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The study of the effect of different orbit paths and whirl ratios on the rotordynamic coefficients of a smooth eccentric annular seal, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was performed. The flow was simulated for two different orbits - linear and circular for orbit speeds ranging from 0 to 1. This was done using the FLUENT CFD code with a time - dependent solver which allowed the use of dynamic meshing and User Defined Functions (UDFs). The effect of clearance was also studied by simulating the flow through an eccentric seal with one-tenth the clearance and comparing the results. It was seen that the flow field varies significantly with both the change in orbit and clearance and this in turn affects the forces and rotordynamic coefficients. The linear orbit showed major changes in terms of both the flow fields and the resulting forces. The velocities, pressure magnitudes and forces were much larger than the circular orbit. Another important finding was that the behavior of the flow for the smaller clearance is viscosity dominated compared to the inertia dominated flow seen for large clearances. The computation of rotordynamic coefficients for the circular orbits used Childs' theory and it was seen that for larger clearances the CFD predictions were not in agreement with the expected trends from this theory. The smaller clearance simulations, however, show force predictions from which the rotordynamic coefficients obtained match the theory.

The flow field in an annular seal is simulated for synchronous circular whirl orbits with 60Hz whirl frequency and a clearance/radius ratio of 0.0154 using the Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. Fluent's Moving Reference Frame model (MRF) is used to render the flow quasi-steady by making transformations to a rotating frame. The computed flow fields for velocity, pressure and shear stress measurements are compared with the experimental data of Winslow, Thames and Cusano. The CFD predictions are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. The present CFD methodology can be extended to other whirl frequencies and clearances. The dynamic wall pressure distributions in an annular seal for non-circular whirl orbits were obtained using CFD. The simulations were performed using a time dependant solver utilizing Fluent's Dynamic Mesh model and User Defined Functions (UDFs). The wall pressure distributions obtained from the simulations are compared with data of Cusano. The CFD simulations over predicted the pressure field when compared to experimental results however the general trends in pressure contours are similar. The flow fields for varying rotor eccentricities are also studied by performing coordinate transformations and rendering the flow quasi-steady at set eccentricities using Fluent's MRF model. The computed velocity and pressure fields are compared with the time dependant solution obtained using Fluent's Dynamic Mesh model and UDFs for the same eccentricity. Good agreement in the velocity fields is obtained; however the pressure fields require further investigation. 2D Labyrinth seal simulations were performed for comparisons with experimental LDA data from Johnson. The velocity fields match the experimental LDA data to a fair degree of extent; however, Fluent simulations under predicted the secondary recirculation zones in Labyrinth Backward Swirl (LBS) case.

A study of ion oscillations in the annular regions of a strontium plasma is reported. An ultracold neutral plasma is formed by photoionizing the 1 P 1 electrons using a pulsed dye laser' and absorption spectroscopy is done on the 2 S ½ - 2 P ½ transition of the Sr+ ion. The kinetic energy of the ions is then calculated using Doppler broadening of the spectrum. The variation of temperature with time is fit to a theoretical model of kinetic energy oscillation. The result of the fitting is presented in this thesis. The importance of an annular analysis of the absorption spectrum is demonstrated and the mathematical procedures employed to calculate the kinetic energy are developed. The oscillations are observed to be damped which is a characteristic of strongly coupled plasmas.

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A systematic sectoral empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of Southern Hemisphere (SH) extratropical tropospheric zonal-mean geopotential height (GH) is conducted in order to determine how EOF shapes and shape ordering is affected by a decrease in the width of the sector. Previous work (Kushner and Lee 2007) using surface pressure found that the two lead EOFs exchange shape as the sector width decreases below seventy degrees. In the present work, the 500hPa GH field is found to exhibit a similar feature. By fitting a idealized kinematic model, in the form of a Gaussian error function, to daily 500 hPa GH for each sector, the kinematic features of the shape reordering observed in the lead EOFs is shown to arise from the covariance structure of the fluctuating model parameters. The correlations between model parameters which are shown to influence the EOF shapes are further shown to be strongly influenced by statistical properties of daily mass and angular momentum fluctuations. / Graduate

The coaxial aperture structure has been under intensive study in recent years, particularly since it exhibits electromagnetic transmission resonances that are stronger than its circular aperture counterpart. In our work, we study the resonance properties of a coaxial aperture in a perfect electric conductor (PEC) and in a real metal. For PEC, The dielectric constant is in finite and for real metal the dielectric constant is fi nite. We develop theory for reflection phase and amplitude in coaxial aperture at the end of a metal plate. While most of the past works of coaxial aperture focused on the propagation of light within the aperture structure and ignore the reflection at end-face,we fi nd that the reflection properties at the end-face are critical to determine both the wavelength and quality of Fabry-Perot resonant transmission of coaxial structure. Finite-di fference time-domain calculations agree well with our theory. We fi rst consider the PEC case, and later to develop the theory to account for real metal case. In real metal, the phase and amplitude of reflection are quantitatively diff erent from PEC because of plasmonic e ffects. Such di fference arises from the new physics associated with surface plasmons. This work is of interest to ongoing studies of coaxial structures in metal fi lms, which could impact many fields including filter e ffect,optical sensing, optical trapping, near- field spectroscopy and metamaterials. / Graduate

An experimental study of turbulent forced convection heat transfer to water flowing in a vertical annular passage is reported in this paper. The study investigates the influence of eccentricity (ranging from 0% to 80%) and diameter ratio (ranging from 1.5 to 4.0) upon the heat transfer phenomena occurring at the inner boundary of the annular passage. Dimensionless heat transfer parameters calculated from measurements made at the two locations corresponding to the maximum and minimum separation of the inner and outer boundaries of the annular passage are correlated in terms of the Reynolds number, the eccentricity and the diameter ratio. Analysis of the correlations indicates that eccentricity affects the heat transfer phenomena occurring at the two locations on the inner boundary of the annular passage in different fashions; increasing eccentricity causes the heat transfer to increase at the location corresponding to the maximum separation of the boundaries and causes the heat transfer to decrease at the location corresponding to the minimum separation of the boundaries. The magnitude of the increase or decrease in heat transfer is dependent upon the diameter ratio; at a particular level of eccentricity, the greater variations in heat transfer occur at the smaller diameter ratios. Ranges in which eccentricity does not influence heat transfer are found in connection with the larger diameter ratios. Moody friction factors calculated from measurements made with concentric annular passages are correlated as a function of Reynolds number. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

No description available.

No description available.