Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 181-188).

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004. / Kok-Meng Lee, Committee Chair ; Andrei G. Fedorov, Committee Member ; William E. Singhose, Committee Member ; David G. Taylor, Committee Member ; Zhi Zhou, Committee Member. Includes bibliographical references.

The ideal two-fluid plasma model is a more generalized plasma model compared to the ideal MHD and it couples the ion and electron Euler equations via Maxwell's equations. Two-fluid plasma model is essential when the ion and electron fluids are at different temperatures. In this work, a fundamental investigation on the effect of non-dimensional light speed, ion-to-electron mass ratio and plasma beta on the plasma dynamics in the Brio-Wu shock tube Riemann problem is presented. A one dimensional finite volume code is developed based on the macroscopic governing equations, with second order accuracy in space and time. The source terms are treated implicitly and the homogeneous flux terms are treated explicitly. The credibility of the numerical results is assessed by performing several linear and nonlinear tests. Realistic light speed results in increasing the stiffness of the equations and severe time step restriction, which poses a challenge to the numerical simulations. In the context of the Brio-Wu shock tube problem, it is observed that the light speed is not important with respect to the hydrodynamics. However, light speed does affect the magnitude of the self generated electric field. Mass ratio affects the electron plasma dynamics. The speed of the fast moving electron plasma waves changes with the mass ratio. The results obtained using a mass ratio of 500 are in close agreement with that of realistic mass ratio of 1836. Increasing plasma beta suppresses the amplitude of the fast moving electron plasma waves.

Large eddy simulation (LES) suffers from two primary sources of error: the numerical discretization scheme and the subgrid stress model (SGS). An attempt has been made to determine optimum combinations of SGS models and numerical schemes for use in performing practical LES for engineering-relevant problems. A formal quantification of numerical error present in finite-volume/finite-difference simulations was conducted. The effect of this error was explicitly added to a pseudospectral LES solver, and the modified pseudospectral solver was used to compute LES of decaying turbulence. In this way SGS modeling error and numerical error could be separately assessed. Verification of results was carried out using a commercially available finite-volume solver (FLUENT). Results showed that some combinations of SGS model and discretization scheme are more suitable for performing LES than others. Favorable combinations from the above findings were tested for an axisymmetric jet at Mach number 0.2. Results indicate good agreement with prior findings.

No description available.

The use of tsunami models for applications of 'now-casting', which is the prediction of the present and near future behavior, has limited exploration, and could potentially be of significant usefulness. Tsunamis are most often caused by earthquakes in subduction zones, which generates coupled uplift and subsidence, and displaces the water column. The behavior of the fault failure is difficult to describe in the short term, often requiring seismic waveform inversion, which takes a length of time on the order of weeks to months to properly model, and is much too late for any use in a now-casting sense. To expedite this length of time, a series of source models are created with variable fault geometry behaviors, using fault parameters from Northern Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Short-term Inundation and Forecasting of Tsunamis (SIFT) database, in order to model a series of potential tsunami behaviors using the numerical modelling package, GeoClaw. The implementation of modeling could identify areas of interest for further study that are sensitive to fault failure geometry. Initial results show that by varying the geometry of sub-faults of a given earthquake, the resulting tsunami models behave fairly differently with different wave dispersion behavior, both in pattern and magnitude. While there are shortcomings of the potential geometries the code created in this study, and there are significant improvements that can be made, this study provides a good starting point into now-casting of tsunami models, with future iterations likely involving statistical probability in the fault failure geometries. / Master of Science / Short term modeling of tsunamis generated by earthquakes is poorly explored. If an earthquake causes movement in a fault located underwater, and this movement will then cause the water column above it to be displaced. Tsunami models are sensitive to how the fault moves, and an accurate representation of this movement often takes much more time that the duration of a tsunami. This lengthy process is ineffective for short term modeling. This study instead estimates several possible scenarios of how the fault will behave, and model each of them. This will show how different locations of interest are sensitive to different geometries of fault failure. Initial results show that by varying this geometry, the tsunami wave behaves very differently, and will cause different amounts of run-up in the same location depending on which particular geometry is modeled. The automation of distinctly different earthquake sources serve as a good starting point for future work to be conducted to generate more accurate models.

A numerical code for solving the time-dependent incompressible 3D Navier-Stokes equations with finite volumes on overlapping staggered grids in cylindrical and rectangular geometry is developed. In the code, written in FORTRAN, the momentum equation for the velocity is solved by projection method and Poisson equation for the pressure is solved by ADI implicit method in two directions combined with discrete fast Fourier transform in the third direction. A special technique for overcoming the singularity on the cylinder's axis is developed. This code, taking into account dependence upon temperature of the viscosity, density and surface tension of the liquid, is used to study the fluid motion in a cylinder with free cylindrical surface (under normal and zero-gravity conditions); and in a rectangular closed cell with a source of thermocapillary convection (bubble inside attached to one of the cell's faces). They are significant problems in crystal growth and in general experiments in fluid dynamics respectively. Nevertheless, the main study is dedicated to the liquid bridge problem. The development of thermocapillary convection inside a cylindrical liquid bridge is investigated by using a direct numerical simulation of the 3D, time-dependent problem for a wide range of Prandtl numbers, Pr = 0.01 - 108. For Pr > 0.08 (e.g. silicon oils), above the critical value of temperature difference between the supporting disks, two counter propagating hydrothermal waves bifurcate from the 2D steady state. The existence of standing and traveling waves is discussed. The dependence of viscosity upon temperature is taken into account. For Pr = 4, 0-g conditions, and for Pr = 18.8, 1-g case with unit aspect ratio an investigation of the onset of chaos was numerically carried out. For a Pr = 108 liquid bridge under terrestrial conditions , the appearance and the development of thermoconvective oscillatory flows were investigated for different ambient conditions around the free surface. Transition from 2D thermoconvective steady flow to a 3D flow is considered for low-Prandtl fluids (Pr = 0.01) in a liquid bridge with a non-cylindrical free surface. For Pr < 0.08 (e.g. liquid metals), in supercritical region of parameters 3D but non-oscillatory convective flow is observed. The computer program developed for this simulation transforms the original non-rectangular physical domain into a rectangular computational domain. A study of how presence of a bubble in experimental rectangular cell influences the convective flow when carrying out microgravity experiments. As a model, a real experiment called TRAMP is numerically simulated. The obtained results were very different from what was expected. First, because of residual gravity taking place on board any spacecraft; second, due to presence of a bubble having appeared on the experimental cell's wall. Real data obtained from experimental observations were taken for the calculations.

This thesis documents the hydrodynamics code Cholla and a numerical study of multiphase galactic winds. Cholla is a massively-parallel, GPU-based code designed for astrophysical simulations that is freely available to the astrophysics community. A static-mesh Eulerian code, Cholla is ideally suited to carrying out massive simulations (> 2048 ³ cells) that require very high resolution. The code incorporates state-of-the-art hydrodynamics algorithms including third-order spatial reconstruction, exact and linearized Riemann solvers, and unsplit integration algorithms that account for transverse fluxes on multidimensional grids. Operator-split radiative cooling and a dual-energy formalism for high mach number flows are also included. An extensive test suite demonstrates Cholla's superior ability to model shocks and discontinuities, while the GPU-native design makes the code extremely computationally efficient - speeds of 5-10 million cell updates per GPU-second are typical on current hardware for 3D simulations with all of the aforementioned physics. The latter half of this work comprises a comprehensive study of the mixing between a hot, supernova-driven wind and cooler clouds representative of those observed in multiphase galactic winds. Both adiabatic and radiatively-cooling clouds are investigated. The analytic theory of cloud-crushing is applied to the problem, and adiabatic turbulent clouds are found to be mixed with the hot wind on similar timescales as the classic spherical case (4-5 t_cc) with an appropriate rescaling of the cloud-crushing time. Radiatively cooling clouds survive considerably longer, and the differences in evolution between turbulent and spherical clouds cannot be reconciled with a simple rescaling. The rapid incorporation of low-density material into the hot wind implies efficient mass-loading of hot phases of galactic winds. At the same time, the extreme compression of high-density cloud material leads to long-lived but slow-moving clumps that are unlikely to escape the galaxy.

The main aim of this research was to investigate the mechanism of cavitation in conforming and partially conforming tribological conjunctions. The effect of cavitation on load carrying capacity and frictional performance of is also investigated. This is important with regards to fuel efficiency in internal combustion (IC) engines. Friction accounts for 15–20% of IC engine losses. The piston–cylinder system contributes to 40–50% of these, with the compression ring(s) being responsible for most of this. This is because the primary function of the ring is to seal the combustion chamber, thus small emerging gaps lead to increased friction. In fact, compression ring(s) expend 3–5% of engine input fuel energy. The share of frictional losses of engine bearings is approximately 20–25%. Traditionally, prediction of performance of tribological conjunctions has been studied using Reynolds equation. When the effect of cavitation is considered, various cavitation algorithms with associated boundary conditions for lubricant rupture and reformation are proposed. These include Elrod, and Elrod and Coyne algorithms, as well as boundary conditions such as Swift-Stieber, JFO and Prandtl-Hopkins. There are a number of assumptions embodied in these approaches, as well as the use of Reynolds equation itself. These approaches do not uphold the continuity of mass and momentum in multi-phase flow, in cavitation beyond the lubricant film rupture. A detailed methodology for multi-phase flow, comprising simultaneous solution of Navier-Stokes, energy and lubricant rheological state equations is developed.