The goal of this thesis is the development of a fast and robust algorithm that is able to detect patterns in flow fields independent from their orientation and adequately visualize the results for a human user. This thesis is an interdisciplinary work in the field of vector field visualization and the field of pattern recognition. A vector field can be best imagined as an area or a volume containing a lot of arrows. The direction of the arrow describes the direction of a flow or force at the point where it starts and the length its velocity or strength. This builds a bridge to vector field visualization, because drawing these arrows is one of the fundamental techniques to illustrate a vector field. The main challenge of vector field visualization is to decide which of them should be drawn. If you do not draw enough arrows, you may miss the feature you are interested in. If you draw too many arrows, your image will be black all over. We assume that the user is interested in a certain feature of the vector field: a certain pattern. To prevent clutter and occlusion of the interesting parts, we first look for this pattern and then apply a visualization that emphasizes its occurrences. In general, the user wants to find all instances of the interesting pattern, no matter if they are smaller or bigger, weaker or stronger or oriented in some other direction than his reference input pattern. But looking for all these transformed versions would take far too long. That is why, we look for an algorithm that detects the occurrences of the pattern independent from these transformations. In the second part of this thesis, we work with moment invariants. Moments are the projections of a function to a function space basis. In order to compare the functions, it is sufficient to compare their moments. Normalization is the act of transforming a function into a predefined standard position. Moment invariants are characteristic numbers like fingerprints that are constructed from moments and do not change under certain transformations. They can be produced by normalization, because if all the functions are in one standard position, their prior position has no influence on their normalized moments. With this technique, we were able to solve the pattern detection task for 2D and 3D flow fields by mathematically proving the invariance of the moments with respect to translation, rotation, and scaling. In practical applications, this invariance is disturbed by the discretization. We applied our method to several analytic and real world data sets and showed that it works on discrete fields in a robust way.

Bipolarplatten stellen eine Schlüsselkomponente hinsichtlich Fertigungskosten eines Brennstoffzellenstacks dar und sind komplexen Anforderungen ausgesetzt. Sie stützt die anderen biegeempfindlichen Stackkomponenten, verteilt die Reaktionsgase über die aktive Zellfläche und sorgt für die flächige elektrische Kontaktierung der in Reihe geschalteten Einzelzellen, Ableitung der Reaktionswärme und sowie Trennung der Einzelzellen. Daher muss sie einen niedrigen Kontaktwiderstand zur benachbarten Gasdiffusionslage, hohe Biegesteifigkeit, gute Wärmeleitfähigkeit und hohe Lebensdauer der Zelle gewährleisten. Die Funktion der Gasverteilung über die aktive Zellfläche übernimmt das Flussfeld. Deren Kanalstruktur- und Geometrie beeinflusst entscheidend den Wirkungsgrad der Brennstoffzelle und des Gesamtsystems. Um Fertigungsaufwand und damit verbundene Kosten zu senken, ist es Ziel aktueller Forschungsarbeit, die Geometrie so einfach wie möglich zu gestalten. Dabei wird ein minimal geringerer Wirkungsgrad in Kauf genommen, wenn im Gegenzug die Kosten stark sinken. Mit Hilfe einer CFD-Simulation wird das Flussfeld dahingehend optimiert, die Produktion zu vereinfachen und die Funktionalität weiterhin zu gewährleisten. Im Rahmen dieser Präsentation werden Modellbildung, Randbedingungen und erste Ergebnisse vorgestellt.

The increasing demand for more efficient cooling options in the areas of fuel cell technology motivates the development of novel cooling strategies with improved heat transfer. Cooling through phase transition of the coolant from the liquid to the gaseous state is therefore a suitable approach. In this context, the phase transition behaviour in the inner structure of bipolar plates, which is determined by the flow field and its surface properties, must be understood and designed as a central functional element for cooling in a fuel cell. For the integrated development of a metallic bipolar plate based on the phase change cooling with modified surfaces, this paper discusses the design of the flow field, the design of the associated forming technology as well as the coating technology that meets the requirements of the bipolar plates with phase change cooling principle. In this regard, the wetting and the corrosion behaviour of different surface coatings and the in-situ phase transition behaviour within the bipolar plates are demonstrated and discussed.

The efficient study of liquid droplets ranging from micrometers to a few centimeters by levitation is usually hindered by conventional design limitations. This is due to continuous droplet deformation in the test section. This research discusses the development of a robust design methodology for large droplet-stabilization (d > Capillary Number (Ca)) vertical wind tunnels. A modeling and simulation design environment has been developed that involves component sizing and integration at a central ANSYS-Fluent platform, followed by design optimization. The work inculcates numerical analysis of guide vanes to minimize the viscous losses and, subsequently, the wind tunnel dimensions. The process is followed by the design of honeycomb and wire screens and their analyses for a given geometry. A multi-variable design optimization problem has been optimized with response surface approximations. Statistical modeling of the expensive functions obtained from the solution of Navier-stokes equations has been accomplished in order to deal with non-linear and discontinuous behavior. Numerical optimization of the meta-model can help to find the most feasible wind tunnel design with computational efficiency. A non-conventional design with varying test area cross-sections has been introduced to investigate the droplet stability in constantly changing velocity profiles. Longitudinal as well as lateral velocity variations in the test section, creating velocity buckets with minimum turbulence intensity, has been introduced and analyzed using novel concept designs. The research highlights a systematic design methodology and an alternate configuration for liquid droplet wind tunnels while focusing on stable droplet levitation.

This dissertation addresses attitude control and inertial navigation of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). We present theoretical justification for using simplified models, derive system identification algorithms, and verify our results through extensive field trials. Although this research focuses on small AUVs with limited instrumentation, the results are useful for underwater vehicles of any size. For attitude control of aircraft systems, second-order equivalent pitch-axis models are common and extensively studied. However, similar analysis has not been performed for the pitch-axis motion of underwater vehicles. In this dissertation, we study the utility and the limitations of second-order approximate models for AUVs. We seek to improve the flight performance and shorten the time required to re-design a control algorithm when the shape, mass-distribution, and/or net buoyancy of an AUV/payload configuration changes. In comparison to commonly implemented AUV attitude controllers, which neglect roll motion and address pitch and yaw dynamics separately, we derive a novel linear time-varying model that explicitly displays the coupling between pitch and yaw motion due to nonzero roll angle and/or roll rate. The model facilitates an Hâ control design approach that explicitly addresses robustness against those coupling terms and significantly reduces the effect of pitch and yaw coupling. To improve AUV navigation, we investigate algorithms for calibrating a triaxial gyroscope using angular orientation measurements and formally define AUV trajectories that are persistently exciting and for which the calibration coefficients are uniformly observable. To improve AUV guidance, we propose a near real-time ocean current identification method that estimates a non-uniform flow-field using only sparse flow measurements. / Ph. D.

No / We have probed the coupling between flow and concentration fluctuations in polymer blends using small-angle neutron scattering. We utilized a recirculating cell with a slot die, enabling us to measure the behavior at the entrance, within and at the exit of a contraction-expansion flow. While, as expected, anisotropy was observed in all nonquiescent experiments, the correlation lengths associated with the concentration fluctuations are found to be "stretched" more in the direction perpendicular to the flow at all positions along the centerline of the flow, except at the slot die exit. To gain insight into the observations, we present calculations of the scattering based on a multiscale approach, which bridges the gap between macroscopic Newtonian fluid dynamics and the convection of nanoscale concentration fluctuations. However, we find that this model contains insufficient physics to correctly describe our observations. Consequently, we argue that the deformation of the correlation length is primarily due to the coupling between weakly non-Newtonian stresses and thermodynamics

Currently environmental concerns are driving internal combustion engine manufacturers to seek greater fuel efficiency, more refinement and lower emissions. Cyclic variation is a known obstacle to achieving the greatest potential against these goals and therefore an understanding of how to reduce these is sought. It is widely accepted that cyclic variation in in-cylinder flow motions is a key contributor to overall cyclic variation and therefore the characterisation of factors affecting these is an important step in the process of achieving a better understanding and ultimately control of cyclic variation. This thesis reports the development of a novel optical engine research facility in which high speed digital particle image velocimetry (HSDPIV) has been applied to the study of flow field behaviour within a direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine. This study investigates the spatial and temporal development of flow structures over and within many engine cycles. Flow field PIV measurements have been captured with a high spatial resolution and temporal frequencies up to 5 kHz from a number of measurement locations at a large range of crank angles. The major contributions from this work have included the use of the novel measurement technique to investigate spatial and temporal flow field development in the intake runner, valve jet, in-cylinder tumble and swirl planes and the pent roof. The gathered data have been used to investigate cycle by cycle variations in both high and low frequency flow structures. Major findings of this work have included the observation of highly varying flow fields throughout the engine cycle. Frequency analysis of these flows has allowed the low frequency bulk motions and higher frequency turbulent components to be studied. The low frequency flow field components are shown to create varying flow field interactions within the cylinder that also affect the manner in which the flow develops over the course of the cycle. The intensity of the turbulence fluctuations, u , has been calculated based upon the high frequency components within the flow and variations within this are shown to correlate with pressure related combustion parameters.

Στο πλαίσιο της εργασίας αυτής προτείνεται μια τεχνική η οποία προσπαθεί να κάνει ταυτόχρονα εκτίμηση της οπτικής ροής καθώς επίσης και διαμέριση της σκηνής σε διαφορετικά κινούμενα σώματα. Συγκεκριμένα προτείνεται η λύση μιας ακολουθίας προβλημάτων ελαχιστοποίησης. Κάθε πρόβλημα ελαχιστοποίησης προσπαθεί να απομονώσει κάποιο κινούμενο σώμα από την σκηνή και εκτιμά για αυτό μία ταχύτητα. Τα αποτελέσματα που προέκυψαν από την εφαρμογή της τεχνικής σε προβλήματα εκτίμησης της οπτικής ροής διαφορετικής πολυπλοκότητας δείχνουν ότι η επίδοση της προτεινόμενης τεχνικής είναι ικανοποιητική. / In this thesis, a method, which tries to estimate the optical flow field, and segment the scene at the same time, is suggested. Specifically, a series of minimization problems are solved. Each of these minimization problems, tries to isolate a moving object from the scene, and estimate for it a velocity. The results from applying the suggested method in several optical flow estimation problems, with varying complexities, show that the performance of the method is very promising.

The complex multiscale physics of nanoparticle laden functional droplets in a reacting environment is of fundamental and applied significance for a wide variety of applications ranging from thermal sprays to pharmaceutics to modern day combustors using new brands of bio-fuels. Understanding the combustion characteristics of these novel fuels (laden with energetic nanoparticle NP) is pivotal for lowering ignition delay, reducing pollutant emissions and increasing the combustion efficiency in next generation combustors. On the way to understanding the complex dynamics of sprays is to first study the behaviour of an isolated droplet. A single droplet represents a sub-grid unit of spray. In vaporizing functional droplets under high heat flux conditions, the bubble formation inside the droplet represents an unstable system. This may be either through homogenous nucleation at the superheat limit or by dispersed nanoparticle acting as heterogeneous nucleation sites. First it is shown that such self-induced boiling in burning functional pendant droplets can induce severe volumetric shape oscillations in the droplet. Internal pressure build-up due to ebullition activity force ejects bubbles from the droplet domain causing undulations on the droplet surface and oscillations in bulk thereby leading to secondary break-up of the primary droplet. Through experiments, it is established that the degree of droplet deformation depends on the frequency and intensity of these bubble expulsion events. However, in a distinct regime of single isolated bubble growing inside the droplet, pre-ejection transient time is identified by Darrieus-Landau (DL) instability at the evaporative bubble-droplet interface. In this regime the bubble-droplet system behaves as a synchronized driver-driven system with bulk bubble-shape oscillations being imposed on the droplet. However, the agglomeration of suspended anaphase additives modulates the flow structures within the droplet and also influences the bubble inception and growth leading to distinct atomization characteristics. Secondly, the secondary atomization characteristics of burning bi-component (ethanol-water) droplets containing titania nanoparticle (NPs) at both dilute (0.5% and 1% by weight) and dense particle loading rates (PLR: 5% and 7.5 wt. %) are studied experimentally at atmospheric pressure under normal gravity. It is observed that both types of nanofuel droplets undergo distinct modes of secondary break-up that are primarily responsible for transporting particles from the droplet domain to the flame zone. For dilute nanosuspensions, disruptive response is characterized by low intensity atomization modes that cause small-scale localized flame distortion. In contrast, the disruption behavior at dense concentrations is governed by high intensity bubble ejections which result in severe disruption of the flame envelope. The atomization events occur locally at the droplet surface while their cumulative effect is observed globally at the droplet scale. Apart from this, a feedback coupling between two key interacting mechanisms, namely, atomization frequency and particle agglomeration also influence the droplet deformation characteristics by regulating the effective mass fraction of NPs within the droplet. Thus, third part of the study elucidates how the initial NP concentration modulates the relative dominance of these two mechanisms thereby leading to a master-slave configuration. Secondary atomization of novel nanofuels is a crucial process since it enables an effective transport of dispersed NPs to the flame (a pre-requisite condition for NPs to burn). Contrarily, NP agglomeration at the droplet surface leads to shell formation thereby retaining NPs inside the droplet. In particular, it is shown that at dense concentrations shell formation (master process) dominates over secondary atomization (slave) while at dilute particle loading it is the high frequency bubble ejections (master) that disrupt shell formation (slave) through its rupture and continuous out flux of NPs. These results in distinct combustion residues at dilute and dense concentrations, thus, providing a method of manufacturing flame synthesized microstructures with distinct morphologies. Next, it is shown that by using external stimuli (preferential acoustic excitation) the secondary atomization of the droplet can be suppressed i.e. the external flame-acoustic interaction with bubbles inside the droplet results in controlled droplet deformation. Particularly, by exciting the droplet flame in a critical, responsive frequency range i.e. 80 Hz ≤ fP ≤ 120 Hz, the droplet deformation cycle is altered through suppression of self-excited instabilities and intensity/frequency of bubble ejection events. The acoustic tuning also enables the control of bubble dynamics, bulk droplet-shape distortion and final precipitate morphology even in burning nanoparticle laden droplets. Droplets in a non-reacting environment (heated radioactively) are also subject to instabilities. One such instability observed in drying colloidal droplets is the buckling of thin viscoelastic shell formed through consolidation of NPs. In the final part of the thesis, buckling instability driven morphology transition (sphere to ring structure) in an acoustically levitated heated nanosilica dispersion droplet is elucidated using dynamic energy balance. Droplet deformation featuring formation of symmetric cavities is initiated by the capillary pressure that is two to three orders of magnitude greater than acoustic radiation pressure, thus indicating that the standing pressure field has no influence on the buckling front kinetics. With increase in heat flux, the growth rate of surface cavities and their post-buckled volume increases while the buckling time period reduces, thereby altering the buckling pathway and resulting in distinct precipitate structures. Thus, the cavity growth is primarily driven by evaporation. However, irrespective of the heating rate, volumetric droplet deformation exhibits linear time dependence and droplet vaporization is observed to deviate from the classical D2-law. Understanding such transients of buckling phenomenon in drying colloidal suspensions is pivotal for producing new functional microstructures with tenable morphology and is particularly critical for spray drying applications that produce powders through vaporization of colloidal droplets.

The goal of this work is to experimentally assess the influence of limiting walls of Škoda Octavia 3 automobile cabin to the air jet flowing from the right-front situated automotive vent which is part of a car dashboard. The experiment is performed by the smoke visualization method. There is a single construction option measured for an experiment. The setup of the vanes direction and the air flow rate are modified for this option. The experiment is divided into two phases. In the first phase, the visualization of the free air flow is conducted. In the second phase, exit plates are constructed and consequently, the visualization of the wall-jet flow is conducted. The results of both are compared to each other. The results imply that the influence of the surrounding surfaces must be taken into account with the increasing flow rate for the vanes set in the direction of upper-right, middle-right, and middle-middle. There is a direct interaction between the flow and exit plates (the flow impact, the Coanda effect). The free flow does not contain the information about the mutual interaction between the flow and the exit plates, as it is in the case of the wall-jet flow. In the case of the wall-jet flow, the opening of the flow takes place due to the effect of the impact and the subsequential suction caused by the Coanda effect. The exit plates substituting the car dashboard and the front window contribute to the prevention of the air intake from surrounding space and consequently to earlier flow opening from the vent. The present work also contains the measurement methodology and the image evaluation, the comparison with previous free flow measurements (70% match) and the comparison to the measurement of hot-wire anemometry method.