Effect of wall slip on the viscoelastic particle ordering in a microfluidic channel

The formation of a line of equally spaced particles at the centerline of a microchannel, referred as “particle ordering,” is desired in several microfluidic applications. Recent experiments and simulations highlighted the capability of viscoelastic fluids to form a row of particles characterized by a preferential spacing. When dealing with non-Newtonian fluids in microfluidics, the adherence condition of the liquid at the channel wall may be violated and the liquid can slip over the surface, possibly affecting the ordering efficiency. In this work, we investigate the effect of wall slip on the ordering of particles suspended in a viscoelastic liquid by numerical simulations. The dynamics of a triplet of particles in an infinite cylindrical channel is first addressed by solving the fluid and particle governing equations. The relative velocities computed for the three-particle system are used to predict the dynamics of a train of particles flowing in a long microchannel. The distributions of the interparticle spacing evaluated at different slip coefficients, linear particle concentrations, and distances from the channel inlet show that wall slip slows down the self-assembly mechanism. For strong slipping surfaces, no significant change of the initial microstructure is observed at low particle concentrations, whereas strings of particles in contact form at higher concentrations. The detrimental effect of wall slip on viscoelastic ordering suggests care when designing microdevices, especially in case of hydrophobic surfaces that may enhance the slipping phenomenon.     

Imposing accurate wall boundary conditions in corrective‐matrix‐based moving particle semi‐implicit method for free surface flow

Corrective matrix that is derived to restore consistency of discretization schemes can significantly enhance accuracy for the inside particles in the Moving Particle Semi‐implicit method. In this situation, the error due to free surface and wall boundaries becomes dominant. Based on the recent study on Neumann boundary condition (Matsunaga et al, CMAME, 2020), the corrective matrix schemes in MPS are generalized to straightforwardly and accurately impose Neumann boundary condition. However, the new schemes can still easily trigger instability at free surface because of the biased error caused by the incomplete/biased neighbor support. Therefore, the existing stable schemes based on virtual particles and conservative gradient models are applied to free surface and nearby particles to produce a stable transitional layer at free surface. The new corrective matrix schemes are only applied to the particles under the stable transitional layer for improving the wall boundary conditions. Three numerical examples of free surface flows demonstrate that the proposed method can help to reduce the pressure/velocity fluctuations and hence enhance accuracy further.     

硫化丁苯橡胶纳观界面耐磨机理及参数影响分析

硫化橡胶因其良好的力学和物理化学性能而被广泛作为摩擦副的基础材料. 本文提出了一种硫化交联算法, 实现了C—C键的硫化互交联和自交联, 构建了硫化丁苯橡胶的分子动力学磨损模型, 从微观摩擦学的角度阐明了硫化交联结构对改善丁苯橡胶磨损性能的机理, 研究了不同界面参数对硫化橡胶微观磨损性能的影响. 结果发现 硫化使丁苯橡胶分子链的界面黏附能力和活动能力更弱, 拉伸和解缠能力更低, 磨损过程中界面累积能量更低, 更不容易脱离橡胶基体, 因此可以表现出更好的摩擦学性能, 更强的抗磨损性能; 随着速度的增大, 硫化橡胶的磨损率降低, 与宏观实验结果一致, 原因是硫化橡胶的原子分布函数和相互作用能随着速度增大而降低, 说明橡胶分子链的黏附能力和活动能力随着速度增加趋弱, 温升更低, 导致较低的磨损率; 压入深度对磨损率的影响规律则呈现相反的结果和趋势.     

A modified SPH method to model the coalescence of colliding non-Newtonian liquid droplets

This paper develops a modified smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to model the coalescence of colliding non-Newtonian liquid droplets. In the present SPH, a van der Waals (vdW) equation of state is particularly used to represent the gas-to-liquid phase transition similar to that of a real fluid. To remove the unphysical behavior of the particle clustering, also known as tensile instability, an optimized particle shifting technique is implemented in the simulations. To validate the numerical method, the formation of a Newtonian vdW droplet is first tested, and it clearly demonstrates that the tensile instability can be effectively removed. The method is then extended to simulate the head-on binary collision of vdW liquid droplets. Both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid flows are considered. The effect of Reynolds number on the coalescence process of droplets is analyzed. It is observed that the time up to the completion of the first oscillation period does not always increase as the Reynolds number increases. Results for the off-center binary collision of non-Newtonian vdW liquid droplets are lastly presented. All the results enrich the simulations of the droplet dynamics and deepen understandings of flow physics. Also, the present SPH is able to model the coalescence of colliding non-Newtonian liquid droplets without tensile instability.     

A Closed‐Loop Control Strategy for Producing Nitrile Rubber of Uniform Chemical Composition in a Semibatch Reactor: A Simulation Study

To improve the quality of industrial nitrile rubbers, the copolymer chemical composition, p_A(t), should ideally be kept constant along the reaction. This work proposes a closed‐loop control strategy for the semibatch operation of the reactor with the aim of regulating p_A(t) within a reduced range of variability. The proposed strategy is evaluated by simulating a mathematical model of the process. To this effect, a simplified mathematical model of the reaction is first derived and then utilized to obtain a suboptimal control law and a soft‐sensor that estimates the polymerization rates. The suboptimal control law is compensated by adding a term proportional to errors in p_A(t). The simulated example considers the production of the low‐composition AJLT grade, with the copolymerization reaction represented by a detailed mathematical model adjusted to an industrial plant. Due to the high performance of the soft‐sensor, the simulation results suggest that the proposed closed‐loop strategy is efficient to adequately regulate p_A(t) in spite of structural and parametric uncertainties, while other quality variables remained practically unaffected.     

Monte Carlo simulations of magnetic particle suspensions with a simple assessment method for the particle overlap between magnetic spheroids

We have developed a simple assessment method for the overlap between spheroidal particles, which neither requires the complex manipulation of vectors and matrices that is indispensable in the ordinary methods, nor is based on a model potential. Moreover, we have developed an evaluation method for the interaction energy arising from the overlap of the steric layer coating spheroidal particles. This is based on a sphere-connected particle model, but some modifications are introduced in order to express an appropriate repulsive interaction energy at the deepest overlapping position. We have investigated the phase change in a magnetic spheroidal particle suspension for a two-dimensional system by means of Monte Carlo simulations. In the case of no external magnetic field, if the magnetic particle-particle interaction is sufficiently strong to favour cluster formation, long raft-like clusters tend to be formed in a dilute situation. With decreasing values of area fraction, a chain-like structure in a dense situation transforms into a raft-like structure within a narrow range of the particle area fraction. Similarly, the raft-like clusters are preferred in a weak applied magnetic field, but an increase in the field strength induces a phase change from a raft-like into a chain-like structure.

Highlights of the present paper:

1. A simple assessment method has been proposed for the overlap between two spheroidal particles.

2. The particle overlap assessment is free from a complex mathematical manipulation regarding vectors and matrices.

3. A modified sphere-connected model has been proposed in order to more accurately evaluate a repulsive interaction due to the overlap of the steric layers coating spheroidal particles.

4. 2D Monte Carlo simulations have been performed to elucidate the phenomenon of a phase change by magnetic spheroidal particles on a material plane surface.

5. A phase change between a raft-like and a chain-like aggregate structure is able to be controlled by the area fraction of particles and an external magnetic field.

     

利用电磁法研究HMX与TATB混合钝感炸药的冲击起爆特性

为研究含有少量奥克托金(HMX)且以三氨基三硝基苯(TATB)为基的高能钝感炸药PBX-3的冲击起爆反应增长规律,采用火炮驱动蓝宝石飞片的方法和铝基组合式电磁粒子速度计技术进行了一维平面冲击实验。通过实验测量撞击表面及内部不同深度处的冲击波后粒子速度,得到PBX-3炸药的Hugoniot关系。根据冲击波示踪器所测数据绘制了炸药到爆轰的时间-距离(x-t)图,获得了反映炸药冲击起爆性能的Pop关系。将入射压力为12.964 GPa时达到爆轰的6条速度曲线修整成相同零点,通过读取6条曲线的分离点即反应区末端的C-J点,计算出化学反应区时间和宽度。     

运用三维离散元技术模拟落锤撞击下奥克托今颗粒的点火燃烧过程

炸药颗粒的点火燃烧过程一直是人们关注的热点问题。近年来，三维离散元技术在中尺度观测颗粒材料的动力学过程中拥有显著优势。炸药燃烧属于颗粒材料的反应动力学，运用三维离散元技术(DM3)可以有效地观测炸药燃烧传播的过程。以奥克托今(HMX)颗粒为例，本文成功模拟并观测到了HMX颗粒的燃烧反应程度，确定了颗粒开始燃烧反应的时间，以及燃烧反应传播的时间。同时，结合落锤冲击颗粒的三维图像以及其表观压强和放热功率，得到了HMX颗粒燃烧反应、燃烧传播的整个反应动力学过程，包括颗粒在冲击加载下碎化塑性变形的过程，颗粒燃烧反应放热的过程，落锤回弹颗粒喷射的过程等。同时，进一步说明了尖顶颗粒更利于颗粒点火，平顶颗粒有抑制颗粒点火的能力。     

驻波声场中单分散细颗粒的相互作用特性

利用外加声场促进悬浮在气相中的细颗粒发生相互作用,进而引起颗粒的碰撞和凝并,使得颗粒平均粒径增大、数目浓度降低,是控制细颗粒排放的重要技术途径.为探究驻波声场中单分散细颗粒的相互作用,建立包含曳力、重力、声尾流效应的颗粒相互作用模型,采用四阶经典龙格-库塔算法和二阶隐式亚当斯插值算法对模型进行求解.将数值模拟得到的颗粒声波夹带速度和相互作用过程与相应的解析解和实验结果进行对比,验证模型的准确性.进而研究颗粒初始条件和直径对相互作用特性的影响.结果表明,初始时刻颗粒中心连线越接近声波波动方向、颗粒位置越接近波腹点,颗粒间的声尾流效应就越强,颗粒发生碰撞所需要的时间就越短.研究还发现,颗粒直径对颗粒相互作用的影响取决于初始时刻颗粒中心连线偏离声波波动方向的程度.当偏离较小时,颗粒直径越大,颗粒发生碰撞所需要的时间越短;当偏离很大时,直径较小的颗粒能够发生碰撞,而直径较大的颗粒则无法发生碰撞.