New exact solutions for fluid transients

New exact solutions for damped fluid transients are reported. Complicated excitations are easily accommodated. Some interesting special cases are discussed in detail.     

Fast transient infrared studies in material science: development of a novel low dead-volume, high temperature DRIFTS cell

A prototype DRIFTS flow reaction chamber was designed and developed in order to find analytical application in the study of heterogeneous catalysts operating at high temperatures under fast transient gas feed conditions. Minimisation of dead-volumes allows gas replacement in 8-10 s at 10 mL min⁻¹ total flow. To overcome problems related to the reactivity of the cell walls under alternating oxidizing/reducing gases, the cell was built with Inconel 600™, which was tested to be very inert even at high temperatures. The sample holder, which was developed to closely resemble a micro plug-flow reactor, poses some problems in terms of heat transfer to the outer body of the cell (limiting then the maximum reachable temperature) and of the correct measurement of the actual sample temperature. These problems were solved with a careful re-design of the upper part of the cell. The second prototype thus derived is able to reach temperatures up to 803 K and allows gas replacement in less than 4 s at 10 mL min⁻¹. The cell is inserted in a MCT-FT-IR, which allows to collect high quality spectra with a 1 s time-resolution. The downstream flow can be analysed by a quadrupole mass spectrometer equipped with an enclosed source and by a commercial GC. The performances of this prototype cell are presented showing some tests carried out with ceria-zirconia (Ce_xZr_1−xO₂) catalysts for CO abatement under real operando conditions.     

Transient observation of H labeled species in an operating PEFC using neutron radiography

High resolution neutron radiography was used to observe the time resolved distribution of ²H nuclei in the membrane of an operating polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) after changing the anode gas from ¹H₂ to ²H₂. The rate of replacement and the distribution of ²H nuclei shortly after the change of the anode gas were found to be independent of the applied current density. This behavior can be explained by a high exchange current density of the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR), the uptake of ²H nuclei in the membrane being limited by diffusive transport. A simple calculation as well as qualitative analysis is given to support this explanation.     

Wave chaotic behaviour generated by linear systems

It is shown that regimes with dynamical chaos are inherent not only to nonlinear system but they can be generated by initially linear systems and the requirements for chaotic dynamics and characteristics need further elaboration. Three simplest physical models are considered as examples. In the first, dynamic chaos in the interaction of three linear oscillators is investigated. Analogous process is shown in the second model of electromagnetic wave scattering in a double periodical inhomogeneous medium occupying half-space. The third model is a linear parametric problem for the electromagnetic field in homogeneous dielectric medium which permittivity is modulated in time.     

Transient wave-blockage interaction and extended blockage detection in elastic water pipelines

Extended partial blockages are common in pressurized water pipelines and can result in the wastage of energy, the reduction in system carrying capacity and the increased potential for contamination. This paper investigates the transient wave-blockage interaction and its application to extended blockage detection in pipelines, where blockage-induced changes to the system resonant frequencies are observed. The frequency shifting is first inspected and explained in this study through wave perturbation analysis, providing a theoretical confirmation for the result that unlike discrete blockages, extended blockages cause resonant frequency shifts in the system. Furthermore, an analytical expression is derived for the relationship between the blockage properties and the resonant frequency shifts and is used to detect the blockages in this study. The obtained results are validated through both numerical applications and laboratory experiments, where the accuracy and efficiency of the developed method for extended blockage detection are tested.     

Exploiting geometric signatures to accurately determine properties of attractors

We explore the notion of the geometric signature and demonstrate that it could be utilized in order to estimate dimensions, characterize lacunarity and type of attractor (self-similar, nonself-similar), and determine the length of transients for attractors.     

Application of the centre implicit method for investigation of pressure transients in pipelines

This paper investigates the application of the centre implicit method for the determination of the pressure transient in a pipeline, and compares the results with those obtained using the method of characteristics and an experimental investigation. The study shows that there are unique values for the stability criterion (ratio of the linear and time increments) and the artificial viscosity term (a damping factor) used in the numerical computation. The time step and the number of nodes required for the accuracy of the method have been considered. The centre implicit method can be readily adapted to transient flow with variable wave speed provided the established conditions are used.     

On the comparison of the solutions obtained by using two different transform methods for the second problem of Stokes for Newtonian fluids

The unsteady flow over a plane wall which is initially at rest and the plate begins suddenly to oscillate in own plane is considered. The solution subject to the boundary and initial conditions is obtained by applying to the governing equation the Laplace transform method or Fourier transform method. A comparison of the solutions obtained by two transform methods for flow considered is given. It is shown that the solution obtained by the Laplace transform method or Fourier transform method is the sum of the steady-state and the transient parts. The transient parts are found in terms of definite integrands whose integrals are oscillatory functions. Therefore, the transient parts are expressed in terms of the tabulated functions.