Free volume dependence of polymer viscosity

The Simha–Somcynsky (S–S) equation of state (eos) was used to compute the free volume parameter, h, from the pressure–volume–temperature (PVT) dependencies of eight molten polymers. The predicted by eos variation of h with T and P was confirmed by the positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy; good agreement was found for h(P = constant) = h(T) as well as for h(T = constant) = h(P). Capillary shear viscosity (η) data of the same polymers (measured at three temperatures and six pressures up to 700 bars), were plotted as logη vs 1/h, the latter computed for T and P at which η was measured. In previous works, such a plot for solvents and silicone oils resulted in a “master curve” for the liquid, in a wide range of T and P. However, for molten polymers, no superposition of data onto a “master curve” could be found. The superposition could be obtained allowing the characteristic pressure reducing parameter, P*, to vary. The necessity for using a “rheological” characteristic pressure reducing parameter, P*_R = κP*, with κ = 1 to 2.1 indicates that the free volume parameter extracted from the thermodynamic equilibrium data may not fully describe the dynamic behavior. After eliminating possibility of other sources for the deviation, the most likely culprit seems to be the presence of structures in polymer melts at temperatures above the glass transition, T _g. For example, it was observed that for amorphous polymers at T ≅ 1.52T _g the factor κ = 1, and the deviation vanish.     

A stencil-like volume of fluid （VOF） method for tracking free interface

A stencil-like volume of fluid （VOF） method is proposed for tracking free interface. A stencil on a grid cell is worked out according to the normal direction of the interface, in which only three interface positions are possible in 2D cases, and the interface can be reconstructed by only requiring the known local volume fraction information. On the other hand, the fluid-occupying-length is defined on each side of the stencil, through which a unified fluid-occupying volume model and a unified algorithm can be obtained to solve the interface advection equation. The method is suitable for the arbitrary geometry of the grid cell, and is extendible to 3D cases. Typical numerical examples show that the current method can give ＂sharp＂ results for tracking free interface.     

Linking the viscous and vacancy behavior of high molecular weight hydrocarbons

A new theoretical model that was recently purposed for zero-shear viscosity has now been extended to the three-branch alkanes with pentyl, hexyl, or phenyl attachments. The model links the equilibrium theory of Simha-Somcynsky (SS) statistical thermodynamics of liquids and the transport theory of Eyring Significant Structure (ESS). The predicted quantity of hole fraction as a measure of the free volume, computed from the SS equation of state, plays a primary role in the theory to combine the both theories. The experimental PVT data from 310 to 408 K temperature and 0.1 to 344.5 MPa pressure range have been used. The proportionality constants of the activation energy and the transmission coefficient have been calculated for each species separately and they are in expected trend with the substituted ring structure. Satisfactory agreement in prediction of viscosity from the hole fraction has been obtained.     

Longitudinal volume viscosity of poly (vinyl chloride)

The volume flow of poly (vinyl chloride) ( = 45,000,T _g = 350 K) has been measured in an Instron Capillary Rheometer.The elastic modulus in longitudinal compression, the longitudinal volume viscosity and initial longitudinal volume viscosity, and retardation times were determined at temperatures both below (324 – 343 K) and above (403 – 453 K) the glass transition temperatureT _g , and at compression rates between approximately 10^–5 and 200 · 10^–5 s^–1.An increase in the longitudinal volume viscosity was observed for decreases in the volume deformation, increases in the compression rate and increases in temperature.T _g decreased at 0.16 K/MPa. The volume flow activation energy was found to be equal to that for shear flow with a constant value of 91.37 kJ/mol.     

Assessment of morphology in transient and steady state regimes resulting from phase separation in polystyrene/poly(vinyl methyl ether) blend

Morphology development after phase separation in polystyrene (PS)/poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) blend was assessed both in transient and in steady state regimes. Phase segregation was evaluated by various techniques including optical microscopy, light transmission, dynamic scanning calorimetry and rheological analyses. The steady state particle size resulted from phase separation was determined experimentally and then compared to the predictions of both the emulsion models that assume zero-thickness interfacial boundaries and to the asymptotic value of the Cahn–Hilliard theory that assumes rather a diffuse interphase.     

A comparative study of pressure correction and block-implicit finite volume algorithms on parallel computers

A comparison of a new parallel block-implicit method and the parallel pressure correction procedure for the solution of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is presented. The block-implicit algorithm is based on a pressure equation. The system of non-linear equation s is solved by Newton's method. For the solution of the linear algebraic systems the Bi-CGSTAB algorithm with incomplete lower–upper (ILU) decomposition of the matrix is applied. Domain decomposition serves as a strategy for the parallelization of the algorithms. Different algorithms for the parallel solution of the linear system of algebraic equations in conjunction with the pressure correction procedure are proposed. Three different flows are predicted with the parallel algorithms. Results and efficiency data of the block-implicit method are compared with the parallel version of the pressure correction algorithm. The block-implicit method is characterized by stable convergence behaviour, high numerical efficiency, insensitivity to relaxation parameters and high spatial accuracy. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A lattice Boltzmann method for viscous free surface waves in two dimensions

We propose a new method based on the combination of the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) and the kinematic boundary condition (KBC) method to simulate viscous free surface wave in two dimensions. In our method, the flow field is modeled by LBE, whereas the free surface is explicitly tracked by the local height function, which is calculated by the KBC method. The free surface boundary condition (FSBC) for LBE is revised from previous researches. Interpolation‐supplemented lattice Boltzmann (ISLB) method is introduced, which enables our approach to be applied on arbitrary, nonuniform mesh grids. Five cases are simulated respectively to validate the LBE–KBC method: the stationary flow and the solitary waves simulated by the revised‐FSBC are more accurate than the one obtained by the former‐FSBC; numerical results of standing waves show that our method is compatible to the existing two‐dimensional finite‐volume scheme; cases of small amplitude Stokes wave and waves traveling over a submerged bar show good agreement on wave celerity, wavelength, wave amplitude and wave period between numerical results and corresponding analytical solutions and/or experiment data.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An immersed boundary method for incompressible flows using volume of body function

A simple and effective immersed boundary method using volume of body (VOB) function is implemented on unstructured Cartesian meshes. The flow solver is a second‐order accurate implicit pressure‐correction method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The domain inside the immersed body is viewed as being occupied by the same fluid as outside with a prescribed divergence‐free velocity field. Under this view a fluid–body interface is similar to a fluid–fluid interface encountered in the volume of fluid (VOF) method for the two‐fluid flow problems. The body can thus be identified by the VOB function similar to the VOF function. In fluid–body interface cells the velocity is obtained by a volume‐averaged mixture of body and fluid velocities. The pressure inside the immersed body satisfies the same pressure Poisson equation as outside. To enhance stability and convergence, multigrid methods are developed to solve the difference equations for both pressure and velocity. Various steady and unsteady flows with stationary and moving bodies are computed to validate and to demonstrate the capability of the current method. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element analysis of flow and heat transfer with moving free surface using fixed grid system

A numerical study was performed on flow and heat transfer involving moving free surfaces that occurs in mold filling processes such as casting and injection molding. In these problems, the calculation domain changes continuously and the numerical treatment of the moving interface tends to cause artificial diffusion. Among the solution algorithms based on the Eulerian method, the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method was used because the method is simple and efficient in handling the complex flow patterns inside the cavity. To solve the transport equation of free surface without artificial smearing of the interface the baby-cell method was employed in the geometric reconstruction of the free surface. Furthermore, a predictor–corrector method was adopted in the time integration of volume-of-fluid (VOF) transport equation to increase the accuracy. The proposed scheme was verified through several benchmark problems. In order to show the capability of the proposed method, several three-dimensional mold filling processes were solved. The current algorithm was applied to the floating body problem. Three-dimensional floating body problems were tested.     

Positive‐definite q‐families of continuous subcell Darcy‐flux CVD(MPFA) finite‐volume schemes and the mixed finite element method

A new family of locally conservative cell‐centred flux‐continuous schemes is presented for solving the porous media general‐tensor pressure equation. A general geometry‐permeability tensor approximation is introduced that is piecewise constant over the subcells of the control volumes and ensures that the local discrete general tensor is elliptic. A family of control‐volume distributed subcell flux‐continuous schemes are defined in terms of the quadrature parametrization q (Multigrid Methods. Birkhauser: Basel, 1993; Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on the Mathematics of Oil Recovery, Norway, June 1994; Comput. Geosci. 1998; 2 :259–290), where the local position of flux continuity defines the quadrature point and each particular scheme. The subcell tensor approximation ensures that a symmetric positive‐definite (SPD) discretization matrix is obtained for the base member (q=1) of the formulation. The physical‐space schemes are shown to be non‐symmetric for general quadrilateral cells. Conditions for discrete ellipticity of the non‐symmetric schemes are derived with respect to the local symmetric part of the tensor. The relationship with the mixed finite element method is given for both the physical‐space and subcell‐space q‐families of schemes. M‐matrix monotonicity conditions for these schemes are summarized. A numerical convergence study of the schemes shows that while the physical‐space schemes are the most accurate, the subcell tensor approximation reduces solution errors when compared with earlier cell‐wise constant tensor schemes and that subcell tensor approximation using the control‐volume face geometry yields the best SPD scheme results. A particular quadrature point is found to improve numerical convergence of the subcell schemes for the cases tested. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Solution of incompressible flows with or without a free surface using the finite volume method on unstructured triangular meshes

An incompressible Navier–Stokes solver based on a cell‐centre finite volume formulation for unstructured triangular meshes is developed and tested. The solution methodology makes use of pseudocompressibility, whereby the convective terms are computed using a Godunov‐type second‐order upwind finite volume formulation. The evolution of the solution in time is obtained by subiterating the equations in pseudotime for each physical time step, with the pseudotime step set equal to infinity. For flows with a free surface the computational mesh is fitted to the free surface boundary at each time step, with the free surface elevation satisfying a kinematic boundary condition. A ‘leakage coefficient’, ε, is introduced for the calculation of flows with a free surface in order to control the leakage of flow through the free surface. This allows the assumption of stationarity of mesh points to be made during the course of pseudotime iteration. The solver is tested by comparing the output with a wide range of documented published results, both for flows with and without a free surface. The presented results show that the solver is robust. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new VOF‐based numerical scheme for the simulation of fluid flow with free surface. Part II: application to the cavity filling and sloshing problems

Finite element analysis of fluid flow with moving free surface has been performed in 2‐D and 3‐D. The new VOF‐based numerical algorithm that has been proposed by the present authors (Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids, submitted) was applied to several 2‐D and 3‐D free surface flow problems. The proposed free surface tracking scheme is based on two numerical tools; the orientation vector to represent the free surface orientation in each cell and the baby‐cell to determine the fluid volume flux at each cell boundary. The proposed numerical algorithm has been applied to 2‐D and 3‐D cavity filling and sloshing problems in order to demonstrate the versatility and effectiveness of the scheme. The proposed numerical algorithm resolved successfully the free surfaces interacting with each other. The simulated results demonstrated applicability of the proposed numerical algorithm to the practical problems of large free surface motion. It has been also demonstrated that the proposed free surface tracking scheme can be easily implemented in any irregular non‐uniform grid systems and can be extended to 3‐D free surface flow problems without additional efforts. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite volume methods for laminar and turbulent flows using a penalty function approach

A penalty function, finite volume method is described for two-dimensional laminar and turbulent flows. Turbulence is modelled using the k-? model. The governing equations are discretized and the resulting algebraic equations are solved using both sequential and coupled methods. The performance of these methods is gauged with reference to a tuned SIMPLE-C algorithm. Flows considered are a square cavity with a sliding top, a plane channel flow, a plane jet impingement and a plane channel with a sudden expansion. A sequential method is employed, which uses a variety of dicretization practices, but is found to be extremely slow to converge; a coupled method, evaluated using a variety of matrix solvers, converges rapidly but, relative to the sequential approach, requires larger memory.     

A pressure correction‐volume of fluid method for simulation of two‐phase flows

A pressure correction method coupled with the volume of fluid (VOF) method is developed to simulate two‐phase flows. A volume fraction function is introduced in the VOF method and is governed by an advection equation. A modified monotone upwind scheme for a conservation law (modified MUSCL) is used to solve the solution of the advection equation. To keep the initial sharpness of an interface, a slope modification scheme is introduced. The continuum surface tension (CST) model is used to calculate the surface tension force. Three schemes, central‐upwind, Parker–Youngs, and mixed schemes, are introduced to compute the interface normal vector and the gradient of the volume fraction function. Moreover, a height function technique is applied to compute the local curvature of the interface. Several basic test problems are performed to check the order of accuracy of the present numerical schemes for computing the interface normal vector and the gradient of the volume fraction function. Three physical problems, two‐dimensional broken dam problem, static drop, and spurious currents, and three‐dimensional rising bubble, are performed to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the pressure correction method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of surface tension and viscosity on bubble growth of single mode Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Based on the Zufiria theoretical model, a new model regarding the asymptotic bubble velocity for the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability is presented by use of the complex velocity potential proposed by Sohn. The proposed model is an extension of the ordinary Zufiria model and can deal with non-ideal fluids. With the control variable method, the effect of the viscosity and surface tension on the bubble growth rate of the RT instability is studied. The result is consistent with Cao’s result if we only consider the viscous effect and with Xia’s result if we only consider the surface tension effect. The asymptotic bubble velocity predicted by the Zufiria model is smaller than that predicted by the Layzer model, and the result from the Zufiria model is much closer to White’s experimental data.     

Non-local free and forced vibrations of graded nanobeams resting on a non-linear elastic foundation

We consider in this paper the free and forced vibration response of simply-supported functionally graded (FG) nanobeams resting on a non-linear elastic foundation. The two-constituent Functionally Graded Material (FGM) is assumed to follow a power-law distribution through the beam thickness. Eringen׳s non-local elasticity model with material length scales is used in conjunction with the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory with von Kármán geometric non-linearity that accounts for moderate rotations. Non-linear natural frequencies of non-local FG nanobeams are obtained using He׳s Variational Iteration Method (VIM) and the direct and discretized Method of Multiple Scales (MMS), while the primary resonance analysis of an externally forced non-local FG nanobeam is performed only using the MMS. The effects of the non-local parameter, power-law index, and the parameters of the non-linear elastic foundation on the non-linear frequency-response are investigated.     

An improved constant volume cycle model for performance analysis and shape design of PDRE nozzle

An improved constant volume cycle(CVC) model is developed to analyze the nozzle effects on the thrust and specific impulse of pulse detonation rocket engine(PDRE).Theoretically, this model shows that the thrust coefficient/specific impulse of PDRE is a function of the nozzle contraction/expansion ratio and the operating frequency. The relationship between the nozzle contraction ratio and the operation frequency is obtained by introducing the duty ratio, by which the key problem in the theoretical design can be solved. Therefore, the performance of PDRE can be accessed to guide the preliminary shape design of nozzle conveniently and quickly. The higher the operating frequency of PDRE is, the smaller the nozzle contraction ratio should be. Besides, the lower the ambient pressure is, the larger the expansion ratio of the nozzle should be. When the ambient pressure is 1.013 × 105 Pa, the optimal expansion ratio will be less than 2.26.When the ambient pressure is reduced to vacuum, the extremum of the optimal thrust coefficient is 2.236 9, and the extremum of the specific impulse is 321.01 s. The results of the improved model are verified by numerical simulation.     

Comparative numerical study of single and two-phase models of nanofluid heat transfer in wavy channel

The main purpose of this study is to survey numerically comparison of two- phase and single phase of heat transfer and flow field of copper-water nanofluid in a wavy channel. The computational fluid dynamics （CFD） prediction is used for heat transfer and flow prediction of the single phase and three different two-phase models （mixture, volume of fluid （VOF）, and Eulerian）. The heat transfer coefficient, temperature, and velocity distributions are investigated. The results show that the differences between the temperature fie].d in the single phase and two-phase models are greater than those in the hydrodynamic tleld. Also, it is found that the heat transfer coefficient predicted by the single phase model is enhanced by increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles for all Reynolds numbers; while for the two-phase models, when the Reynolds number is low, increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles will enhance the heat transfer coefficient in the front and the middle of the wavy channel, but gradually decrease along the wavy channel.     

Assessment of volume of fluid and immersed boundary methods for droplet computations

The volume of fluid (VOF) and immersed boundary (IB) methods are two popular computational techniques for multi‐fluid dynamics. To help shed light on the performance of both techniques, we present accuracy assessment, which includes interfacial geometry, detailed and global fluid flow characteristics, and computational robustness. The investigation includes the simulations of a droplet under static equilibrium as a limiting test case and a droplet rising due to gravity for Re?1000. Surface tension force models are key issues in both VOF and IB and alternative treatments are examined resulting in improved solution accuracy. A refined curvature model for VOF is also presented. With the newly developed interfacial treatments incorporated, both IB and VOF perform comparably well for the droplet dynamics under different flow parameters and fluid properties. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.