Structure of the nonisothermal swirling gas-droplet flow behind an abrupt tube expansion

Flow structure and heat and mass transfer in a swirling two-phase stream is numerically modeled using the Reynolds stress transport model. The gas phase is described by the 3DRANS system of equations with account for the inverse influence of particles on the transport processes in the gas. The gas phase turbulence is calculated using the Reynolds stress transport model with account for the presence of disperse particles. The two-phase nonswirling flow behind an abrupt tube expansion contains a secondary corner vortex which is absent from the swirling flow. The disperse phase is redistributed over the tube cross-section. Large particles are concentrated in the wall region of the channel under the action of the centrifugal forces, while the smaller particles are in the central zone of the chamber.     

Split-screen single-camera stereoscopic PIV application to a turbulent confined swirling layer with free surface

An annular liquid wall jet, or vortex tube, generated by helical injection inside a tube is studied experimentally as a possible means of fusion reactor shielding. The hollow confined vortex/swirling layer exhibits simultaneously all the complexities of swirling turbulence, free surface, droplet formation, bubble entrapment; all posing challenging diagnostic issues. The construction of flow apparatus and the choice of working liquid and seeding particles facilitate unimpeded optical access to the flow field. A split-screen, single-camera stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) scheme is employed for flow field characterization. Image calibration and free surface identification issues are discussed. The interference in measurements of laser beam reflection at the interface are identified and discussed. Selected velocity measurements and turbulence statistics are presented at Re_\uplambda=70 \hbox{Re}_{\uplambda}=70 (Re = 3500 based on mean layer thickness).     

Modeling of drag reduction in turbulent channel flow with hydrophobic walls by FVM method and weakly-compressible flow equations

In this paper the effects of hydrophobic wall on skin-friction drag in the channel flow are investigated through large eddy simulation on the basis of weaklycompressible flow equations with the MacCormack's scheme on collocated mesh in the FVM framework. The slip length model is adopted to describe the behavior of the slip velocities in the streamwise and spanwise directions at the interface between the hydrophobic wall and turbulent channel flow. Simulation results are presented by analyzing flow behaviors over hydrophobic wall with the Smagorinky subgrid-scale model and a dynamic model on computational meshes of different resolutions. Comparison and analysis are made on the distributions of timeaveraged velocity, velocity fluctuations, Reynolds stress as well as the skin-friction drag. Excellent agreement between the present study and previous results demonstrates the accuracy of the simple classical second-order scheme in representing turbulent vertox near hydrophobic wall. In addition, the relation of drag reduction efficiency versus time-averaged slip velocity is established. It is also foundthat the decrease of velocity gradient in the close wall region is responsible for the drag reduction. Considering its advantages of high calculation precision and efficiency, the present method has good prospect in its application to practical projects.     

Advantageous swirling flow in 45° end-to-side anastomosis

The effects of swirling flow on the flow field in 45° end-to-side anastomosis are experimentally investigated using a particle image velocimetry technique to reveal fluid dynamic advantages of swirling flow in the vascular graft. Non-swirling Poiseuille inlet flow unnecessarily induces pathological hemodynamic features, such as high wall shear stress (WSS) at the ‘bed’ side and large flow separation at the ‘toe’ side. The introduction of swirling flow is found to equalize the asymmetric WSS distribution and reduces the peak magnitude of WSS. In particular, the intermediate swirling intensity of S = 0.45 induces the most uniform axial velocity and WSS distributions compared with weaker or stronger swirling flows, which addresses the importance of proper selection of swirling intensity in the vascular graft to obtain optimum flow fields at the host vessel. In addition, swirling flow reduces the size of flow separation because it disturbs the formation of Dean-type vortices in secondary flow and inhibits secondary flow collision. The beneficial fluid dynamic features of swirling flow obtained in this study are helpful for designing better vascular graft suppressing pathological hemodynamic features in the recipient host vessel.     

Adhesion behavior of endothelial progenitor cells to endothelial cells in simple shear flow

The adhesion of endothelial progenitor cells(EPCs) on endothelial cells(ECs) is one of the critical physiological processes for the regenesis of vascular vessels and the prevention of serious cardiovascular diseases.Here,the rolling and adhesion behavior of EPCs on ECs was studied numerically.A two-dimensional numerical model was developed based on the immersed boundary method for simulating the rolling and adhesion of cells in a channel flow.The binding force arising from the catch bond of a receptor and ligand pair was modeled with stochastic Monte Carlo method and Hookean spring model.The effect of tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNF-α) on the expression of the number of adhesion molecules in ECs was analyzed experimentally.A flow chamber system with CCD camera was set up to observe the top view of the rolling of EPCs on the substrate cultivated with ECs.Numerical results prove that the adhesion of EPC on ECs is closely related to membrane stiff-ness of the cell and shear rate of the flow.It also suggests that the adhesion force between EPC and EC by P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 only is not strong enough to bond the cell onto vessel walls unless contributions of other catch bond are considered.Experimental results demonstrate that TNF-α enhanced the expressions of VCAM,ICAM,P-selectin and E-selectin in ECs,which supports the numerical results that the rolling velocity of EPC on TNF-α treated EC substrate decreases obviously compared with its velocity on the untreated one.It is found that because the adhesion is affected by both the rolling velocity and the deformability of the cell,an optimal stiffness of EPC may exist at a given shear rate of flow for achieving maximum adhesion rates.     

Jet characteristics in confined swirling flow

Jets in confined swirling flow are investigated in a facility where the swirling flow in the tube is produced by a vane-type swirler. The jet is located centrally in the swirler, and the diameter ratio of the tube to the jet is 14. Both the jet and the swirling flow are fully turbulent. Results show that the confined jet is highly dissipative in nature. Consequently, the flow in the tube does not resemble a free jet with axial pressure gradient. The presence of swirl increases the rate of dissipation and the jet decays even faster. A fairly isotropic turbulence field is observed in the confined swirling flow. However, the introduction of the jet does not significantly affect this behavior and near isotropy of the turbulence field is again observed at 30 jet diameters downstream.     

Confined and Agitated Swirling Flows with Applications in Chemical Engineering

Turbulent, swirling flows are encountered frequently in chemical engineering practice. In this article, experiments and simulations on two classes of swirling flows, viz. agitated flows (stirred tanks), and confined swirling flows are discussed. Results of large-eddy simulations of stirred tank flow are compared with experimental data, mainly phase-resolved LDA data of the flow in the vicinity of the impeller. Next to the average velocity field, also the turbulent kinetic energy, and the anisotropy of the Reynolds stress tensor have been assessed. An important application of confined swirling flow is the cyclone separator (hydrocyclones for the separation of liquids, gas cyclones for gas-solid separation). The flow in a swirl tube geometry exhibiting many of the typical features of swirl flows (e.g. vortex breakdown) is discussed. Furthermore, a large-eddy simulation of the gas flow in a high-efficiency Stairmand cyclone separator is presented. Two examples of process modeling based on flow simulations are briefly treated: orthokinetic agglomeration of crystals in a stirred tank, and particle separation in a cyclone. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An experimental study of fluid flow and heat transfer in decaying swirl through a heated annulus

The mean and turbulent structures of turbulent swirling flow in a heated annulus have been measured. Both forced and free vortex swirling flows were generated, and the outer wall of the test section was heated uniformly. The maximum swirl number was 1.39, Reynolds numbers were up to 200000, and heat input was 10.5 kW. Mean and turbulent velocity components, air and wall temperatures, and wall static pressures were all measured. Hot-film techniques were developed to measure turbulence. From these parameters, the flow and temperature fields, pressure distribution, and heat transfer coefficients were determined. The mechanisms of heat transfer were identified.     

Effect of swirling flow on unburned ratio and nitrogen oxide concentration in a spray combustion system

The effect of swirling flow on the unburned ratio and NO concentration in exhausted gas was studied for slurry [coal-water mixture (CWM)] spray combustion with variations of swirl numbers. A numerical analysis for CWM combustion was performed for axisymmetric flow in a cylindrical geometry. First, to check the performance of three previous k-ε turbulence models modified with swirling flow, velocity components of isothermal swirling jets were measured by laser-Doppler anemometry (LDA) and compared with predicted results. The two modified models gave more reliable results than the conventional one. Next, as the swirl number could not be estimated by the angular momentum derived from the vane angle of the circular swirler, the reduction rate of the tangential momentum flux through the tube of the circular swirler was measured and calculated. Both measured and predicted results showed that when the swirl number S′ given by the vane angle was 2.0, the effective swirl number S_eff decreased by about 60% to S′. To take the results mentioned above into consideration, effects of swirl number on both the exhausted NO concentration and unburned ratio were investigated. The predicted unburned ratio showed good agreement with the experimental results. Both experimental and calculated results showed that the optimum operating conditions controlling the exhausted NO concentration and unburned ratio in this spray combustion system were obtained when the swirl number S_eff was about 0.5.     

A class of exact solutions for the incompressible viscous magnetohydrodynamic flow over a porous rotating disk

The present paper is concerned with a class of exact solutions to the steady Navier-Stokes equations for the incompressible Newtonian viscous electrically conducting fluid flow due to a porous disk rotating with a constant angular speed.The three-dimensional hydromagnetic equations of motion are treated analytically to obtained exact solutions with the inclusion of suction and injection.The well-known thinning/thickening flow field effect of the suction/injection is better understood from the constructed closed form velocity equations.Making use of this solution,analytical formulas for the angular velocity components as well as for the permeable wall shear stresses are derived.Interaction of the resolved flow field with the surrounding temperature is further analyzed via the energy equation.The temperature field is shown to accord with the dissipation and the Joule heating.As a result,exact formulas are obtained for the temperature field which take different forms corresponding to the condition of suction or injection imposed on the wall.     

Concentration distributions in a model combustor

A hot-wire concentration probe with a spatial resolution of 0.13 mm is used to measure concentration in a model cylindrical combustor. The flow inside the combustor is simulated by injecting a helium jet into a cylindrical confinement with or without swirling air flow present. Mean concentrations are essentially zero outside of the jet region, indicating complete confinement of the scalar field by the swirling flow. Consequently, concentration fluctuations are found to be relatively weak compared to velocity fluctuations, and are maximum off-axis at a point which corresponds to the interface between helium and air flows. However, in the absence of a swirling air flow, the helium diffuses quickly to fill the combustor. The resulting helium concentrations are constant and do not resemble the jet-like behavior of the velocity field.A version of this paper was presented at the ASME Winter Annual Meeting of 1984 and printed in AMD, Vol. 66     

Experiments on dynamic behavior of near-field region in variable property jet with swirling flow

The dynamic behavior of the near-field region in a coaxial variable property jet has been experimentally investigated under a swirling flow produced by rotating cylindrical inner and outer tubes, focusing on how the swirl of the outer jet affects the formation of a stagnation point in the swirling inner jet. The inner and outer jets rotate in the same direction. Air, CO₂, or He is issued from the inner tube as a variable property jet, and air is issued from the outer tube in this work. In the case of a CO₂ jet (a high-density, low-viscosity gas jet), a stagnation point flow is more easily formed than in the case of an air jet, and the stagnation point location is significantly lower than in that of the air jet. When the swirl of the outer jet is introduced, a stagnation point flow is more easily formed than in the case of a nonswirling outer jet, and the stagnation point location is much lower than in the case of a nonswirling outer jet. In the case of a He jet (a low-density and high-viscosity gas jet), the inner jet does not have a stagnation point flow, and its overall behavior remains nearly unchanged even under high swirl numbers of the inner and outer jets. These results clearly show that the density and viscosity differences between the inner and outer jets have a significant impact on the dynamic behavior of the near-field region in the coaxial swirling jet. The significant lowering of the stagnation point location can be physically explained by considering the theoretical equation obtained in this work.     

Experimental investigation of the flow characteristics within a vortex tube with different configurations

The energy separation in a vortex tube is a combined result of different factors and its explanation remains debatable. As a classical fluid mechanics phenomenon, understanding of the complex helical flow mechanism within a vortex tube is a necessary foundation. The small scale of an industrial vortex tube and the extremely complex flow conditions are the two main challenges in obtaining the internal flow properties. This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation on the flow behaviour within a confined cylindrical system having different configurations corresponding to the actual flow field in a vortex tube at different conditions. Transparent devices were used to enable flow visualisation and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement. The results of the flow visualisation and PIV experiments show that a precessing vortex core is significant only in a specific range of swirling strength. A good agreement between the observed flow characteristics and previously published results was observed.     

Characteristics of compressible flow of supercritical kerosene

In this paper, compressible flow of aviation kerosene at supercritical conditions has been studied both numerically and experimentally. The thermophysical properties of supercritical kerosene are calculated using a 10 species surrogate based on the principle of extended corresponding states (ECS). Isentropic acceleration of supercritical kerosene to subsonic and supersonic speeds has been analyzed numerically. It has been found that the isentropic relationships of supercritical kerosene are significantly different from those of ideal gases. A two-stage fuel heating and delivery system is used to heat the kerosene up to a temperature of 820 K and pressure of 5.5 MPa with a maximum mass flow rate of 100 g/s. The characteristics of supercritical kerosene flows in a converging-diverging nozzle (Laval nozzle) have been studied experimentally. The results show that stable supersonic flows of kerosene could be established in the temperature range of 730 K-820 K and the measurements in the wall pressure agree with the numerical calculation.     

Swirl effects on variable-density jet mixing in confined flows

An experimental investigation on swirl effects on inhomogeneous confined jet mixing in a combustor configuration is reported. The confined swirling flow was simulated by a swirler with a central jet mounted in a cyclindrical tube. Helium and air jets set at different velocities were injected into the confined swirling air flow. The resulting flow fields due to two vane swirlers with constant vane angles of 35° and 66° were compared. Results show that the 35° vane swirler produces a solid-body rotation core with a slope about twice that created by the 66° vane swirler. It is the behavior of this solid-body rotation core that determines jet mixing rather than the swirler vane angle. Consequently, the coaxial jet decays much faster, the mixing is more intense, and the turbulence intensities are higher for the 35° vane swirler. In view of these results, combustor designers should be more concerned with behavior of the solid-body rotation core produced by the swirler, instead of the swirler vane angle.     

The axisymmetric long-wave interfacial stability of core-annular flow of power-law fluid with surfactant

The long wave stability of core-annular flow of power-law fluids with an axial pressure gradient is investigated at low Reynolds number. The interface between the two fluids is populated with an insoluble surfactant. The analytic solution for the growth rate of perturbation is obtained with long wave approximation. We are mainly concerned with the effects of shear-thinning/thickening property and interfacial surfactant on the flow stability. The results show that the influence of shear-thinning/thickening property accounts to the change of the capillary number. For a clean interface, the shear-thinning property enhances the capillary instability when the interface is close to the pipe wall. The converse is true when the interface is close to the pipe centerline. For shear-thickening fluids, the situation is reversed. When the interface is close to the pipe centerline, the capillary instability can be restrained due to the influence of surfactant. A parameter set can be found under which the flow is linearly stable.     

FLOW STRUCTURE AND VARIATION OF WALL SHEAR STRESS IN ASYMMETRICAL ARTERIAL BRANCH

In the present study, the flow structure such as the velocity profile and the wall shear stress in an asymmetrical arterial branch in laminar steady flow has been experimentally studied. In the branch model, the daughter tube asymmetrically bifurcates from the parent tube at 45°. The axial and the transverse velocity components have been measured by two-dimensional laser Doppler velocimetry, and the wall shear stress is measured by the electrochemical method. Furthermore, the wall shear stress estimated from the velocity profile is compared with that measured by the electrochemical method. Consequently, it has been clarified that, as it approaches the entrance of the daughter tube, the core flow deflects into the daughter tube, and the variation of wall shear stress along the proximal wall results from the secondary motion which is transferred from the parent tube to the daughter tube.     

Atomization of a Powder by a Swirling Flow with a Recirculation Zone

The problem of the motion of a swirling flow in an axisymmetric channel with permeable walls is investigated numerically. Various flow regimes including those with the formation of recirculation zones are obtained. The problem of atomization of a powder by a swirling flow for the purpose of obtaining a finely dispersed mixture is considered. Particle concentration distributions in the flow are calculated, the formation of characteristic deposition zones is demonstrated, and the unsteady process of particle transfer is investigated with allowance for deposition on the lateral surface of the channel.     

Determination of principal characteristics of turbulent swirling flow along annuli: Part1: Measurement of time mean parameters

Turbulent swirling flows along the annulus formed between two concentric stationary cylinders have been studied. Hot-wire anemometry was used to detect radial variations of velocity components and the data presented in Part 1 of the investigation describes time mean measurements. Pressure measurements along the length of the outer, concave, cylindrical surface were obtained from wall tappings attached to a pressure transducer. Flow visualization using tufts indicated general swirl decay phenomena and these have been confirmed by the traverse data. The swirl flow rig was designed to incorporate suction systems to remove boundary layers from all walls preceding the test section. In this way the essentially free vortex generated by a circumferentially disposed set of guide vanes in the inlet bellmouth of the apparatus could be efficiently transferred to the test section entry region. This feature has not been incorporated by other workers and so their reported results depend on the upstream boundary layer flow, making correlation of data difficult. The data shown in this paper indicate the complex nature of swirling flow development in an annulus although it is not yet possible to be precise about the initial phases     

The interactions between bloodstream and vascular structure on aortic dissecting aneurysmal model: A numerical study

Stent-graft implantation is an important means of clinical treatment for aortic dissecting aneurysm （ADA）. However, researches on fluid dynamics effects of stent were rare. Computer simulation was used to investigate the interactions between bloodstream and vascular structure in a stented ADA, which endures the periodic pulse velocity and pressure. We obtained and analyzed the flow velocity distribution, the wall displacement and wall stress in the ADA. By comparing the different results between a non-stented and a stented ADA, we found that the insertion of a vascular graft can make the location of maximum stress and displacement move from the aneurysm lumen wall to the artery wall, accompanied with a greatly decrease in value. These results imply that the placement of a stent-graft of any kind to oc-clude ADA will result in a decreased chance of rupture.