Numerical investigation of the coupled interaction between an unsteady aerodynamic flow field and a water film coating on a circular cylinder

Rain–wind induced vibration is an aeroelastic phenomenon that occurs on the inclined cables of cable-stayed bridges and arises due to the interaction between the unsteady wind loading and the formation of water rivulets on the cable surface. A new numerical method has been developed at the University of Strathclyde to simulate the influence of the external flow field on the rivulet dynamics and vice versa. The approach is to couple a Discrete Vortex Method solver to determine the external flow field and unsteady aerodynamic loading, and a pseudo-spectral solver based on lubrication theory to model the evolution and growth of the water rivulets on the cable surface under external loading. Results of this coupled model are presented, to provide detailed information on the development of water rivulets and their interaction with the aerodynamic field. In particular, the effect of the initial water film thickness and the angle of attack in plane on the resulting rivulets are investigated. The results are consistent with previous full scale and experimental observations with rivulets forming on the upper surface of the cable only in configurations where rain–wind induced vibration has been observed. Additionally, the thickness of the lower rivulet is found to be self-limiting in all configurations. The results demonstrate that the model can be used to enhance the understanding of the underlying physical mechanisms of rain–wind-induced vibration.     

Numerical simulation and analysis of the effects of water-film morphological changes on the aerodynamic lift of stay cables

The cables in cable-stayed bridges can vibrate at large amplitudes during rain and windy conditions, a phenomenon known as rain-wind induced vibration (RWIV). Previous studies have demonstrated that the formation and oscillation of rivulets on stay cable surfaces play an important role in RWIV.This paper presents a new numerical method for simulating the evolution of rivulets on stay cable surfaces based on a combination of the gas–liquid two-phase theory and the volume of fluid method (VOF method), which allows for the straightforward determination of the cables’ aerodynamic lift when RWIV occurs. To verify the accuracy of this method and analyze the effects of wind velocity on the water film and the aerodynamic lift around the cable, three cases with different loadings were investigated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software CFX. To verify the method’s accuracy, the aerodynamic lifts calculated from these cases were applied to the cable to obtain its vibrational response. In accordance with the experimental results, the numerical results demonstrated that an upper rivulet with a periodic oscillation was formed at a specific wind speed, causing the aerodynamic lift to change with a similar periodicity. The aerodynamic lift’s frequency was approximately the cable’s natural frequency, and induced large vibrations in the cable. No obvious upper rivulets were formed at sufficiently low wind speeds. The frequency of an aerodynamic lift that was significantly larger than the cable’s natural frequency induced small vibrations in the cable. When the wind speed was sufficiently high, despite the eventual formation of a continuous upper rivulet, the frequencies of the upper rivulet’s oscillation and the aerodynamic lift remained distinct from the natural frequency, and the cable continued to exhibit small-amplitude vibrations. These observations confirmed the conclusion that periodic variations in the water film morphology could lead to periodic changes in the aerodynamic lift that would induce RWIV.     

Three-phase coupled modelling research on rain–wind induced vibration of stay cable based on lubrication theory

Cables of cable-stayed bridges may vibrate with large amplitude under wind and rain, which is known as rain–wind induced vibration (RWIV). According to the pervious researches, the formations and oscillations of rivulets on stay cable surface play important roles in RWIV. In this paper, four different 2D models are presented based on lubrication theory, and the best way of simulating RWIV through lubrication theory is confirmed by the comparisons of rivulet motions and cable vibration responses between these four models and pervious researches. On this basis, the relations among rivulet motions, cable aerodynamic forces and vibration responses are investigated to reveal the mechanism of RWIV. Numerical simulation results show that when RWIV occurs, the periodic oscillations of rivulets around cable lead to the periodic fluctuations of cable lift and drag, whose frequencies are almost equal and close to cable natural frequency. Under the periodically fluctuant lift and drag, cable vibrates with large amplitude in across-wind and along-wind directions, which may further enhance the circumferential oscillations of rivulets conversely. These confirm the conclusion that the resonance between rivulets and cable oscillation may be one of the main reasons for RWIV.     

Study on the role of rivulet in rain–wind-induced cable vibration through wind tunnel testing

Rain–wind-induced vibration (RWIV) of stay cables has become a concern in bridge engineering over the past decades. The excitation mechanism of RWIV remains unclear. Many researchers believe that the upper rivulet is crucial to RWIV. However, experimental study on rivulet is challenging and limited. The current study designs and tests a cable model of 160 mm in diameter in an open jet wind tunnel. The upper rivulet movement and cable vibration are simultaneously measured. The importance of the upper rivulet in RWIV is directly demonstrated by alternately controlling the upper and lower rivulets. The characteristics of the upper rivulet movement and the effects of this movement on RWIV are investigated in detail. The experiment shows that the rivulet–cable system is coupled, which causes the cable and upper rivulet to vibrate at different amplitudes under the same wind speed. The upper rivulet harmonic movement changes the wind loading on the cable, causing the harmonic vibration of the cable, which in turn exerts a harmonic inertia force on the rivulet. A large vibration of the coupled system then develops.     

Aerodynamic characteristics of an inclined and yawed circular cylinder with artificial rivulet

Stay cables of cable-stayed bridges often experience vibrations with large amplitudes induced by wind or jointly by both wind and rain. To understand the aerodynamic characteristics of the stay cables and excitation mechanics of rain–wind-induced vibration (RWIV), an inclined and yawed circular cylinder with and without an artificial upper rivulet is studied through a series of wind tunnel tests. The impacts of upper rivulet and axial flow on the aerodynamics of the cylinder are investigated. It is found that for an inclined and yawed cylinder without rivulet there exists a non-zero lift force at large wind angle. Furthermore, the wind pressures and aerodynamic forces acting on both the cylinder and the upper rivulet are obtained, which can be used to develop more rational theoretical models for RWIV of stay cables. Results show that the upper rivulet can both enhance and depress Karman vortex shedding depending on the position of the rivulet. As a result, dramatic variations of the aerodynamic forces acting on the cylinder and the rivulet will occur, which may eventually result in RWIV. Also axial flow may have a noticeable influence on the aerodynamic characteristics of the inclined and yawed cylinder. And the presence of the rivulet can enhance such influence from the axial flow.     

Theoretical and experimental studies on the aerodynamic instability of a two-dimensional circular cylinder with a moving attachment

Rain–wind induced vibration of cables in cable-stayed bridges is a worldwide problem of great concern. The effect of the motion of water rivulets on the instability of stay cables has been recognized as one of the mechanisms of this complex phenomenon. In order to investigate how the motion of rivulets affects the unstable vibration of cables without considering the effects of axial flow and axial vortex, a real three-dimensional cable was modeled as a two-dimensional circular cylinder, around which an attachment representing the rivulet can move. This could also be regarded as a new kind of two-dimensional 2-dof dynamic system. This paper studies the aerodynamic instability of the system theoretically and experimentally. Equations governing the motions of the cylinder and the attachment are first established. The Lyapunov stability criterion is applied to the equations of motion to derive the criterion for the unstable balance angle of the attachment. Moreover, a new two-dimensional 2-dof cable model system with a movable attachment is designed and tested in a wind tunnel. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effects of major factors such as wind speed, frequency and damping of the dynamic system on the unstable balance angle of the rivulet attachment. Theoretical and experimental results match well. These results may be valuable in elucidating the mechanism of rain–wind induced vibration of stay cables.     

变化外形的水线对斜拉索风雨激振的激发作用

讨论变化外形的水线对斜拉桥拉索风雨激振的激发作用.首先,建立考虑水线外形变化的斜拉桥拉索风雨激振计算模型,并将由采用变化水线外形的模型得到的拉索最大振幅与固定水线外形模型的计算结果及试验实测结果对比,对模型进行验证;在模型得到验证的基础上,进一步讨论拉索和变化水线外形的水线振动稳定性及水线对拉索风雨激振贡献.计算结果表明,在四个典型工况下,考虑水线外形变化的模型得到的拉索计算振幅固定水线外形模型能更好地与试验实测振幅吻合;理论分析发现拉索速度和水线速度的耦合作用对水线运动的激发起到主导作用;水线的加速发散发生在拉索大幅激振之前.没有水线加速发散的时程中,拉索均不发生大幅激振.     

Rainwater rivulets on a cable subject to windFilets d'eau de pluie sur un câble soumis au vent

Rainwater rivulets appear on inclined cables of cable-stayed bridges when wind and rain occur simultaneously. In a restricted range of parameters this is known to cause vibrations of high amplitudes on the cable. The mechanism underlying this effect is still under debate but the role of rainwater rivulets is certain. We use a standard lubrication model to analyse the dynamics of a water film on a cylinder under the effect of gravity and wind load. A simple criterion is then proposed for the appearance and position of rivulets, where the Froude number is the control parameter. Experiments with several geometries of cylinder covered with water in a wind tunnel show the evolution of the rivulets with the Froude number. Comparison of the prediction by the model with these experimental data shows that the main mechanism of rivulet formation and positioning is captured. To cite this article: C. Lemaitre et al., C. R. Mecanique 334 (2006).     

A numerical and experimental hybrid approach for the investigation of aerodynamic forces on stay cables suffering from rain-wind induced vibration

The aerodynamic forces on a stay cable under a rain-wind induced vibration (RWIV) are difficult to measure directly in a wind tunnel test. This paper presents a hybrid approach that combines an experiment with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the investigation on aerodynamic forces of a stay cable under a RWIV. The stay cable and flow field were considered as two substructures of the system. The oscillation of the stay cable was first measured by using a wind tunnel test of a RWIV under an artificial rainfall condition. The oscillation of the cable was treated as a previously known moving boundary condition and applied to the flow field. Only the flow field with the known moving cable boundary was then numerically simulated by using a CFD method (such as Fluent 6.3). The transient aerodynamic forces of the stay cable with a predetermined cable oscillation were obtained from numerical calculations. The characteristics of the aerodynamic forces in the time domain and frequency domain were then analysed for various cases. To verify the feasibility and accuracy of the proposed hybrid approach, the transient aerodynamic forces were applied to a single-degree-of-freedom model (SDOF) of the stay cable to calculate the RWIV of the cable. A comparison was performed between the oscillation responses of the stay cable obtained from the calculated (SDOF model) and experimental results, and the results indicate that the hybrid approach accurately simulates the transient aerodynamic forces of the stay cable. The equivalent damping ratios induced by the aerodynamic forces were obtained for various wind speeds. Furthermore, a nonlinear model of the aerodynamic force is proposed based on the calculation results, and the coefficients in the model were identified by a nonlinear least-squares technique.     

An experimental investigation on the surface water transport process over an airfoil by using a digital image projection technique

In the present study, an experimental investigation was conducted to characterize the transient behavior of the surface water film and rivulet flows driven by boundary layer airflows over a NACA0012 airfoil in order to elucidate underlying physics of the important micro-physical processes pertinent to aircraft icing phenomena. A digital image projection (DIP) technique was developed to quantitatively measure the film thickness distribution of the surface water film/rivulet flows over the airfoil at different test conditions. The time-resolved DIP measurements reveal that micro-sized water droplets carried by the oncoming airflow impinged onto the airfoil surface, mainly in the region near the airfoil leading edge. After impingement, the water droplets formed thin water film that runs back over the airfoil surface, driven by the boundary layer airflow. As the water film advanced downstream, the contact line was found to bugle locally and developed into isolated water rivulets further downstream. The front lobes of the rivulets quickly advanced along the airfoil and then shed from the airfoil trailing edge, resulting in isolated water transport channels over the airfoil surface. The water channels were responsible for transporting the water mass impinging at the airfoil leading edge. Additionally, the transition location of the surface water transport process from film flows to rivulet flows was found to occur further upstream with increasing velocity of the oncoming airflow. The thickness of the water film/rivulet flows was found to increase monotonically with the increasing distance away from the airfoil leading edge. The runback velocity of the water rivulets was found to increase rapidly with the increasing airflow velocity, while the rivulet width and the gap between the neighboring rivulets decreased as the airflow velocity increased.     

Stability of a rivulet flowing in a microchannel

A novel microfluidic technique has been recently proposed to produce quasi-monodisperse collections of microbubbles with a controlled size. In this technique, a gaseous stream is injected through a T-junction into a microchannel transporting a liquid current. The gas adheres to a hydrophobic strip printed on the channel surface. When the gas and liquid flow rates are set appropriately, a gaseous rivulet flows over that strip. The rivulet breaks up downstream due to a capillary pearling instability, which leads to a quasi-monodisperse collection of microbubbles. Motivated by this application, we here analyze the stability of both gas and liquid rivulets coflowing with a current in a quadrangular microfluidic channel. The results essentially differ from those of cylindrical jets because the contact-line-anchorage condition affects fundamentally the rivulet’s instability nature. The temporal stability analysis shows that the rivulet becomes unstable not only for (unperturbed) contact angles larger than 90° (as can be expected) but also for values smaller than that angle. Interestingly enough, the maximum growth factor exhibits a non-monotonic dependence with respect to the Reynolds number (i.e., the viscosities). In fact, there are intervals of that parameter where the fluid system becomes unstable, while all the perturbations are damped outside that interval. The gaseous rivulet does not stabilize as the Reynolds number decreases, which means that it can be unstable even in the Stokes limit and for contact angles less than 90°. In addition, the stability of a flowing liquid rivulet is not determined by its contact angle exclusively (as occurs in the static case), but by the Reynolds number as well. Liquid rivulets with contact angles less than 90° can be unstable for sufficiently high Reynolds numbers.     

Measurements of rivulet flow between parallel vertical plates

The research presented considers laminar, fully-developed rivulet flow in the channel formed by two parallel vertical plates for flows intermediate between a lower limit of droplet flow and an upper limit where the rivulets meander. Although this regime is likely the most simple rivulet flow regime, it does not appear to have been previously investigated in detail. In an earlier paper, the authors derived relations to predict the terminal Reynolds number and non-dimensional width of the rivulet under the approximation that the width is large relative to the gap width of the plates (the spacing between the plates). The objective of the present study is to examine the limits of this simple treatment as the relative width becomes small, i.e., as the rivulets become narrow. Experiments were performed measuring rivulet widths and flow rates for gap widths ranging from 0.152 mm to 0.914 mm with water, light mineral oil, ethyl alcohol and water with a wetting agent. Predictions were found to agree well with the measurements for width-to-spacing ratios as low as unity and less. A numerical analysis shows that a plausible explanation of unexpected agreement for narrow rivulets is that the error in this one-dimensional assumption is approximately countered by the error in neglecting flow in the edge region. To account for curvature of the liquid–air interface at the edges, an additional geometric relationship was assumed; this approach also was found to be a good representation.     

Modes of vortex formation and transition to three-dimensionality in the wake of a freely vibrating cylinder

The present work is aimed to give some insight into the relation between vortex shedding modes and transition to three-dimensionality in the wake of a freely vibrating cylinder by establishing a numerical model and analyzing the relevant results of two- and three-dimensional simulations. The compressible flow past an elastically-mounted cylinder is solved by using the immersed boundary method (IB method). The cylinder is free to vibrate in the transverse direction with zero structure damping. The response of displacement amplitude is studied with the variation of reduced velocity. Whether P+S mode exists in three-dimensional flow and the occurrence of 2P mode is caused by flow transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional are problems of concern. Both 2P and P+S wake modes are observed in two- and three-dimensional simulations. The numerical results indicate that the flow transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional is coupled with the cylinder vibration in the synchronization/lock-in regime. The wake formation given by three-dimensional simulations suggests that the P+S mode might exist in reality when the flow is reverted to two-dimensional by vortex induced vibration (VIV) at Re=300–350. When Reynolds number increases to 425, the wake formation undergoes transition to three-dimensionality and 2P mode is observed. The effect of mass ratio on the flow transition to three-dimensionality is studied. The relationship between wake modes and aerodynamic forces is discussed.     

Simulations of Spatially Developing Two-Dimensional Shear Layers and Jets

A computational study of spatially evolving two-dimensional free shear flows has been performed using direct numerical simulation of the Navier–Stokes equations in order to investigate the ability of these two-dimensional simulations to predict the overall flow-field quantities of the corresponding three-dimensional “real” turbulent flows. The effects of inflow forcing on these two-dimensional flows has also been studied. Simulations were performed of shear layers, as well as weak (large co-flow and relatively weak shear) and strong (small co-flow and relatively strong shear) jets. Several combinations of discrete forcing with and without a broadband background spectrum were used. Although spatially evolving direct simulations of shear layers have been performed in the past, no such simulations of the plane jet have been performed to the best of our knowledge. It was found that, in the two-dimensional shear layers, external forcing led to a strong increase in the initial growth of the shear-layer thickness, followed by a region of decreased growth as in physical experiments. The final downstream growth rate was essentially unaffected by forcing. The mean velocity profile and the naturally evolving growth rate of the shear layer in the case of broadband forcing compare well with experimental data. However, the total and transverse fluctuation intensities are larger in the two-dimensional simulations with respect to experimental data. In the weak-jet simulations it was found that symmetric forcing completely overwhelms the natural tendency to transition to the asymmetric jet column mode downstream. It was observed that two-dimensional simulations of “strong” jets with a low speed co-flow led to a fundamentally different flow with large differences even in mean velocity profiles with respect to experimental data for planar jets. This was a result of the dominance of the two-dimensional mechanism of vortex dipole ejection in the flow due to the lack of spanwise instabilities. Experimental studies of planar jets do not show vortex dipole formation and ejection. A three-dimensional “strong”-jet simulation showed the rapid evolution of three-dimensionality effectively preventing this two-dimensional mechanism, as expected from experimental results. Received: 25 November 1996 and accepted 17 April 1997     

Wake impacts on aerodynamic and aeroelastic behaviors of a horizontal axis wind turbine blade for sheared and turbulent flow conditions

The magnitude and temporal variations of wind speed considerably influence aerodynamic and structural responses of MW-sized horizontal axis wind turbines. Thus, this paper investigates the variations in airloads and blade behavior of a wind turbine blade resulting from operations in sheared and turbulent flow conditions. First, in order to validate the present methods, comparisons of aerodynamic results were made among the blade element momentum method, free-wake method, and numerical results from the previous studies. Then, the validated methods were applied to a national renewable energy laboratory 5 MW reference wind turbine model for fluid–structure interaction analyses. From the numerical simulations, it can be clearly seen that unfavorable airloads and blade deformations occur due to the sheared and turbulent flow conditions. In addition, it is clear that wake impacts are not as substantial at those of high wind speeds; however, the effects obviously affect the aerodynamic and structural behaviors of the blade at lower wind speeds. Therefore, it is concluded that the numerical results markedly indicate the demand for accurate assessment of wake dynamics for accurate estimations of the aerodynamic and structural responses for sheared and turbulent flow environments.     

Experimental study on condensation heat transfer of steam on vertical titanium plates with different surface energies

Visual experiments were employed to investigate heat transfer characteristics of steam on vertical titanium plates with/without surface modifications for different surface energies. Stable dropwise condensation and filmwise condensation were achieved on two surface modification titanium plates, respectively. Dropwise and rivulet filmwise co-existing condensation form of steam was observed on unmodified titanium surfaces. With increase in the surface subcooling, the ratio of area (η) covered by drops decreased and departure diameter of droplets increased, resulting in a decrease in condensation heat transfer coefficient. Condensation heat transfer coefficient decreased sharply with the values of η decreasing when the fraction of the surface area covered by drops was greater than that covered by rivulets. Otherwise, the value of η had little effect on the heat transfer performance. Based on the experimental phenomena observed, the heat flux through the surface was proposed to express as the sum of the heat flux through the dropwise region and rivulet filmwise region. The heat flux through the whole surface was the weighted mean value of the two regions mentioned above. The model presented explains the gradual change of heat transfer coefficient for transition condensation with the ratio of area covered by drops. The simulation results agreed well with the present experimental data when the subcooling temperature is lower than 10 °C.     

INSTABILITY OF COUPLED THERMO-SOLUTE CAPILLARY CONVECTION IN LIQUID BRIDGE AND CONTROL BY ROTATING MAGNETIC FIELD

浮区法因具有无坩埚接触污染的生长优点而成为生长高完整性和高均匀性单晶材料的重要技术.但熔体中存在的毛细对流会给浮区法晶体生长带来极大挑战,这是由于对流的不稳定会导致晶体微观瑕疵的产生和宏观条纹等缺陷的形成.为了提高浮区法生长单晶材料的品质,研究浮区法晶体生长中毛细对流特性及如何控制其不稳定性显得尤为重要.本文采用数值模拟的方法对半浮区液桥内Si_xGe_1-x体系中存在的热质毛细对流展开研究并施加旋转磁场对其进行控制.结果表明：纯溶质毛细对流表现为二维轴对称模式,温度场主要由热扩散作用决定,而浓度场则由对流和溶质扩散共同支配;纯热毛细对流呈现三维稳态非轴对称流动,浓度分布与熔体内热毛细对流的流向密切相关,等温线在对流较大的区域发生弯曲;耦合溶质与热毛细对流则为三维周期性旋转振荡流.施加旋转磁场后,熔体周向速度沿径向向外增大,熔体内浓度场和流场均呈现二维轴对称分布.     

基于多块嵌套结构动网格的拦截弹防热保护罩的二维分离模拟

在末制导阶段,拦截弹上的红外热保护罩要进行分离,分离引起的气动力变化将直接影响到导弹的制导精度.采用多块嵌套结构动网格技术数值模拟了拦截导弹的热保护罩的二维分离过程.给出了在整个分离过程中,两片保护罩运动的轨迹,并且给出了各个时间步对应的压力云图.预测了由于前激波而产生的作用在导弹上气动力的振荡.跟踪了在各个时刻流场对于导弹上红外窗口的影响.     

The effect of normal electric field on the evolution of immiscible Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Manipulation of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability using an external electric field has been the subject of many studies. However, most of these studies are focused on early stages of the evolution. In this work, the long-term evolution of the instability is investigated, focusing on the forces acting on the interface between the two fluids. To this end, numerical simulations are carried out at various electric permittivity and conductivity ratios as well as electric field intensities using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method. The electric field is applied in parallel to gravity to maintain unstable evolution. The results show that increasing top-to-bottom permittivity ratio increases the rising velocity of the bubble while hindering the spike descent. The opposite trend is observed for increasing top-to-bottom conductivity ratio. These effects are amplified at larger electric field intensities, resulting in narrower structures as the response to the excitation is non-uniform along the interface.