Most fluid flows of practical interest involve and are affected by turbulence. One of the most promising computational methods for the prediction of turbulent flows is the so-called large eddy simulation (LES) methodology. Experience over the past decades have shown the capability of LES to provide accurate predictions for several types of flow at a reasonable computational cost. It has also become clear, however, that the LES methodology fails when applied to boundary layer flows at high Reynolds numbers. Since many engineering applications fall in exactly that category, this failure is often considered the most severe bottleneck of LES. <br /><br /> The present thesis is an attempt to move towards a solution of this problem. Inspired by the idealized picture of a turbulent boundary layer, a statistical model is used for the approximately universal turbulence in the inner boundary layer, whereas the more flow dependent outer boundary layer is solved by LES. Ideally, this results in a computational method that provides accurate predictions of rather general turbulent flows, while maintaining a tractable computational cost. In practice, the results are a vast improvement compared to LES without any inner layer modeling, but a transition layer appears where the state of the turbulence changes from being modeled statistically to resolved by LES. This so-called 'artificial buffer layer' results in the skin friction being consistently underpredicted by 10-15%. <br /><br /> The physics and dynamics of this artificial buffer layer are investigated and characterized, and it is argued that there exist several similarities with true buffer layer turbulence. Additional forcing of the momentum equations is used as a means to trigger resolved turbulence motions more quickly, and it is demonstrated that the results are better: the artificial buffer layer is smaller, the skin friction is accurately predicted, and the dynamics in the inner layer have more correct length scales. The results with the additional forcing are very sensitive to the forcing amplitude, and a simple control algorithm for this parameter is proposed and tested with favourable results.

The convective mass transfer coefficient is determined for evaporation in a horizontal rectangular duct, which forms the test section of the transient moisture transfer (TMT) facility. In the test facility, a short pan is situated in the lower panel of the duct where a hydrodynamically fully developed laminar or turbulent airflow passes over the surface of the water. The measured convective mass transfer coefficients have uncertainties that are typically less than ±10% and are presented for Reynolds numbers (ReD) between 560 and 8,100, Rayleigh numbers (RaD) between 6,100 and 82,500, inverse Graetz numbers (Gz) between 0.003 and 0.037, and operating conditions factors (H*) between -3.6 and -1.4. The measured convective mass transfer coefficients are found to increase as ReD, RaD, Gz and H* increase and these effects are included in the Sherwood number (ShD) correlations presented in this thesis, which summarize the experimental data.<p> An analogy between heat and mass transfer is developed to determine the convective heat transfer coefficients from the experimentally determined ShD correlations. The convective heat transfer coefficient is found to be a function of ShD and the ratio between heat and moisture transfer potentials (S*) between the surface of the water and the airflow in the experiment. The analogy is used in the development of a new method that converts a pure heat transfer NuD (i.e., heat transfer with no mass transfer) and a pure mass transfer ShD (i.e., mass transfer with no heat transfer) into NuD and ShD that are for simultaneous heat and mass transfer. The method is used to convert a pure heat transfer NuD from the literature into the NuD and ShD numbers measured in this thesis. The results of the new method agree within experimental uncertainty bounds, while the results of the traditional method do not, indicating that the new method is more applicable than the traditional analogy between heat and mass transfer during simultaneous heat and mass transfer.<p>A numerical model is developed that simulates convective heat and mass transfer for a vapor permeable Tyvek® membrane placed between an airflow and liquid water. The boundary conditions imposed on the surfaces of the membrane within the model are typical of the conditions that are present within the TMT facility. The convective heat and mass transfer coefficients measured in this thesis are applied in the model to determine the heat and moisture transfer through the membrane. The numerical results show that the membrane responds very quickly to a step change in temperature and relative humidity of the air stream. Since the transients occur over a short period of time (less than 1 minute), it is feasible to use a steady-state model to determine the heat and mass transfer rates through the material for HVAC applications.<p>The TMT facility is also used to measure the heat and moisture transfer through a vapor permeable Tyvek® membrane. The membrane is in contact with a water surface on its underside and air is passed over its top surface with convective boundary conditions. The experimental data are used to verify the numerically determined moisture transfer rate through the Tyvek® membrane. The numerical model is able to determine the mass transfer rates for a range of testing conditions within ±26% of the experimental data. The differences between the experiment and the model could be due to a slightly different mass transfer coefficient for flow over Tyvek® than for flow over a free water surface.

This study analyzes a turbulent passive scalar field using two-point and three-point correlations of the fluctuating scalar field. Multipoint correlation functions are investigated because they retain scaling property information and simultaneously probe the concentration field for the spatial structure of the scalar filaments. Thus, multipoint correlation functions provide unique information about the spatial properties of the concentration filaments. The concentration field is created by the iso-kinetic release of a high Schmidt number dye into a fully developed turbulent boundary layer of an open channel flow. The concentration fields were previously measured using the planar laser-induced fluorescence technique. The two-point correlations of the fluctuating scalar field indicate that as the scalar field evolves downstream, the anisotropic influence of the tracer injection method diminishes, and the scalar field becomes dominated by the mean velocity shear. As the scalar filaments align with the mean velocity gradient, the elliptical shape associated with the contours of the correlation function tilts in the direction of the mean velocity gradient. As a result, the two-point correlation contours of the concentration fluctuations indicate that anisotropic conditions (i.e. the tilted, asymmetric, elliptical shape) develop as a consequence of the mean velocity shear. Three-point correlations of the fluctuating scalar field are calculated based on configuration geometries defined by previous researchers. The first configuration follows Mydlarski and Warhaft (1998), which employs two cold-wire measurements and Taylor's frozen turbulence hypothesis. The three-point correlation contours of the concentration fluctuations associated with the cold-wire measurements exhibit a symmetric characteristic V-shape. Similar symmetric properties are observed in the current study. The second set of configurations follows on recent theoretical predictions, which indicate that the three-point correlation of the fluctuating scalar field is dependent on the size, shape, and orientation of the triangle created by the three points. The current study analyzes two geometric configurations (isosceles and collinear). The geometric configurations are defined to ensure that the influence of the shape remains constant as the configuration is rotated, translated, and dilated. Additionally, the scaling exponent in the inertial-convective regime is calculated to determine the dependence of the correlation function on the size of the triangle pattern.

This study uses the Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) method to simulate unsteady two-dimensional transport variables in argon (Ar) plasma, under low pressure, high density, and weak ionization between two infinite planar electrodes suddenly biased by a negative voltage. Plasma has been widely used in materials processing, thin film manufacturing, light source, nuclear fusion, and etching, etc. Properties of plasmas are also becoming important area for research in physics, chemistry, photonics, aerospace, engineering science and technology. Studying transport processes of plasmas therefore is important. This research consider by electric fields and magnetic fields, viscous, momentum exchange collisions between electrons ions and neutral particles. The computed results in this work quantitatively show density, velocity, electric potential, temperature, magnetic field, viscosity, thermal conductivity of the electrons ions and neutral particles across the sheath to the surfaces suddenly biased by a DC negative voltage. And increase of the boundary layer and sheath thickness. We can compare the theory and the simulation to know the behavior of the plasma near a surface.

One of the last remaining challenges preventing the laminarization of sweptwings is the control of unstable crossflow vortices. In low-disturbance environments the transition from laminar to turbulent flow on the swept-wing initially takes the path of receptivity, where surface roughness or disturbances in the environment introduce shortwavelength disturbances into the boundary layer. This is followed by development and linear growth of stationary crossflow vortices that modify the mean flow, changing the stability characteristics of the boundary layer. Finally, breakdown to turbulence occurs over a short length scale due to the high-frequency secondary instability. The receptivity mechanism is the least understood, yet holds the most promise for providing a laminar flow control strategy. Results of a 3-year flight test program focused on receptivity measurements and laminar flow control on a 30-degree swept-wing are presented. A swept-wing test article was mounted on the port wing of a Cessna O-2A aircraft and operated at a chord Reynolds number of 6.5 to 7.5 million. Spanwise-periodic, micronsized discrete roughness elements were applied at the leading edge of the swept-wing in order to excite the most unstable crossflow wavelength and promote early boundary layer transition. An infrared camera was used to detect boundary-layer transition due to changes in leading-edge roughness. Combined with the IR camera, a new technique of calibrating surface-mounted hotfilms was developed for making disturbance-amplitude measurements downstream of modulated roughness heights. This technique proved to be effective at measuring disturbance amplitudes and can be applied in future tests where instrumentation is limited. Furthermore, laminar flow control was performed with subcritically-spaced roughness. A 100% increase in the region of laminar flow was achieved for some of the conditions tested here.

How the dust cycle works on Mars is a key atmospheric issue, as the dust cycle is arguably the dominant cycle in the current Martian climate. In addition, how much is known about the Martian planetary boundary layer is mostly determined from models with very little in-situ data from contemporaneous studies to validate such boundary layer characteristic assumptions, and the model studies have not been able to define a known height for a possible boundary layer on Mars using ground-based investigations prior to this research. The Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs), however, show promise in offering a unique chance to take surface-based measurements to offer support for dust and boundary layer measurements made from remote sensors. There are three main objectives of this study: to constrain the late-afternoon maximum height of the boundary layer for both MER sites, to constrain the mean particle size and variance of the size distribution in the atmosphere, and to use these results to demonstrate that sunset and twilight imaging is a useful survey of otherwise difficult-to-determine parameters that are needed in several tools for studying Mars’ atmosphere. A modeling approach using twilight-based Sun imaging by the MERs (Sol 1959 for Spirit and Sol 695 for Opportunity) is used to constrain boundary layer and dust particle size parameters. After determining which parameters control which observables, resulting elevations and azimuths are matched up to specific observations from the available MER datasets. A Monte Carlo code produces the model that is then compared to Sol data with plotting of resulting error. Results include PBL height and structure estimations and plots along with generalized particle size information for each MER site on the given Sol. Figures show comparisons of this study’s particle size results with that of previous studies as well as maps of fit qualities for boundary layer parameters compared to a contemporaneous modeled scale height estimation. Results show promise for planning future MER-based campaigns and models.

This study aims to better understand the characteristics of the tidal- current profiles and the near-bed boundary layer structures off the southwestern coast of Taiwan. The velocity profile is measured by a bottom-mounted ADCP. Six experiments were conducted, each lasted 10~20 days and the water depth ranging 12~18 m. Twenty-minute averaged velocity profiles have been fitted to a logarithmic form with 4% accuracy. The friction velocity (u*) and roughness length (z0) are then derived from the slope and intercept of the best-fitted straight lines. Our results show that the profile shape and friction velocity vary tidally, the latter reaches O(0.06)ms-1 during peak current flow. The magnitude of z0 is large and scattered, but it shows a general trend of decrease with increasing flow speed. The observed log-layer height increases, and the bottom drag coefficient (CD) decrease, respectively with increasing flow speed. Measurements also show that water turbidity increases with rainfall, as a result the z0 and CD also increase. Finally, harmonic analysis of the tidal currents indicate significant changes between winter (homogeneous) and summer (stratified) conditions. In winter the vertical variation of orientation and phase is small, whereas in summer there was a 150 orientation and 250 phase difference (the bottom currents lead the surface currents) between the near surface and near bed regions.

The focus of this study was to determine the effect of clam presence and behavior on the crossflow of the ambient horizontal flow and the effect of ambient horizontal flow characteristics influence the clam feeding behavior. Hence, there is a reciprocal relationship between organisms and the physical environment, and this study ultimately addressed the role of hydrodynamics in the predator-prey relationship between bivalve clams, Mercenaria mercenaria, and their predators, blue crabs and whelks. The study concludes that clams alter the chemical odorant source characteristics and control the transmission of the chemical signal through altering the crossflow. The first part of the study is a field experiment designed to quantify the effect of the presence and behavior of clams on the crossflow of the horizontal crossflow. The second part of this study is a two-part laboratory experiment designed to isolate the influence of environmental factors on clam behavior. One experiment quantifies the unsteadiness of the clam excurrent jet velocity time record according to environmental cues such as the horizontal crossflow velocity, the density of the clam patch, and the size of the clam. The second laboratory experiment quantifies the unsteadiness of the jet velocity values according to the presence of predator cues in the upstream flow. Clams are found, using an ADV system in the field, to alter the vertical distribution of velocity according to the sediment in which they are buried. Also, turbulence characteristics, such as Turbulent Kinetic Energy and Reynolds shear stress, are altered in the presence of clams according to the ambient horizontal crossflow velocity and treatment site. The laboratory flume PIV system captured vector plots for two-dimensional planes that bisect the clam excurrent siphons and clam jet velocity time records were extracted. A fractal analysis and a lacunarity analysis of the jet velocity time records found that clams alter their jet excurrent velocity unsteadiness according to the horizontal crossflow velocity. This behavioral change may contribute to the differences in the turbulence characteristics in the field experiment. Another result from the laboratory experiments is that the effect of clam patch density on the feeding activity was dependent on the size of the organism. This size/density dependent relationship suggests that predation by blue crabs dominates the system since larger clams are no longer susceptible to blue crab predation, whereas clams of all sizes are susceptible to whelk predation. Finally, clams increase the randomness of their excurrent jet velocity values when predator cues are located in the upstream flume flow. This suggests that the presence of predators elicits clam behavior that promotes the mixing and dilution of their chemical metabolites.

No description available.

<p>Experimental findings show that transition from laminar toturbulent ow may occur also if the exponentially growingperturbations, eigensolutions to the linearised disturbanceequations, are damped. An alternative non-modal growthmechanism has been recently identi fied, also based on thelinear approximation. This consists of the transient growth ofstreamwise elongated disturbances, with regions of positive andnegative streamwise velocity alternating in the spanwisedirection, called streaks. These perturbation are seen toappear in boundary layers exposed to signi ficant levels offree-stream turbulence. The effect of the streaks on thestability and transition of the Blasius boundary layer isinvestigated in this thesis. The analysis considers the steadyspanwise-periodic streaks arising from the nonlinear evolutionof the initial disturbances leading to the maximum transientenergy growth. In the absence of streaks, the Blasius pro filesupports the viscous exponential growth of theTollmien-Schlichting waves. It is found that increasing thestreak amplitude these two-dimensional unstable waves evolveinto three-dimensional spanwiseperiodic waves which are lessunstable. The latter can be completely stabilised above athreshold amplitude. Further increasing the streak amplitude,the boundary layer is again unstable. The new instability is ofdifferent character, being driven by the inectional pro filesassociated with the spanwise modulated ow. In particular, it isshown that, for the particular class of steady streaksconsidered, the most ampli fied modes are antisymmetric andlead to spanwise oscillations of the low-speed streak (sinuousscenario). The transition of the streak is then characterisedby the appearance of quasi-streamwise vorticesfollowing themeandering of the streak.</p><p>Simulations of a boundary layer subjected to high levels offree-stream turbulence have been performed. The receptivity ofthe boundary layer to the external perturbation is studied indetail. It is shown that two mechanisms are active, a linearand a nonlinear one, and their relative importance isdiscussed. The breakdown of the unsteady asymmetric streaksforming in the boundary layer under free-stream turbulence isshown to be characterised by structures similar to thoseobserved both in the sinuous breakdown of steady streaks and inthe varicose scenario, with the former being the mostfrequently observed.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Fluid mechanics, laminar-turbulent transition,boundary layer ow, transient growth, streamwise streaks,lift-up effect, receptivity, free-stream turbulence, secondaryinstability, Direct Numerical Simulation.</p>