Gravity driven instabilities in miscible non-Newtonian fluid displacements in porous media

Gravity driven instabilities in model porous packings of 1 mm diameter spheres are studied by comparing the broadening of the displacement front between fluids of slightly different densities in stable and unstable configurations. Water, water–glycerol and water–polymer solutions are used to vary independently viscosity and molecular diffusion and study the influence of shear-thinning properties. Both injected and displaced solutions are identical but for a different concentration of NaNO₃ salt used as an ionic tracer and to introduce the density contrast. Dispersivity in stable configuration increases with polymer concentration – as already reported for double porosity packings of porous grains. Gravity-induced instabilities are shown to develop below a same threshold Péclet number Pe for water and water–glycerol solutions of different viscosities and result in considerable increases of the dispersivity. Measured threshold Pe values decrease markedly on the contrary with polymer concentration. The quantitative analysis demonstrates that the development of the instabilities is controlled by viscosity through a characteristic gravity number G (ratio between hydrostatic and viscous pressure gradients). A single threshold value of G accounts for results obtained on Newtonian and non-Newtonian solutions.     

Sound generation as a drop falls on a water surface

Impact of a drop on a water surface is accompanied by a series of sound pulses propagating in air and underwater. Depending on the falling mode (drop size and initial velocity), pulses substantially differ in amplitude, duration, and modulation frequency. We study falling modes in which in addition to conventional sound packets—the shock pulse and single resonance sound packets—several packets are observed. Experiments were conducted with simultaneous recording of sound in air and underwater and were accompanied by synchronous video depiction of currents in the drop impact region. Comparison of videograms and phonograms demonstrate that the sources of sound packets are gas cavities of arbitrary shape detached from the underwater cavern under the action of large accelerations (several km/s²) during a sharp change in its surface area, which gradually achieve equilibrial elliptical and spherical shapes.     

Symmetry-breaking instabilities on a fluid surface

A sequence of symmetry-breaking instabilities leading to a chaotic state has been discovered in the surface deformations of a fluid layer subjected to a vertical oscillation. For driving amplitudes above a critical value, a primary instability leads to circularly symmetric standing waves at half the driving frequency. A second instability at a higher threshold breaks the circular symmetry and leads to a slow precession of the pattern, so that the overall motion is quasiperiodic. Beyond a third threshold, azimuthal modulations produce chaotic time dependence A fourth instability leads discontinuously to a spatially disordered flow. The spatial structure associated with each instability has been determined qualitatively, and the frequency spectrum of the local surface deformation has been measured using a sensitive laser deflection technique.     

Evaporation coefficient of a spherical fluid drop

The distribution of the number of particles in a fluid drop and in the vapor-gas layer adjoining the drop is simulated by the distribution of catastrophe, generation, and immigration known from the theory of random processes. An expression is obtained for the evaporation rate and an explicit analytic dependence for the evaporation coefficient.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 11, pp. 109–112, November, 1978.The authors are grateful to A. V. Chalom for useful discussions of the results.     

Fragmentation of pulverized coal in a laminar drop tube reactor: Experiments and model

Fragmentation during pulverized coal particles conversion shifts the particle size distribution of the fuel towards smaller particle sizes, affecting both conversion rates and heat release. After pyrolysis of a high volatiles Colombian coal in CO₂ atmosphere in a drop tube reactor at 1573?K, solid carbonaceous particles of different size, from 100?µm of the particle feed down to the nanometric size, have been observed. A fragmentation model has been used to predict the fate of Colombian coal particles under the experimental conditions of the drop tube experiment and predict the particle size distribution (PSD). Model and experimental results are in very good agreement and indicate that in the DTR experiment the coal underwent almost complete pyrolysis and that fragmentation generated a 36?wt% population of particles with size close to 30?µm. The close match between the PSDs obtained from experiments and from the fragmentation model is an important novelty. It demonstrates that fragmentation occurs not only under fluidized bed conditions but also under the conditions of pulverized coal combustion. Experimentalists are warned against the fact that the fine particulate sampled at the outlet of laminar flow reactors and boilers is not always composed of soot only. Char fragments can be misidentified as soot. The implementation of fragmentation submodels in pulverized fuel combustion and gasification codes is highly recommended.     

Soliton instabilities and vortex street formation in a polariton quantum fluid

Exciton?polaritons have been shown to be an optimal system in order to investigate the properties of bosonic quantum fluids. We report here on the observation of dark solitons in the wake of engineered circular obstacles and their decay into streets of quantized vortices. Our experiments provide a time-resolved access to the polariton phase and density, which allows for a quantitative study of instabilities of freely evolving polaritons. The decay of solitons is quantified and identified as an effect of disorder-induced transverse perturbations in the dissipative polariton gas.     

Experiments on breakups of a magnetic fluid drop through a micro-orifice

We experimentally study the breakups of a ferrofluid drop passing through a narrow passage under the attraction of an external field. After passing through the orifice, the fluid thread starts to neck down significantly and eventually breaks to form new droplets. The dynamics of the ferrofluid breakup are analyzed parametrically, including the diameter of the orifice and the local field strength. The patterns of fluid breakups can be characterized by two measurements of the breaking droplets, such as their sizes and stretching lengths. These two characteristic measurements mainly depend on the diameter of the orifice. Breaking droplets with less stretching and smaller sizes are resulted from a narrower orifice. On the other hand, the number of total breaking droplets that represents the transport effectiveness of ferrofluids significantly depends on both the diameter of the orifice and the local field strength. While a stronger field generates more breaking droplets, a maximum number of breaking droplets occurs at an intermediate orifice's diameter.     

Effects of sweep rates of external magnetic fields on the labyrinthine instabilities of miscible magnetic fluids

The interfacial instability of miscible magnetic fluids in a Hele-Shaw Cell is studied experimentally, with different magnitudes and sweep rates of the external magnetic field. The initial circular oil-based magnetic fluid drop is surrounded by the miscible fluid, diesel. The external uniform magnetic fields induce small fingerings around the initial circular interface, so call labyrinthine fingering instability, and secondary waves. When the magnetic field is applied at a given sweep rate, the interfacial length grows significantly at the early stage. It then decreases when the magnetic field reaches the preset values, and finally approaches a certain asymptotic value. In addition, a dimensionless parameter, Pe, which includes the factors of diffusion and sweep rate of the external magnetic field, is found to correlate the experimental data. It is shown that the initial growth rate of the interfacial length is linearly proportional to Pe for the current experimental parameter range and is proportional to the square root of the sweep rate at the onset of labyrinthine instability.     

Dynamics of a nonmagnetic drop suspended in a magnetic fluid in a rotating magnetic field

The behavior of a nonmagnetic drop suspended in a magnetic fluid and subjected to the action of a rotating magnetic field is studied experimentally. The configurations of the drop in the form of prolate and oblate ellipsoids of revolution in the rotating field are investigated, and disintegration of the drop in the rotating field and the development of comb instability of its surface under certain conditions are observed.     

Three-dimensional absolute and convective instabilities in mixed convection of a viscoelastic fluid through a porous medium

By using the mathematical formalism of absolute and convective instabilities we study the nature of unstable three-dimensional disturbances of viscoelastic flow convection in a porous medium with horizontal through-flow and vertical temperature gradient. Temporal stability analysis reveals that among three-dimensional (3D) modes the pure down-stream transverse rolls are favored for the onset of convection. In addition, by considering a spatiotemporal stability approach we found that all unstable 3D modes are convectively unstable except the transverse rolls which may experience a transition to absolute instability. The combined influence of through-flow and elastic parameters on the absolute instability threshold, wave number and frequency is then determined, and results are compared to those of a Newtonian fluid.     

Surface tension effects in the zero gravity inflow of a drop into a fluid

As a drop of fluid is deposited on the surface of a miscible fluid (that we call the solvent), it undergoes a strong pulling due to its surface rupture and it acquires a kinetic energy independently of gravity. For the drop and the solvent being of the same fluid we observe a drop injection at an initial velocity which scales as the square root of the surface tension of the drop against air. Once injected, the drop develops a transverse instability giving rise to an expanding ring. Viscosity terminates the process and stops the ring. We show that the final ring height follows a scaling law whereas two asymptotical scaling regimes can be identified for the ring radius. Received 31 August 1999     

Electron pairing as a source of cyclic instabilities in enzyme catalysis

Enzymatic reactions can be interpreted in terms of a thermodynamically consistent potential surface with different pathways for complex formation and decomposition. The construction suggests that unstable pairing of parallel spin electrons provides the basis for pathway switching.     

Density profile and flow of miscible fluid with dissimilar constituent masses

A computer simulation model is used to study the density profile and flow of a miscible gaseous fluid mixture consisting of differing constituent masses (m_A=m_B/3) through an open matrix. The density profile is found to decay with the height ∝exp (−m_A(B)h), consistent with the barometric height law. The flux density shows a power-law increase ∝(p_c−p)^μ with μ2.3 at the porosity 1−p above the pore percolation threshold 1−p_c.     

可压缩与不可压缩流体中Rayleigh Taylor不稳定性的比较

 对比研究了可压缩与不可压缩流体的Rayleigh Taylor不稳定性小扰动阶段的增长速率，其中，压力是密度的任意单值函数，这个函数也即是可压缩流体的状态方程。研究表明：在相同密度分布条件下，可压缩流体的界面扰动增长速率总是比相应的不可压缩流体的界面增长率大，其相对增长率随扰动波长的增加而增大，随两种介质的声速减小而增大，在长波和易压缩流体中，相对增长率可达0.8以上。因此，在某些条件下，流体可压缩性对Rayleigh Taylor不稳定性的影响是不能忽略的。     

Jerky flow model as a basis for research in deformation instabilities

A phenomenological jerky flow model was developed in which macroscale plastic strain rates are defined by dislocation kinetics. The model takes into account destructive processes governed by shear and bulk defect accumulation. At the heart of the model lie equations of solid mechanics and relaxation-type constitutive equations. A loaded elastoplastic solid is treated as a nonlinear dynamic system whose evolution, according to synergetic laws, is much contributed by negative and positive feedbacks expressed, respectively, through constitutive equations of the first group (relaxation equations) and constitutive equations of the second group (kinetic equations for deformation defect and damage accumulation rates). The negative feedback stabilizes deformation by relaxation, bringing the process to some local dynamic equilibrium. The positive feedback destabilizes deformation, driving the system to a critical state. Numerical experiment was performed in 2D and 3D statements. Statistical analysis of stress fluctuations about the average trend shows that the jerky flow model of an elastoplastic medium demonstrates evolution characteristic of nonlinear dynamic systems: through states of dynamic chaos and self-organized criticality to a global catastrophe.     

Acoustic microfluidics: Capillary waves and vortex currents in a spherical fluid drop

We calculate the radiation forces in a spherical drop lying on a solid substrate. The forces form as a result of the action of a capillary wave on a fluid as it propagates along the free spherical surface. We study the structure of acoustic currents excited by the radiation forces.     

Capillary disintegration of a suspended filamentary drop of a viscous magnetic fluid in a longitudinal magnetic field

A differential equation that describes the axisymmetric motion of two immiscible magnetic fluids of the same density and viscosity is derived. It includes in explicit form the contribution of capillary forces localized at the interface between the fluids, which has the form of a weakly distorted cylindrical surface. With this equation, a dispersion relation for the problem of capillary instability of an extended axisymmetric drop placed in a uniform longitudinal magnetic field is obtained. The effect of magnetic forces on the capillary disintegration of the drop for the extreme cases (large and small Ohnesorge numbers) is analyzed.