Aeolian transport of sand

The airborne transport of particles on a granular surface by the saltation mechanism is studied through numerical simulation of particles dragged by turbulent air flow. We calculate the saturated flux q_s and show that its dependence on the wind strength u_* is consistent with several empirical relations obtained from experimental measurements. We propose and explain a new relation for fluxes close to the threshold velocity u_t, namely, q_s=a(u_*-u_t)^α with α≈2. We also obtain the distortion of the velocity profile of the wind due to the drag of the particles and find a novel dynamical scaling relation. We also obtain a new expression for the dependence of the height of the saltation layer as function of the strength of the wind.     

Confined ferrofluid droplet in crossed magnetic fields

When a ferrofluid drop is trapped in a horizontal Hele-Shaw cell and subjected to a vertical magnetic field, a fingering instability results in the droplet evolving into a complex branched structure. This fingering instability depends on the magnetic field ramp rate but also depends critically on the initial state of the droplet. Small perturbations in the initial droplet can have a large influence on the resulting final pattern. By simultaneously applying a stabilizing (horizontal) azimuthal magnetic field, we gain more control over the mode selection mechanism. We perform a linear stability analysis that shows that any single mode can be selected by appropriately adjusting the strengths of the applied fields. This offers a unique and accurate mode selection mechanism for this confined magnetic fluid system. We present the results of numerical simulations that demonstrate that this mode selection mechanism is quite robust and “overpowers” any initial perturbations on the droplet. This provides a predictable way to obtain patterns with any desired number of fingers.     

Steady drainage in emulsions: corrections for surface Plateau borders and a model for high aqueous volume fraction

We compare extensive experimental results for the gravity-driven steady drainage of oil-in-water emulsions with two theoretical predictions, both based on the assumption of Poiseuille flow. The first is from standard foam drainage theory, applicable at low aqueous volume fractions, for which a correction is derived to account for the effects of the confinement of the emulsion. The second arises from considering the permeability of a model porous medium consisting of solid sphere packings, applicable at higher aqueous volume fractions. We find quantitative agreement between experiment and the foam drainage theory at low aqueous volume fractions. At higher aqueous volume fractions, the reduced flow rate calculated from the permeability theory approaches the master curve of the experimental data. Our experimental data demonstrates the analogy between the problem of electrical flow and liquid flow through foams and emulsions.     

Nonlocal Interaction Equations in Environments with Heterogeneities and Boundaries

We study well-posedness of a class of nonlocal interaction equations with spatially dependent mobility. We also allow for the presence of boundaries and external potentials. Such systems lead to the study of nonlocal interaction equations on subsets ? of ? ^d endowed with a Riemannian metric g. We obtain conditions, relating the interaction potential and the geometry, which imply existence, uniqueness and stability of solutions. We study the equations in the setting of gradient flows in the space of probability measures on ? endowed with Riemannian 2-Wasserstein metric.     

A local parallel superconvergence method for the incompressible flow by coarsening projection

In this article, we investigate a local parallel superconvergence method by coarsening projection for the incompressible Stokes flow. The method is a combination of the local superconvergence technique and the given framework of local parallel method. For the smooth subdomains, the local superconvergence method is applied in a higher order finite dimensional space corresponding to an appropriate coarse mesh on interior domain. Moreover, a useful and flexible local parallel method is designed to obtain the local parallel superconvergence results of presented method, which offset theoretical limitation of the model without the smoothness of the exact solution and a priori regularity of the underlying problem over the whole domain. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1209–1223, 2015     

Dual-modality and dual-energy gamma ray densitometry of petroleum products using an artificial neural network

The prediction of volume fractions in order to measure the multiphase flow rate is a very important issue and is the key parameter of multi-phase flow meters (MPFMs). Currently, the gamma ray attenuation technique is known as one of the most precise methods for obtaining volume fractions. The gamma ray attenuation technique is based on the mass attenuation coefficient, which is sensitive to density changes; density is sensitive in turn to temperature and pressure fluctuations. Therefore, MPFM efficiency depends strongly on environmental conditions. The conventional solution to this problem is the periodical recalibration of MPFMs, which is a demanding task. In this study, a method based on dual-modality densitometry and artificial intelligence (AI) is presented, which offers the advantage of the measurement of the oil–gas–water volume fractions independent of density changes. For this purpose, several experiments were carried out and used to validate simulated dual modality densitometry results. The reference density point was established at a temperature of 20 °C and pressure of 1 bar. To cover the full range of likely density fluctuations, four additional density sets were defined (at changes of ±4% and ±8% from the reference point). An annular regime with different percentages of oil, gas and water at different densities was simulated. Four features were extracted from the transmission and scattered detectors and were applied to the artificial neural network (ANN) as inputs. The input parameters included the ²⁴¹Am full energy peak, ¹³⁷Cs Compton edge, ¹³⁷Cs full energy peak and total scattered count, and the outputs were the oil and air percentages. A multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network was used to predict the volume fraction independent of the oil and water density changes. The obtained results show that the proposed ANN model achieved good agreement with the real data, with an estimated root mean square error (RMSE) of less than 3.     

Dynamics of the thermocline in the equatorial region of the Pacific ocean

This paper is devoted to the subsurface current dynamics in equatorial regions, where the hallmark of a strong stratification is a sharp interface (thermocline), separating two layers of different density, and whose depth is dependent upon the strength of the winds above the ocean's surface. We give here a few monotonicity results concerning the dynamics of the thermocline in the equatorial region. The most important one asserts that the level of the thermocline decreases as the strength of the wind at ten meters above the ocean surface, denoted |U_w|, increases. Moreover, the strength of the current at the thermocline decreases as |U_w| increases.     

A control volume finite element method for three-dimensional three-phase flows

A novel control volume finite element method with adaptive anisotropic unstructured meshes is presented for three-dimensional three-phase flows with interfacial tension. The numerical framework consists of a mixed control volume and finite element formulation with a new P₁DG-P₂ elements (linear discontinuous velocity between elements and quadratic continuous pressure between elements). A “volume of fluid” type method is used for the interface capturing, which is based on compressive control volume advection and second-order finite element methods. A force-balanced continuum surface force model is employed for the interfacial tension on unstructured meshes. The interfacial tension coefficient decomposition method is also used to deal with interfacial tension pairings between different phases. Numerical examples of benchmark tests and the dynamics of three-dimensional three-phase rising bubble, and droplet impact are presented. The results are compared with the analytical solutions and previously published experimental data, demonstrating the capability of the present method.     

5.12汶川大地震诱发大型崩滑灾害动力特征初探

对乙炔氧气混合气体中爆轰波与激波的正面对撞现象的实验研究是以高速摄影获 取两波对撞的x-t纹影图,以烟迹板记录对撞中的爆轰胞格图案,并基于激波 理论和经典CJ爆轰理论求解了两波对撞的稳态解并探寻其规律. 研究发现透射波系包括一道激波和爆轰波, 以及紧随爆轰波后的稀疏波区,这一结果对应于一维理论分析中的CJ解. 透射波系基本不受 初始压强影响;初始温度也只成比例地改变流场整体速度,温度越高,速度越快;对波系起 实质影响作用的是入射激波强度,激波越强,则整个透射流场呈现偏向激波的趋势;理论分 析还指出,稀疏波区的出现不可避免,当激波强度趋于声波稀疏波区趋于消失,激波越强则 疏波区趋于扩大. 两波对撞存在一个有限的转变阶段,透射爆轰首先减缓,接着迅速迸发为 过驱爆轰,然后再逐渐平衡为CJ爆轰. 对于强不稳定的燃气,对撞后爆轰波在空间上的发展 极不均衡,一些区域发生火焰面与诱导激波的严重脱离,随后的火焰面失稳发展为诱导激波 区内的爆轰波,实验观察到了这种爆轰在烟迹板上留下的极为精细的迹线.     

颗粒流的动力学模型和实验研究进展

首先叙述了颗粒流研究的背景和基本概念,接着概述了颗粒流动力学研究的三种基本数学力学模型:颗粒动理论(kinetic theory)模型、摩擦塑性模型和离散元模拟模型.介绍了它们的基本原理,并分析了各个模型的优缺点和适用范围.随之,对颗粒流的实验研究情况作了简要的介绍,列举了研究中几种常用的试验方法和观测手段,以及观测到的一些典型现象.最后,我们简述了颗粒流研究的主要困难,并提出了某些有待解决的研究课题.