Ultrasonic measurement of gas flow using electrostatic transducers

Ultrasonic gas flowmeters typically use narrowband piezoelectric transducer arrangements for interrogating the flow of gas in a pipe. In this work, the suitability of broadband electrostatic transducers operating at frequencies of up to 1 MHz for ultrasonic measurement of gas flow has been investigated. The transit time method of ultrasonic gas flow measurement was adopted and experiments were carried out using a laboratory test rig capable of producing a range of gas flowrates up to 17.5 m/s. The test rig also allowed easy interchange of different prototype flowmetering sections. Times of flight of ultrasonic waves interrogating the gas flow were measured using separate send/receive electrostatic transducer arrangements. Two flowmeter configurations were considered. The first interrogated the flow at 45 degrees in contra-propagating upstream and downstream directions. The second consisted of an up-stream interrogation at 45 degrees to the gas flow and an interrogation made normal to the flow direction. k factors correlating the fluid velocity along the ultrasonic path with the mean fluid velocity in the pipe were calculated using experimental ultrasonic data and anemometer measurements. All transducer configurations were numerically modelled using the computational fluid dynamics software package FLOTRAN (ANSYS Inc.). Theoretical gas flow velocities for both transducer arrangements were subsequently compared with experimental values and found to be in excellent agreement. A flow-dependent frequency shift of the received ultrasonic signals was also observed simultaneously with the transit time measurement.     

An experimental study on swirling flow in a 90 degree circular tube by using particle image velocimetry

The study of swirl flow is of technical and scientific interest because it has an internal recirculation field, and its tangential velocity is related to the curvature of the streamline. The fluid flow for tubes and elbows of heat exchangers has been studied largely through experiments and numerical methods, but studies about swirl flow have been insufficient. Using the Particle Image Velocimetry method, this study found the time averaged velocity distribution, time averaged turbulence intensity with swirl and without swirl flow for Re=10,000, 15,000, 20,000 and 25,000 along longitudinal sections, and the results appear to be physically reasonable. In addition, streamwise mean velocity distribution was compared with those of Khodadai et al. and Jeong et al.     

超临界R134a水平圆管内冷却换热模拟研究

采用增强壁面函数的标准k-ε模型对超临界R134a水平圆管内冷却换热进行了模拟研究.分析了管内不同截面上流体温度、速度和湍动能的分布情况及对应关系。研究了质量流量和浮升力对换热系数的影响。结果表明,流体速度随着温度的降低而减小,并且最大速度处对应着最高温度和最小湍动能.换热系数随着质量流量的增加而增大,其峰值出现在准临界温度附近。浮升力在似液体区的影响较大,对流体换热起到增强的效果。     

Measurement of velocity variations along a wave path in the through-thickness direction in a plate

In this paper there is given a method to predict ultrasonic wave velocity variations along a wave path in the through-thickness direction in a plate from thickness resonance spectra. Thickness resonance spectra are numerically calculated and two simple rules used to predict the entire ultrasonic wave velocity variation are derived. In the calculation, the wave path is assumed to be straight along the thickness direction and the velocity variation is assumed to be either as a parabolic curve dependence or a linear dependence with respect to the distance from the surface and to be symmetric with respect to the plate center. To see if the numerical calculation method is reliable, thickness resonance frequencies of a sample with three-layers were measured by EMAT (electromagnetic acoustic transducer) with a good agreement between the measured and the calculated frequencies. This method can be applied to the ultrasonic measurement of material characteristics, internal stress or various other properties of plate materials.     

超声辐照及辐照环境对液体中流场分布特性的影响

研究了超声辐照下液体中声压场分布,模拟了流场分布的特性,模拟结果与利用粒子成像测速仪得到的实验结果相符。进一步研究了声学参数及容器几何环境对流场分布的影响。研究发现,增大超声功率和频率可使流场速度变大:在30~60W范围内,超声功率与流场中最大流速间存在线性关系;在频率为100~472kHz范围内,流场速度大小随频率的升高而增加:在层流区,流速与频率的平方成正比;在湍流区,流速与频率的1/2次方成正比。进一步研究发现,随着换能器到容器壁间距离的增加,流场速度减小。      

The flow velocity distribution from the doppler information on a plane in three-dimensional flow

In order to observe and estimate the flow of fluid in three-dimensional space, the pulsed Doppler method has been used widely. However, the velocity information acquired is only the velocity component in the beam direction of the wave even if an observation plane is formed by beam scanning. Accordingly, it is difficult to know the velocity distribution in the observation plane in tree-dimensional flow. In this paper, the new idea for processing the velocity distribution in the beam direction on an observation plane for transposing to flux distribution (flow function method) has been introduced. Further, the flow in an observation domain is divided into two kinds of flows, viz., the base flow which indicates the directivity of the flow in the observation domain and the vortex which is considered a two-dimensional flow. By applying the theory of a stream function to the two-dimensional flow, and by using the physical feature of a streamline to the base flow, the velocity component v which intersects perpendicularly to the beam direction is estimated. The flow velocity distribution in a scanning plane (observation plane) can be known from these two components of velocity, viz., beam direction componentu and perpendicular component to the beam directionv. The principle was explained by an example of the blood flow measurement in normal and abnormal heart chamber, by the ultrasonic Doppler method.     

A Wavelet-Based Processing method for simultaneously determining ultrasonic velocity and material thickness

Methods of measuring ultrasonic wave velocity in an elastic sample require data on the thickness of the sample and/or the distances between the transducers and the sample. The uncertainty of the ultrasonic wave velocity measurements generally depends on that of the data available. Conversely, to determine the thickness of a material, it is necessary to have a priori information about the wave velocity. This problem is particularly hard to solve when measuring the parameters of biological specimens such as bones having a greater acoustical impedance contrast (typically 3-5 MRayl) than that of the surrounding soft tissues (typically 1.5 MRayl). Measurements of this kind cannot easily be performed. But obtaining the thickness of a bone structure and/or the ultrasonic wave velocity is a important problem, for example, in biomechanical field for the calculation of elastic modulus, or in acoustical imaging field to parameterize the images, and to reference the grey or color level set to a physical parameter.The aim of the present study was to develop a method of simultaneously and independently determining the velocity of an ultrasonic wave in an elastic sample and the wave path across the thickness of this sample, using only one acquisition in pure transmission mode. The new method, which we have called the “Wavelet-Based Processing” method, is based on the wavelet decomposition of the signals and on a suitable transmitted incident wave correlated with the experimental device, and the mathematical properties such as orthonormality, of which lend themselves well to the time-scale approach. By following an adapted algorithm, ultrasonic wave velocities in parallelepipedic plates of elastic manufactured material and the apparent thicknesses were both measured using a water tank, a mechanical device and a matched pair of 1 MHz ultrasonic focused transducers having a diameter of 3 mm, a focal length of 150 mm and beam width of 2 × 2 mm at the focus (mean temperature 22°). The results were compared with those obtained with a conventional Pulse-mode method and with the control values, to check their validity. Measurements performed on bovine and human dry cortical bone samples are also presented to assess the limitations of the method when it is applied to elastic biological samples, including those of an equal-wavelength size (≈1.5 mm). The thicknesses and the ultrasonic wave velocities were then measured in this kind of (quasi-) parallelepipedic elastic materials with an mean estimated error ranged from 1% to 3.5% compared to the referenced values.     

梯度倾斜相关测量水平C_n~2和横向风速廓线的理论与仿真研究

根据Rytov近似以及泰勒湍流冻结假设,推导出以不同距离的前向散射光为信标的水平路径上梯度倾斜角的相关表达式.基于该表达式,在理论上提出了计算湍流强度与横向风速的新方法,并通过数值仿真对该方法进行了初步验证.结果表明,在5%高斯误差情况下,大气折射结构常数和风速的计算结果与理论真值在整体变化上具有较好的一致性,线性相关系数分别能达到0.8与0.9.该方法能够得到不同湍流与风速条件下的湍流强度廓线以及风速廓线,为反演大气湍流强度以及风速提供了一种新思路.     

翅片管束式管壳式换热器三维数值模拟研究

本文提出了运用多孔介质模型、分布阻力模型和k-ε湍流模型对壳侧为翅片管束的壳管式换热器壳侧速度场与温度场进行三维数值模拟的方法,并对一相应类型换热器壳侧的流动与换热进行了数值模拟,得出了壳侧流场参数的图示以及壳侧进出口压降,温差,换热量随壳侧Re变化的特性曲线。     

交叉三角形波纹板流道在过渡流状态下的传热与阻力特性

交叉三角形波纹板流道中流动常处于过渡态。本文研究了交叉波纹板中的周期性完全发展流动及热传递。利用周期性降低几何流道的复杂性以及简化模拟对象。为了模拟这个拓扑结构中的过渡流,利用了已经验证的低雷诺数k-ε,湍流模型来说明流动中的湍流流动。得到了三维复杂计算区的温度、速度以及湍流场。计算了在恒壁温和恒热流密度两种边界条件下的摩擦系数和平均Nusselt数及其与雷诺数的关系。湍流中心从上层壁面的波纹处移向下层壁面的波纹处并逐步增强。     

Rotation effect on near-wall turbulence statistics and flow structures

Turbulent flow in an axially rotating pipe, involving complicated physical mecha- nism of turbulence, is a typical problem for the study of rotating turbulent flow. The pipe rotation induces two effects on the flow. One is the stabilizing effect due to the centrifu- gal and Coriolis forces, which accounts for the relaminarization of the turbulence[1—3] and the reduction of the friction coefficient at the pipe wall. The behavior is also related to the wall streaks inclining to the azimuthal di…     

Extended Lattice Boltzmann Model

Conventional lattice Boltzmann models for the simulation of fluid dynamics are restricted by an error in the stress tensor that is negligible only for small flow velocity and at a singular value of the temperature. To that end, we propose a unified formulation that restores Galilean invariance and the isotropy of the stress tensor by introducing an extended equilibrium. This modification extends lattice Boltzmann models to simulations with higher values of the flow velocity and can be used at temperatures that are higher than the lattice reference temperature, which enhances computational efficiency by decreasing the number of required time steps. Furthermore, the extended model also remains valid for stretched lattices, which are useful when flow gradients are predominant in one direction. The model is validated by simulations of two- and three-dimensional benchmark problems, including the double shear layer flow, the decay of homogeneous isotropic turbulence, the laminar boundary layer over a flat plate and the turbulent channel flow.     

A molecular dynamics simulation on the convective heat transfer in nanochannels

The understanding of the flow and heat transfer processes for fluid through micro- and nanochannels becomes imperative due to its wide application in micro- and nano-fluidic devices. In this paper, the method to simulate the convective heat transfer process in molecular dynamics is improved based on a previous study. With this method, we simulate a warm dense fluid flowing through a cold parallel-plate nanochannel with constant wall temperature. The characteristics of the velocity and temperature fields are analysed. The temperature difference between the bulk average temperature of fluid and the wall temperature decreases in an exponential form along the flow direction. The Nusselt number for the laminar flow in parallel-plate nanochannel is smaller than its corresponding value at macroscale. It could be attributed to the temperature jump at the fluid–wall interface, which decreases the temperature gradient near the wall. The results also reveal that the heat transfer coefficient is related to the surface wettabilities, which differs from that in the macroscopic condition.     

Simultaneous velocity and temperature measurements in gaseous flow fields using the VENOM technique

We present an initial demonstration of simultaneous velocity and temperature mapping in gaseous flow fields using a new nitric oxide planar laser-induced fluorescence-based method. The vibrationally excited NO monitoring (VENOM) technique is an extension of two-component velocimetry using vibrationally excited NO generated from the photodissociation of seeded NO(2) [Appl. Opt. 48, 4414 (2009)], where the two sequential fluorescence images are obtained probing two different rotational states to provide both velocity and temperature maps. Comparisons to computational fluid dynamics simulations show that the initial VENOM measurements provide good velocity and temperature maps in the relatively high-density regions of the flow, where the rms uncertainties are approximately 5% for velocity and 9% for temperature.     

Spectral line shapes modeling in turbulent plasmas

In this work we investigate the influence of low frequency turbulence on Doppler spectral line shapes in magnetized plasmas. Low frequency refers here to fluctuations whose typical time scale is much larger than those characterizing the atomic processes, such as radiative decay, collisions and charge exchange. This ordering is in particular relevant for drift wave turbulence, ubiquitous in edge plasmas of fusion devices. Turbulent fluctuations are found to affect line shapes through both the spatial and time averages introduced by the measurement process. The profile is expressed in terms of the fluid fields describing the plasma. Assuming the spectrometer acquisition time to be much larger than the turbulent time scale, an ordering generally fulfilled in experiments, allows to develop a statistical formalism. We proceed by successively investigating the effects of density, fluid velocity and temperature fluctuations on the Doppler profile of a spectral line emitted by a charge exchange population of neutrals. Line shapes, and especially line wings are found to be affected by ion temperature or fluid velocity fluctuations, and can in some cases exhibit a power-law behavior. These effects are shown to be measurable with existing techniques, and their interpretation in each particular case would rely on already existing tools. From a fundamental point of view, this study gives some insights in the appearance of non-Boltzmann statistics, such as Lévy statistics, when dealing with averaged experimental data.     

Use of Lagrangian statistics for the analysis of the scale separation hypothesis in turbulent channel flow

Turbulence models often involve Reynolds averaging, with a closure providing the Reynolds stress tensor as function of mean velocity gradients, through a turbulence constitutive equation. The main limitation of this linear closure is that it rests on an analogy with kinetic theory. For this analogy to be valid there has to be a scale separation between the mean velocity variations and the turbulent Lagrangian free path whose mean value is the turbulent mixing length. The aim of this work is to better understand this hypothesis from a microscopic point of view. Therefore, fluid elements are tracked in a turbulent channel flow. The flow is resolved by direct numerical simulation (DNS). Statistics on particle trajectories ending on a certain distance y₀ from the wall are computed, leading to estimations of the turbulent mixing length scale and the Knudsen number. Comparing the computed values to the Knudsen number in the case of scale separation, we may know in which region of the flow and to what extent the turbulence constitutive equation is not verified. Finally, a new non-local formulation for predicting the Reynolds stress is proposed.     

Application of an acoustic noise removal method to aircraft-based atmospheric temperature measurements

An acoustic noise removal method is used to reject engine acoustical disturbances from aircraft-based atmospheric temperature measurements. Removal of engine noise from atmospheric temperature measurements allows a larger wave number range to be fit while quantifying the magnitude of atmospheric temperature turbulence. The larger wave number range was found to result in a more statistically certain spectral slope estimate, with up to a 50% reduction in the standard deviation of measured spectral slopes. The noise removal technique was found to break down under conditions of weak atmospheric temperature turbulence where the engine acoustical disturbance can be several orders of magnitude larger than atmospheric temperature turbulence.     

平行速度剪切驱动湍流引起的粒子输运

通过离子温度梯度及平行速度剪切的准线性湍流理论，得到了由杂质离子及抵频E×B湍流所驱动的径向离子流及相应的输运系数．理论分析表明，主要离子和杂质离子的径向离子流具有相反的方向，并随着平衡流速剪切以及杂质离子的密度梯度的变化而改变．增强平行速度剪切对主要离子的约束可产生有利影响 关键词：     

Ultrasonic cross-correlation flowmeters

The majority of ultrasonic flowmeters ultilize the Doppler principle so that the measurement depends upon the value of the velocity of sound in the fluid. Variations of the sound velocity can, therefore, introduce measurement errors. This paper describes an ultrasonic method of measuring the flow of liquids and gases using cross-correlation techniques. There is no restriction to the flow and the measurement accuracy is in principle independent of the velocity of sound in the fluid.     

A numerical model for ultrasonic measurements of swelling and mechanical properties of a swollen PVA hydrogel

This paper presents a numerical model for the evaluation of mechanical properties of a relatively thin hydrogel. The model utilizes a system identification method to evaluate the acoustical parameters from ultrasonic measurement data. The model involves the calculation of the forward model based on an ultrasonic wave propagation incorporating diffraction effect. Ultrasonic measurements of a hydrogel are also performed in a reflection mode. A Nonlinear Least Square (NLS) algorithm is employed to minimize difference between the results from the model and the experimental data. The acoustical parameters associated with the model are effectively modified to achieve the minimum error. As a result, the parameters of PVA hydrogels namely thickness, density, an ultrasonic attenuation coefficient and dispersion velocity are effectively determined. In order to validate the model, the conventional density measurements of hydrogels were also performed.