Application of a shadowgraph method to visualize the velocity profile in fluid flow

A method of visualizing the continuous velocity profile in low-speed dielectric and conducting fluid flows is described. Examples are presented which illustrate application of the method for various kinds of flows and modes.Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 5, pp. 156–158, September–October, 1970.     

Shadowgraph observations of the transition of the thermal boundary layer in a side-heated cavity

The transition of the thermal boundary layer from start-up to a quasi-steady state in a side-heated cavity is observed using a shadowgraph technique. Three stages of the transition, including an initial growth stage, an entrainment development stage and a quasi-steady stage, are demonstrated. A significant feature of the transition revealed from the present flow visualisation is the formation of a double-layer structure along the sidewall at the entrainment development stage. It is believed that the reverse flow in the double-layer structure is the likely cause responsible for the unstable travelling waves at the quasi-steady state.     

Supercritical convective motions in a cubic cavity

The article reports the results of an experimental investigation of the convective instability of air in a cubic cavity with a height of 4 cm, at whose horizontal boundaries there was set up a homogeneous distribution of the temperature, while, at the vertical boundaries, the temperature varied linearly from a maximal value at the lower horizontal boundary to a minimal value at the upper boundary. Differential thermocouples were installed inside the cavity, whose readings were used to record the development of convection and to determine the form of the convective motion and its intensity. A study is made of the effect of small angular deviations of the model from the position with which mechanical equilibrium is possible in the model.     

The shadowgraph method in convection experiments

The shadowgraph method is applied to thermal convection experiments and electro-hydrodynamic convection (EHC) in nematic liquid crystals. In both cases convection leads to a spatially periodic field of the refractive index causing a spatially periodic intensity modulation of parallel light passing the cell. Close to the onset of convection the temperature or director field is given by linear stability analysis. Knowing these functions the determination of their amplitudes becomes possible by means of the shadowgraph method. The method is demostrated using various examples of thermal and EHC convection experiments.     

The stability of a flow in a side-heated vertical layer with internal heat sources

The linear stability of a combined convective flow in a side-heated plane vertical layer of incompressible fluid is considered. The layer contains uniformly distributed heat sources. The steadystate flow is a superposition of the Gershuni convective flow and a flow induced by the action of the internal heat sources. The stability maps of the combined flow are constructed for different values of the Prandtl number. It is found that the internal sources damp the action of the mechanisms of the Gershuni flow crisis. The lateral heating may result in both the stabilization and the destabilization of the flow caused by the action of internal heat sources.     

Numerical investigation of convective motion in a closed cavity

The investigation of thermal convection in a closed cavity is of considerable interest in connection with the problem of heat transfer. The problem may be solved comparatively simply in the case of small characteristic temperature difference with heating from the side, when equilibrium is not possible and when slow movement is initiated for an arbitrarily small horizontal temperature gradient. In this case the motion may be studied using the small parameter method, based on expanding the velocity, temperature, and pressure in series in powers of the Grashof number—the dimensionless parameter which characterizes the intensity of the convection [1–4]. In the problems considered it has been possible to find only two or three terms of these series. The solutions obtained in this approximation describe only weak nonlinear effects and the region of their applicability is limited, naturally, to small values of the Grashof number (no larger than 10³).With increase of the temperature difference the nature of the motion gradually changes—at the boundaries of the cavity a convective boundary layer is formed, in which the primary temperature and velocity gradients are concentrated; the remaining portion of the liquid forms the flow core. On the basis of an analysis of the equations of motion for the plane case, Batchelor [4] suggested that the core is isothermal and rotates with constant and uniform vorticity. The value of the vorticity in the core must be determined as the eigenvalue of the problem of a closed boundary layer. A closed convective boundary layer in a horizontal cylinder and in a plane vertical stratum was considered in [5, 6] using the Batchelor scheme. The boundary layer parameters and the vorticity in the core were determined with the aid of an integral method. An attempt to solve the boundary layer equations analytically for a horizontal cylinder using the Oseen linearization method was made in [7].However, the results of experiments in which a study was made of the structure of the convective motion of various liquids and gases in closed cavities of different shapes [8–13] definitely contradict the Batchelor hypothesis. The measurements show that the core is not isothermal; on the contrary, there is a constant vertical temperature gradient directed upward in the core. Further, the core is practically motionless. In the core there are found retrograde motions with velocities much smaller than the velocities in the boundary layer.The use of numerical methods may be of assistance in clarifying the laws governing the convective motion in a closed cavity with large temperature differences. In [14] the two-dimensional problem of steady air convection in a square cavity was solved by expansion in orthogonal polynomials. The author was able to progress in the calculation only to a value of the Grashof numberG=10⁴. At these values of the Grashof numberG the formation of the boundary layer and the core has really only started, therefore the author's conclusion on the agreement of the numerical results with the Batchelor hypothesis is not justified. In addition, the bifurcation of the central isotherm (Fig. 3 of [14]), on the basis of which the conclusion was drawn concerning the formation of the isothermal core, is apparently the result of a misunderstanding, since an isotherm of this form obviously contradicts the symmetry of the solution.In [5] the method of finite differences is used to obtain the solution of the problem of strong convection of a gas in a horizontal cylinder whose lateral sides have different temperatures. According to the results of the calculation and in accordance with the experimental data [9], in the cavity there is a practically stationary core. However, since the authors started from the convection equations in the boundary layer approximation they did not obtain any detailed information on the core structure, in particular on the distribution of the temperature in the core.In the following we present the results of a finite difference solution of the complete nonlinear problem of plane convective motion in a square cavity. The vertical boundaries of the cavity are held at constant temperatures; the temperature varies linearly on the horizontal boundaries. The velocity and temperature distributions are obtained for values of the Grashof number in the range 0<G4·10⁵ and for a value of the Prandtl number P=1. The results of the calculation permit following the formation of the closed boundary layer and the very slowly moving core with a constant vertical temperature gradient. The heat flux through the cavity is found as a function of the Grashof number.     

Alignment and application of the conical shadowgraph flow visualization technique

An optical bench study has been carried out to assess the effects of both beam alignment and nonconical disturbances in the application of conical shadowgraphy for flow visualization. Conical and quasiconical plastic test models were immersed in a refractive index matching fluid and then examined by shadowgraphy with a conical light beam. The results show that problems of interpretation may arise due to both axial and transverse beam misalignment. Among these difficulties, axial misalignment with positive vertex displacement is the least serious. Also, the effect of a particular nonconical disturbance field was found to introduce fewer difficulties of interpretation than that of beam misalignment.     

The method of fundamental solutions for Stokes flow in a rectangular cavity with cylinders

Numerical solutions based on the method of fundamental solutions are discussed for Stokes flow inside a rectangular cavity in the presence of circular cylinders. The Stokeslets are used as the fundamental solutions to obtain the solution for the flow field by a linear combination of fundamental solutions. Flow results on the cellular structure of flow field resulting from the dynamics of cylinders and the horizontal walls of the cavity are reported for (i) one rotating cylinder in a rectangular cavity with two parallel horizontal sides moving in the same directions as well as in the opposite directions, (ii) two rotating cylinders kept apart in a rectangular cavity with two parallel horizontal sides moving in the same directions as well as in the opposite directions. The effect of aspect ratio of the rectangular cavity, direction of movement of the two parallel horizontal sides of the cavity and the diameter of the rotating cylinder on the flow structure are studied. The flow results obtained for the single cylinder case are in accordance with the results available in the literature. From the computational point of view, the present numerical procedure based on the method of fundamental solutions is efficient and simple to implement as compared to the mesh-dependent schemes, which needs complex mesh generation procedure for the multiply connected geometrical domains considered in this article.     

Effect of a permeable partition on convective instability in a rectangular cavity

The equilibrium stability of a fluid, heated from below, in a rectangular cavity with a vertical permeable partition is investigated. The small perturbation problem is solved by the Galerkin-Kantorovich method. The relations obtained for the dependence of the critical Rayleigh numbers on the partition parameters and the cavity dimensions make it possible to identify regions in which either even or odd perturbations, sensitive to only the normal or only the tangential resistance of the partition, respectively, are responsible for equilibrium crisis. The effect of a permeable partition on the convective instability of a horizontal layer of fluid under various heating conditions was considered in [1–3], where a significant dependence of the critical Rayleigh numbers on the properties of the partition was established.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 6–10, May–June, 1989.     

Effect of finite cavity width on flow oscillation in a low-Mach-number cavity flow

The current study is focused on examining the effect of the cavity width and side walls on the self-sustained oscillation in a low Mach number cavity flow with a turbulent boundary layer at separation. An axisymmetric cavity geometry is employed in order to provide a reference condition that is free from any side-wall influence, which is not possible to obtain with a rectangular cavity. The cavity could then be partially filled to form finite-width geometry. The unsteady surface pressure is measured using microphone arrays that are deployed on the cavity floor along the streamwise direction and on the downstream wall along the azimuthal direction. In addition, velocity measurements using two-component Laser Doppler Anemometer are performed simultaneously with the array measurements in different azimuthal planes. The compiled data sets are used to investigate the evolution of the coherent structures generating the pressure oscillation in the cavity using linear stochastic estimation of the velocity field based on the wall-pressure signature on the cavity end wall. The results lead to the discovery of pronounced harmonic pressure oscillations near the cavity’s side walls. These oscillations, which are absent in the axisymmetric cavity, are linked to the establishment of a secondary mean streamwise circulating flow pattern near the side walls and the interaction of this secondary flow with the shear layer above the cavity.     

Hamilton体系下环扇形域的Stokes流动问题

基于极坐标下Stokes流的基本方程,将径向坐标模拟为时间坐标,推导了Hamilton体系下Stokes流动问题的对偶方程,采用本征向量展开法对环扇形域Stokes流动问题进行了分析,并给出了相应的实际算例,其结果说明了本文方法的有效性。     

矩形空腔内Stokes流的状态空间有限元法

基于Hellinger-Reissner二类变分原理,从平面Stokes流问题的平衡方程、连续性要求和边界条件出发,得到相应的Hamilton函数,建立Hamilton正则方程后,采用分离变量法对场变量进行离散求解:在x方向采用有限元插值,在y方向采用状态空间法给出控制坐标方向的解析解。计算过程中的指数矩阵均采用精细积分法求解,使得本文算法具有高效率、高精度、对步长不敏感的优点。通过对侧边自由液面边界条件的单板驱动矩形空腔Stokes流问题的求解,得到与文献相同的结果,从而验证了本文方法的有效性。本文旨在将弹性力学状态空间有限元法的思想引入到低雷诺数流体力学中,为Hamilton体系下研究复杂边界Stokes流问题提供新的途径。     

高阶谱元区域分解算法求解定常方腔驱动流

主要利用Jacobian-free的Newton-Krylov方法求解定常不可压缩Navier-Stokes方程,将基于高阶谱元法的区域分解Stokes算法的非定常时间推进步作为Newton迭代的预处理,回避了传统Newton方法Jacobian矩阵的显式装配,节省了程序内存,同时降低了Newton迭代线性系统的条件数,且没有非线性对流项的隐式求解,大大加快了收敛速度。对有分析解的Kovasznay流动的计算结果表明,本高阶谱元法在空间上有指数收敛的谱精度,且对定常解的Newton迭代是二次收敛的。本文模拟了二维方腔顶盖一致速度驱动流,同基准解符合得很好,表明本文方法是准确可靠的。本文还考虑了Re=800时方腔顶盖正弦速度驱动流,除得到已知的一个稳定对称解和一对稳定非对称解外,还获得了一对新的不稳定的非对称解。     

Dispersion of passive tracers in a confined convective flow

A confined convective flow is experimentally studied at different Rayleigh numbers. Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) technique is used both to reconstruct Lagrangian trajectories and to evaluate Eulerian flow field. Dispersion properties of the flow are investigated by means of Lagrangian statistics on particle displacements. For each run of the experiment, single particle statistics have been evaluated both on the whole set of trajectories and by selecting trajectories starting in phase from different region of the flow domain. These regions are identified according to the local geometrical characteristics of the velocity field.     

Instability of combined convective flow in a vertical layer

In the present paper, a study is made of the stability of plane-parallel flow induced by a transverse temperature difference between the boundaries of a layer and a longitudinal pressure gradient. This problem was solved earlier by the author [3] in a purely hydrodynamic formulation without allowance for thermal factors; the results then obtained correspond to the limiting case of small Prandtl numbers. In the paper, a numerical solution to the problem with the complete formulation is given.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 3–9, May–June, 1982.I thank G. Z. Gershuni for supervising the work, and also M. A. Gol'dshtik and V. N. Shtern for a helpful discussion.     

Dynamic and convective results for a developing laminar unsteady flow

Dynamic and thermal results for developing laminar pulsed flows in a duct are presented. They have been investigated by means of a finite difference model. This flow is described in terms of an unsteady pulsed flow superimposed on a steady incompressible one with the following main assumptions: a sinusoidal modulation for the pulsation and a uniform wall temperature. Results emphasize the importance of this entry region, where four simultaneous developments occur: steady—dynamic and thermal—and unsteady—dynamic and thermal.     

Stress analysis for a cavity flow of a memory fluid

The paper deals with the plane creeping flow of a viscoelastic liquid within an idealized rotor–stator system consisting of a rotating cylindrical drum and a fixed internal plate. The rheological properties of the liquid are modelled by a single-integral constitutive equation which considers a memory but disregards shear-thinning features. It is pointed out that the flow kinematics of such a memory fluid deviates only marginally from the Newtonian kinematics whereas the stress field is much more complicated. Therefore, the Newtonian velocity field is applied which can be represented in a closed analytical form using elementary complex-valued functions. The formulation allows computing the strain history and the resulting stress state with little numerical effort. A careful asymptotic analysis close to the corners yields details of the singular stress behaviour which differs markedly from the Newtonian characteristic. Finally, a second-order approximation being valid under certain restrictions leads to explicit analytical expressions also concerning the viscoelastic stress components. Altogether, a well-founded insight as regards the complex stress distribution and the effect of Deborah number is attained.     

Multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method for study of two-lid-driven cavity flow solution multiplicity

As a fundamental subject in fluid mechanics, sophisticated cavity flow patterns due to the movement of multi-lids have been routinely analyzed by the computational fluid dynamics community. Unlike those reported computational studies that were conducted using more conventional numerical methods, this paper features employing the multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) to numerically investigate the two-dimensional cavity flows generated by the movements of two adjacent lids. The obtained MRT-LBM results reveal a number of important bifurcation flow features, such as the symmetry and steadiness of cavity flows at low Reynolds numbers, the multiplicity of stable cavity flow patterns when the Reynolds number exceeds its first critical value, as well as the periodicity of the cavity flow after the second critical Reynolds number is reached. Detailed flow characteristics are reported that include the critical Reynolds numbers, the locations of the vortex centers, and the values of stream function at the vortex centers. Through systematic comparison against the simulation results obtained elsewhere by using the lattice Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook model and other numerical schemes, not only does the MRT-LBM approach exhibit fairly satisfactory accuracy, but also demonstrates its remarkable flexibility that renders the adjustment of its multiple relaxation factors fully manageable and, thus, particularly accommodates the need of effectively investigating the multiplicity of flow patterns with complex behaviors.     

Development of a computer program for the prediction of flow in a rotating cavity

A computer program has been developed to predict laminar source-sink flow in a rotating cylindrical cavity. Although the program is based on a standard finite difference technique for recirculating flow, it incorporates two novel features. Step changes in grid size are employed to obtain sufficient resolution in the boundary layers and special treatment is given to the solution of the pressure correction equations, in the ‘SIMPLE’ algorithm, in order to improve the convergence properties of the method. Results are presented both for the flow in an infinite rotating cylindrical annulus and a finite rotating cylindrical cavity, with the inner cylindrical surface acting as a uniform source and the outer cylinder as a sink. These show good agreement with existing analytical solutions and illustrate some of the problems associated with the computation of rapidly rotating flows.