Particle collisions in a turbulent flow

An equation for the two-point probability density function of the two-particle the coordinate and velocity distribution is obtained. A closed system of equations for the first and second two-point moments of the velocity fluctuations of a pair of particles with allowance for the turbulent flow inhomogeneity is given. Boundary conditions for the equations of the particle concentration and the intensity of the relative random velocity during particle collision are obtained. A unified formula describing the interparticle collision process as a result of turbulent motion and the average relative particle velocity slip is obtained for the kernel of the coagulation equation. The effect of the average velocity slip of the particles and the carrier phase on the parameters of motion of the dispersed admixture and its coagulation is investigated on the basis of a two-point two-time velocity fluctuation autocorrelation function with two time and space scales representing the energy-bearing and small-scale motion of the fluid phase.Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 104–116, March–April, 1996.     

Particle deposition from a turbulent flow

The diffusion equations and boundary condition for particle deposition from a turbulent flow are obtained on the basis of the kinetic equation for the probability density of the particle distribution. This approach makes it possible to calculate the deposition fairly simply without introducing additional empirical information relating to the particles (empirical constants are needed only for calculating the characteristics of the turbulent carrier flow). Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 96–104, September–October, 1988.     

Particle and droplet deposition in turbulent swirled pipe flow

In this work we study deposition of particles and droplets in non-rotating swirled turbulent pipe flow. We aim at verifying whether the capability of swirl to enhance particle separation from the core flow and the capability of turbulence to efficiently trap particles at the wall can co-exist to optimize collection efficiency in axial separators. We perform an Eulerian–Lagrangian study based on Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of turbulence, considering the effect of different swirl intensities on turbulence structures and on particle transfer at varying particle inertia. We show that, for suitably-chosen flow parameters, swirl may be superimposed to the base flow without disrupting near-wall turbulent structures and their regeneration mechanisms. We also quantify collection efficiency demonstrating for the first time that an optimal synergy between swirl and wall turbulence can be identified to promote separation of particles and droplets.     

Particle drag in a dilute turbulent two-phase suspension flow

The drag between phases plays an important role in the study of a turbulent two-phase suspension flow and its physical understanding will greatly promote progress in theoretical treatments of a whole range of important industrial and technical problems involving such a flow. The conventional practice of using the results of measurements based on a single particle in a laminar stream for the case of a turbulent flow of a dilute suspension is questioned. An analysis of the results of local measurements of upward turbulent flows of a solid particle-air two-phase suspension leads to the determination of the realistic particle drag coefficient over a wide range of flow conditions. It is established that the particle drag can be described by the simple Stokes law, based on an apparent turbulent viscosity of the fluid for the particles in the suspension flow. A correlation is provided for this apparent turbulent viscosity in terms of the particle size and concentration in the suspension, the local flow turbulence Reynolds number and the particle-to-fluid density ratio.     

A low shear rate turbulent flow apparatus

This paper describes some experiments on a turbulent flow viscometer consisting of a continuous pipe loop of transparent material mounted on a circular wheel. The wheel is partially filled with fluid and rotated at a constant speed. The results show that the apparatus gives sensible results and although only a limited range of Reynolds numbers is possible it can be used as a useful qualitative apparatus to test dilute fluids which have abnormal turbulent flow properties.     

Particle deposition on a channel wall in a turbulent disperse flow with gradient

Kinetic ideas about the motion of a set of particles (droplets) in a turbulent gas flow with gradient are used to derive a Fokker-Planck equation for the case of sufficiently large particles (more than few microns). This equation describes the process in which they are deposited on the wall of a channel. Satisfactory agreement has been obtained between the numerical solution to this equation for the deposition rate and the experimental data published in the literature. Under the assumption that the parameters of the carrier gaseous flow vary fairly slowly, a generalized equation is derived for particle diffusion in turbulent flow. This takes into account the intensity gradient of transverse pulsations in the velocity of the carrier gaseous flow.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 57–63, July–August, 1985.     

Calculation of the rate of coalescence of an emulsion in a turbulent flow

The central moment of the theory describing the merging (coalescence) of the drops of an emulsion is determination of the time of the approach of a drop or a number of drops colliding with a given drop in unit time. In the stage immediately preceding the merging of the drops the forces of the hydrodynamic braking of the approaching drops are found to be considerable. The role of these forces has been analyzed earlier for the case of the capture of small drops by large drops in an oncoming flow in the presence of an external electrical field [1] and for the problem of the Brownian coalescence of drops, taking account of the effect of the electric double layer and of surface forces of interaction [2–4]. The present article considers the approach of drops with turbulent diffusion in an electrical field. Of the greatest interest is the sharp slowing of the approach due to the hydrodynamic interaction of the drops, considerably sharper than in the case of molecular diffusion [2]. As a result, the sharp acceleration of the approach and coalescence of drops with the action of an electrical field on an emulsion in a turbulent flow becomes understandable.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 47–55, May–June, 1976.The authors are grateful to G. I. Barenblatt, A. I. Leonov, V. I. Loginov, and L. P. Smirnov for their evaluation and criticism of the work.     

Particle collision theories applied to agglomeration in suspension

An experimental and theoretical investigation has been made of an agglomeration technique for small solid particles suspended in a liquid. In this technique the particles are agglomerated under the action of a binding liquid, which is added to the turbulently flowing suspension and wets the particles. Special attention was paid to the first part of the wetting period of the technique.Using existing particle collision theories it was found, that the collision efficiency for solid particles and binding liquid droplets during the first part of the wetting period is extremely low; only one out of every thousand to ten thousand collisions results in an adhesion of a particle to a droplet. The influence of the energy dissipation rate and of the viscosity of the suspension liquid on the collision process as predicted by one of the theories is in reasonably good agreement with the experimental results.     

Influence of strain rate on a premixed turbulent flame stabilized in a stagnating flow

In order to describe the influence of strain rate on the behaviour and on the characteristics of premixed turbulent combustion, a methane-air flame stabilized by a stagnation plate is studied experimentally. The plate is set at a fixed distance from the nozzle and the strain is varied by changing the exit velocity at the nozzle. At low strain rates, the evolution of profiles of mean axial velocity along the centreline agrees with classical results, and these results are used to characterise the flame. The variation of these characteristics with parameters such as plate temperature, equivalence ratio and strain rate is investigated. At the highest strain rates, the shape of the axial velocity profiles along the stagnation line is modified. This change emphasises a critical strain rate K _C that has to be considered as well as the extinction strain rate K _EX. Measurements also demonstrate the existence of a virtual stagnation point that moves towards the plate as the strain rate increases. The axial and transverse fluctuating components of the velocity are analyzed along the centreline and very close to the wall. The results show the importance of the critical strain rate K _C , which is linked to a drastic change in the evolution of the axial and transverse velocity fluctuations. Received: 15 January 1998/Accepted: 7 February 1999     

Blade manipulators in turbulent channel flow

We report here the results of a series of careful experiments in turbulent channel flow, using various configurations of blade manipulators suggested as optimal in earlier boundary layer studies. The mass flow in the channel could be held constant to better than 0.1%, and the uncertainties in pressure loss measurements were less than 0.1 mm of water; it was therefore possible to make accurate estimates of the global effects of blade manipulation of a kind that are difficult in boundary layer flows. The flow was fully developed at the station where the blades were mounted, and always relaxed to the same state sufficiently far downstream. It is found that, for a given mass flow, the pressure drop to any station downstream is always higher in the manipulated than in the unmanipulated flow, demonstrating that none of the blade manipulators tried reduces net duct losses. However the net increase in duct losses is less than the drag of the blade even in laminar flow, showing that there is a net reduction in the total skin friction drag experienced by the duct, but this relief is only about 20% of the manipulator drag at most.List of symbols A, A log law constants - c chord length of manipulator - D drag of the manipulator - dp/dx pressure gradient in the channel - h half height of the channel - H height of the channel (2h) - K log law constant - L length of the channel - L.E. leading edge of the manipulator - P static pressure - P _x static pressure at a location x on the channel - P _xm static pressure at the location x in the presence of manipulator - p _ref static pressure at any reference location x upstream of the manipulator - Re Reynolds number - t thickness of the manipulator - T.E. trailing edge of the manipulator - u velocity in the channel - U friction velocity - U ^* average velocity in the channel - u _c centre-line velocity in the channel - U ₊ U/U _* - u _m velocities in the channel downstream of the manipulators - u _ref velocities in the channel at reference location upstream of the manipulators - w Coles's wake function - W width of channel Also National Aeronautical Laboratory, Bangalore 560 017, India     

Interactive boundary layers in turbulent flow

An asymptotic analysis of the structure of the flow at high Reynolds number around a streamlined body is presented. The boundary layer is turbulent. This question is studied with the successive complementary expansion method, SCEM. The starting point is to look for a uniformly valid approximation (UVA) of the velocity field, including the boundary layer and the external flow. Thanks to the use of generalized expansions, SCEM leads to the theory of interactive boundary layer, IBL. For many years, IBL model has been used successfully to calculate aerodynamic flows. Here, the IBL model is fully justified with rational mathematical arguments. The construction of a UVA of the velocity profile in the boundary layer is also studied. To cite this article: J. Cousteix, J. Mauss, C. R. Mecanique 335 (2007).     

Developing turbulent flow in smooth pipes

A numerical and experimental investigation of steady incompressible developing turbulent flow in smooth pipes is presented. Finite difference techniques are used to solve simultaneously the vorticity transport and stream function equations utilising a modified form of the Van Driest effective viscosity model. The numerical solutions are verified experimentally using air as a working fluid at pipe Reynolds 1 × 10⁵, 2 × 10⁵ and 3 × 10⁵.     

Disturbance growth rate in turbulent wall flows

Disturbance development in turbulent wall flows is numerically investigated. The flows in a circular tube and in a plane channel are considered. The Navier-Stokes equations subjected to the condition of periodicity along the main flow are integrated in time until a statistically stationary “turbulent” flow regime is attained. Then the solution is disturbed and the further evolution of the disturbance is determined by comparing the two solutions, i.e., with and without the disturbance, which are calculated in parallel. It is shown that in the linear stage on average the solutions diverge exponentially. The main result of the study is that the small disturbance growth rate normalized by the wall time scale turns out to be constant, that is, dependent on neither the Reynolds number on the range considered nor the type of the flow: λ⁺ ≈ 0.021. The estimate of the disturbance growth rate is consistent with the previously obtained results concerning downstream disturbance growth and the estimate for the highest Lyapunov exponent calculated for turbulent flow in a plane channel.     

Structure of turbulent pipe flow

The problem of turbulent flow in a straight circular pipe is solved. We consider a system consisting of the equation of motion, the equation for the turbulence energy, the expression relating the turbulence coefficient with the turbulence scale, and the integral formula for determining the turbulence scale. A numerical solution is presented for this closed system of equations for turbulent flow. The results of calculations are compared with experimental data.     

Modeling plane turbulent Couette flow

Among the salient features of shear-driven plane Couette flow is the constancy of the total shear stress (viscous and turbulent) across the flow. This constancy gives rise to a quasi-homogenous core region, which makes the bulk of the flow substantially different from pressure-driven Poiseuille flow. The present second-moment closure study addresses the conflicting hypotheses relating to turbulent Couette flow. The inclusion of a new wall-proximity function in the wall-reflection part of the pressure-strain model seems mandatory, and the greement with recent experimental and direct numerical simulation (DNS) results is encouraging. Analysis of model computations in the range 750 ≤ Re ≤ 35,000 and comparisons with low-Re DNS data suggest that plane Couette flow exhibits a local-equilibrium core region, in which anisotropic, homogeneous turbulence prevails. However, the associated variation of the mean velocity in the core, as obtained by the model, conflicts with the intuitively appealing assumption of homogeneous mean shear. The constancy of the velocity gradient exhibited by the DNS therefore signals a deficiency in the modeled transport equation for the energy dissipation rate.