A Lagrangian approach for the coupled simulation of fixed net structures in a Eulerian fluid model

A Lagrangian approach for the coupled numerical simulation of fixed net structures and fluid flow is derived. The model is based on solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations in a Eulerian fluid domain. The equations include disturbances to account for the presence of the net. For this purpose, forces on the net are calculated using a screen force model and are distributed on Lagrangian points to represent the geometry of the net. In comparison to previous approaches based on porous media representations, the new model includes a more physical derivation and simplifies the necessary numerical procedure. Hence, it is also suitable for arbitrary geometries and large scale simulations. An extensive validation section provides insight into the performance of the new model. It includes the simulation of steady currents through single and multiple fixed net panels and cages, and wave propagation through a net panel. Different solidities, inflow velocities and angles of attack are considered. The comparison of loads on and velocity reductions behind the net with available measurements indicates superior performance of the proposed model over existing approaches for a wide range of applications.     

Experimental and numerical study of an aquaculture net cage with floater in waves and current

The mooring loads on an aquaculture net cage in current and waves are investigated by dedicated model tests and numerical simulations. The main purpose is to investigate which physical effects are dominant for mooring loads, and in this respect, to investigate the validity of different rational hydrodynamic load models. Also structural and numerical aspects are investigated. The model tests are performed to provide benchmark data, while the numerical model is used to study the effect and sensitivity of different load models and parameters.Compared to a realistic aquaculture plant, the total system is simplified to reduce the complexity. The system does, however, include all the four main components of an aquaculture plant: net cage, floater, sinker weights and moorings. The net cage is bottomless, flexible and circular. It is attached to a circular, elastic floater at the top and has 16 sinker weights at the bottom. The system is nearly linearly moored with four crow feet mooring lines.The loads are measured in the four mooring lines. A systematic variation of current only, wave only as well as combined current and wave conditions is carried out. The numerical simulation results are first benchmarked towards the experimental data. The mean loads in general dominate over the dynamic part of the loads in combined current and waves, and they significantly increase in long and steep waves, relative to current only. Next, a sensitivity study is carried out. A rigid floater significantly alters the loads in the mooring lines compared to a realistic, elastic floater. The theoretical model for the wave matters. The mooring loads are rather insensitive to a majority of the parameters and models, in particular: frequency dependent added mass of the floater and nonlinear restoring loads. It seems not to be necessary to represent the net cage with a very fine numerical mesh.     

鼻腔手术对OSAHS患者治疗效果的数值分析

对3名伴有鼻阻塞的OSAHS患者术前术后的上气道结构包含软腭组织进行三维重构,采用数值模拟的方法研究这3名患者手术前后,上气道气流分布以及软腭的运动情况,分析鼻腔手术对OSAHS患者的治疗效果.3名患者手术后鼻腔通气程度均得已改善.两名轻度OSAHS患者手术后上气道阻力减小,软腭位移均比术前减小,这些变化均有助于缓减呼吸时气流受限情况.而第3名重度患者手术后上气道阻力和软腭位移反而增加,这将会进一步加重气道的阻塞程度.鼻部手术对OSAHS患者的治疗效果取决于上游鼻腔通气程度的改善能否对下游咽腔产生有益的影响.数值模拟结果与PSG监测结果及其主诉情况相符,与现阶段临床有关的研究结论相一致,能够间接反映术后气道通气程度以及打鼾症状是否改善,为进一步解决临床的疑难问题提供了理论依据.     

Experimental and numerical investigation on the damping effect of net cages in waves

A series of laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the damping effect of net cages in waves. The wave transmission coefficient of the net cage was investigated with different wave periods, wave heights, numbers of net cages, net solidities, measurement positions, geometrical shapes of the net cage and Reynolds numbers. The experimental results show that the net cage has noticeable influence on wave propagation and the damping effect of net cages has a close relationship with many parameters. For multiple net cages, the transmission coefficient tends to increase as the wave period increases. The transmission coefficient of net cages decreases with increasing wave height. As the number of net cages increases, the wave transmission coefficient will decrease gradually. The damping effect of net cages on wave propagation tends to increase with increasing net solidity. The measurement position has an effect on the value of wave transmission coefficient. For net cages with different geometrical shapes, the circular net cage has more noticeable damping effect than the square net cage. A numerical model is introduced to simulate the interaction between waves and net cages with the fishing net treated as the porous media fluid model. The wave transmission coefficient downstream from net cages shows good agreement between experimental and numerical results. The study will contribute to understanding of the damping effect of a large fish farm on wave propagation.     

Dynamic coupling of fluid and structural mechanics for simulating particle motion and interaction in high speed compressible gas particle laden flow

In this work, structural finite element analyses of particles moving and interacting within high speed compressible flow are directly coupled to computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer analyses to provide more detailed and improved simulations of particle laden flow under these operating conditions. For a given solid material model, stresses and displacements throughout the solid body are determined with the particle–particle contact following an element to element local spring force model and local fluid induced forces directly calculated from the finite volume flow solution. Plasticity and particle deformation common in such a flow regime can be incorporated in a more rigorous manner than typical discrete element models where structural conditions are not directly modeled. Using the developed techniques, simulations of normal collisions between two 1 mm radius particles with initial particle velocities of 50–150 m/s are conducted with different levels of pressure driven gas flow moving normal to the initial particle motion for elastic and elastic–plastic with strain hardening based solid material models. In this manner, the relationships between the collision velocity, the material behavior models, and the fluid flow and the particle motion and deformation can be investigated. The elastic–plastic material behavior results in post collision velocities 16–50% of their pre-collision values while the elastic-based particle collisions nearly regained their initial velocity upon rebound. The elastic–plastic material models produce contact forces less than half of those for elastic collisions, longer contact times, and greater particle deformation. Fluid flow forces affect the particle motion even at high collision speeds regardless of the solid material behavior model. With the elastic models, the collision force varied little with the strength of the gas flow driver. For the elastic–plastic models, the larger particle deformation and the resulting increasingly asymmetric loading lead to growing differences in the collision force magnitudes and directions as the gas flow strength increased. The coupled finite volume flow and finite element structural analyses provide a capability to capture the interdependencies between the interaction of the particles, the particle deformation, the fluid flow and the particle motion.     

Stability of membrane in low subsonic flow

Stability of an isolated membrane lying in a uniform two-dimensional low subsonic flow is studied theoretically and experimentally. The problem is formulated in a form of a boundary integral equation and differential equations. The boundary integral equation is solved by the boundary element method and the finite difference method is used to solve the differential equations. An effect of a membrane wake is used in the analysis. The theoretical critical divergence velocity is compared with the experimental value.     

Vibrations of a cylinder in a uniform flow in the presence of a no-slip side-wall

A circular cylinder placed in a uniform flow, and that spans the entire length between two side walls, may experience either parallel or oblique vortex shedding depending on the end conditions. It was shown by Mittal and Sidharth (2014) that the spatio-temporal periodicity of the oblique vortex shedding results in constant-in-time force experienced by the cylinder. On the contrary, parallel vortex shedding leads to fluid force that fluctuates with time. The free vibrations of a circular cylinder, in the presence of a wall, are investigated. For comparison, computations with end walls, where a slip condition on velocity is specified, are also carried out. The Reynolds number, based on the diameter of the cylinder and free-stream speed of the flow, is Re=100. The initial condition for the free vibrations is the fully developed unsteady flow past a stationary cylinder with oblique shedding. It is found that as the amplitude of vibration of the cylinder builds up, the vortices shed from the cylinder align with its axis leading to parallel shedding. The response of the cylinder is associated with two branches: initial and lower. On the lower branch, the response of the cylinder is virtually identical from two- and three-dimensional computations. The flow as well as the response is different on the initial branch and outside the synchronization regime. Forced vibrations confirm the phenomena.     

A computationally efficient solution of the wave equation for the transient response of infinite reservoirs

In this paper, the transient response of an infinite reservoir is analyzed using the dual-reciprocity boundary element method. A vertical and an inclined-face rigid dam are analyzed under a transient loading. Sharan-type boundary-condition transmission is implemented in the formulation. The results are compared with the exact solution and those obtained by using the finite element method. It is seen that the application of the dual-reciprocity boundary element method is simpler and the results are in very good agreement with the exact solution and those obtained by using the finite element method.     

Flutter of spring-mounted flexible plates in uniform flow

A fluid–structure interaction (FSI) system is studied wherein a cantilevered flexible plate aligned with a uniform flow has its upstream end attached to a spring mounting. This allows the entire system to oscillate in a direction perpendicular to that of the flow as a result of the mounting׳s dynamic interaction with the flow-induced oscillations, or flutter, of the flexible plate. We also study a hinged-free rotational-spring attachment as a comparison for the heaving system. This variation on classical plate flutter is motivated by its potential as an energy-harvesting system in which the reciprocating motion of the support system would be tapped for energy production. We formulate and deploy a hybrid of theoretical and computational modelling for the two systems and comprehensively map out their linear-stability characteristics at low mass ratio. Relative to a fixed cantilever, the introduction of the dynamic support in both systems yields lower flutter-onset flow speeds; this is desirable for energy-harvesting applications. We further study the effect of adding an inlet surface upstream of the mount as a means of changing the destabilising mechanism from single-mode flutter to modal-coalescence flutter which is a more powerful instability more suited to energy harvesting. This strategy is seen to be effective in the heaving system. However, divergence occurs in the rotational system for low spring natural frequencies and this would lead to its failure for energy production. Finally, we determine the power-output characteristics for both systems by introducing dashpot damping at the mount. The introduction of damping increases the critical speeds and its variation permits optimal values to be found that maximise the power output for each system. The addition of an inlet surface is then shown to increase significantly the power output of the heaving system whereas this design strategy is not equally beneficial for the rotational system.     

Onset of instability of a flag in uniform flow

This paper numerically and analytically studies the onset of instability of a flag in uniform flow. The three-dimensional (3D) simulation is performed by using an immersed-boundary method coupled with a nonlinear finite element method. The global stability, bistability and instability are identified in the 3D simulations. The Squire's theorem is extended to analyze the stability of the fluid-flag system with 3D initial perturbations. It is found that if a parallel flow around the flag admits an unstable 3D disturbance for a certain value of the flutter speed, then a two-dimensional (2D) disturbance at a lower flutter speed is also admitted. In addition, the growth rate of 2D disturbance is larger than that of the 3D disturbance.     

Assessment of plastic heterogeneity in grain interaction models using crystal plasticity finite element method

Micromechanical models aimed at simulating deformation textures and resulting plastic anisotropy need to incorporate local plastic strain heterogeneities arising from grain interactions for better predictions. The ALAMEL model [Van Houtte, P., Li, S., Seefeldt, M., Delannay, L. 2005. Deformation texture prediction: from the Taylor model to the advanced Lamel model. Int. J. Plasticity 21, 589–624], is one of the models in which the heterogeneous nature of plastic deformation in metals is introduced by accounting for the influence of a grain boundary on the cooperative deformation of adjacent grains. This is achieved by assuming that neighbouring grains undergo heterogeneous shear rates parallel to the grain boundary. The present article focuses on understanding the plastic deformation fields near the grain boundaries and the influence of grain interaction on intra-grain deformations. Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method (CPFEM) is employed on a periodic unit cell consisting of four grains discretised into a large number of elements. A refined study of the local variation of strain rates, both along and perpendicular to the grain boundaries permits an assessment of the assumptions made in the ALAMEL model. It is shown that the ALAMEL model imbibes the nature of plastic deformation at the grain boundaries very well. However, near triple junctions, the influence of a third grain induces severe oscillations of the stress tensor, reflecting a singularity. According to CPFEM, such singularity can lead to grain subdivision by the formation of new boundaries originating at the triple junction.     

Forces on oscillating bodies in viscous fluid

This paper describes a method for determining the fluid forces on oscillating bodies in viscous fluid when the corresponding flow problem has been solved using the finite element method. These forces are characterized by the concept of added mass, added damping and added force. Numerical results are obtained for several example body shapes. Comparison is made with exact analytical results and other finite element results for the limiting cases of Stoke's flow and inviscid flow, and good agreement is obtained. The results for finite values of the body amplitude parameter β show the appearance of added force from the steady streaming component of the flow for asymmetric bodies. Results are also obtained for the associated flow where the fluid remote from a fixed body is oscillating.     

Dynamic response of a reinforced concrete slab subjected to air blast load

Reinforced concrete is the principal material for military engineering and nuclear power plant containment. However, impacts and explosions could completely destroy such structures, causing tremendous casualties and property loss. Hence, this study conducts an analysis on the propagation law of a blast pressure wave and the dynamic response of reinforced concrete structures under explosive pressure wave effects. This study uses proper state material parameters and equations and then applies the nonlinear finite element analysis software LS-DYNA to conduct a numerical simulation of a free-field explosion model. After comparison with the computed results from empirical equations and validating the reliability of the numerical analysis model, the destruction and influencing factors on reinforced concrete slabs, under the effects of a blast pressure wave, are investigated. The results can serve as a reference for future analysis and design.     

Numerical analysis of the developing fluid flow in a circular duct rotating steadily about a parallel axis

A numerical analysis of the flow pattern in the inlet region of a circular pipe rotating steadily about an axis parallel to its own is presented. Both finite cell and finite element methods are used to analyse the problem and they give qualitatively similar results which show that a swirling fluid motion is induced in the pipe inlet region. The analyses show that the direction of swirl is opposite to that of the pipe rotation when viewed along the flow axis and that its magnitude depends on the speed of pipe rotation and throughflow Reynolds number. Neither numerical analysis predicts the marked upturn in friction factor (or pressure drop) which has been observed experimentally. However, a dependence on the pipe inlet boundary conditions is demonstrated.     

Simulation of flow around rigid vegetation stems with a fast method of high accuracy

This paper develops the virtual cylinder model (VCM) to simulate flows through vegetation canopies at low to medium high Reynolds numbers in wetlands. Using a combined Eulerian and Lagrangian approach, the VCM is capable of simulating the flow field around each vegetation stem (modeled as a cylinder) as well as a bulk of numerous stems in a fluid. Numerical results of flows through regularly and randomly arranged cylinders have been compared with direct numerical simulations. Good agreement has been achieved. This model maintains an excellent balance between accuracy and efficiency in modeling interactions between the fluid and vegetation stems. Simulation results demonstrate that this model is promising for investigating the hydrodynamics and vegetation resilience in wetlands that serve as a first line of defense against the sea level rise, storm impacts and coastal erosion.     

Non-linear response of laminated composite plates under thermomechanical loading

The non-linear response of laminated composite plates under thermomechanical loading is studied using the third-order shear deformation theory (TSDT) that includes classical and first-order shear deformation theories (CLPT and FSDT) as special cases. Geometric non-linearity in the von Kármán sense is considered. The temperature field is assumed to be uniform in the plate. Layers of magnetostrictive material, Terfenol-D, are used to actively control the center deflection. The negative velocity feedback control is used with the constant gain value. The effects of lamination scheme, magnitude of loading, layer material properties, and boundary conditions are studied under thermomechanical loading.     

Finite-element analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer for staggered bundles of cylinders in cross flow

The two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations and the energy equation governing steady laminar incompressible flow are solved by a penalty finite-element model for flow across finite depth, five-row deep, staggered bundles of cylinders. Pitch to diameter ratios of 1·5 and 2·0 are considered for cylinders in equilateral triangular and square arrangements. Reynolds numbers studied range from 100 to 400, and a Prandtl number of 0·7 is used. Velocity vector fields, streamline patterns, vorticity, pressure and temperature contours, local and average Nusselt numbers, pressure and shear stress distributions around the cylinder walls and drag coefficients are presented. The results obtained agree well with available experimental and numerical data.