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Yes / To date, mixing design practice in anaerobic digestion has focussed on biogas production, but no adequate consideration has been given to energy efficiency. A coherent, comprehensive and generalized strategy based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling is proposed to improve mixing efficiency of a full-scale, unconfined gas-mixed digester for wastewater treatment. The model consists of an Euler-Lagrange (EL) model where biogas bubbles are modelled as the Eulerian dispersed phase, and non-Newtonian sludge as the Lagrangian continuous phase. Robustness tests show that mixing predictions are independent of bubble size. The CFD strategy comprises the assessment of different mixing geometries and a range of input gas flow rates. Quantitative results show that simple retrofitting measures are able to achieve a significant improvement in the degree of mixing with reduced mixing times, and consequently recommendations for best mixing geometry and gas flow rate are given. A generalization to a generic digester is discussed in a form that is readily usable by professionals and consultants.

This research concerns the development and validation of simulation of the beam-target interaction to determine the target temperature distribution as a function of time for a given target geometry, surface radiation intensity and free stream flow condition. The effect of a turbulent supersonic flow was investigated both numerically and experimentally. Experiments were in the Virginia Tech supersonic wind tunnel with a Mach 4 nozzle, ambient total temperature, total pressure of 160 psi and Reynolds number of 5 × 10⁷/<i>m</i> . The target consisted of a 6.35 mm stainless steel plate painted flat black. The target was irradiated with a 300 Watt continuous beam Ytterbium fiber laser generating a 4 mm Gaussian beam at 1.08 micron 10 cm from the leading edge where a 4 mm turbulent boundary layer prevailed. An absorbed laser power of 65, 81, 101, 120 Watts was used leading to a maximum heat flux between 1035 to 1910 <i>W/cm</i>². The target surface and backside temperature was measured using a mid-wave infrared camera. The backside temperature was also measured using eight type-K thermocouples. Two tests are made, one with the flow-on and the other with the flow-off. For the flow-on case, the laser is turned on after the tunnel starts and the flow reaches a steady state. For the flow-off case, the plate is heated at the same power but without the supersonic flow. The cooling effect is seen by subtracting the flow-off temperature from the flow-on temperature. This temperature subtraction is useful in cancelling the bias errors such that the overall uncertainty is significantly reduced. A new conjugate heat transfer algorithm was implemented in the GASP solver and validated by predicting the temperature distribution inside a cooled nozzle wall. The conjugate heat transfer algorithm was used to simulate the experiments at 81 and 65 Watts. Most computations were performed using the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model on a 280, 320 cell grid. A grid convergence study was performed. At 65 Watts, good agreement was found in the predicted surface and backside temperature. On the surface, cooling was underpredicted close to the center and better agreement was seen away form the center. On the backside, good agreement was found for the temperature and temperature difference. Compared to the 65 Watt case, the 81 Watt case displays more asymmetry and a region of increased cooling is found upstream. The increased asymmetry was also seen on the backside by both the thermocouple and infrared temperature measurements. The computation underpredicts the surface temperature by 7% for the flow-off case. Again, cooling is underpredicted at the surface near the center. For all power settings, convective cooling significantly increases the time required to reach a given temperature. / Ph. D.

With advanced subsonic transports and military aircraft operating in the transonic regime, it is becoming important to determine the effects of the coupling between aerodynamic loads and elastic forces. Since aeroelastic effects can contribute significantly to the design of these aircraft, there is a strong need in the aerospace industry to predict these aero-structure interactions computationally. To perform static aeroelastic analysis in the transonic regime, high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis tools must be used in conjunction with high fidelity computational structural dynamics (CSD)analysis tools due to the nonlinear behavior of the aerodynamics in the transonic regime. There is also a need to be able to use a wide variety of CFD and CSD tools to predict these aeroelastic effects in the transonic regime. Because source codes are not always available, it is necessary to couple the CFD and CSD codes without alteration of the source codes. In this study, an aeroelastic coupling procedure is developed which will perform static aeroelastic analysis using any CFD and CSD code with little code integration. The aeroelastic coupling procedure is demonstrated on an F/A-18 Stabilator using NASTD (an in-house McDonnell Douglas CFD code)and NASTRAN. In addition, the Aeroelastic Research Wing (ARW-2) is used for demonstration of the aeroelastic coupling procedure by using ENSAERO (NASA Ames Research Center CFD code) and a finite element wing-box code (developed as a part of this research). The results obtained from the present study are compared with those available from an experimental study conducted at NASA Langley Research Center and a study conducted at NASA Ames Research Center using ENSAERO and modal superposition. The results compare well with experimental data. In addition, parallel computing power is used to investigate parallel static aeroelastic analysis because obtaining an aeroelastic solution using CFD/CSD methods is computationally intensive. A parallel finite element wing-box code is developed and coupled with an existing parallel Euler code to perform static aeroelastic analysis. A typical wing-body configuration is used to investigate the applicability of parallel computing to this analysis. Performance of the parallel aeroelastic analysis is shown to be poor; however with advances being made in the arena of parallel computing, there is definitely a need to continue research in this area. / Ph. D.

The effect of that the tire has on the overall aerodynamic drag in a car-tire assembly has been studied and deemed considerable from past studies. It has been shown that to know how tire parameters affect the drag on the car-tire assembly, it is important to understand how the vehicle body and the tires influence the flow structures. Previous studies have focused on the tire attributes that have some impact on the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle. These tire attributes, however, haven't been studied to the extent where one can get a better understanding of the impact of each of these attributes. This paper studies the impact that specific tire attributes have on the overall aerodynamic drag on the vehicle based on a thorough and systematic sensitivity study. The effect of tire attributes in a vehicle assembly as well as the sensitivity study of a rim protector on a standalone tire is conducted. This helps in better understanding the flow structures around the car body and around the tire for the improvement in the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle. This is a two-part study. One component of this study is a parametric sensitivity analysis of a tire in a tire – vehicle assembly. The other component is a parametric sensitivity analysis of the rim protector design on a standalone tire. / Master of Science / The drag performance is one of the most important factors that contributes to the overall efficiency of a vehicle. There has always been a huge demand in the automotive industry for such studies. Over the years, experimental studies conducted have shown to be invaluable to the industry. But a big downside to experimental studies is that they are extremely expensive. Experimental studies on Vehicle bodies require a wind tunnel and expensive measurement equipment. This has led to a high demand for more computational studies in this field. Various authors over the past few years have studied and challenged various solution procedures used in computational studies. The trade-off for these studies is always cost vs. accuracy. This thesis attempts to simulate both for a vehicle assembly as well as a standalone tire model to come up with a robust solution method for the computational analysis of flow over a vehicle body. The goal of this thesis is to conduct a parametric sensitivity study for the cross-section profile of the tire in vehicle assembly as well as a parametric sensitivity study for the rim protector profile of the tire in a standalone tire. At the end of the study, we will get a better understanding of the impact that each of the parameters have on the drag performance of the vehicle and the standalone tire.

Yes / A statistical model combined with CFD (computational fluid dynamic) method was used to explain the detailed phenomena of the process parameters, and a series of experiments were carried out for propylene polymerisation by varying the feed gas composition, reaction initiation temperature, and system pressure, in a fluidised bed catalytic reactor. The propylene polymerisation rate per pass was considered the response to the analysis. Response surface methodology (RSM), with a full factorial central composite experimental design, was applied to develop the model. In this study, analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated an acceptable value for the coefficient of determination and a suitable estimation of a second-order regression model. For better justification, results were also described through a three-dimensional (3D) response surface and a related two-dimensional (2D) contour plot. These 3D and 2D response analyses provided significant and easy to understand findings on the effect of all the considered process variables on expected findings. To diagnose the model adequacy, the mathematical relationship between the process variables and the extent of polymer conversion was established through the combination of CFD with statistical tools. All the tests showed that the model is an excellent fit with the experimental validation. The maximum extent of polymer conversion per pass was 5.98% at the set time period and with consistent catalyst and co-catalyst feed rates. The optimum conditions for maximum polymerisation was found at reaction temperature (RT) 75 °C, system pressure (SP) 25 bar, and 75% monomer concentration (MC). The hydrogen percentage was kept fixed at all times. The coefficient of correlation for reaction temperature, system pressure, and monomer concentration ratio, was found to be 0.932. Thus, the experimental results and model predicted values were a reliable fit at optimum process conditions. Detailed and adaptable CFD results were capable of giving a clear idea of the bed dynamics at optimum process conditions.

In recent years, space exploration has been driving studies that enable sustained human presence in space. In such studies, fluidics relating to biology have become important. Fluids in biological systems span from large-scale flows relevant to circulatory, digestion, and pulmonary systems, but also involve many micro-scale porous flows. Hence, space exploration is driving a novel need to characterize fluidics in microscales in microgravity conditions. In this work, we study the porous flow network within bones that stimulates cellular growth and has the potential to relate to osteoporosis (including driving osteoporosis in astronauts). To study this effect, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed on a microfluidic device with a hexagon structure and compared to experimental results in both normal gravity (1g) and microgravity (0g) via Blue Origin's New Shepard Vehicle (NS-23 attempt and NS-24 launch). CFD results have been created to predict the transport character of nutrients in the bones. These insights have the potential to lead to preventative measures for osteoporosis in astronauts.

Since the 1940s, the study of supersonic and hypersonic flow has posed significant challenges due to the variable aerodynamic characteristics and alterations in air properties at such high speeds. Hypervelocity wind tunnels have been instrumental in addressing gaps in this field, yet no existing facility can fully replicate true hypersonic conditions. The primary obstacle lies in sustaining the high enthalpies and targeted total conditions necessary for authentic supersonic and hypersonic environments. This paper focuses on the development of a mixing manifold section for a high enthalpy, long-duration hypervelocity wind tunnel designed to provide clean airflow and accurately replicate true hypervelocity conditions for extended run times. Research was done over a wide range of both computational designs and their experimental counterparts to determine the most effective design that replicates the conditions needed for the full wind tunnel.

Direct Contact Condensation between steam and water as well as bubble entrainment below the water surface play an important role in different accident scenarios for light water reactors. One example is the emergency core cooling water injection into a two-phase mixture. It has to be considered for example to evaluate potential pressurized thermal shock phenomena. This report documents experiments conducted in flat basin inside the TOPFLOW pressure chamber aiming on the generation of a database useful for CFD model development and validation. It comprises 3 different setups: condensation at a stratified flow of sub-cooled water, condensation at a sub-cooled water jet and a combination of both phenomena with steam bubble entrainment. The documentation includes all details on the experimental set up, on experimental conditions (experimental matrices), on the conduction of the experiments, on measuring techniques used and on data evaluation procedures. In addition, selected results are presented.

For the qualification and validation of two-phase CFD-models for medium and large-scale industrial applications dedicated experiments providing data with high temporal and spatial resolution are required. Fluid dynamic parameter like gas volume fraction, bubble size distribution, velocity or turbulent kinetic energy should be measured locally. Considering the fact, that the used measurement techniques should not affect the flow characteristics, radiation based tomographic methods are the favourite candidate for such measurements. Here the recently developed ultrafast X-ray tomography, is applied to measure the local and temporal gas volume fraction distribution in a vertical pipe. To obtain the required frame rate a rotating X-ray source by a massless electron beam and a static detector ring are used. Experiments on a vertical pipe are well suited for development and validation of closure models for two-phase flows. While vertical pipe flows are axially symmetrically, the boundary conditions are well defined. The evolution of the flow along the pipe can be investigated as well. This report documents the experiments done for co-current upwards and downwards air-water and steam-water flows as well as for counter-current air-water flows. The details of the setup, measuring technique and data evaluation are given. The report also includes a discussion on selected results obtained and on uncertainties.