A terminally anchored polymer chain in shear flow: Self-consistent velocity and segment density profiles

The behavior of a terminally anchored freely-jointed bead-rod chain, subjected to solvent shear flow, was investigated via Brownian dynamics simulations. Previous calculations have been improved by computing the segment density and fluid velocity profiles self-consistently. The segment density distributions, components of the radius of gyration, and chain attachment shear and normal stresses were found to be sensitive to low values of shear rate. Additionally, it was found that the thickness of a model polymer layer was a strong function of the shear rate, and that the functional dependence on shear rate changed dramatically as the chain length increased. For the longest chains studied, the thickness of the model polymer layer first increased as the shear rate increased, passed through a maximum, and then decreased at high shear rates, in accordance with experimental results in theta solvents. These results suggest that a dilute or semi-dilute layer model may explain hydrodynamic behavior previously thought to be due to the entanglements that occur in dense surface bound polymer layers.Nomenclature a _i acceleration of bead i - b radius of the beads - d length of the rods connecting the chain beads - d _i vector from bead i to bead i + 1 - F _i external force applied to bead i - F _i ^b external force on bead i due to Brownian motion of surrounding fluid - F _i ^h external force on bead i due to viscous drag - F _i ^s external force on bead i due to surface interactions - f Stokes drag coefficient - Boltzmann's constant - L _h effective hydrodynamic thickness - m _i mass of bead i - N number of beads on a model chain - n number of chains anchored to the surface per unit surface area - P segment density distribution P pressure - Q flow in a tube with no surface bound polymer layer - Q _a flow in a tube with a surface bound polymer layer - R _g vector representation of the radius of gyration - R tube radius - r radial coordinate in the tube geometry - S _ij pair hydrodynamic interaction tensor for beads i and j - T _i internal chain force in rod i connecting beads i and i + 1 - T _X component of the surface attachment force in the direction of the fluid flow - T _y component of the surface attachment force perpendicular to the surface - T temperature - v _i velocity of the center of mass of bead i - V _if average fluid velocity at the location of bead i - v _if ⁰ fluid velocity in the absence of a polymer chain - v _if perturbation to the fluid velocity due to hydrodynamic interactions - V _b bead volume = 4 b ³/3 - scalar fluid speed in the axial direction down the tube - x axial coordinate in the tube geometry Greek symbols _w apparent shear rate - fluid viscosity - polymer layer permeability - volume fraction of space occupied by chain beads - (_w)_a chain attachment stress perpendicular to the surface - (_w)_a chain attachment stress in the plane of the surface and in the direction of fluid flow     

Influence of the inlet velocity profiles on the prediction of velocity distribution inside an electrostatic precipitator

The influence of the velocity profile at the inlet boundary on the simulation of air velocity distribution inside an electrostatic precipitator is presented in this study. Measurements and simulations were performed in a duct and an electrostatic precipitator (ESP). A four-hole cobra probe was used for the measurement of velocity distribution. The flow simulation was performed by using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT. Numerical calculations for the air flow were carried out by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations coupled with the realizable k-ε turbulence model equations. Simulations were performed with two different velocity profiles at the inlet boundary – one with a uniform (ideal) velocity profile and the other with a non-uniform (real) velocity profile to demonstrate the effect of velocity inlet boundary condition on the flow simulation results inside an ESP. The real velocity profile was obtained from the velocity measured at different points of the inlet boundary whereas the ideal velocity profile was obtained by calculating the mean value of the measured data. Simulation with the real velocity profile at the inlet boundary was found to predict better the velocity distribution inside the ESP suggesting that an experimentally measured velocity profile could be used as velocity inlet boundary condition for an accurate numerical simulation of the ESP.     

The velocity profiles of molten polymers during laminar flow

Summary The velocity profiles of the flow of some polymeric melts (low density polyethylene, two high density polyethylenes and a polydimethyl siloxane) through a rectangular slit have been measured. The velocity profiles measured were in good agreement with those calculated from the flow curves. In agreement with the assumption usually made for laminar flow, the velocities at the wall were found to be zero in all cases. This was true even during melt fracture for a low density polyethylene and a polydimethyl siloxane.     

Constraint strength and axial/radial particle velocity profiles for an integrated riser outlet

To study axial/radial profiles of particle velocity in the affected region of an integrated riser outlet,a cold model was developed for the integrated riser reactor combining the gas-solid distributor with the fluidized bed.Constraints,related to the gas-solid distributor and the upper fluidized bed,imposed on the particle flow in the riser outlet region,were investigated experimentally.The experimental results showed that with increasing superficial gas velocity,these constraints have strong influences on particle flow behavior,the particle circulation flux in the riser,and the height of the static bed material of the upper fluidized bed.When the constraints have greater prominence,the axial profile of the cross-sectionally averaged particle velocity in the outlet region initially increases and then decreases,the rate of decrease being proportional to the constraint strength.Along the radial direction of the outlet section,the region where the local particle velocity profile tends to decrease appears near the dimensionless radius r/R = 0.30 initially and then,with increasing constraint strength,gradually extends to the whole section from the inner wall.Based on the experimental data,an empirical model describing the constraint strength was established.The average relative error of the model is within 7.69%.     

Constraint strength and axial/radial particle velocity profiles for an integrated riser outlet

To study axial/radial profiles of particle velocity in the affected region of an integrated riser outlet, a cold model was developed for the integrated riser reactor combining the gas–solid distributor with the fluidized bed. Constraints, related to the gas–solid distributor and the upper fluidized bed, imposed on the particle flow in the riser outlet region, were investigated experimentally. The experimental results showed that with increasing superficial gas velocity, these constraints have strong influences on particle flow behavior, the particle circulation flux in the riser, and the height of the static bed material of the upper fluidized bed. When the constraints have greater prominence, the axial profile of the cross-sectionally averaged particle velocity in the outlet region initially increases and then decreases, the rate of decrease being proportional to the constraint strength. Along the radial direction of the outlet section, the region where the local particle velocity profile tends to decrease appears near the dimensionless radius r/R = 0.30 initially and then, with increasing constraint strength, gradually extends to the whole section from the inner wall. Based on the experimental data, an empirical model describing the constraint strength was established. The average relative error of the model is within 7.69%.     

The evolution equation of joint Pdf of turbulent velocity and dissipation

According to the hypothesis that the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy satisfies log-normal distribution, a stochastic model of dissipation is provided and the Langevin model^[6] of velocity is modified. Then a joint Pdf equation of turbulent velocity and dissipation is derived. We solve numerically the joint Pdf equation using Monte Carlo method and obtain satisfactory results for decaying turbulence and homogeneous turbulent shear flow. The preliminary results show that the model is well working.     

Simultaneous measurements of velocity and density in buoyancy-driven mixing

A variant of the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique is described for measuring velocity and density simultaneously in a turbulent Rayleigh-Taylor mixing layer. The velocity field is computed by the usual PIV technique of cross-correlating two consecutive images, and deducing particle displacements from correlation peaks of intensity fields. Different concentrations of seed particles are used in the two streams of different temperature (density) fluids, and a local measure of the density is obtained by spatially averaging over an interrogation window. Good agreement is reported between the first- and second-order statistics for density obtained from this technique and from a thermocouple. Velocity-density correlations computed by cross-correlating individual time series are presented. The errors in the density measurements are quantified and analyzed, and the issue of spatial resolution is also discussed. Our purpose for this paper is to introduce the PIV-S method and validate its accuracy against corresponding thermocouple measurements.     

Experiments on entrainment in an annulus with and without velocity gradient across the density interface

The entrainment process in a two layer density stratified fluid column was studied experimentally by imposing external shear stress on one or both layers. The experiments have been conducted in an annular tank containing two water layers of different salt concentration and the shear stress was applied by means of rotating screens. The following quantities were measured: the screen velocity (which was kept constant during each experiment), the stress at the upper screen, and vertical profiles of circumferential velocity and density at different radial locations. When equal stress was imposed at the surface of the upper layer and at the bottom of the lower layer, entrainment took place from the two sides of the density interface at equal rate so that the interface was stationary in the central position between the two screens and there was no velocity gradient across the interface. The dependence of the entrainment coefficient on Richardson number obtained in these experiments was similar in form to that obtained in the shear-free experiments with an oscillating grid (e.g. Nokes 1988). When a shear stress was applied at the upper surface only, the upper layer depth increased with time and a velocity gradient existed at the interface. The influence of the interfacial velocity gradient on the entrainment rate was studied by comparing the rates obtained with and without this velocity gradient. The entrainment rates were approximately the same for high values of the Richardson number while at low Richardson number the entrainment rate was much larger when a velocity gradient existed across the interface. The main results of this work are as follows:

1. Despite the curved geometry of the annular system, the dependence of the entrainment coefficient on Richardson number for shear-free interface experiments was found to be similar in form to that obtained for oscillating grid experiments.
2. The entrainment across the interface is due to turbulent energy generated at some distance from the interface by an external source (i.e. shear stress induced by a screen) and due to turbulence produced locally at the interface by a velocity gradient. The relative contribution of each turbulence source to the total entrainment was found to depend on the stability of the interface.

     

On the universality of the velocity profiles of a turbulent flow in an axially rotating pipe

If a fluid enters an axially rotating pipe, it receives a tangential component of velocity from the moving wall, and the flow pattern change according to the rotational speed. A flow relaminarization is set up by an increase in the rotational speed of the pipe. It will be shown that the tangential- and the axial velocity distribution adopt a quite universal shape in the case of fully developed flow for a fixed value of a new defined rotation parameter. By taking into account the universal character of the velocity profiles, a formula is derived for describing the velocity distribution in an axially rotating pipe. The resulting velocity profiles are compared with measurements of Reich [10] and generally good agreement is found.Nomenclature b constant, equation (34) - D pipe diameter - l mixing length - l ₀ mixing length in a non-rotating pipe - N rotation rate,N=Re /Re _D - p pressure - R pipe radius - Re _D flow-rate Reynolds number, - Re rotational Reynolds number, Re =v _w D/ - Re* Reynolds number based on the friction velocity, Re*=v*R/ - (Re*)₀ Reynolds number based on the friction velocity in a non-rotating pipe - Ri Richardson number, equation (10) - r coordinate in radial direction - dimensionless coordinate in radial direction, - v _r ,v ,v _z time mean velocity components - v _r ,v ,v _z velocity fluctations - v _w tangential velocity of the pipe wall - v* friction velocity, - axial mean velocity - v _ZM maximum axial velocity - dimensionless radial distance from pipe wall, - y ⁺ dimensionless radial distance from pipe wall - y ₁ ⁺ constant - Z rotation parameter,Z =v _w/v _* =N Re _D /2Re* - _m eddy viscosity - ( _m )₀ eddy viscosity in a non-rotating pipe - coefficient of friction loss - von Karman constant - ₁ constant, equation (31) - density - dynamic viscosity - kinematic viscosity     

Optical density and velocity measurements in cryogenic gas flows

This paper presents the application of optical measurement techniques in dense-gas flows in a heavy-gas channel to determine planar two-component (2C) velocity profiles and two-dimensional (2D) temperature profiles. The experimental approach is rather new in this area, and represents progress compared with the traditional techniques based on thermocouple measurements. The dense-gas flows are generated by the evaporation of liquid nitrogen. The optical measurement of both the velocity and density profiles is accomplished by the implementation of particle image velocimetry (PIV) and background-oriented schlieren (BOS) systems. Supplemental thermocouple measurements are used as independent calibrations to derive temperatures from the density data measured with the BOS system. The results obtained with both systems are used to quantify the dilution behavior of the propagating cloud through a global entrainment parameter . Its value agrees well with the results obtained by earlier studies.     

Problem of the interaction of a wedge moving with supersonic velocity when it encounters an interface between two gases

A class of exact solutions is constructed for the problem of the interaction of a supersonic wedge when it encounters an interface between two gases. It is shown that the realization of these solutions requires the bow shock to be perpendicular to the interface between the gases. A numerical analysis is made of the exact solution as a function of the intensity of the bow shock and the specific-heat ratio of the oncoming gas.     

The measurement of square channel velocity profiles using a microcomputer-based image analysis system

A technique was developed to perform automated velocity measurements from a sequence of particle images. A very thin sheet of laser light allows determination of essentially two-dimensional velocity profiles in very small conduits. A four image sequence was captured by a microcomputer-based frame grabber. After thresholding to eliminate particles not perfectly centered in the sheet of light, the sequence of pseudo-colored images of a given particle is used to determine its velocity. By measuring several two-dimensional velocity profiles across a square channel, the complete three-dimensional velocity profile was assembled. The experimentally measured velocity profile agrees closely with the known theoretical velocity profile for flow in a square channel.