Direct numerical simulation of a liquid sheet in a compressible gas stream in axisymmetric and planar configurations

A thin liquid sheet present in the shear layer of a compressible gas jet is investigated using an Eulerian approach with mixed-fluid treatment for the governing equations describing the gas–liquid two-phase flow system, where the gas is treated as fully compressible and the liquid as incompressible. The effects of different topological configurations, surface tension, gas pressure and liquid sheet thickness on the flow development of the gas–liquid two-phase flow system have been examined by direct solution of the compressible Navier–Stokes equations using highly accurate numerical schemes. The interface dynamics are captured using volume of fluid and continuum surface force models. The simulations show that the dispersion of the liquid sheet is dominated by vortical structures formed at the jet shear layer due to the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability. The axisymmetric case is less vortical than its planar counterpart that exhibits formation of larger vortical structures and larger liquid dispersion. It has been identified that the vorticity development and the liquid dispersion in a planar configuration are increased at the absence of surface tension, which when present, tends to oppose the development of the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability. An opposite trend was observed for an axisymmetric configuration where surface tension tends to promote the development of vorticity. An increase in vorticity development and liquid dispersion was observed for increased liquid sheet thickness, while a decreasing trend was observed for higher gas pressure. Therefore surface tension, liquid sheet thickness and gas pressure factors all affect the flow vorticity which consequently affects the dispersion of the liquid.      

Stability of two-layer fluid flow

The problem of two-layer convective flow of viscous incompressible fluids in a horizontal channel with solid walls in the presence of evaporation is considered in the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation assuming that the interface is an undeformable thermocapillary surface and taking into account the Dufour effect in the upper layer which is a mixture of gas and liquid vapor. The effects of longitudinal temperature gradients at the boundaries of the channel and the thicknesses of the layer on the flow pattern and the evaporation rate are studied under conditions of specified gas flow and the absence of vapor flow on the upper boundary of the channel. It is shown that the long-wavelength asymptotics for the decrement is determined from the flow characteristics, the longwavelength perturbations occurring in the system decay monotonically, and the thermal instability mechanism is not potentially the most dangerous.     

Asymptotic model of the development of separations inside a boundary layer under the action of a traveling pressure wave

A model of the nonlinear interaction between a pressure perturbation traveling at a constant velocity and an incompressible boundary layer is constructed when its near-wall part is described by the “inviscid boundary layer” equations. A steady-state solution is managed to obtain in the finite form under the assumption that it exists in a moving coordinate system. It is shown that the boundary layer can easily overcome pressure perturbations whose amplitude is not higher than the dynamic pressure calculated from the velocity of the pressure perturbation. At the higher pressure perturbation amplitudes a vortex sheet sheds from the body surface to the boundary layer. The vortex sheet represents an unstable surface of the tangential discontinuity which separates the regions of the direct and reverse separation flows. In the case of an arbitrary shape of the pressure perturbation the surface of the tangential discontinuity sheds from the body surface at a finite angle with the formation of a stagnation point. An example of the pressure perturbation in which the vortex sheet sheds from the body surface along the tangent is constructed.     

Oscillations of a cylinder piercing a linearly stratified fluid layer

The plane problem of the small steady-state oscillations of a horizontal cylinder arbitrarily located in a three-layer fluid whose upper and lower layers are homogeneous and whose middle layer is linearly stratified is considered in the linear formulation using the Boussinesq approximation. The fluid is assumed to be ideal and incompressible. The method of mass sources distributed along the body contour is used in the internal wave generation regime and an integral equation for the fluid pressure is derived in the non-wave regime. The hydrodynamic load acting on the body is calculated as a function of the oscillation frequency of the cylinder and its location. The results are compared with experimental data.     

Wave regimes of ascending flow of a thin layer of a viscous liquid in contact with a gas

The flow of a liquid in thin layers is one of the hydrodynamic problems of chemistry and heat engineering. The large surface area of films and their small thickness make it possible to accelerate thermal, diffusive, and chemical processes at the gas-liquid boundary.Theoretical studies of liquid flow in a vertical descending thin layer are presented in [1–4]. In this paper we study ascending wave flows of a liquid in a thin vertical layer in contact with a gas, i.e., flows in the direction opposite the action of the force due to gravity, with account for the action of the gas on the liquid surface. Such motions are encountered when oil is extracted from strata that are saturated with gas. At some distance from the stratum the oil and gas separate: the gas travels at high velocity inside the pipe, occupying a considerable portion of the pipe, and the liquid is displaced toward the pipe walls, forming a thin film. In certain cases a wave-like interface develops between the oil and gas that travels with a velocity greater than that of the liquid but less than the average gas velocity. Similar phenomena are observed in high velocity mass exchangers.We examine the effect of the gas for both laminar and turbulent flow.Studies that neglect the effect of the gas flow on the liquid show that for waves on the film surface whose lengths are considerably longer than the average thickness of the layer, the liquid motion in the film is described by boundary layer equations in which account is taken of the mass force, i.e., the force due to gravity. With some approximation, we can assume that in accounting for the effect of the gas on the liquid the liquid flow is described by these same equations.     

Hydrodynamic instability in a porous layer saturated with a heat generating fluid

Critical Rayleigh numbers determined by linear stabiliy theory are presented for porous-fluid layers of infinite horizontal extent heated internally by a uniform volumetric energy source in the fluid. The thermal coupling between the layer and its environment is represented by a general mixed boundary condition for both the conduction state and the disturbance temperature. Rigid-rigid, rigid-constant pressure, and constant pressure-rigid boundaries are considered in the computations. For a fixed ratio of upper surface Biot number to that at the lower surface, decreasing the Biot number is strictly destabilizing for values of this ratio greater than or equal to one. A layer with a rigid upper surface is generally the most stable; however, a layer with a rigid upper surface and a constant pressure lower surface exhibits the largest values of critical Rayleigh numbers for large values of Biot number.     

Stokes’ first problem for a Rivlin-Ericksen fluid of second grade in a porous half-space

Stokes’ first problem for a Rivlin-Ericksen fluid of second grade in a porous half-space is considered under isothermal conditions. Laplace transform techniques are used to determine the exact solution, temporal limits, small-time expressions, and displacement thickness. In addition, special/limiting cases are noted, energy aspects are covered, and numerical results are presented graphically. Most significantly, it is shown that the flow suffers a jump discontinuity on start-up, that due to this jump a nonpositive steady-state development time can result, and that for a special case of the material constants the flow instantly attains its steady-state configuration.     

Effect of continuous variation of the density of a liquid on the waves generated by moving surface pressures

This study investigates the plane linear problem of steady-state internal waves in an ideal incompressible liquid with nonuniform density. The waves are generated by surface pressures applied in a bounded region which moves at constant velocity. It is assumed that the density in the unperturbed state varies continuously with depth, remaining constant in the upper and lower layers and varying according to an exponential law in the middle layer. The problem may be regarded, in particular, as a hydrodynamic model for the study of internal waves produced by a cyclone moving over the surface of the ocean. Analogous investigations for a homogeneous liquid were carried out in [1–3]; internal waves for a liquid with the above-mentioned law of density variation but with stationary pressure changes which are periodic with respect to time were studied in [4]. Problems analogous to the one considered here, both for exponential variation of density in the entire layer and for the case of a nonuniform layer near the surface, were investigated in [5, 6]. An analysis of non-linear waves of the steady-state type with arbitrary distribution of vorticity and density with respect to depth was carried out in [7, 8].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 6, pp. 55–62, November–December, 1973.     

Deformation of the Free Surface in a Moving Locally-Heated Thin Liquid Layer

Liquid film flow on a vertical surface is studied experimentally and theoretically under the determining influence of the thermocapillary forces. In the two-dimensional steady-state case the shape of the film surface is calculated numerically within the thin layer approximation with allowance for the temperature dependence of the viscosity of the liquid and redistribution of the heat flux in the heating element. A local heat source was used in the experiments to produce temperature gradients up to 10 K/mm on the liquid surface. The film thickness was determined by means of the schlieren method with reflection. The relative thickness of the roller in the upper heater edge zone, characteristic of the formation of regular structures, is measured. The thickness is h/h ₀=1.32 ±0.07, which agrees satisfactorily with the results of numerical calculations.     

Dynamics of discontinuity formation in a cavitating liquid layer under shock wave loading

The problem of experimental modeling of discontinuity formation in a cavitating liquid layer under shock wave loading is considered. It is shown that the discontinuity takes the shape of a spherical segment and retains it up to the closure instant. The discontinuity surface becomes covered with a dynamically growing thin boundary layer consisting of bubbles, which transforms to a ring-shaped vortex bubble cluster at the instant of the discontinuity closure, generating a secondary shock wave. Specific features of the structure of the cavitating flow discontinuity arising at loading intensities lower than 0.1 and 5 kJ are discussed.     

Propagation of Love waves in a functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) layered composite system

In this theoretical study, we investigate the propagation of Love waves in a layered structure consisting of two different homogenous piezoelectric materials, an upper layer and a substrate. A functionally graded piezoelectric material (FGPM) buffer layer is in between the upper layer and the substrate. We employ the power series technique to solve the governing differential equations with variable coefficients. The influence of the gradient coefficients of FGPM and the layer thicknesses on the dispersion relations, the electro-mechanical coupling factor, and the stress distributions of Love waves in this structure are investigated. We demonstrate that the low gradient coefficient raises the significant variation of the phase velocity within a certain range of ratios of upper layer thickness to equivalent thickness. The electro-mechanical coupling factor can be increased when the equivalent thickness equals one or two wavelengths, and the discontinuity of the interlaminar stress can be eliminated by the FGPM buffer layer. The theoretical results set guidelines not only for the design of high-performance surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices using the FGPM buffer layer, but also for the measurement of material properties in such FGPM layered structures using Love waves.     

Propagation of discontinuity waves in complex rheological media with viscous properties

The propagation of discontinuity waves of various order in rheological media is examined. It is assumed that the region of discontinuity of values can be represented by an intermediate layer of infinitesimal thickness. By means of this representation, results can be obtained for a rather wide class of continuous media with viscous properties, which generalize Duhem's results. The first integrals of the laws of momentum and energy conservation are obtained, which hold inside the intermediate layer at a shock wave.It is shown that when viscosity elements are introduced in a special way into the rheological model of a continuous medium, discontinuity waves of any order are propagated in the medium, and that at the surface of a strong discontinuity in a heat-conducting medium, the temperature is continuous. Additional conditions for strain discontinuities at the viscosity elements are obtained. For certain inclusions of the viscosity elements into the rheological model discontinuity waves do not propagate; instead there is merely a weak discontinuity surface which acts as an interface between the flow region of the continuous medium and the region in the state of rest. Contact discontinuities can occur in any continuous medium.The possible existence of a geometrical discontinuity surface in a viscous gas was examined first by Duhem [1]. He established that singluar strong-discontinuity surfaces cannot take place in a viscous gas. However, if one assumes that the velocity and temperature are continuous in the passage through a singular surface, only contact discontinuities are possible [2].     

Pressure waves in a separated gas-liquid layer in a horizontal duct with a step

Pressure wave propagation into a separated gas-liquid layer in a horizontal duct with a step is investigated analytically. The linear solution is derived assuming a large density ratio of liquid to gas. The solution can be found first for the gas layer and then for the liquid layer. The linear wave in a liquid layer is valid even for fairly large initial pressure ratios, and clearly exhibits the dispersive characteristics of the pressure wave in a liquid layer. As the initial pressure ratio is increased, the pressure wave in the gas layer becomes a shock wave. Thus, its effect on the wave in a liquid layer can be found analytically by modifying the boundary condition in part. The wave in a liquid layer consists of a main wave, which propagates with the shock speed in gas, and a precursor wave, whose front propagates with the speed of sound in liquid. The precursor wave has an oscillatory structure; its amplitude increases with increasing shock strength and also with liquid layer thickness.     

Gravitational instability of thin gas layer between two thick liquid layers

We consider the problem of gravitational instability (Rayleigh–Taylor instability) of a horizontal thin gas layer between two liquid half-spaces (or thick layers), where the light liquid overlies the heavy one. This study is motivated by the phenomenon of boiling at the surface of direct contact between two immiscible liquids, where the rate of the “break-away” of the vapor layer growing at the contact interface due to development of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability on the upper liquid–gas interface is of interest. The problem is solved analytically under the assumptions of inviscid liquids and viscous weightless vapor. These assumptions correspond well to the processes in real systems, e.g., they are relevant for the case of interfacial boiling in the system water-n-heptane. In order to verify the results, the limiting cases of infinitely thin and infinitely thick gas layers were considered, for which the results can be obviously deduced from the classical problem of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability. These limiting cases are completely identical to the well-studied cases of gravity waves at the liquidliquid and liquid–gas interfaces. When the horizontal extent of the system is long enough, the wavenumber of perturbations is not limited from below, and the system is always unstable. The wavelength of the most dangerous perturbations and the rate of their exponential growth are derived as a function of the layer thickness. The dependence of the exponential growth rate on the gas layer thickness is cubic.     

Phase velocity spectrum of internal waves in a weakly-stratified two-layer fluid

The problem of steady-state internal waves in a weakly stratified two-layer fluid with a density that is constant in the lower layer and depends exponentially on the depth in the upper layer is considered. The spectral properties of the equations of small perturbations of a homogeneous piecewise-constant flow are described. A nonlinear ordinary differential equation describing solitary waves and smooth bores on the layer interface is obtained using the Boussinesq expansion in a small parameter.     

Effects of strong compressibility in natural convective flows through porous media with a near-critical fluid

The dynamics and heat transfer in a porous medium occupied by a liquid with parameters in the neighborhood of the critical point of “liquid-gas” transition are simulated numerically within the framework of the equations of dynamics of a porous medium with a compressible liquid phase and the Van-der-Waals equation of state. Adiabatic heating of the liquid phase in a porous layer initiated by a jump in temperature on one of the boundaries is investigated under microgravity conditions. Thermo-gravitational convection in the unsteady and steady-state regimes is simulated in rectangular domains and the effect of adiabatic heating on convection is studied. Calibration relations between the Rayleigh-Darcy and Prandtl numbers in the basic system of equations and their real analogs are obtained. A comparison is made with convection in a porous media occupied by a perfect gas.     

Combustion of a Powder Layer of Methane Hydrate: The Influence of Layer Height and Air Velocity Above the Layer

The paper studies the dissociation and combustion of a layer of methane hydrate powder at a forced air flow over the upper surface of the layer (the air velocity is directed parallel to the upper surface of the layer). The influence of the layer thickness and air velocity on the combustion of gas hydrate is investigated. The calculated curves for the effect of the heat transfer coefficient, external convection and vapor concentration on the combustion temperature are obtained. The layer thickness and the air velocity significantly affect the dissociation rate of methane hydrate.

     

The Run-Off Condition for Rimming Flow of a Power-Law Fluid

The rimming flow of a power-law fluid in the inner surface of a horizontal rotating cylinder is investigated. Exploiting the fact that the liquid layer is thin, the simplest lubrication theory is applied. The generalized run-off condition for the steady-state flow of the power-law liquid is derived. In the bounds implied by this condition, film thickness admits a continuous solution. In the supercritical case when the mass of non-Newtonian liquid exceeds a certain value or the speed of rotation is less than an indicated limit, a discontinuous solution is possible and a hydraulic jump may occur in the steady-state regime. The location and height of the hydraulic jump for the power-law liquid is determined. Received 8 February 2001 and accepted 19 June 2001     

Steady thermocapillary-buoyant convection in a shallow annular pool. Part 2: Two immiscible fluids

This work is devoted to the study of steady thermocapillary-buoyant convection in a system of two horizontal superimposed immiscible liquid layers filling a lateral heated thin annular pool.The governing equations are solved using an asymptotic theory for the aspect ratios ε→ 0.Asymptotic solutions of the velocity and temperature fields are obtained in the core region away from the cylinder walls.In order to validate the asymptotic solutions,numerical simulations are also carried out and the results are compared to each other.It is found that the present asymptotic solutions are valid in most of the core region.And the applicability of the obtained asymptotic solutions decreases with the increase of the aspect ratio and the thickness ratio of the two layers.For a system of gallium arsenide (lower layer) and boron oxide (upper layer),the buoyancy slightly weakens the thermocapillary convection in the upper layer and strengthens it in the lower layer.     

Coupled frequencies of a hydroelastic viscous liquid system

The coupled frequencies of a hydroelastic system consisting of an elastic shell and a viscous liquid layer with a free surface have been treated. The system exhibits no z-dependency and may be either an annular liquid layer around an elastic center shell or a liquid layer inside an elastic container. The first case has been evaluated numerically, where the influence of the liquid surface tension parameter, the elasticity parameter of the shell and the thickness of the layer have been determined. In contrast to the hydroelastic system with an ideal liquid, the system with viscous liquid exhibits instability of the liquid surface as well as the shell.