Variations on the Theorem of Birkhoff – von Neumann and Extensions

 The theorem of Birkhoff – von Neumann concerns bistochastic matrices (i.e., matrices with nonnegative real entries such that all row sums and all column sums are equal to one). We consider here real matrices with entries unrestricted in sign and we extend the notion of permutation matrices (integral bistochastic matrices); some generalizations of the theorem are derived by using elementary properties of graph theory. Received: October 10, 2000 Final version received: April 11, 2002     

Real-time coloured visualization of phase flows by the schlieren method

A coloured real-time visualizer of optical inhomogeneities comprising a bichromatic schlieren system, video camera and colour monitor has been developed. The schlieren system represents a function Foucault-Hilbert transformation provided with an amplitude spatial frequency filter, or a quadrant Foucault knife edge. Two colour-coded complementary Toepler-grams are obtained in the exit plane of this schlieren system. Their summed image is then recorded by the video camera and displayed on the screen of the colour monitor. The schlieren photograph of internal gravity waves, generated by the cylindrical body motion in the reservoir filled with the stratified liquid, is presented.     

Swirl effects on variable-density jet mixing in confined flows

An experimental investigation on swirl effects on inhomogeneous confined jet mixing in a combustor configuration is reported. The confined swirling flow was simulated by a swirler with a central jet mounted in a cyclindrical tube. Helium and air jets set at different velocities were injected into the confined swirling air flow. The resulting flow fields due to two vane swirlers with constant vane angles of 35° and 66° were compared. Results show that the 35° vane swirler produces a solid-body rotation core with a slope about twice that created by the 66° vane swirler. It is the behavior of this solid-body rotation core that determines jet mixing rather than the swirler vane angle. Consequently, the coaxial jet decays much faster, the mixing is more intense, and the turbulence intensities are higher for the 35° vane swirler. In view of these results, combustor designers should be more concerned with behavior of the solid-body rotation core produced by the swirler, instead of the swirler vane angle.     

On the Integrability of Geodesic Flows of Submersion Metrics

Letters in Mathematical Physics - Suppose we are given a compact Riemannian manifold (Q,g) with a completely integrable geodesic flow. Let G be a compact connected Lie group acting freely on Q by...     

Molecular flow and wall collision age distributions

The use of storage cells has become a standard technique for internal gas targets in conjunction with high energy storage rings. In case of spin-polarized hydrogen and deuterium gas targets the interaction of the injected atoms with the walls of the storage cell can lead to depolarization and recombination. Thus the number of wall collisions of the atoms in the target gas is important for modeling the processes of spin relaxation and recombination. It is shown in this article that the diffusion process of rarefied gases in long tubes or storage cells can be described with the help of the one-dimensional diffusion equation. Mathematical methods are presented that allow one to calculate collision age distributions (CAD) and their moments analytically. These methods provide a better understanding of the different aspects of diffusion than Monte Carlo calculations. Additionally it is shown that measurements of the atomic density or polarization of a gas sample taken from the center of the tube allow one to determine the possible range of the corresponding density weighted average values along the tube. The calculations are applied to the storage cell geometry of the HERMES internal polarized hydrogen and deuterium gas target. Received 9 July 2001 and Received in final form 18 September 2001     

Transition to chaos in lid-driven square cavity flow

To date, there are very few studies on the transition beyond second Hopf bifurcation in a lid-driven square cavity, due to the difficulties in theoretical analysis and numerical simulations. In this paper, we study the characteristics of the third Hopf bifurcation in a driven square cavity by applying a consistent fourth-order compact finite difference scheme rectently developed by us. We numerically identify the critical Reynolds number of the third Hopf bifurcation located in the interval of (13944.7021,13946.5333) by the method of bisection. Through Fourier analysis, it is discovered that the flow becomes chaotic with a characteristic of period-doubling bifurcation when the Reynolds number is beyond the third bifurcation critical interval. Nonlinear time series analysis further ascertains the flow chaotic behaviors via the phase diagram, Kolmogorov entropy and maximal Lyapunov exponent. The phase diagram changes interestingly from a closed curve with self-intersection to an unclosed curve and the attractor eventually becomes strange when the flow becomes chaotic.     

Modeling nongray gas-phase and soot radiation in luminous turbulent nonpremixed jet flames

Much progress has been made in radiative heat transfer modeling with respect to treatment of nongray radiation from both gas-phase species and soot particles, while radiation modeling in turbulent flame simulations is still in its infancy. Aiming at reducing this gap, this paper introduces state-of-the-art models of gas-phase and soot radiation to turbulent flame simulations. The full-spectrum k-distribution method (Modest, M.F., 2003, Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer, 76, 69–83) is implemented into a three-dimensional unstructured CFD code for nongray radiation modeling. The mixture full-spectrum k-distributions including nongray absorbing soot particles are constructed from a narrow-band k-distribution database created for individual gas-phase species, and an efficient scheme is employed for their construction in CFD simulations. A detailed reaction mechanism including NO _x and soot kinetics is used to predict flame structure, and a detailed soot model using a method of moments is employed to determine soot particle size distributions. A spherical-harmonic P₁ approximation is invoked to solve the radiative transfer equation. An oxygen-enriched, turbulent, nonpremixed jet flame is simulated, which features large concentrations of gas-phase radiating species and soot particles. Nongray soot modeling is shown to be of greater importance than nongray gas modeling in sooty flame simulations, with gray soot models producing large errors. The nongray treatment of soot strongly influences flame temperatures in the upstream and the flame-tip region and is essential for accurate predictions of NO. The nongray treatment of gases, however, weakly influences upstream flame temperatures and, therefore, has only a small effect on NO predictions. The effect of nongray soot radiation on flame temperature is also substantial in downstream regions where the soot concentration is small. Limitations of the P₁ approximation are discussed for the jet flame configuration; the P₁ approximation yields large errors in the spatial distribution of the computed radiative heat flux for highly anisotropic radiation fields such as those in flames with localized, near-opaque soot regions.     

Temperature Measurement in Small-Scale Flows with Digital Moiré Deflectometry

Abstract

This article explores the potential of Moiré deflectometry for measuring the temperature field in quasi-two-dimensional small scale flows. The research shows that digital Moiré deflectometry combined with two-dimensional Fourier transform for phase map extraction constitutes a useful diagnostic tool for acquiring the fluid temperature with sufficient sensibility and spatial resolution in small two-dimensional or axisymmetric arrangements with negligible pressure variations. The results obtained in the thermal boundary layer of a flat plate are in good agreement with both thermocouple measurements and numerical results.     

A proof of Howard’s conjecture in homogeneous parallel shear flows

A rigorous mathematical proof of Howard's conjecture which states that the growth rate of an arbitrary unstable wave must approach zero, as the wave length decreases to zero, in the linear instability of nonviscous homogeneous parallel shear flows, is presented here for the first time under the restriction of the boundedness of the second derivative of the basic velocity field with respect to the vertical coordinate in the concerned flow domain.