Scale-by-scale energy budget in a turbulent boundary layer over a rough wall

Hot-wire velocity measurements are carried out in a turbulent boundary layer over a rough wall consisting of transverse circular rods, with a ratio of 8 between the spacing (w) of two consecutive rods and the rod height (k). The pressure distribution around the roughness element is used to accurately measure the mean friction velocity ($U_{\tau }$) and the error in the origin. It is found that $U_{\tau }$ remained practically constant in the streamwise direction suggesting that the boundary layer over this surface is evolving in a self-similar manner. This is further corroborated by the similarity observed at all scales of motion, in the region $0.2⩽y/\delta ⩽0.6$, as reflected in the constancy of Reynolds number ($R_{\lambda }$) based on Taylor’s microscale and the collapse of Kolmogorov normalized velocity spectra at all wavenumbers.A scale-by-scale budget for the second-order structure function $〈{(\delta u)}^2〉$ ($\delta u=u(x+r)-u(x)$, where u is the fluctuating streamwise velocity component and r is the longitudinal separation) is carried out to investigate the energy distribution amongst different scales in the boundary layer. It is found that while the small scales are controlled by the viscosity, intermediate scales over which the transfer of energy (or $〈{(\delta u)}^3〉$) is important are affected by mechanisms induced by the large-scale inhomogeneities in the flow, such as production, advection and turbulent diffusion. For example, there are non-negligible contributions from the large-scale inhomogeneity to the budget at scales of the order of $\lambda$, the Taylor microscale, in the region of the boundary layer extending from $y/\delta =0.2$ to 0.6 ($\delta$ is the boundary layer thickness).     

Effect of heating rate on steam pressure induced in crack-like cavities in moisture saturated polymer matrix composites

When moisture saturated composites are rapidly heated, the steam pressure inside cavities can cause the composite to delaminate. We study the effect of heating rate on the steam pressure inside an isolated long thin “crack-like” cavity of thickness h assuming that the chemical potential of water is continuous across the cavity/polymer interface. For such a cavity in an infinite plate, we show there is sufficient moisture for the steam pressure to reach the saturated steam pressure, irrespective of the heating rate. However, for a plate of thickness L exposed to dry air, the cavity pressure reaches a maximum value, which depends only on the normalized plate thickness, α = L/h and normalized heating rate, $\beta =\dot{T}{h}^2/T_{0}D(T_0)$ where $\dot{T}$ is the heating rate, D(T₀) is the moisture diffusivity at the initial temperature T₀, before it decays to zero because of the dry air outside. For this case, the maximum steam pressure can be significantly less than the saturation pressure. The results in this work can also be used to study ‘popcorning’ observed in electronic packages.     

The effect of different inlet conditions of air in a rectangular channel on convection heat transfer: Turbulence flow

Theoretical and empirical correlations for duct flow are given for hydrodynamically and thermally developed flow in most of previous studies. However, this is commonly not a realistic inlet configuration for heat exchanger, in which coolant flow generally turns through a serpentine shaped passage before entering heat sinks. Accordingly, an experimental investigation was carried out to determine average heat transfer coefficients in uniformly heated rectangular channel with 45° and 90° turned flow, and with wall mounted a baffle. The channel was heated through bottom side with the baffle. In present work, a detailed study was conducted for three different height of entry channel (named as the ratio of the height of entry channel to the height of test section (${\overline{H}}_{\text{c}}=h_{\text{c}}/H$)) by varying Reynolds number (${\mathit{Re}}_{\text{Dh}}$). Another variable parameter was the ratio of the baffle height to the channel height (${\overline{H}}_{\text{b}}=h_{\text{b}}/H$). Only one baffle was attached on the bottom (heating) surface. The experimental procedure was validated by comparing the data for the straight channel with no baffle. Reynolds number $({\mathit{Re}}_{\text{Dh}})$ was varied from 2800 to 30,000, so the flow was considered as only turbulent regime. All experiments were conduced with air accordingly; Prandtl number (Pr) was approximately fixed at 0.71. The results showed that average Nusselt number for θ = 45° and θ = 90° were 9% and 30% higher, respectively, than that of the straight channel without baffle. Likewise, the pressure drop increased up to 4.4 to 5.3 times compare to the straight channel.     

Effect of notch depth on strain-concentration factor of rectangular bars with a single-edge notch under pure bending

The FEM is employed to study the effect of notch depth on a new strain-concentration factor (SNCF) for rectangular bars with a single-edge notch under pure bending. The new SNCF $K_{\epsilon }^{\mathrm{new}}$ is defined under the triaxial stress state at the net section. The elastic SNCF increases as the net-to-gross thickness ratio h₀/H₀ increases and reaches a maximum at h₀/H₀ = 0.8. Beyond this value of h₀/H₀ it rapidly decreases to the unity with h₀/H₀. Three notch depths were selected to discuss the effect of notch depth on the elastic–plastic SNCF; they are the extremely deep notch (h₀/H₀ = 0.20), the deep notch (h₀/H₀ = 0.60) and the shallow notch (h₀/H₀ = 0.95). The new SNCF increases from its elastic value to the maximum as plastic deformation develops from the notch root. The maximum $K_{\epsilon }^{\mathrm{new}}$ of the shallow notch is considerably greater than that of the deep notch. The elastic $K_{\epsilon }^{\mathrm{new}}$ of the shallow notch is however less than that of the deep notch. Plastic deformation therefore has a strong effect on the increase in $K_{\epsilon }^{\mathrm{new}}$ of the shallow notch. The variation in $K_{\epsilon }^{\mathrm{new}}$ with M/M_Y, the ratio of bending moment to that at yielding at the notch root, is slightly dependent up to the maximum $K_{\epsilon }^{\mathrm{new}}$ for the shallow notch. This dependence is remarkable beyond the maximum $K_{\epsilon }^{\mathrm{new}}$. On the other hand, the variation in $K_{\epsilon }^{\mathrm{new}}$ with M/M_Y is independent of the stress–strain curve for the deep and extremely deep notches.