Nickel nanostructured materials from liquid phase photodeposition

Liquid Phase Photo-Deposition (LPPD) technique has been used to obtain both colloidal particles and thin films of metallic and chloride nickel from solutions of only precursor Ni(acac)₂ (acac=2,4-pentandionato). Metallic nickel was obtained from ethanol solutions by direct nickel(II) photoreduction at 254 nm and by acetone sensitised reaction at 300 nm. In this latter process the rate was higher than in the first one. NiCl₂ was formed from CCl₄ solution by a solvent-initiated reaction. TEM analysis, performed on colloidal particles of nickel, showed that their dimensions are in the range 2–4 nm. The films did not present carbon contamination and were characterized by AFM, XPS and GIXRD. Metallic films consisted of particles of 20–40 nm that are the result of the aggregation of smaller crystallites (4–5 nm). Larger agglomerations (around 200 nm) have been observed for NiCl₂ films.     

Unified semi‐analytical wall boundary conditions for inviscid,laminar or turbulent flows in the meshless SPH method

Wall boundary conditions in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is a key issue to perform accurate simulations. We propose here a new approach based on a renormalising factor for writing all boundary terms. This factor depends on the local shape of a wall and on the position of a particle relative to the wall, which is described by segments (in two‐dimensions), instead of the cumbersome fictitious or ghost particles used in most existing SPH models. By solving a dynamic equation for the renormalising factor, we significantly improve traditional wall treatment in SPH, for pressure forces, wall friction and turbulent conditions. The new model is demonstrated for cases including hydrostatic conditions for still water in a tank of complex geometry and a dam break over triangular bed profile with sharp angle where significant improved behaviour is obtained in comparison with the conventional boundary techniques. The latter case is also compared with a finite volume and volume‐of‐fluid scheme. The performance of the model for a two‐dimensional laminar flow in a channel is demonstrated where the profiles of velocity are in agreement with the theoretical ones, demonstrating that the derived wall shear stress balances the pressure gradient. Finally, the performance of the model is demonstrated for flow in a schematic fish pass where both the velocity field and turbulent viscosity fields are satisfactorily reproduced compared with mesh‐based codes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of particle agglomeration and interphase on the glass transition temperature of polymer nanocomposites

In this article, we utilize finite element modeling to investigate the effect of nanoparticle agglomeration on the glass transition temperature of polymer nanocomposites. The case of an attractive interaction between polymer and nanofiller is considered for which an interphase domain of gradient properties is developed. This model utilizes representative volume elements that are created and analyzed with varying degrees of nanoparticle clustering and length scale of interphase domain. The viscoelastic properties of the composites are studied using a statistical approach to account for variations due to the random nature of the microstructure. Results show that a monotonic increase in nanofiller clustering not only results in the loss of interphase volume but also obstructs the formation of a percolating interphase network in the nanocomposite. The combined impacts lead to a remarkable decrease of T_g enhancement of clustering nanofillers in comparison with a well‐dispersed configuration. Our simulation results provide qualitative support for experimental observations that clustering observed at high nanofiller concentrations negatively impacts the effects of the nanofiller on overall properties. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2011     

Performance of RNG Turbulence Modelling for Forced Convective Heat Transfer in Ducts

This investigation concerns numerical calculation of turbulent forced convective heat transfer and fluid flow in straight ducts using the RNG (Re-Normalized Group) turbulence method.

A computational method has been developed to predict the turbulent Reynolds stresses and turbulent heat fluxes in ducts with different turbulence models. The turbulent Reynolds stresses and other turbulent flow quantities are predicted with the RNG κ?ε model and the RNG non-linear κ-ε model of Speziale. The turbulent heat fluxes are modeled by the simple eddy diffusivity (SED) concept, GGDH and WET methods. Two wall functions are used, one for the velocity field and one for the temperature field. All the models arc implemented for an arbitrary three dimensional duct.

Fully developed condition is achieved by imposing cyclic boundary conditions in the main flow direction. The numerical approach is based on the finite volume technique with a non-staggered grid arrangement. The pressure-velocity coupling is handled by using the SIMPLEC-algorithm. The convective terms are treated by the QUICK, scheme while the diffusive terms are handled by the central-difference scheme. The hybrid scheme is used for solving the κ and ε equations.

The overall comparison between the models is presented in terms of friction factor and Nusselt number. The secondary flow generation is also of major concern.     

Implicit meanflow–multigrid algorithms for Reynolds stress model computation of 3‐D anisotropy‐driven and compressible flows

The present paper investigates the multigrid (MG) acceleration of compressible Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes computations using Reynolds‐stress model 7‐equation turbulence closures, as well as lower‐level 2‐equation models. The basic single‐grid SG algorithm combines upwind‐biased discretization with a subiterative local‐dual‐time‐stepping time‐integration procedure. MG acceleration, using characteristic MG restriction and prolongation operators, is applied on meanflow variables only (MF–MG), turbulence variables being simply injected onto coarser grids. A previously developed non‐time‐consistent (for steady flows) full‐approximation‐multigrid (s–MG) is assessed for 3‐D anisotropy‐driven and/or separated flows, which are dominated by the convergence of turbulence variables. Even for these difficult test cases CPU‐speed‐ups r_CPUSUP∈[3, 5] are obtained. Alternative, potentially time‐consistent approaches (unsteady u–MG), where MG acceleration is applied at each subiteration, are also examined, using different subiterative strategies, MG cycles, and turbulence models. For 2‐D shock wave/turbulent boundary layer interaction, the fastest s–MG approach, with a V(2, 0) sawtooth cycle, systematically yields CPU‐speed‐ups of 5±½, quasi‐independent of the particular turbulence closure used. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical analysis of turbulent flow separation in a rectangular duct with a sharp 180‐degree turn by algebraic Reynolds stress model

Turbulent flow in a rectangular duct with a sharp 180‐degree turn is difficult to predict numerically because the flow behavior is influenced by several types of forces, including centrifugal force, pressure‐driven force, and shear stress generated by anisotropic turbulence. In particular, this type of flow is characterized by a large‐scale separated flow, and it is difficult to predict the reattachment point of a separated flow. Numerical analysis has been performed for a turbulent flow in a rectangular duct with a sharp 180‐degree turn using the algebraic Reynolds stress model. A boundary‐fitted coordinate system is introduced as a method for coordinate transformation to set the boundary conditions next to complicated shapes. The calculated results are compared with the experimental data, as measured by a laser‐Doppler anemometer, in order to examine the validity of the proposed numerical method and turbulent model. In addition, the possibility of improving the wall function method in the separated flow region is examined by replacing the log‐law velocity profile for a smooth wall with that for a rough wall. The analysis results indicated that the proposed algebraic Reynolds stress model can be used to reasonably predict the turbulent flow in a rectangular duct with a sharp 180‐degree turn. In particular, the calculated reattachment point of a separated flow, which is difficult to predict in a turbulent flow, agrees well with the experimental results. In addition, the calculation results suggest that the wall function method using the log‐law velocity profile for a rough wall over a separated flow region has some potential for improving the prediction accuracy. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generation of turbulent inflow and initial conditions based on multi‐correlated random fields

Direct or large eddy simulation of a turbulent flow field is strongly influenced by its initial or inflow boundary condition. This paper presents a new stochastic approach to generate an artificial turbulent velocity field for initial or inflow boundary condition based on digital filtering. Each velocity component of the artificial turbulent velocity field is generated by linear combination of individual uncorrelated random fields. These uncorrelated random fields are obtained by filtering random white‐noise fields. Using common elements in these linear combinations results in multi‐correlation among different velocity components. The generated velocity field reproduces locally desired Reynolds stress components and integral length scales including cross‐integral length scales. The method appears to be simple, flexible and more accurate in comparison with previously developed methods. The accuracy and performance of the method are demonstrated by numerical simulation of a homogeneous turbulent shear flow with high and low shear rates. To assess the accuracy and performance of the method, simulation results are compared with a reference simulation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental study on turbulent features in the negative transport region of asymmetric plane channel flow

Turbulent features of streamwise and vertical components of velocity in the negative transport region of asymmetric plane channel flow have been studied experimentally in details. Experiments show that turbulent fluctuations in negative transport region are suppressed, and their probability distributions are far from Gaussian. Besides, the skewness factors attain their negative maxima at the position of the maximum mean velocity, whereas the flatness factors attain their positive maxima at the same position. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19872043)     

Inverse problems of aggregation processes

The coagulation frequency is the key ingredient in the population balance (Smoluchowski) equation of coagulation kinetics. An inverse problem is formulated to extract the coagulation frequency from transient size distributions when these distributions are self-similar. Two numerical examples illustrate the procedure. The first demonstrates the inverse problem for the recovery of singular coagulation frequencies, while the second shows the procedure when self-similarity is approximate. Transient droplet coagulation experiments in a turbulent flow field have been performed. The resulting size distributions are observed to be self-similar. The inverse problem is used to determine the drop coagulation frequency. This frequency shows significant deviation from the coagulation frequencies derived from simple models of drop-drop interactions in a turbulent flow field.