The reliable prediction of turbulent non-equilibrium flows is of high academic and industrial interest in several engineering fields. Most turbulent flows are often predicted using single-time-scale Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence models which assume the flows can be modelled through a single time or length scale which is an admittedly incorrect assumption. Therefore they are not expected to capture the lag in the response of the turbulence in non-equilibrium flows. In attempts to improve prediction of these flows, by taking into consideration some features of the turbulent kinetic energy spectrum, the multiple-time-scale models arose. A number of two-scale models have been proposed, but so far their use has been rather limited.This work thus focusses on the development of two-time-scale approaches. Two two-time-scale linear-eddy-viscosity models, referred to as NT1 and NT2 models, have been developed and the initial stages of the development of two-time-scale non-linear-eddy-viscosity models are also reported. The models' coefficients have been determined through asymptotic analysis of decaying grid turbulence, homogeneous shear flows and the flow in a boundary layer in local equilibrium. Three other important features of these models are that there is consistent partition of the large and the small scales for all above limiting cases, model sensitivity to the partition and production rate ratios and sensitivity of the eddy viscosity sensitive to the mean strain rates.The models developed have been tested through computations of a wide range of flows such as homogeneous shear and normally strained flows, fully developed channel flows, zero-pressure-gradient, adverse-pressure-gradient, favourable-pressure-gradient and oscillatory boundary layer flows, fully developed oscillatory and ramp up pipe flows and steady and pulsated backward-facing-step flows.The proposed NT1 and NT2 two-scale models have been shown to perform well in all test cases, being, among the benchmarked models tested, the models which best performed in the wide range of dimensionless shear values of homogeneous shear flows, the only linear-eddy-viscosity models which predicted well the turbulent kinetic energy in the normally strained cases and the only models which showed satisfactory sensitivity in predicting correctly the reattachment point in the unsteady backward facing step cases with different forcing frequencies. Although the development of the two-time-scale non-linear-eddy-viscosity models is still in progress, the interim versions proposed here have resulted in predictions of the Reynolds normal stresses similar to those of much more complex models in all test cases studied and in predictions of the turbulent kinetic energy in normally strained flows which are better than those of the other models tested in this study.

[pt] Os processos de destilação atmosférica e a vácuo do petróleo têm como sub-produtos mais pesados os resíduos atmosféricos e de vácuo, respectivamente. Modelos encontrados na literatura não descrevem bem a dependência da viscosidade com a temperatura para estas frações. Há grandes diferenças entre valores experimentais e calculados e no comportamento da curva temperatura X viscosidade. As viscosidades dinâmicas de sete diferentes amostras de resíduos foram determinadas experimentalmente. As amostras foram caracterizadas através de ensaios de: densidade, SARA, concentração de asfaltenos e destilação simulada. Com base em suas características físicas são propostos modelos de viscosidade de frações pesadas de petróleo. / [en] Atmospheric and vacuum residua are the heaviest byproducts of the distillation processes. Literature models don't describe well the viscosity dependency on temperature of these fractions. There are large differences between experimental and calculated values and at the temperature X viscosity curve. Dynamic viscosities of seven different samples were experimentally determined. The samples were characterized by: density, SARA, asphalthene concentration and simulated distillation. Based on their physical characteristics, viscosity models for heavy fractions of oil are proposed.

In this thesis a numerical study has been undertaken to investigate turbulent flow and heat transfer in a number of flow problems, representing the gas-cooled reactor core flows. The first part of the research consisted of a meticulous assessment of various advanced RANS models of fluid turbulence against experimental and numerical data for buoyancy-modified mixed convection flows, such flows being representative of low-flow-rate flows in the cores of nuclear reactors, both presently-operating Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGRs) and proposed ‘Generation IV’ designs. For this part of the project, an in-house code (‘CONVERT’), a commercial CFD package (‘STAR-CD’) and an industrial code (‘Code_Saturne’) were used to generate results. Wide variations in turbulence model performance were identified. Comparison with the DNS data showed that the Launder-Sharma model best captures the phenomenon of heat transfer impairment that occurs in the ascending flow case; v^2-f formulations also performed well. The k-omega-SST model was found to be in the poorest agreement with the data. Cross-code comparison was also carried out and satisfactory agreement was found between the results.The research described above concerned flow in smooth passages; a second distinct contribution made in this thesis concerned the thermal-hydraulic performance of rib-roughened surfaces, these being representative of the fuel elements employed in the UK fleet of AGRs. All computations in this part of the study were undertaken using STAR-CD. This part of the research took four continuous and four discrete design factors into consideration including the effects of rib profile, rib height-to-channel height ratio, rib width-to-height ratio, rib pitch-to-height ratio, and Reynolds number. For each design factor, the optimum configuration was identified using the ‘efficiency index’. Through comparison with experimental data, the performance of different RANS turbulence models was also assessed. Of the four models, the v^2-f was found to be in the best agreement with the experimental data as, to a somewhat lesser degree were the results of the k-omega-SST model. The k-epsilon and Suga models, however, performed poorly. Structured and unstructured meshes were also compared, where some discrepancies were found, especially in the heat transfer results. The final stage of the study involved a simulation of a simplified 3-dimensional representation of an AGR fuel element using a 30 degree sector configuration. The v^2-f model was employed and comparison was made against the results of a 2D rib-roughened channel in order to assess the validity and relevance of the precursor 2D simulations of rib-roughened channels. It was shown that although a 2D approach is extremely useful and economical for ‘parametric studies’, it does not provide an accurate representation of a 3D fuel element configuration, especially for the velocity and pressure coefficient distributions, where large discrepancies were found between the results of the 2D channel and azimuthal planes of the 3D configuration.

Submitted by isabela.moljf@hotmail.com (isabela.moljf@hotmail.com) on 2017-07-04T15:33:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 janainadeandradesilva.pdf: 21480078 bytes, checksum: 1bec9f8f3be7afcc231a77cd63126286 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-08-08T15:14:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 janainadeandradesilva.pdf: 21480078 bytes, checksum: 1bec9f8f3be7afcc231a77cd63126286 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-08T15:14:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 janainadeandradesilva.pdf: 21480078 bytes, checksum: 1bec9f8f3be7afcc231a77cd63126286 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-17 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A insuficiência renal crônica é uma doença que atinge 10 % da população mundial, cujo tratamento necessita da realização de procedimento de hemodiálise que é uma filtragem do sangue. Este processo é, em muitos casos, extremamente desgastante para o paciente, pois existe uma constante perda de entradas venosas (fístulas). Geralmente esta perda se dá devido a irregularidades das tensões geradas pelo escoamento sanguíneo nas paredes dos vasos, podendo causar doenças como hiperplasia intimal entre outras. Visando técnicas não invasivas, modelos computacionais que permitam prever o comportamento sanguíneo vêm tendo demanda crescente. Neste trabalho são analisadas, através de modelagem computacional e via métodos de volumes finitos, fístulas arteriovenosas utilizadas em hemodiálise considerando variações no ângulos de anastomose e condições de escoamento nos vasos para alguns modelos reológicos do sangue. Casos com vasos maduros e imaturos, com agulhas e sem agulhas, são estudados. Avaliando-se níveis de tensões cisalhantes e suas oscilações, juntamente com padrões de fluxos secundários, evidencia-se a relação entre os padrões de escoamento e a geometria das fístulas, com perspectiva de minimizar as patologias na aplicação de procedimentos de hemodiálise. / Chronic renal failure is a disease that affects 10% of the world population, that requires hemodialysis procedure which is a blood filtration. This process is extremely stressful in many cases for the patient, because there is a continuous degradation of vessels and fistulae. In general, this degradation is due to the fluctuation of the stress generated by the blood flow on the vessel walls that may lead to diseases such as intimal hyperplasia, among others. In view of non invasive techniques, computational models capable to predict blood flow are becoming more required. In this work, through computational modeling by using finite volume method, arteriovenous fistulae used in hemodialysis are analyzed, considering several anastomotic angles and vessel flow conditions, for various blood rheological models. Mature and non mature vessels, as well as situations with and without needles, are also analyzed. By evaluating shear stress levels and oscillations together with secondary flow patterns, the relation between flow patterns and fistulae geometry is identified, aiming to minimize the pathologies when hemodialysis procedures are applied.