Free-Molecular Gas Flow in a Channel with Curving Boundary

Free-molecular gas flow through a microchannel with moving walls curved in accordance with the wave law is simulated numerically. It is shown that the probability of passage of the gas molecules through such a channel depends significantly on the dimensionless ratio of the channel wall wave velocity and the characteristic thermal velocity of the gas molecules. It is revealed that the probabilities of passage are also significantly different when the gas flows “along with” and “against” the direction of wave propagation on the boundary. Applications of this effect to both creating microseparating devices and designing micropumps are discussed. The effect of the problem parameters on the efficiency of these devices is investigated.     

Stokes Flow in a Slowly Varying Two-Dimensional Periodic Pore

This article presents a series solution to the velocity in a two-dimensional long sinusoidal channel. The approach is based on a stream function formulation of the Stokes problem and a series expansion in terms of the width to the length ratio, which is considered small. Results show how immobile zones may appear and even flow separation and nonturbulent eddies, even in the absence of prima facie dead-end pores. It is shown that the flow tends to concentrate in strips connecting pore throats.     

Flow of Particulate-Fluid Suspension in a Channel with Porous Walls

The problem of the dispersed particulate-fluid two-phase flow in a channel with permeable walls under the effect of the Beavers and Joseph slip boundary condition is concerned in this paper. The analytical solution has been derived for the longitude pressure difference, stream functions, and the velocity distribution with the perturbation method based on a small width to length ratio of the channel. The graphical results for pressure, velocity, and stream function are presented and the effects of geometrical coefficients, the slip parameter and the volume fraction density on the pressure variation, the streamline structure and the velocity distribution are evaluated numerically and discussed. It is shown that the sinusoidal channel, accompanied by a higher friction factor, has higher pressure drop than that of the parallel-plate channel under fully developed flow conditions due to the wall-induced curvature effect. The increment of the channel’s width to the length ratio will remarkably increase the flow rate because of the enlargement of the flow area in the channel. At low Reynolds number ranging from 0 to 65, the fluids move forward smoothly following the shape of the channel. Moreover, the slip boundary condition will notably increase the fluid velocity and the decrease of the slip parameter leads to the increment of the velocity magnitude across the channel. The fluid-phase axial velocity decreases with the increment of the volume fraction density.     

Darcy Flow in a Wavy Channel Filled with a Porous Medium

Flow in channels bounded by wavy or corrugated walls is of interest in both technological and geological contexts. This paper presents an analytical solution for the steady Darcy flow of an incompressible fluid through a homogeneous, isotropic porous medium filling a channel bounded by symmetric wavy walls. This packed channel may represent an idealized packed fracture, a situation which is of interest as a potential pathway for the leakage of carbon dioxide from a geological sequestration site. The channel walls change from parallel planes, to small amplitude sine waves, to large amplitude nonsinusoidal waves as certain parameters are increased. The direction of gravity is arbitrary. A plot of piezometric head against distance in the direction of mean flow changes from a straight line for parallel planes to a series of steeply sloping sections in the reaches of small aperture alternating with nearly constant sections in the large aperture bulges. Expressions are given for the stream function, specific discharge, piezometric head, and pressure.     

Kinematic Characteristics of Fluid Flow in a Channel with a Profiled Bottom

The results of an experimental investigation of fluid flow in a channel with an erodible and profiled rigid bottom are presented. The kinematic parameters of the flow were measured with a laser Doppler anemometer. The experimental data were interpreted using a linear model of potential flow over bottom roughness.     

Unsteady Rarefied Gas Flow with Shock Wave in a Channel

The two-dimensional time-dependent problem of rarefied gas flow in a plane channel, formed by parallel plates of finite length and closed at one end, is solved on the basis of the kinetic S-model. The flow develops as a result of rupture of a diaphragm which separates the gas at rest in the channel and the gas at rest in a reservoir of infinite volume. The effect of gas deceleration at the channel walls under the conditions of diffuse molecular reflection from the channel walls and end face is studied. Decay of a shock wave and disappearance of a homogeneous flow zone behind the shock wave is traced for three variants of conditions at the channel inlet: (1) gas enters the channel from a reservoir of infinite length and width (as the basic variant), the simultaneous motion in the reservoir and channel being studied; (2) the high-pressure reservoir represents a usual channel section; and (3) the motion of the gas in the reservoir is not considered at all, instead of this, the boundary conditions of the evaporation-condensation type under the conditions of gas at rest in the reservoir are imposed in the inlet cross-section.     

Modeling of Steady Flows in a Channel by Navier–Stokes Variational Inequalities

A mathematical model of a steady viscous incompressible fluid flow in a channel with exit conditions different from the Dirichlet conditions is considered. A variational inequality is derived for the formulated subdifferential boundary-value problem, and the structure of the set of its solutions is studied. For two-ption on the low Reynolds number is proved. In the three-dimensional case, a class of constraints on the tangential component of velocity at the exit, which guarantees solvability of the variational inequality, is found.     

Numerical Simulation of a Turbulent Flow in a Channel with Surface Mounted Cubes

In this paper we report on a fourth-order, spectro-consistent simulation of a complex turbulent flow. A spatial discretization of a convection-diffusion equation is termed spectro-consistent if the spectral properties of the convective and diffusive operators are preserved, i.e. convection skew-symmetric; diffusion symmetric positive definite. We consider a fully developed flow in a channel, where a matrix of cubes is placed at a wall of the channel. The Reynolds number (based on the channel width and the mean bulk velocity) is equal to Re = 13,000. The three-dimensional flow around the surface mounted cubes has served at a test case at the 6th ERCOFTAC/IAHR/COST workshop on refined flow modeling (Delft, June 1997). Here, mean velocity profiles as well as Reynolds stresses at various locations in the channel have been computed without using any turbulence models. The results agree well with the available experimental data.     

Passive Scalar in a Turbulent Channel Flow with Wall Velocity Disturbances

Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of a passive scalar in a turbulent channel flow with a normal velocity disturbance on the lower wall are presented for high and low Reynolds numbers. The aim is to reproduce the complex physics of turbulent rough flows without dealing with the geometric complexity. In addition, isothermal walls that cannot be easily assigned in an experiment, are considered. The paper explains the increase of heat transfer through the changes of the velocity and thermal structures. As in real rough flows, the transpiration produces an isotropization of the turbulence near the wall.     

Darcy-Brinkman Flow Through a Bumpy Channel

The forced flow through a channel with bumpy walls which sandwich a porous medium is studied. The problem models micro-fluidics where, due to the small size of the channel width, the surface roughness of the walls is amplified. The Darcy-Brinkman equation is solved analytically through small perturbations on the ratio of bump amplitude to the half width of the channel. The first- order perturbation solutions give the three-dimensional velocity effects of the bumpiness and the second-order perturbation solutions give the increased resistance due to roughness. The problem depends heavily on the non-dimensional porous medium parameter $k$ which represents the importance of length scale to the square root of permeability. Our solutions reduce to the clear fluid limit when $k$ is zero and to the Darcy limit when $k$ approaches infinity.     

Flow of a Weakly Conducting Fluid in a Channel Filled with a Porous Medium

We investigate the fully developed flow in a fluid-saturated porous medium channel with an electrically conducting fluid under the action of a parallel Lorentz force. The Lorentz force varies exponentially in the vertical direction due to low fluid electrical conductivity and the special arrangement of the magnetic and electric fields at the lower plate. Exact analytical solutions are derived for fluid velocity and the results are presented in figures. All these flows are new and are presented for the first time in the literature.     

Kinematic Parameters of a Two-Phase Flow in a Rectangular Channel

A kinematic two-phase flow pattern formed in a rectangular channel due to the interaction of a gas flow with an initially stationary or moving water layer is investigated. Using laser diagnostics and hot-wire methods, the velocity distributions in the water and the air are found for a stratified flow regime.     

Direct Numerical Simulation of Flow in a Ribbed Channel

The issue of turbine lifetime is an important one, particularly for modern turbines operating at high temperature regimes. A cooling design such as ribs may achieve an improved lifetime and complex mechanisms of heat transfer need to be well studied. In this paper, a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) is presented for a 3-D channel flow with two square ribs on the lower wall. The full unsteady compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved with an original hybrid finite difference/finite element scheme. The Reynolds number of the simulation is 7 000 based on the bulk velocity at the inlet and the channel height. The present study is mainly devoted to understand the mechanism of heat transfer at the wall through the topological analysis of the flow and the temperature flux. Results show that the large-scale structures generated by obstacles splash onto the lower surface and induce longitudinal vortices which enhance heat transfer at the wall. A comprehensive data base including 56 correlations was set up for testing and improving turbulence models for this complex, separated flow.     

Streamline Topologies in Stokes Flow Within Lid-Driven Cavities

Stokes flow in a rectangular cavity with two moving lids (with equal speed but in opposite directions) and aspect ratio A (height to width) is considered. An analytic solution for the streamfunction, , expressed as an infinite series of Papkovich–Fadle eigenfunctions is used to reveal changes in flow structures as A is varied. Reducing A from A=0.9 produces a sequence of flow transformations at which a saddle stagnation point changes to a centre (or vice versa) with the generation of two additional stagnation points. To obtain the local flow topology as A0, we expand the velocity field about the centre of the cavity and then use topological methods. Expansion coefficients depend on the cavity aspect ratio which is considered as a separation parameter. The normal-form transformations result in a much simplified system of differential equations for the streamlines encapsulating all features of the original system. Using the simplified system, streamline patterns and their bifurcations are obtained, as A0.     

Kinematically Excited Stokes Flow in a Right-Angle Wedge (Plane Problem)

An exact solution is obtained for a Stokes flow in a right-angle wedge. The flow is kinematically excited at the bottom edge and discontinues at the corner point __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika, Vol. 41, No. 9, pp. 60–69, September 2005.     

Stability Analysis of a Vertical Curved Channel Flow with a Radial Temperature Gradient

The linear stability analysis of a Newtonian incompressible fluid in a vertical curved channel formed by two coaxial cylindrical surfaces with a radial temperature gradient and an azimuthal pressure gradient shows that critical modes are oscillatory and non-axisymmetric. We have derived a generalized Rayleigh discriminant which includes both the curvature and buoyancy effects. Centrifugal buoyancy induces weak asymmetry of the dependence of the control parameter critical values on the sign of the temperature gradient. The critical parameters depend on the temperature gradient, the radius ratio and the nature of the fluid. For a wide curvature channel flow, there are two critical modes: oscillatory Dean modes for small temperature gradients and oscillatory centrifugal-thermal modes for relatively large temperature gradients. Received 14 November 2001 and accepted 29 March 2002 Published online: 2 October 2002 Communicated by H.J.S. Fernando     

The Most Unstable Profiles of a Plane-Parallel Flow in a Channel

It is well known (after Rayleigh) that a plan-parallel flow in a channel can be unstable only if the basic velocity profile U(z) possesses inflection points. The profile determines (via the Rayleigh equation) the maximal increment c _i of small perturbations and 'eigenvalues' c (see Equation (1)). The increment and the imaginary parts c _i of the eigenvalues c provide a quantitative characterization of the basic stability properties of the flow. Here we find some best possible bounds for these values. The bounds are determined by the following parameters: wave number ; enstrophy of the basic flow; width of the channel L. A similar approach can be applied to models of atmosphere, ocean, plasma etc.     

Supercritical Flow Over a Sill in an Open Channel

Experimental data on typical profiles of free surface and channel bottom pressure for a supercritical flow over a sill are reported. This flow is shown to have, along with the known critical depth, two other characteristic depths, one of which is at the channel exit to the atmosphere and the other determines conditions under which the disturbances propagate well upstream of the sill. The experimental data are compared with calculation results based on a mathematical model that incorporates turbulent mixing upon wave breaking.     

Unsteady Laminar to Turbulent Flow in a Spacer-Filled Channel

A combined numerical and experimental investigation has been carried out to study the flow behaviour in a spacer-filled channel, representative of those used in spiral-wound membrane modules. Direct numerical simulation and particle image velocimetry were used to investigate the fluid flow characteristics inside a 2 × 2 cell at Reynolds numbers that range between 100 and 1000. It was found that the flow in this geometry moves parallel to and also rotates between the spacer filaments and that the rate of rotation increases with Reynolds number. The flow mechanisms, transition process and onset of turbulence in a spacer-filled channel are investigated including the use of the velocity spectra at different Reynolds numbers. It is found that the flow is steady for Re < 200 and oscillatory at Re ～ 250 and increasingly unsteady with further increases in Re before the onset of turbulent flow at Re ～ 1000.