A low cost laser-speckle photographic technique for velocity measurement in slow flows

A low cost, low power laser-speckle photographic technique has been developed and is duscussed for the measurement of point velocities in slow laminar flows. The technique is particularly suitable for axisymmetric flows where the two velocity components can be easily measured. The accuracy of the technique is established by measurement of the velocity distribution for Poiseuille flow and from data obtained for acceleration of an inelastic Newtonian fluid through a four-to-one circular contraction. Preliminary results are also presented in the contracting flow field for a non shear-thinning highly elastic fluid. These data are particularly significant for verification of finite element numerical solutions currently being developed for viscoelastic fluids in circular entry flows.     

Velocity field of convergent flow into a rectangular slit for a polymeric fluid

Three-dimensional velocity distributions in the entry region of a rectangular slit contraction were investigated using a dual-beam laser Doppler velocimeter. The flow of a silicone oil (a Newtonian fluid) and a solution of silicone rubber in the same silicone oil (a viscoelastic fluid) was studied at low Reynolds numbers (Re < 0.5). In contrast to the usual velocity distribution of a Newtonian fluid, the viscoelastic fluid showed the following characteristic features: (1) a pronounced axial velocity overshoot immediately after the slit entrance and a maximum before the slit exit; (2) appearance of an axial flow deceleration region just before the sharp acceleration near the slit entrance. Even more remarkably, a saddle form of velocity profile was found in the entrance region. This flow pattern is completely different from that found for Newtonian fluids and has not yet been explained using existing rheological analysis.Parts of this paper were presented at the IX. Intern. Congress on Rheology at Acapulco (Mexico), October 8–13, 1984     

Quantitative NMR velocity imaging of a main-chain liquid crystalline polymer flowing through an abrupt contraction

 The flow of isotropic and liquid crystalline (LC) hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) aqueous solutions into an abrupt axisymmetric contraction has been quantitatively measured by pulsed-field-gradient NMR techniques. Steady-state axial velocity profiles, acquired upstream of the contraction, reveal a large contraction entry length for the LC solution. This entry flow field exists over an order of magnitude change in flow rate and is attributed to elasticity that is associated with polydomain liquid crystallinity. Pronounced, off-centerline velocity maxima (in an axisymmetric flow field) were present upstream of the contraction, in the entry flow region. Apparently, a more viscous and elastic core of fluid was present along the centerline; this fluid resisted elongational strain more than the fluid closer to the walls. Quantitative velocity profiles were extracted from displacement distributions and corrected for elongational dispersion. The isotropic solution velocity profiles matched those obtained from viscoelastic simulations using an approximate Doi-Edwards model, parameterized with independent rheological data. Received: 29 April 1999/Accepted: 30 August 1999     

Turbulent flow of Newtonian and shear-thinning liquids through a sudden axisymmetric expansion

 Measurements are reported for the turbulent flow through a sudden expansion of a moderately elastic shear-thinning liquid and also for two Newtonian liquids. The differences in the mean velocity fields for the two fluid types are relatively small, including the length of the recirculation region which is essentially unaffected by the fluid rheology. Although turbulent kinetic energy levels for the non-Newtonian fluids are always lower than for the Newtonian fluids, no significant difference is found in the relative contributions to the turbulent kinetic energy of the axial, radial and tangential normal stresses. Since the vorticity thicknesses are much the same for all flows, viscoelasticity appears to be responsible for the reduced levels of turbulent kinetic energy for the non-Newtonian fluids. Received: 6 November 1998/Accepted: 27 January 1999     

Two-phase fluid flow in a porous tube: a model for blood flow in capillaries

A theoretical study of blood flow, under the influence of a body force, in a capillary is presented. Blood is modeled as a two-phase fluid consisting of a core region of suspension of all erythrocytes, represented by a micropolar fluid and a plasma layer free from cells modeled as a Newtonian fluid. The capillary is modeled as a porous tube consisting of a thin transition Brinkman layer overlying a porous Darcy region. Analytical expressions for the pressure, microrotation, and velocities for the different regions are given. Plots of pressure, microrotation, and velocities for varying micropolar parameters, hydraulic resistivity, and Newtonian fluid layer thickness are presented. The overall system was found to be sensitive to variations in micropolar coupling number. It was also discovered that high values of hydraulic resistivity result in an overall slower velocity of the micropolar and Newtonian fluid.     

Asymptotic solutions of the flow of a Johnson-Segalman fluid through a slowly varying pipe using double perturbation strategy

A double perturbation strategy is presented to solve the asymptotic solutions of a Johnson-Segalman (J-S) fluid through a slowly varying pipe. First, a small parameter of the slowly varying angle is taken as the small perturbation parameter, and then the second-order asymptotic solution of the flow of a Newtonian fluid through a slowly varying pipe is obtained in the first perturbation strategy. Second, the viscoelastic parameter is selected as the small perturbation parameter in the second perturbation strategy to solve the asymptotic solution of the flow of a J-S fluid through a slowly varying pipe. Finally, the parameter effects, including the axial distance, the slowly varying angle, and the Reynolds number, on the velocity distributions are analyzed. The results show that the increases in both the axial distance and the slowly varying angle make the axial velocity slow down. However, the radial velocity increases with the slowly varying angle, and decreases with the axial distance. There are two special positions in the distribution curves of the axial velocity and the radial velocity with different Reynolds numbers, and there are different trends on both sides of the special positions. The double perturbation strategy is applicable to such problems with the flow of a non-Newtonian fluid through a slowly varying pipe.     

Experiments to study interactions between baroclinic lower flows and a stably stratified upper layer

Experiments were conducted on a rotating fluid annulus to study the basic interactions between baroclinic lower flows and a stably stratified upper layer. Sufficiently stable stratification is necessary for steady flows to emerge in the lower layer. Upward fluid motions make the baroclinic flows permeate into the upper layer. The stable stratification, however, suppresses upward motions so that zonal fluid velocities decrease with height. In fact, their maximum appears at the top level of the baroclinic lower layer and the sign of the radial temperature gradient changes there; namely, it is warmer on the inner side of the annulus in the upper layer. This temperature profile is reflected in a meridional fluid circulation mixing both layers. In the upper layer of the wave flow, there exists a critical level below and above which the zonal fluid velocities have opposite directions for the wave to have a phase shift of half a wavelength in appearance. The experimental results correspond to real atmospheric phenomena.     

不同参数下环形通道内湍流旋流流动的模拟

应用一种合理考虑湍流一旋流相互作用及湍流脉动各向异性的新的代数ＲｅｙｎｏｌｄＳ应力模型,对环形通道内的湍流旋流流动进行了数值模拟．研究了旋流数、进口轴向速度和内外半径比等参数对环形通道内湍流旋流流动的影响,以及由此产生的流场变化对强化环形通道内传热的作用．     

Circular Couette flow with pressure-driven axial flow and a porous inner cylinder

In a rotating filter separator a suspension is introduced at one end of the annulus between a rotating porous inner cylinder and a fixed impermeable outer cylinder. The filtrate is removed through the inner cylinder and the concentrate is removed from the opposite end of the annulus from which the suspension entered. The flow in a rotating filter separator is circular Couette flow with a pressure-driven axial flow and a suction boundary condition at the inner cylinder. Flow visualization was used to determine the effect of the Taylor number, axial Reynolds number, and radial Reynolds number on the types of flows present in the annulus. A rich variety of secondary vortical flows appear, depending upon the flow parameters. The radial inflow at the inner cylinder delays the appearance of supercritical circular Couette flow and prevents the appearance of certain flow regimes that have a helical vortex structure. Nevertheless, the average azimuthal velocity measured using laser Doppler velocimetry indicates that the velocity profile is nearly the same for all supercritical flow regimes.This work was supported by a grant from The Whitaker Foundation     

A study of the flow characteristics in micro-abrasive jets

An experimental study of particle velocities in micro-abrasive jets by using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique is presented. It has been found that the particle jet flow has a nearly linear expansion downstream. The particle velocities increase with air pressure, and the increasing rate increases with nozzle diameter within the range considered. The instantaneous velocity profile of the particle flow field in terms of the particle velocity distribution along the axial and radial directions of the jets is discussed. For the axial profile in the jet centerline downstream, there exists an extended acceleration stage, a transition stage, and a deceleration stage. For the radial velocity profiles, a relatively flat shape is observed at a jet cross-section near the nozzle exit. Mathematical models for the particle velocities in the air jet are then developed. It is shown that the results from the models agree well with experimental data in both the variation trend and magnitude.     

Influence of the magnetic field on merging flow of the Powell-Eyring fluids: an exact solution

In this article, the merging flow of the stagnation point and the stretching (or shrinking) flows for the Powell-Eyring fluid (one of the non-Newtonian fluids) in the presence of magnetic field is formulated and analyzed mathematically. An analytical solution was developed on the basis of the homotopy analysis method. The effect of the Hartmann number on fluid-velocity and skin-friction is examined. It is observed that the intensive magnetic field reduces the growth of the reverse/secondary flow which is generated after the mixing of the stagnation-point and shrinking-sheet flows. The magnetic force dominates on the viscous force for stretching as well as for shrinking flows. Furthermore, the magnetic force intensifies the axial velocity of the fluids (the Newtonian as well as the Powell-Eyring fluids) but it decays the transverse-velocity of the fluids. Present results are validated with the existing results for the Newtonian fluids and found comparable with negligible errors.     

The roles of inertia and shear-thinning in flow of an inelastic liquid through an axisymmetric sudden contraction

The roles of luid inertia and shear-rate dependent viscosity in determining the velocity field in an axisymmetric sudden contraction are assessed by finite-element analysis for a generalized Newtonian fluid with viscosity function given by a Carreau equation. Acting alone, either increasing shear-thinning of the viscosity or increasing fluid inertia suppresses the upstream vortex that surrounds the opening to the small tube. For creeping flows, shear thinning does not produce concavities and off-centered maxima in the axial velocity profile just inside the small tube, even at high Carreau numbers where the velocity field approaches the limiting form for a power-law fluid. Peaks in the axial velocity away from the center of the tube were found only for moderate and high Reynolds numbers and were enhanced by shear thinning, which decreased the viscosity and consequently increased the “local” Reynolds number near the wall of the small tube. The effect of steep velocity gradients near this surface on the accuracy of the finite-element approximations is discussed.     

On unsteady unidirectional flows of a second grade fluid

Some properties of unsteady unidirectional flows of a fluid of second grade are considered for flows produced by the sudden application of a constant pressure gradient or by the impulsive motion of one or two boundaries. Exact analytical solutions for these flows are obtained and the results are compared with those of a Newtonian fluid. It is found that the stress at the initial time on the stationary boundary for flows generated by the impulsive motion of a boundary is infinite for a Newtonian fluid and is finite for a second grade fluid. Furthermore, it is shown that initially the stress on the stationary boundary, for flows started from rest by sudden application of a constant pressure gradient is zero for a Newtonian fluid and is not zero for a fluid of second grade. The required time to attain the asymptotic value of a second grade fluid is longer than that for a Newtonian fluid. It should be mentioned that the expressions for the flow properties, such as velocity, obtained by the Laplace transform method are exactly the same as the ones obtained for the Couette and Poiseuille flows and those which are constructed by the Fourier method. The solution of the governing equation for flows such as the flow over a plane wall and the Couette flow is in a series form which is slowly convergent for small values of time. To overcome the difficulty in the calculation of the value of the velocity for small values of time, a practical method is given. The other property of unsteady flows of a second grade fluid is that the no-slip boundary condition is sufficient for unsteady flows, but it is not sufficient for steady flows so that an additional condition is needed. In order to discuss the properties of unsteady unidirectional flows of a second grade fluid, some illustrative examples are given.     

A numerical technique for laminar swirling flow at the interface between porous and homogenous fluid domains

There have been a few recent numerical implementations of the stress‐jump condition at the interface of conjugate flows, which couple the governing equations for flows in the porous and homogenous fluid domains. These previous demonstration cases were for two‐dimensional, planar flows with simple geometries, for example, flow over a porous layer or flow through a porous plug. The present study implements the interfacial stress‐jump condition for a non‐planar flow with three velocity components, which is more realistic in terms of practical flow applications. The steady, laminar, Newtonian flow in a stirred micro‐bioreactor with a porous scaffold inside was investigated. It is shown how to implement the interfacial jump condition on the radial, axial, and swirling velocity components. To avoid a full three‐dimensional simulation, the flow is assumed to be independent of the azimuthal direction, which makes it an axisymmetric flow with a swirling velocity. The present interface treatment is suitable for non‐flat surfaces, which is achieved by applying the finite volume method based on body‐fitted and multi‐block grids. The numerical simulations show that a vortex breakdown bubble, attached to the free surface, occurs above a certain Reynolds number. The presence of the porous scaffold delays the onset of vortex breakdown and confines it to a region above the scaffold. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid lattice Boltzmann finite‐difference simulation of axisymmetric swirling and rotating flows

The axisymmetric flows with swirl or rotation were solved by a hybrid scheme with lattice Boltzmann method for the axial and radial velocities and finite‐difference method for the azimuthal (or swirl) velocity and the temperature. An incompressible axisymmetric lattice Boltzmann D2Q9 model was proposed to solve the axial and radial velocities through inserting source terms into the two‐dimensional lattice Boltzmann equation. Present hybrid scheme was firstly validated by simulations of Taylor–Couette flows between two concentric cylinders. Then the benchmark problems of melt flow in Czochralski crystal growth were studied and accurate results were obtained. Numerical experiment demonstrated that present axisymmetric D2Q9 model is more stable than the previous axisymmetric D2Q9 model (J. Comp. Phys. 2003; 186 (1):295–307). Hence, compared with the previous model, present numerical method provides a significant advantage in simulation melt flow cases with high Reynolds number and high Grashof number. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Creation of very-low-Reynolds-number chaotic fluid motions in microchannels using viscoelastic surfactant solution

Solutions of flexible high-molecular-weight polymers or some kinds of surfactant are viscoelastic fluids. The elastic stress is induced in such viscoelastic fluid flows and grows nonlinearly with the flow-rate resulting in many particular flow phenomena, including purely elastic instability. The purely elastic instability can even result in a kind of chaotic fluid motion, the so-called elastic turbulence, which is a recently discovered flow phenomenon and arises at arbitrarily small Reynolds number. By using viscoelastic surfactant solution, we attempted to create the peculiar chaotic fluid motions in several specially designed microchannels in which flows with curvilinear streamlines can be generated. The viscoelastic working fluids were aqueous solutions of surfactant, CTAC/NaSal (cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride/sodium salicylate). CTAC solutions with weight concentration of 200 ppm (part per million) and 1000 ppm, respectively, at room temperature were tested. For comparison, water flows in the same microchannels were also visualized. The Reynolds numbers for all the microchannel flows were quite small (for solution flows, the Reynolds numbers were the order of or smaller than one) and the flow should be definitely laminar for Newtonian fluid. It was found that the regular laminar flow patterns for low-Reynolds-number Newtonian fluid flow in different microchannels were strongly deformed in solution flows: either asymmetrical flow structures or time-dependent vortical fluid motions appeared. These chaotic flow phenomena were considered to be induced by the viscoelasticity of the CTAC solutions. Discussions about the potential applications using such kind of chaotic fluid motions were also made.     

Laminar,transitional and turbulent annular flow of drag-reducing polymer solutions

Mean and rms axial velocity-profile data obtained using laser Doppler anemometry are presented together with pressure-drop data for the flow through a concentric annulus (radius ratio κ = 0.506) of a Newtonian (a glycerine–water mixture) and non-Newtonian fluids—a semi-rigid shear-thinning polymer (a xanthan gum) and a polymer known to exhibit a yield stress (carbopol). A wider range of Reynolds numbers for the transitional flow regime is observed for the more shear-thinning fluids. In marked contrast to the Newtonian fluid, the higher shear stress on the inner wall compared to the outer wall does not lead to earlier transition for the non-Newtonian fluids where more turbulent activity is observed in the outer wall region. The mean axial velocity profiles show a slight shift (～5%) of the location of the maximum velocity towards the outer pipe wall within the transitional regime only for the Newtonian fluid.     

Oscillatory flows in straight tubes with an axisymmetric bulge

A laser-Doppler anemometer has been used to study oscillatory flow of a Newtonian viscous fluid in straight circular tube with an axisymmetric bulge of two different sizes. The axial velocities were measured at successive cross-sectional planes for sinusoidal waveforms having Reynolds numbers (based on Stokes layer thickness at the inlet) from 445 to 806 and Womersley numbers ranged from 7.2 to 12.2. The cyclic flow development inside the bulge at different phases within a cycle was determined. Stability analysis obtained by solving the Orr–Sommerfield equation on instantaneous velocity profiles showed instability grows progressively during the acceleration phase and transition to turbulence in the bulge happened shortly after the commencement of the deceleration phase. Depending on the bulge geometry, the turbulent region was initially confined either to the proximal or the distal end of the bulge. This region would spread larger as the deceleration phase furthered and the smaller bulge had a larger spread than the bigger bulge. The differences could be attributed to the vortical structures development inside the bulge. Relaminarisation for the flow appeared in the subsequent acceleration phase. Finally, some comparisons had been made with results obtained from using the physiological waveform.     

Transient finite element analysis of generalized Newtonian coextrusion flows in complex geometries

A two-dimensional transient finite element model capable of simulating problems related to two-layer polymer flows has been developed. This technique represents an effective tool which can be used to study the possibility of the onset of interfacial instability in coextrusion flows, considering melt rheology as well as the fluid–geometry interaction. A code has been developed to solve the transient problem of the flow of bi-component systems of Newtonian and generalized Newtonian fluids through parallel plates and complex geometries, such as: 2:1 abrupt expansion, 2:1 (30°) expansion, 4:1 abrupt contraction and 4:1 tapered (30°) contraction. Solutions are compared with experimental data from the literature and results provided by linear stability analysis (LSA) for the case of parallel plate flows. Numerical results are in agreement with LSA results for the parallel plate geometry cases studied. The expansion geometries tend to stabilize flows in the parallel plate section downstream of the expansion. Contractions may give rise to break-up of the interface depending on the flow conditions. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.