A comparative study of transient capillary rise using direct numerical simulations

The rise of liquid in capillaries, or between two parallel plates as the 2D variant thereof, represents a challenging test case for two-phase flow solvers without a full analytic solution. Four different numerical approaches are compared for the rise of liquid, also providing reference data being of high relevance for capillarity-dominated wetting processes. The used methods are an Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method (OpenFOAM solver interTrackFoam), a geometric Volume of Fluid code (FS3D), an algebraic Volume of Fluid method (OpenFOAM solver interFoam), and a level-set based extended discontinuous Galerkin discretization (BoSSS).While the transient rise height shows excellent agreement between the different implementations, the velocity fields at the interface demonstrate a different level of local accuracy of the available approaches. Reducing the slip length reduces the overall dynamics of the system, thus yielding a qualitative change in the rise behavior – a behavior that is not covered by simplified ODE models. The obtained rise height results are vailable online: http://dx.doi.org/10.25534/tudatalib-173     

Fluid-structure interaction of an elastic pipe immersed in a coaxial rigid pipe: a model for the Tullio Phenomenon

An axisymmetric, elastic pipe is filled with an incompressible fluid and is immersed in a second, coaxial rigid pipe which contains the same fluid. A pressure pulse in the outer fluid annulus deforms the elastic pipe which invokes a fluid motion in the fluid core. It is the aim of this study to investigate streaming phenomena in the core which may originate from such a fluid-structure interaction. This work presents a numerical solver for such a configuration. It was developed in the OpenFOAM software environment and is based on the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) approach for moving meshes. The solver features a monolithic integration of the one-dimensional, coupled system between the elastic structure and the outer fluid annulus into a dynamic boundary condition for the moving surface of the fluid core. Results indicate that our configuration may serve as a mechanical model of the Tullio Phenomenon (sound-induced vertigo). (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Mathematical modelling of flow control in a tundish using electro-magnetic forces

The control of flow in a tundish is important for improving the quality of the steel. Dams, Wiers and Pouring chamber are some of the devices used for controlling the flow in the tundish. The investigation about the role of electromagnetic forces as a replacement for these devices is an objective for the present work. Thus, 3-D MHD simulation was performed to study the effect of electromagnetic forces on flow behaviour in the tundish. The MHD model developed for carrying out the simulation was validated with the analytical solution of the Hartman problem. The results obtained shows improvement in the desired characteristics for inclusion flotataion with magnetic flow modifier of optimum strength of magnetic field.     

Numerical Studies of Viscoelastic Flow Using the Software OpenFOAM

Viscoelastic fluids are a special class of non-Newtonian fluids. There are several types of viscoelastic fluid models, and all of them have a complex rheological response in comparison to Newtonian fluids. This response can be viewed as a combination of viscous and elastic effects and non-linear phenomena. This complex physics makes a numerical simulation a rather challenging task, even in simple test-cases. Studies presented in this paper are numerical studies of the viscoelastic fluid flow in several test cases. These studies have been done in OpenFOAM, an open-source CFD package. Implementation of viscoelastic models and a solver is only available in a community driven version of software (OpenFOAM-ext). One of the goals of research in this paper was to test the solver and models on some simple test cases. We considered start-up and pulsating flows of viscoelastic fluid in a channel and a circular pipe. The important thing is that an analytical solution can be found in these cases, making in possible to test all aspects of numerical simulation in OpenFOAM. Obtained results showed an excellent agreement with the analytical solution for both velocity and stress components. These results encouraged authors' motivation and a choice to use OpenFOAM for simulation of viscoelastic flows. We hope that our research will make a contribution to the OpenFOAM community. Our plan for the further research is a simulation of blood flow in arteries with the viscoelastic solver. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Eulerian and Lagrangian predictions of particulate two-phase flows: a numerical study

To predict particulate two-phase flows, two approaches are possible. One treats the fluid phase as a continuum and the particulate second phase as single particles. This approach, which predicts the particle trajectories in the fluid phase as a result of forces acting on particles, is called the Lagrangian approach. Treating the solid as some kind of continuum, and solving the appropriate continuum equations for the fluid and particle phases, is referred to as the Eulerian approach.Both approaches are discussed and their basic equations for the particle and fluid phases as well as their numerical treatment are presented. Particular attention is given to the interactions between both phases and their mathematical formulations. The resulting computer codes are discussed.The following cases are presented in detail: vertical pipe flow with various particle concentrations; and sudden expansion in a vertical pipe flow. The results show good agreement between both types of approach.The Lagrangian approach has some advantages for predicting those particulate flows in which large particle accelerations occur. It can also handle particulate two-phase flows consisting of polydispersed particle size distributions. The Eulerian approach seems to have advantages in all flow cases where high particle concentrations occur and where the high void fraction of the flow becomes a dominating flow controlling parameter.     

Turbulent particle dispersion in an electrostatic precipitator

The behaviour of charged particles in turbulent gas flow in electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) is crucial information to optimise precipitator efficiency. This paper describes a strongly coupled calculation procedure for the rigorous computation of particle dynamics during ESP taking into account the statistical particle size distribution. The turbulent gas flow and the particle motion under electrostatic forces are calculated by using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package FLUENT linked to a finite volume solver for the electric field and ion charge. Particle charge is determined from both local electrical conditions and the cell residence time which the particle has experienced through its path. Particle charge density and the particle velocity are averaged in a control volume to use Lagrangian information of the particle motion in calculating the gas and electric fields. The turbulent particulate transport and the effects of particulate space charge on the electrical current flow are investigated. The calculated results for poly-dispersed particles are compared with those for mono-dispersed particles, and significant differences are demonstrated.     

Effective moduli of particulate solids: Lubrication approximation method

To efficiently calculate the effective properties of a composite, which consists of rigid spherical inclusions not necessarily of the same sizes in a homogeneous isotropic elastic matrix, a method based on the lubrication forces between neighbouring particles has been developed. The method is used to evaluate the effective Lamé moduli and the Poisson's ratio of the composite, for the particles in random configurations and in cubic lattices. A good agreement with experimental results given by Smith (1975) for particles in random configurations is observed, and also the numerical results on the effective moduli agree well with the results given by Nunan & Keller (1984) for particles in cubic lattices.     

Material Forces in elasto-plastic Materials

In this contribution the concept of configurational forces, also called material forces, is applied to rate–independent, elasto–plastic materials. The theory of configurational forces is briefly recast. Zones of plastic deformation can be interpreted as distributed inhomogeneities. With this background the theory of configurational forces can be applied in many situations, including plastic zones at crack tips, elastic inclusions in elasto–plastic materials and localized deformation. The numerical evaluation is done with the Finite Element Method. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

An efficient augmented Lagrangian method with applications to total variation minimization

Based on the classic augmented Lagrangian multiplier method, we propose, analyze and test an algorithm for solving a class of equality-constrained non-smooth optimization problems (chiefly but not necessarily convex programs) with a particular structure. The algorithm effectively combines an alternating direction technique with a nonmonotone line search to minimize the augmented Lagrangian function at each iteration. We establish convergence for this algorithm, and apply it to solving problems in image reconstruction with total variation regularization. We present numerical results showing that the resulting solver, called TVAL3, is competitive with, and often outperforms, other state-of-the-art solvers in the field.     

Benchmarking nonlinear optimization software in technical computing environments

Our strategic objective is to develop a broadly categorized, expandable collection of test problems, to support the benchmarking of nonlinear optimization software packages in integrated technical computing environments (ITCEs). ITCEs—such as Maple, Mathematica, and MATLAB—support concise, modular and scalable model development: their built-in documentation and visualization features can be put to good use also in test model selection and analysis. ITCEs support the flexible inclusion of both new models and general-purpose solver engines for future studies. Within this broad context, in this article we review a collection of global optimization problems coded in Mathematica, and present illustrative and summarized numerical results obtained using the MathOptimizer Professional software package.     

Direct numerical simulation of particles in a fluid interacting with a wall

We develop a code to be applied in the context of the cleaning of wafer surfaces by hydrodynamic forces. Our goal is to study the detachment of (submicron) particles, exposed to a shear flow, from a wall by means of direct numerical simulation. The particles are treated as rigid bodies fully interacting with the fluid. To simulate moving particles in the fluid we implement an immersed boundary method with direct forcing into OpenFOAM. The particle-wall interaction is treated with a soft contact model. As first simple examples we study the elastic normal impact of a cylinder onto a wall as well as the onset of sliding of a cylinder pressed to a horizontal wall by gravity under a time-depended drag force. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Empirical convergence speed of inclusion functions for facility location problems

One of the key points in interval global optimization is the selection of a suitable inclusion function which allows to solve the problem efficiently. Usually, the tighter the inclusions provided by the inclusion function, the better, because this will make the accelerating devices used in the algorithm more effective at discarding boxes. On the other hand, whereas more sophisticated inclusion functions may give tighter inclusions, they require more computational effort than others providing larger overestimations. In an earlier paper, the empirical convergence speed of inclusion functions was defined and studied, and it was shown to be a good indicator of the inclusion precision. If the empirical convergence speed is analyzed for a given type of functions, then one can select the appropriate inclusion function to be used when dealing with those type of functions. In this paper we present such a study, dealing with functions used in competitive facility location problems.     

Computer simulations of sodium formate solution in a mixing tank

Traditionally, solid–liquid mixing has always been regarded as an empirical technology with many aspects of mixing, dispersing and contacting were related to power draw. One important application of solid–liquid mixing is the preparation of brine from sodium formate. This material has been widely used as a drilling and completion fluid in challenging environments such as the Barents Sea. In this paper, large-eddy simulations of a turbulent flow in a solid–liquid baffled cylindrical mixing vessel with large number of solid particles are performed to obtain insight into the fundamental aspects of a mixing tank. The impeller-induced flow at the blade tip radius is modeled by using the dynamic-mesh Lagrangian method. The simulations are four-way coupled, which implies that both solid–liquid and solid–solid interactions are taken into account. By employing a soft particle approach the normal and tangential forces are calculated acting on a particle due to viscoelastic contacts with other neighboring particles. The results show that the granulated form of sodium formate may provide a mixture that allows faster and easier preparation of formate brine in a mixing tank. In addition it is found that exceeding a critical size for grains phenomena, such as caking, can be prevented. The obtained numerical results suggest that by choosing appropriate parameters a mixture can be produced that remains free-flowing no matter how long it is stored before use.     

MFCAV近似Riemann解法器在相容拉氏方法中的熵条件分析

 对基于MFCAV(Multi Fluid Channel on Averaged Volume)近似Riemann解法器的相容拉氏方法的熵条件进行了分析. 结果表明与满足声学形式Riemann解法器的熵不同, 前者只能在每个网格边界左、右两侧网格的熵随时间变化的和保证大于零, 即能保证整体熵增, 但不保证传统意义上的在每个网格中的熵增;而后者不仅保证整体熵增, 而且还满足传统意义上的熵增. 因此MFCAV的熵增相对声学形式解法器而言要弱一些, 由此表明其熵增可能要小些, 使得格式的耗散可能要小些.数值算例也验证了分析的正确性.     

An inertial proximal scheme for nonmonotone mappings

We present an inertial proximal method for solving an inclusion involving a nonmonotone set-valued mapping enjoying some regularity properties. More precisely, we investigate the local convergence of an implicit scheme for solving inclusions of the type T(x)∋0 where T is a set-valued mapping acting from a Banach space into itself. We consider subsequently the case when T is strongly metrically subregular, metrically regular and strongly regular around a solution to the inclusion. Finally, we study the convergence of our algorithm under variational perturbations.     

Lagrange中心型守恒格式

提出了Lagrange中心型守恒气体动力学格式．引入了当前时刻子网格密度与当前时刻网格声速产生的网格分片常数压力．初始网格密度乘以初始子网格体积得到子网格质量,这些子网格质量除以当前时刻子网格体积得到当前时刻子网格密度．应用网格分片常数压力,构造了满足动量守恒、总能量守恒的Lagrange中心型守恒气体动力学格式,格点速度以与网格面的数值通量相容的方式计算．对Saltzman活塞问题等进行了数值模拟,数值结果显示Lagrange中心型守恒气体动力学格式的有效性和精确性．     

Numerical simulation of particles movement in cellular flows under the influence of magnetic forces

A numerical model of particle motion in fluid flow under the influence of hydrodynamic and magnetic forces is presented. As computational tool, a flow solver based on the Boundary Element Method is used. The Euler-Lagrange formulation of multiphase flow is considered. In the case of a particle with a magnetic moment in a nonuniform external magnetic field, the Kelvin body force acts on a single particle. The derived Lagrangian particle tracking algorithm is used for simulation of dilute suspensions of particles in viscous flows taking into account gravity, buoyancy, drag, pressure gradient, added mass and magnetophoretic force. As a benchmark test case the magnetite particle motion in cellular flow field of water is computed with and without the action of the magnetic force. The effect of the Kelvin force on particle motion and separation from the main flow is studied for a predefined magnetic field and different values of magnetic flux density. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Can Soliton Attractors Exist in Realistic 3+1-D Conservative Systems?

High-energy physicists already know that stable attractors (solitons) can exist in 3+1-dimensional conservative Lagrangian systems, so long as the definition of an attractor is based on weak notions of stability and the fields admit topological charge. This paper explores the possibility of attractors in Lagrangian field theories without topological charge, using a new, stronger concept of stability—Convective quantized Asymptotic Orbital Stability (ChAOS) . Under certain conditions, ChAOS is related to additive Liapunov stability or energetic stability. Russian physicists have argued that such stability tends to require topological charge; however, this paper describes systems which avoid those arguments, and suggests how numerical examples might be constructed. Solitons have been proposed to explain the existence and nature of elementary particles within the Feynman version of quantum theory; Section 6cites this literature, as well as new possibilities for alternative versions with testable nuclear implications.     

A numerical study on statistical temporal scales in inertia particle dispersion

The statistical temporal scales involved in inertia particle dispersion are analyzed numerically. The numerical method of large eddy simulation, solving a filtered Navier-Stokes equation, is utilized to calculate fully developed turbulent channel flows with Reynolds numbers of 180 and 640, and the particle Lagrangian trajectory method is employed to track inertia particles released into the flow fields. The Lagrangian and Eulerian temporal scales are obtained statistically for fluid tracer particles and three different inertia particles with Stokes numbers of 1, 10 and 100. The Eulerian temporal scales, decreasing with the velocity of advection from the wall to the channel central plane, are smaller than the Lagrangian ones. The Lagrangian temporal scales of inertia particles increase with the particle Stokes number. The Lagrangian temporal scales of the fluid phase ‘seen’ by inertia particles are separate from those of the fluid phase, where inertia particles travel in turbulent vortices, due to the particle inertia and particle trajectory crossing effects. The effects of the Reynolds number on the integral temporal scales are also discussed. The results are worthy of use in examining and developing engineering prediction models of particle dispersion.     

Reduced quasi-Newton method for simultaneous design and optimization

We consider the task of design optimization where the constraint is a state equation that can only be solved by a typically rather slowly converging fixed point solver. This process can be augmented by a corresponding adjoint solver and based on the resulting approximate reduced derivatives also an optimization iteration which actually changes the design. To coordinate the three iterative processes, we use an exact penalty function of doubly augmented Lagrangian type. The main issue here is how to derive a design space preconditioner for the approximated reduced gradient which ensures a consistent reduction of the employed penalty function as well as significant design corrections. Some numerical experiments for an alternating approach where any combination and sequencing of steps are used to improve feasibility and optimality done on a variant of the Bratu problem are presented.