressure center in the turbulent aether. The magnetic force is due to the entrainment by the fluid stream, and the electric force is due to the entrainment by the turbulence.     

The Onset of Convection in a Layer of a Porous Medium Saturated by a Nanofluid: Effects of Conductivity and Viscosity Variation and Cross-Diffusion

The linear stability theory for the Horton–Rogers–Lapwood problem is extended to the case where the porous medium is saturated by a nanofluid with thermal conductivity and viscosity dependent on the nanoparticle volume fraction. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoresis are considered. In conjunction with the Brownian motion, the nanoparticle fraction becomes stratified, and hence the viscosity and the conductivity are stratified. The nanofluid is assumed to be dilute and this enables the porous medium to be treated as a weakly heterogeneous medium with variation, in the vertical direction, of conductivity and viscosity. In turn this allows an approximate analytical solution to be obtained.     

Internal Waves Excited by a Moving Source in a Medium of Variable Buoyancy

The problem of the far field of internal gravity waves generated by an oscillating point perturbation source moving in a vertically infinite layer of a stratified medium of variable buoyancy is considered. The analytical solution of the problem is obtained by two ways for a model quadratic buoyancy frequency distribution. In the first case the solution is expressed in terms of the eigenfunctions of the vertical spectral problem and the Hermite polynomials. In the second case the solution in the form of the Green’s characteristic function is represented in terms of the functions of parabolic cylinder. The analytical solutions obtained make it possible to describe the amplitudephase characteristics of the far fields of internal gravity waves in a stratified medium with variable Brunt-Väisäläfrequency.     

Macroscopic modelling of transport phenomena in porous media. 2: Applications to mass,momentum and energy transport

In this second paper, the averaging rules presented in Part 1 are employed in order to develop a general macroscopic balance equation and particular equations for mass, mass of a component, momentum and energy, all of a phase in a porous medium domain. These balance equations involve averaged fluxes. Then macroscopic equations are developed for advective, dispersive and diffusive fluxes, all in terms of averaged state variables of the system. These are combined with the macroscopic balance equations to yield field equations that serve as the core of the mathematical models that describe the transport of extensive quantities in a porous medium domain. It is shown that the methodology of averaging leads to a better understanding of the effective stress concept employed in dealing with transport phenomena in deformable porous media.     

On applications of the microlocal parameter method in modelling of temperature distributions in composite cylinders

Summary The problems of transient heat conduction in a periodically stratified medium consisting of a large number of alternating concentric cylinders of two homogeneous isotropic rigid materials and in a rotationally periodic cylinder consisting of a large number of circular homogeneous isotropic rigid sectors are considered. The equations of the homogenized models with microlocal parameters are derived by using the homogenization procedure given in [17]. The obtained models take into account certain microlocal effects connected with the microperiodic structure of the considered composites. Some examples of the application of the presented models to the problems of temperature distributions in composite cylinders are detailed. Received 10 March 1997; accepted for publication 23 October 1997     

The fields of a line source of current over a stratified conductor

Summary The problem of a line source of alternating current situated over a stratified dissipative medium is theoretically investigated. Special cases of the general solution are studied in detail and several illustrative curves are given. The results have application to stratigraphic investigations of the earth's crust.     

Thermophoresis particle deposition effects in a free convective doubly stratified medium over a vertical plate

An analysis is performed to study the thermophoresis effects in a transient free convective flow of a viscous, incompressible fluid past an isothermal vertical plate in a doubly stratified medium. The governing boundary layer equations are solved numerically using an implicit finite difference scheme of Crank-Nicolson type. The influence of thermophoresis on particle deposition velocity and particle concentration in a doubly stratified medium are analyzed and illustrated graphically. As well the influence of thermal and mass stratification on velocity, temperature and concentration are also investigated and presented. The influence of the parameters on local as well as average skin-friction, the rate of heat and mass transfer are presented graphically and discussed. The results are compared with particular solutions available in the literature and are found to be in good agreement.     

Convection in a stratified binary mixture near a thermally inhomogeneous vertical surface

The stationary convection in a stratified two-component medium, for example, saline sea water, near a thermally inhomogeneous vertical surface is investigated analytically. Physically different cases of thermal inhomogeneities extended in the vertical or horizontal direction are considered. The solutions obtained can be applied to problems of convection in semibounded horizontal or vertical layers in the presence of thermal inhomogeneities at the “ends” of the layer. The solutions show that in two-component media convection is very specific. In particular, the spatial pattern of the thermal response to inhomogeneous heatingmay significantly differ from the case of an ordinary single-component medium: additional perturbation modes that penetrate deeply into the stably stratified medium appear. For an arbitrarily strong hydrostatic stability of the medium there exists an unexplored mechanism of convective instability related with the difference in the boundary conditions for the two substances. Weak variations of the background stratification of the admixture concentration (salinity) may significantly affect the heat exchange between a vertical surface and the medium. Even a very weak presence of the second component (a small contribution of the admixture stratification to the background density stratification) may lead not only to a significant quantitative change in the thermal response but also to a change in its sign, for example, to a significant decrease in the temperature of the medium in response to a heat influx from the vertical boundary.     

Convection in a rotating medium above a thermally inhomogeneous horizontal surface

The linear stationary problem of convection in a medium rotating about a vertical axis above a thermally inhomogeneous horizontal surface is theoretically investigated. Attention is mainly focused on the case of a homogeneous medium, but certain stratification effects and especially the convection characteristics in binary mixtures (for example, in saline sea water) are also considered. When the rotation is rapid (large Taylor numbers) the convective cells are strongly elongated in the vertical direction, though they also contain a thin Ekman boundary layer. The importance of the boundary conditions on the horizontal surface (in parallel with the no-slip conditions, more general conditions that may follow from the quadratic turbulent friction model are considered) is shown. In the case of binary mixtures, the differential diffusion and rotation effects may together result in the appearance of “induced salt fingers”, the deep penetration of convection into an arbitrarily stably stratified medium. The convective motions may then have a considerable effect on the background vertical temperature and admixture distributions. Attention is drawn to an original manifestation of the analogy between the rotation and stratification effects: in a non-rotating, stably stratified medium, near a thermally inhomogeneous vertical surface, the convection also penetrates deep into the medium, but in the horizontal direction, so that, when the coordinate system is rotated through 90°, the solution coincides with the case of a rotating non-stratified fluid considered here.     

Self-similar implosion of a continuous stratified medium

Abstract. The subject of this paper is the non perturbed self-similar implosion of a continuous stratified medium in cylindrical and spherical geometry. The main contribution is twofold. The first one is a condition on the initial density profile which guarantees that the integral of the internal energy over a fixed volume stays finite at the collapse. The second one is the proof that the self-similar implosion model partly restitutes the dynamics of an experiment of cylindrical implosion. Numerical values of the self-similar parameter are also given for various kind of stratified media in the two geometries. Received 8 March 1999 / Accepted 9 April 2001     

2D dynamics of a stratified elastic subsoil layer

Summary The aim of this contribution is to propose a 2D model for an elastic stratified subsoil layer, which takes into account the effect of inhomogeneity on the dynamic behaviour of a medium. The obtained equations describe the subsoil response to the time-dependent foundation soil loadings, and can be applied to the analysis of dynamic subsoil-structure interactions. It is shown under which conditions the effect of microproperties of a medium on its dynamic response cannot be neglected.     

Direct Numerical Simulation of Turbulence in a Stably Stratified Fluid and Wave-Shear Interaction

Turbulence decay in a strongly stratified medium is simulated by a direct pseudo-spectral code solving the three-dimensional equations of motion under the Boussinesq approximation. The results are compared to non-stratified simulations results. We focus on the production of mean shear energy observed in the stratified case. We then simulate the decay of stratified turbulence when affected by an initial horizontal mean flow and show that this mean flow is the major component remaining at large t. Next, we give some analytical elements on wave-shear interaction by using a simple refraction calculation with WKB hypothesis. This calculation is illustrated by simulating the interaction between one monochromatic internal wave and a vertical shear profile. We conclude that the existence of singularities in the mean shear production term in the presence of internal gravity waves may be one of the possible mechanisms involved within stratified turbulent shear flows.     

Unsteady Convection in a Binary Mixture in the Neighborhood of a Plane Vertical Surface

The problem of the development of convection in a binary mixture in the neighborhood of an infinite vertical plate, on which a constant (after initial switch-on) heat flux and zero admixture flow are given, is solved. In particular, the cases of neutral and stable density stratification of the medium are considered. It is found that heat transfer to the medium can lead not to an increase but to a decrease in its temperature. This can be interpreted as the effective negative heat capacity of the stratified binary mixture.     

Grouping of suspended particles in a standing acoustic wave field

Assuning a snall difference in phase densities averaged equations have been obtained for the motion of a two-phase medium in a standing acoustic wave field. The force causing the relative motion of the phases has been determined. On the basis of the averaged equations obtained the dynamics of the redistribution of particles in the suspension in a plane standing acoustic wave has been studied.Translated from Izvestiya Akadenii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 81–88, September–October, 1984.The authors wish to thank S. A. Regirer for his interest in this work and for useful advice.