<p>  </p> <p>Water scarcity is a global problem impacting a majority of the world population. A significant proportion of the global population is deprived of clean drinking water, an impact felt by the rural as well as urban population. Saltwater desalination provides an attractive option to produce clean water. Some technologies to generate potable water include reverse osmosis (RO), multi-stage flash distillation (MSF), vapor compression distillation and multi-effect distillation (MED). Distillation plants such as those in MED often have falling-film evaporators operating at low energy conversion efficiency and hence distillation is performed over multiple stages (or effects). Porous materials can be utilized as evaporators in such plants with the objective of leveraging their superior efficiency. This can potentially decrease the number of effects over which distillation occurs. However, evaporation of high-salinity salt solution eventually results in salt precipitation which can cause fouling and induce structural damages, especially if the precipitates appear within the porous medium. Crystallization-induced structural damages are also of significant concern to building materials and for their role in weathering of historical monuments. It is thus crucial to understand the mechanisms governing salt precipitation in a porous medium.</p> <p>Transport of solute in such a medium is either driven by flow of the solution (advection) or by concentration gradients (diffusion). The dynamics of solute transport is further complicated due to the involvement of a reaction term accounting for any salt precipitation. The relative strengths of these driving forces determine the solute transport behavior during an evaporation-driven process. The wide-scale applications of solute transport and its complicated nature warrant investigation, both experimental and theoretical, of the dependence of solute transport and the subsequent precipitation on the operating conditions and the properties of the porous medium.</p> <p>This dissertation first focuses on developing a novel modeling framework for evaluating the transient behavior of the solute mass fraction profile within the domain of a one-dimensional porous medium, and extending its capability to predict the formation of salt precipitate in the medium.  Experimental investigations are then performed to study the formation of precipitate on sintered porous copper wicks of different particle-size compositions, and developing a mechanistic understanding of the governing principles.</p> <p>A numerical modeling framework is developed to analyze evaporation-driven solute transport. Transient advection-diffusion equations govern the salt mass fraction profile of the solution inside the porous medium. These governing equations are solved to obtain the solute mass fraction profile within the porous medium as well as the effloresced salt crust. Further accounting for precipitation allows a study of the formation and growth of efflorescence and subflorescence. Crystallization experiments are performed by allowing a NaCl solution to evaporate from a porous medium of copper particles and the subflorescence trends predicted by the model are validated. The modeling framework offers a comprehensive tool for predicting the spatio-temporal solute mass fraction profiles and subsequent precipitation in a porous medium.</p> <p>The dependence of efflorescence pattern on the properties of a porous medium is also investigated. Efflorescence patterns are visually observed and characterized on sintered copper particle wicks with spatially unimodal and bimodal compositions of different particle sizes. Efflorescence is found to form earlier and spread readily over a wick made from smaller particles, owing to their lower porosity, while it is limited to certain areas of the surface for wicks composed of the larger particles. A scaling analysis explains the observed efflorescence patterns in the bimodal wicks caused by particle size-induced non-uniform porosity and permeability. The non-uniformity reduces the advective flux in a high-permeability region by diverting flow towards a low-permeability region. This reduction in advective flux manifests as an exclusion distance surrounding a crystallization site where efflorescence is not expected to occur. The dependence of this exclusion distance on the porosity and permeability of the porous medium and the operating conditions is investigated. A large exclusion distance associated with the regions with bigger particles in the bimodal wicks explains preferential efflorescence over the regions with smaller particles. This novel scaling analysis coupled with the introduction of the exclusion distance provides guidelines for designing heterogeneous porous media that can localize efflorescence.</p> <p>Additionally, droplet interactions with microstructured superhydrophobic surfaces as well as soft surfaces were investigated during the course of this dissertation, separate from the above investigations. These investigations involve the interplay of surface energies with electrical or elastic energies and are studied both experimentally and through theoretical models, and therefore are retained as additional chapters in the thesis as being of relevant interest.  Electrowetting experiments are performed on superhydrophobic surfaces with re-entrant structures to study their resilience to the Cassie-to-Wenzel transition. The deformation of soft surfaces caused by forces exerted by microscale droplets is studied and the resulting interaction between multiple droplets is explored. </p>

El continuo af'an por reducir la cantidad de act'¿nidos minoritarios (MA) procedentes del combustible quemado en los reactores de agua ligera (Light Water Reactor, LWR) y de esa forma reducir la radiotoxicidad, ha llevado a desarrollar nuevos conceptos de combustible nuclear. El nuevo combustible por empaquetamiento de esferas (Sphere-Pac, SP) ofrece la oportunidad de reintroducir los MA en una matriz y quemarlos en un reactor r'apido de neutrones, donde se facilitan ciclos mu'ltiples por transmutaci'on de elemen- tos. Este combustible se puede utilizar tambi'en en un sistema subcr'¿tico r'apido de neutrones, es decir, un sistema nuclear accionado por un acelera- dor de part'¿culas (Accelerator Driven System, ADS), donde la subcriticidad (seguridad de parada del reactor) permite utilizar combustibles con mayor contenido de MA que en un reactor normal, reduciendo eficazmente en un solo paso la radiotoxicidad. El combustible SP se produce a partir de una soluci'on base (formada por metales y elementos qu'¿micos) mediante un proceso de gelificaci'on in- terna. Este proceso garantiza una buena homogeneidad del producto final y un riesgo de contaminaci'on mucho menor si se compara con la fabricaci'on cl'asica de pellets (combustible comprimido), puesto que se evita el uso de prensas y amoladoras. La gelificaci'on interna es una reacci'on qu'¿mica acu- osa que se produce al calentar la soluci'on hasta 80 ± 5¿ C. Cuando se realiza el proceso por calentamiento electromagn'etico, se observan algunas venta- jas con respecto al calentamiento tradicional por conducci'on (contacto de la muestra con aceite de silicio precalentado): se evita la etapa de reciclado del aceite y de los disolventes org'anicos necesarios para eliminar el aceite de la superficie de las part'¿culas producidas. En la unidad de gelificaci'on in- terna por microondas (Microwave Internal Gelation, MIG), las microondas representan una alternativa mucho m'as simple y segura: el calentamiento volum'etrico sin contacto facilita la producci'on a distancia del combustible en celdas calientes y adem'as reduce los residuos de l'¿quido contaminado. Esta tesis se enmarca dentro del proyecto Platform for Innovative Nu- clear FuEls (PINE), que tiene como objetivo fundamental la producci'on de combustible SP por MIG. En el sistema MIG, el tiempo de calentamiento es muy corto (del orden de decenas de milisegundos), por lo que se deben optimizar los par'ametros que contribuyen al calentamiento por microondas y es necesario conocer en profundidad la interacci'on entre las microondas y las muestras. En la primera parte de este trabajo se investiga un modelo t'ermico basado en diferencias finitas en el dominio del tiempo (FDTD), el cual es capaz de determinar, en cada instante durante el proceso de calentamiento, el comportamiento t'ermico de un punto definido dentro del material que se calienta. Adem'as se presenta una descripci'on detallada de los par'ametros m'as relevantes del modelo, incluyendo las condiciones de contorno (entre ellas la convecci'on). Por otra parte, se implementa anal'¿ticamente y se valida con diferentes t'ecnicas: una basada en teor'¿a de la f'¿sica, otra basada en la herramienta de ecuaciones diferenciales parciales (PDEtools) y la u'ltima basada en ejemplos encontrados en la literatura. En segundo lugar, se investigan los posibles disen¿os de cavidades de microondas para su aplicaci'on en MIG. Tanto las cavidades (selecci'on de los modos, frecuencia de resonancia, factores de calidad, etc.) como su posterior caracterizaci'on, se detallan con el objetivo de especificar el acoplamiento de energ'¿a. Los mecanismos de transferencia de energ'¿a de las cavidades se explican utilizando el m'etodo de perturbaci'on, con el que adem'as se analizan las p'erdidas de la cavidad cuando se coloca una muestra diel'ectrica en su interior. Con el modelo de transferencia de energ'¿a desar- rollado, se obtiene la tasa de generaci'on de calor por microondas, que se aplica al modelo t'ermico FDTD mencionado anteriormente. Los resultados anal'¿ticos demuestran la viabilidad de producir esferas gelificadas por MIG. Seguidamente se introducen los principales par'ametros relacionados con el calentamiento de un material por microondas, es decir, las propiedades diel'ectricas. Se desarrolla un nuevo procedimiento que permite medir estas propiedades en gotas que caen libremente a trav'es de una cavidad de mi- croondas. Se presenta el montaje experimental, cuya viabilidad se prueba a trav'es de diferentes experimentos. Las propiedades diel'ectricas medidas se incluyen en los modelos (perturbacional y t'ermico) con la intenci'on de determinar la potencia absorbida por la sustancia (en forma de gotas) y la temperatura que alcanza. En la u'ltima parte se presenta la implementaci'on del sistema MIG apli- cada al proyecto PINE, fundamental para la pr'actica de calentamiento (basado en frecuencias altas) dentro del laboratorio. Las propiedades de cada dispositivo se evaluan para realizar un estudio de potencia antes del ensamblaje del sistema MIG. De esa forma se evitan fallos al poner el sis- tema en funcionamiento. Adem'as se aportan las t'ecnicas experimentales y los resultados. La producci'on con 'exito de esferas gelificadas demuestra, sin duda, el uso favorable de las microondas en la producci'on de combustible SP por gelificaci'on interna. / In the continuous aim to reduce the amount of minor actinides (MA) from the spent fuel of Light Water Reactors (LWR) and therefore reduce its radiotoxicity (radioactive toxicity), new nuclear fuel concepts have been developed. Sphere-Pac (SP) fuel gives the opportunity to reintroduce the MA in a fuel matrix and to burn them in a fast reactor, which facilitates a multi-cycle because of its breeding feature, or in a subcritical fast system, i.e. an Accelerator Driven System (ADS) where its sub-criticality allows higher MA contents than a normal fast reactor reducing efficiently the radiotoxicity in one step. SP fuel is produced from the base solution (already containing all the elements) by internal gelation, which guarantees a good material homo- geneity and a lower contamination risk compared to the classical pellet fabrication, avoiding presses and grinding machines. The internal gelation is an aqueous chemical reaction occurring when the solution is heated up to 80 ± 5¿C. When performing the internal gelation process with electro- magnetic heating, some advantages appear with respect to the traditionally heating through conduction by contact of the sample with hot silicon oil: the recycling step of the oil and the organic solvents necessary to clean the particles from oil are avoided. In the Microwave Internal Gelation (MIG) unit, the microwaves represent a much simpler and safer alternative: the contactless volumetric heating facilitates the remote production of the fuel in hot cells and furthermore reduces the contaminated liquid waste. The fuel related project called Platform for Innovative Nuclear FuEls (PINE), in which this thesis is embedded, aims for the production of SP- fuel by MIG. In the MIG system, the heating time is very short (in the order of tens of milliseconds), therefore the microwave heating parameters have to be optimized and a good knowledge of the interaction between the microwaves and the samples must be achieved. In the first part of this dissertation a finite difference time domain (FDTD) thermal model capable to determine over each instant about the thermal behaviour of a definite point inside a material during heat process- ing is investigated. A detailed overview of the most relevant parameters on the model including the boundary conditions (e.g. convection) is pre- sented. Furthermore, the model is analytically implemented and validated with different techniques: a theoretical based physically validation, a par- tial differential equations (PDEtools) based validation and a validation with examples from the literature. Secondly, possible microwave cavity designs for MIG are researched. The cavities (selection of modes, resonant frequency, Q-factor, etc.) and its subsequent characterization for the coupling of energy are explained. Furthermore, the power transfer mechanisms of the cavities are explained using the perturbation method to analyse the losses when a dielectric sam- ple is placed inside a cavity. The developed power transfer model delivers the microwave heat generation rate which is applied to the FDTD thermal model mentioned in the previous paragraph. The analytical results provide a positive impression about the feasibility of producing gelated spheres by MIG. Next, the main parameters dealing with the heating of a material by microwaves are introduced. A new procedure that enables the measure- ment of dielectric properties of aqueous droplets freely falling through a microwave cavity is developed. The experimental setup is presented and several experiments prove its feasibility. The measured dielectric properties are afterwards included in the perturbation and thermal models with the main intention of determining the absorbed power by the material in form of drops and the reached temperature. In the last part the MIG system for the laboratory practice of the high frequency heating applied to the PINE project is implemented. Each device is characterized for a power study precedent to the MIG system assembly, avoiding then failures when putting the system into operation. In addition, the experimental techniques and the results are reported. Successful pro- duction of gelated spheres shows the favourable usage of microwave for the production of SP-fuel by internal gelation. / Cabanes Sempere, M. (2013). Innovative production of nuclear fuel by microwave internal gelation [Tesis doctoral]. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/31641

Une écoulement de cavité ouverte tridimensionnel saturé non-linéairement est étudié par une approche spatio-temporelle utilisant des données expérimentales résolues à la fois en temps et en espace. Ces données ont été acquises dans deux plans longitudinaux, respectivement perpendiculaire et parallèle au fond de la cavité, dans le régime incompressible, en air ou en eau. À l'aide de multiples méthodes de décompositions globales en temps et en espace, les ondes et les structures cohérentes constituant la dynamique dans le régime permanent et pouvant être produites par des mécanismes d'instabilités différents sont identifiées et caractérisées.Tout d'abord, on approfondit la compréhension de l'effet des non-linéarités sur les oscillations auto-entretenues de la couche cisaillée impactante et leurs interactions avec l'écoulement intra-cavitaire. En particulier, l'analyse spectrale d'une portion de l'espace des paramètres permet de mettre en évidence un lien entre l'accrochage des modes d'oscillations auto-entretenues, la modulation d'amplitude au niveau du coin impactant et l'intermittence de ces modes. De plus, l'observation des basses fréquences intéragissant fortement avec les oscillations de la couche de mélange démontre l'existence d'une dynamique tridimensionnelle intrinsèque à l'intérieur de la cavité malgré les perturbations causées par la couche cisaillée instable.Les analyses de stabilité linéaire ont montré que des instabilités centrifuges peuvent résulter de la courbure induite par la recirculation. L'étude de la dynamique après saturation révèle de nombreuses structures cohérentes dont les propriétés sont quantifiées et classées en s'appuyant sur la forme des instabilités sous-jacentes: des ondes transverses progressives ou stationnaires. Enfin, certains comportements des structures saturées suggèrent que les mécanismes non-linéaires gouvernant le développement de l'écoulement une fois sorti du régime linéaire pourraient être étudiés dans le cadre des équations d'amplitude. / A space-time study of a three-dimensional nonlinearly saturated open cavity flow is undertaken using time-resolved space-extended experimental data, acquired in both cross-stream and spanwise planes, in incompressible air and water flows. Through use of multiple modal decompositions in time and space, the waves and coherent structures composing the dynamics in the permanent regime are identified and characterised with respect to the instabilities arising in the flow.Effects of nonlinearities are thoroughly investigated in the impinging shear layer, regarding the self-sustained oscillations and their interactions with the inner-flow. In particular, the analysis conducted throughout the parameter space enlightens a global connection between the selection of locked-on modes and the amplitude modulation at the impingement and the mode switching phenomenon. Furthermore, observations of low frequencies interacting drastically with the shear layer flapping motion underline the existence of intrinsic coherent three-dimensional dynamics inside the cavity in spite of the shear layer disturbances.Linear stability analyses have demonstrated that centrifugal instabilities are at play along the main recirculation. The present investigation of the dynamics after onset of the saturation reveals numerous space-time coherent structures, whose properties are quantified and classified with respect to the underlying instabilities: travelling or standing spanwise waves. Finally, some patterns exhibited by the saturated structures suggest that the nonlinear mechanisms governing the mutations of the flow after the linear regime could gain more insight in the frame of amplitude equations.

No description available.

Le contexte d’étude est celui de la Compatibilité ÉlectroMagnétique (CEM). L’objectif de la CEM est, comme son nom l’indique, d’assurer la compatibilité entre une source de perturbation électromagnétique et un système électronique victime. Or, la prédiction de ces niveaux de perturbation ne peut pas s’effectuer à l’aide d’un simple calcul analytique, en raison de la géométrie qui est généralement complexe pour le système que l’on étudie, tel que le champ à l’intérieur d’un cockpit d’avion par exemple. En conséquence, nous sommes contraints d’employer des méthodes numériques, dans le but de prédire ce niveau de couplage entre les sources et les victimes. Parmi les nombreuses méthodes numériques existantes à ce jour, les méthodes Multi-Domaines (MD) sont très prisées. En effet, elles offrent la liberté aux utilisateurs de choisir la méthode numérique la plus adaptée, en fonction de la zone géométrique à calculer. Au sein de ces méthodes MD, la « Domain Decomposition Method » (DDM) présente l’avantage supplémentaire de découpler chacun de ces domaines. En conséquence, la DDM est particulièrement intéressante, vis-à-vis des méthodes concurrentes, en particulier sur l’aspect du coût numérique. Pour preuve, l’ONERA continue de développer cette méthode qui ne cesse de montrer son efficacité depuis plusieurs années, notamment pour le domaine des Surfaces Équivalentes Radar (SER) et des antennes. L’objectif de l’étude est de tirer profit des avantages de cette méthode pour des problématiques de CEM. Jusqu’à maintenant, de nombreuses applications de CEM, traitées par le code DDM, fournissaient des résultats fortement bruités. Même pour des problématiques électromagnétiques très simples, des problèmes subsistaient, sans explication convaincante. Ceci justifie cette étude. Le but de cette thèse est de pouvoir appliquer ce formalisme DDM à des problématiques de CEM. Dans cette optique, nous avons été amenés à redéfinir un certain nombre de conventions, qui interviennent au sein de la DDM. Par ailleurs, nous avons développé un modèle spécifique pour les ouvertures, qui sont des voies de couplage privilégiées par les ondes, à l’intérieur des cavités que représentent les blindages. Comme les ouvertures sont, en pratique, de petites dimensions devant la longueur d’onde, on s’est intéressé à un modèle quasi-statique. Nous proposons alors un modèle, qui a été implémenté, puis validé. Suite à ce modèle, nous avons développé une méthode originale, basée sur un calcul en deux étapes, permettant de ne plus discrétiser le support des ouvertures dans les calculs 3D. / The context of the study is the ElectroMagnetic Compatibility (EMC). Principal aim of the EMC is to ensure the compatibility between an electromagnetic perturbance source and an electronic device victim. Unfortunately, the perturbation levels prediction can not be made using an analytic formula, because the geometry which is generally complex for the interesting system, for example the field inside an aircraft’s cockpit. Therefore, we are contrained to use numerical methods, to be able to evaluate this coupling level between sources and victims. Among several existing numerical methods, Multi-Domains (MD) methods are very interesting. They offer to users the freedom to choose the most powerfull numerical method, in terms of the geometrical zone evaluated. With the MD methods, « Domain Decomposition Method » (DDM) has the avantage of decouplingeach of theses areas. Therefore, DDM is very interesting, compared to other methods, in particular on the numerical cost. ONERA keeps on developing this method, which has not stop showing his efficiency since several years, in particular in Radar Cross Section (RCS) and antennas. The objective of this study is to take the benefits of this method for EMC problems. Up to now, several EMC applications treated by the DDM code provided results strongly noisy. Even for with very simple electromagnetic cases, some problems remained without convincing explanations. This justifies this study. The aim of this thesis is to can be able to apply DDM formalism to EMC problems. Then, we have been induced to redefine a number of conventions which are involved in the DDM. Otherwise, we have developed a specific model for the apertures which are privilegied tracts of the coupling by the penetration of waves inside cavities (shieldings). As the apertures have in practice smaller dimensions compared to the wavelength, we have been interested to a quasistatic model which was developped, implemented and validated. Following this model, we have developed an original method, based on a two step calculation, able to do not discretize the apertures support in 3D computations.