<p> Experiments were performed to investigate the effect that a gap between a heated fin and a porous plate has on the heat transfer performance of a simulated capillary evaporator. The heat transfer performance was examined for two porous plates with average pore radii of 50 and 200 μm respectively. Tests were performed for gap distances between 0 and 900 μm and heat fluxes ranging from 17 to 260 kW/m^2. The heat transfer performance of the simulated capillary evaporator initially increased as the gap distance was increased. However, a further increase in the gap distance caused a decrease in performance. The maximum heat transfer performance occurred at a smaller gap distance for the plate with the smaller pore radius. For small gap distances, persistent high temperature regions were observed on the surface of the heated foil that grew and became more frequent at higher heat fluxes. For larger gap distances, saturated regions that appeared on the foil at moderate heat fluxes suggest that microlayer evaporation may be taking place within the gap. At high heat fluxes, these saturated regions are no longer present, but the temperature of the heated foil remained stable.</p> <p> The heat transfer process in the porous media was examined using thermocouples embedded within the porous plates. These temperature measurements indicate that a two phase region forms within the porous plate for a pore radius of 200 μm. Little evidence of vapour was observed within the plate with a pore radius of 50 μm. In that case, there was more evidence of vapour present at the surface of the porous plate. There was less evidence of vapour at the surface of the porous plate for the larger gap distances, suggesting that the vapour escapes more easily through the gap at larger gap distances.</p> / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Compartment fire scenarios are of great interest due to the large loss of life and property that occurs annually in such fires. Due to the current move towards performance-based building code standards and the increasing acceptance by the regulatory system of model results, there is a growing need for detailed compartment fire data to demonstrate the accuracy of such engineering tools as they are used to ascertain performance. A series of carefully designed full-scale room/corner tests on two vinyl ester resin composite systems have been conducted in a heavily instrumented compartment to provide compartment fire data for the calibration of engineering tools. The two composite systems were chosen based on their thermal behavior. A nominally thermally-thick glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) skin was desirable, as many analytical formulations have been developed using semi-infinite assumptions. A "thermally-thin" skin panel typical of that used in fast ferry construction, consisting of a GRP skin over a balsa core, was also tested. The test protocol used throughout the room/corner experiments was a modification of the ISO 9705 standard where the HRR of the ignition fire was varied according to the Critical Ignition Source Strength concept. To date, there has been little work done where heat fluxes from compartment fires have been measured. Therefore, one of the key data components developed in this series of tests are heat flux measurements from thin skin calorimeters. A total of twenty-five thin skin calorimeters, constructed of Inconel plates, were located throughout the room: the spatial distribution of net and incident heat fluxes within compartment for both pre- and post-flashover conditions have been determined. Additionally, rakes of bare-bead thermocouples were placed in the vent and the corner of the room coincident with the thin skin calorimeter arrays. A third rake was placed in the center of the room. The thermocouple arrays provide data regarding layer temperatures and interface heights as well as a limited determination of temperature spatial distribution within the compartment. The thermocouple rakes also permit calculation of pressure gradients across and mass flows through the vent, thus providing information regarding wall lining fire entrainment rates, of use in corner fire algorithm validations and for globally evaluating the accuracy of CFD codes. Bench-scale cone calorimeter (ASTM E1354, ISO 5660) tests have been carried out on the two composite systems to gather material fire properties necessary as model inputs for fire spread algorithms. The present study developed material properties including heat release rate, species production, and ignition data for the two composite systems. Included are uncertainty bands that account for calculation and instrument uncertainty.

In many numerical weather prediction models, the presence of lakes is simulated crudely, with their effect being neglected in the resulting simulations. However, it has been shown how lakes effect not only their surrounding climate directly, but have an effect to the overall weather evolution and ecosystem. It is therefore vital to improve existing models to take lakes into account, by coupling with smaller models specificaly compiled for a reas with lakes. There have been several sophisticated models to parameterizelakes in a geographical area, which are, on the other hand, computationally expensive and time consuming. A model built specifically on simple physical assumptions, named FLake, aims to provide a solution that is not heavy computationally, but is accurate enough and contains all the necessary physics surrounding the heat budget and temperature of a given lake. For this project, FLake was tried on a lake close to Uppsala, named Erken, where the validity of the model was tested against data archives from Erken Laboratory’s measurement tower. The resulting simulations were very promising regarding the water temperatures, as well as giving out acceptable results for the surface heat fluxes above the lake and the duration of the ice period, as it was modeled by FLake and compared with ice data archives.

This work is motivated by the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) experiment. This device uses a helicon antenna to generate a plasma inside a dielectric tube, which is radially confined and directed towards the rocket nozzle by an axial magnetic field. An ion cyclotron heating antenna further heats the ions, and a magnetic nozzle accelerates the plasma along the confining magnetic field as it leaves the rocket, ultimately allowing it to detach from the magnetic field and produce thrust. The experimental research presented here provides insight into the physical mechanisms of power flow in a helicon system by providing an overall system power balance in the form of heat flux measurements, and exploring changes in the heat fluxes in different parts of the system in response to varying operational parameters. An infrared (IR) camera measures the total heat flux into the dielectric tube surface, and axially scanned bolometer and UV photodiode probes measure the radial power loss from particles and radiation. Results from IR camera measurements on three different helicon systems are presented: the VASIMR VX-50 experiment, the VASIMR VX-CR experiment, and the University of Texas at Austin (UT) helicon experiment. These results demonstrate the development of the IR camera diagnostic for use on helicon systems of varying scale and geometry, and show reasonable agreement as to the fraction of input power lost to the dielectric tube walls. On the UT experiment, the results presented account for essentially all of the input power, providing a full system power balance. The data from all three experiments indicate that radial transport of ions to the interior wall is the dominant mechanism of power loss, with UV radiation contributing a small percentage. Additional experiments on the UT helicon explore energy and particle transport to the wall due to capacitive coupling of ions near the antenna. These experiments show clear damage to the dielectric tube surface directly under the antenna, due to physical plasma etching of the surface by bombarding ions that are accelerated into the wall by local electric fields from the antenna. / text

The I2T5, an iodine-propelled, cold gas thruster, developed by ThrustMe, France, is the first of its kind to make it successfully to space. Due to its simple, reliable and cost-effective design, it is a suitable propulsion system for CubeSat missions with low delta-V (ΔV) requirements. To ensure that the I2T5 performs at its peak, it is crucial to maintain good thermal control of the thruster, to keep it within the operational temperature range. The first flight measurements of the I2T5 provided insight into its thermal performance. It was observed that the required temperature to sublimate the iodine propellant was not reached within the expected time frame, which led to a longer warm-up period, and a reduction in thrust. The problem arose due to an unforeseen conductive thermal contact between the tank and the thruster walls. This thesis delves deeper into this issue, and focuses on alleviating the total conductive heat loss from the tank to the satellite frame, where the I2T5 is integrated. The insulating washer-bolt configuration of the I2T5 side panels is observed to be responsible for the conductive heat transfer. A preliminary analysis is performed to obtain an initial maximum for the conductive heat flux lost to the satellite frame. A plan of action is then determined to optimise the geometry, material or configuration of the insulating washers to lower the maximum heat flux value. Following this, an experiment was conducted with a new washer-bolt configuration to determine the heat flux values. A case study is performed for the orbital environment heat fluxes that the I2T5 would receive if it were integrated to a CubeSat in sun-synchronous orbit. An overview of results shows that, for the thermal simulations, all the methods employed to reduce the conductive heat loss at the frame were effective. The experiment provided neutral results, and would need to be repeated with different experimental parameters to have a clear perspective of the heat losses. In reality, the satellite frame receives radiative fluxes in addition to conductive heat fluxes, but radiation is not considered for this thesis, and is suggested as a prospective study.

By collocating 10 years (1999-2009) of remotely sensed surface turbulent heat fluxes with satellite altimetry data, we investigate the impact of ocean mesoscale eddies on the latent and sensible heat fluxes in the South Atlantic ocean. Eddies were identified using the method proposed by Chaigneau et al. (2009), which is based on closed contours of sea level anomaly. Most of the identified eddies had a radius of ~70 km and amplitude of ~5 cm. On average, in the South Atlantic, eddies play a minor role on the ocean-atmosphere heat exchange. However, in strongly energetic regions such as the Brazil-Malvinas confluence or Agulhas Current retroflection regions, eddies can account up to 20-30% of the total variance of the surface turbulent heat fluxes with averaged anomalies of ±10-20 W/m2 for both heat flux components. Cyclonic (anticyclonic) eddies, associated with negative (positive) heat fluxes anomalies tend to cool (warm) the overlying atmosphere. A composite analysis of the turbulent heat fluxes anomalies within the eddies reveals a direct relationship between the eddy amplitude and the intensity of the latent and sensible fluxes anomalies, such that large-amplitude eddies have a stronger signature in the turbulent surface heat fluxes. Heat fluxes anomalies are also much stronger near the eddy centers and decay radially to reach minimum values outside the eddies. / Uma combinação de 10 anos (1999-2009) de fluxos turbulentos de calor pela superfície, medidos a partir de satélites, e dados altimétricos de anomalia da altura da superfície do mar, foram o utilizados com objetivo de investigar o impacto de vórtices de meso-escala nos fluxos de calor sensível e latente na bacia do Atlântico Sul. Para a detecção dos vórtices foi aplicado o método proposto por Chaigneau et al. (2009), que baseia-se em contornos fechados de anomalia da altura da superfície do mar. A maior parte dos vórtices identificados possui raio de ~70 km e amplitude de ~5 cm. Em média, no Atlântico Sul, o impacto dos vórtices para as trocas de calor entre oceano e atmosfera é relativamente fraco. Entretanto, em regiões de alta variabilidade energética como na Confluência Brasil- Malvinas e na retroflecção da Corrente das Agulhas, vórtices de meso-escala podem contribuir com anomalias médias de até ±10-20 W/m2 nos fluxos turbulentos. Vórtices ciclônicos (anti-ciclônicos), associados com anomalias negativas (positivas) de fluxos de calor, tendem a esfriar (esquentar) a atmosfera adjacente. Mapas composite foram analisados para milhares de vórtices, mostrando um relação direta entre a magnitude das anomalias dos fluxos e a amplitude dos vórtices, de tal modo que vórtices de maior amplitude contribuem com maiores anomalias de calor latente e sensível. Além disso, os padrões espaciais dos composites médios revelam que as anomalias são significativamente maiores próximo ao centro dos vórtices e decaem radialmente até atingirem valores absolutos mínimos fora dos contornos dos vórtices.

<p>Oceans cover about 70% of the earth’s surface. They are the largest source of the atmospheric water vapour and act as enormous heat reservoirs. Thus in order to predict the future weather and climate it is of great importance to understand the processes governing the exchange of water vapour and heat between the ocean and atmosphere. This exchange is to a large extent mediated by turbulent eddies. Current numerical climate and weather forecast models are unable to resolve the turbulence, which means that the turbulent exchange needs to be simplified by using parameterizations. </p><p>Tower based measurements at the Östergarnsholm Island in the Baltic Sea have been used to study the air-sea turbulent exchange of latent and sensible heat and the heat flux parameterizations. Although the measurements are made at an island, data obtained at this site is shown to represent open ocean conditions during most situations for winds coming from the east-south sector. It is found that during conditions with small air-sea temperature differences and wind speeds above 10 m s^-1, the structure of the turbulence is re-organized. Drier and colder air from aloft is transported to the surface by detached eddies, which considerably enhance the turbulent heat fluxes. The fluxes where observed to be much larger than predicted by current state-of-the-art parameterizations. The turbulence regime during these conditions is termed the Unstable Very Close to Neutral Regime, the UVCN-regime.</p><p>The global increase of the latent and sensible heat fluxes due to the UVCN-regime is calculated to 2.4 W m^-2 and 0.8 W m^-2 respectively. This is comparable to the current increase of the radiative forcing due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, reported in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fourth assessment report (IPCC AR4). Thus the UVCN-effect could have a significant influence when predicting the future weather and climate.</p>

Oceans cover about 70% of the earth’s surface. They are the largest source of the atmospheric water vapour and act as enormous heat reservoirs. Thus in order to predict the future weather and climate it is of great importance to understand the processes governing the exchange of water vapour and heat between the ocean and atmosphere. This exchange is to a large extent mediated by turbulent eddies. Current numerical climate and weather forecast models are unable to resolve the turbulence, which means that the turbulent exchange needs to be simplified by using parameterizations. Tower based measurements at the Östergarnsholm Island in the Baltic Sea have been used to study the air-sea turbulent exchange of latent and sensible heat and the heat flux parameterizations. Although the measurements are made at an island, data obtained at this site is shown to represent open ocean conditions during most situations for winds coming from the east-south sector. It is found that during conditions with small air-sea temperature differences and wind speeds above 10 m s-1, the structure of the turbulence is re-organized. Drier and colder air from aloft is transported to the surface by detached eddies, which considerably enhance the turbulent heat fluxes. The fluxes where observed to be much larger than predicted by current state-of-the-art parameterizations. The turbulence regime during these conditions is termed the Unstable Very Close to Neutral Regime, the UVCN-regime. The global increase of the latent and sensible heat fluxes due to the UVCN-regime is calculated to 2.4 W m-2 and 0.8 W m-2 respectively. This is comparable to the current increase of the radiative forcing due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, reported in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fourth assessment report (IPCC AR4). Thus the UVCN-effect could have a significant influence when predicting the future weather and climate.

River, lakes and   streams account for more carbon dioxide emissions than all other freshwater   reservoirs together. However, there is still lack of knowledge of the   physical processes that control the efficiency of the air-water exchange of   CO2 in these aquatic systems. In the more turbulent water sections   of a river, the gas transfer is thought to be governed by the river’s   morphology such as bottom topography, slope and stream flow. Whiles for wider   sections of the river, the gas transfer could potentially be influenced by   atmospheric forcing (e.g. Wind speed). The main purpose of this project is to   study the fluxes of carbon dioxide and how (wind speed and stream discharge)   influence the CO2 fluxes in the river. In this study, direct and   continuous measurements of CO2 emission was conducted for the   first time in a controlled boreal river in Kattstrupeforsen (Sweden) from   18th April to 10th May 2018. A unique measurement setup which combines eddy   covariance techniques, general meteorology and in situ water variables (for   high accuracy emission measurements) was used. The results show that   in the late winter, an   upward directed CO2 fluxes measured in the river was approximately   2.2 μmol m−2 s−1. This value agrees with many other small and   large rivers where CO2 fluxes has been studied. The river can be   said to serve as source of CO2 to the atmosphere in the day due to   the dominant upward fluxes recorded during the daytime. The results also show   that carbon dioxide fluxes increase with increasing wind speed notably at   wind speed above 2 m s-1. There   was no relation between CO2 fluxes and stream discharge. This   indicates that wind speed could be one principal factor for air- river gas   exchange. The findings in this work on river gas exchange will provide   a basis for a regional estimate and be applicable for many river systems on a   global scale. / <p>2018-07-09</p>

The Southwest Atlantic Ocean is characterized, in winter, by the presence of an oceanographic front between the Brazil Current (BC) and the Brazilian Coastal Current (BCC). The BC/BCC oceanographic front generates intense thermal horizontal gradients between cold waters of the southern Brazilian continental shelf, dominated by the BCC, and the offshore warm waters, dominated by the BC. This study analyses, for the first time in the known literature, the coupling mechanisms between the ocean and the atmosphere from observational data taken simultaneously during an oceanographic research cruise in the southern Brazilian coast during 11-21 June 2014. In this field experiment, atmospheric radiosondes were launched and hydrographic stations were taken to measure the ocean s temperature and salinity. The study area was chosen based on the local thermal gradients presented by the BC/BCC front. Five oceanographic transects were performed perpendicular to the coast starting at the locality of Paranaguá (Paraná State) and ending in Chuí (Rio Grande do Sul State).The winter meteorological and oceanographic features were considered in the determination of ship s route. The installation of a micrometeorological tower at the bow of the ship allowed the realization of direct measurements of heat, momentum and CO2 fluxes. This study analyses the large scale meteorological conditions and explores the behavior of the marine atmospheric boundary layer using radiosondes data taken in situ. In the period when the data were collect, typical winter conditions were observed in the study area, like the cold front passage associated to an incursion of a post-frontal cold air mass and an extratropical cyclone formation. Meteorological and oceanographic measurements performed by the instruments installed on the ship were utilized to estimate the heat fluxes through bulk formulas method. This estimates were lately compared to the heat fluxes measured directly by the sensors installed in the of the ship s bow. Measurements were obtained using the Eddy Covariance method, broadly used in micrometeorological research. To obtain the turbulent fluxes at the ocean-atmosphere interface adjustments in the observational data are necessary due to the ship s motion. During most of the study period, the sea surface temperature was higher than the air temperature, thus generating a heat transfer from the ocean to the atmosphere. The heat fluxes were commonly positive on both sides of the BC (warm)/BCC (cold) oceanographic front. However, there was some difference on the heat fluxes magnitude between the two sides of the front with more intense heat exchange on the BC side. The present results show that the intense thermal horizontal gradients between the BC and the BCC waters that occur during winter in the southern coast of Brazil, the transient atmospheric systems and the air thermal advection have an important role on the marine atmospheric boundary layer modulation and on the heat and CO2 fluxes between the ocean and the atmosphere. Meteorological and oceanographic observations are fundamental to widen our understanding of the processes occurring at the ocean-atmosphere interface which are known to have primary importance on weather and climate forecast. / O Oceano Atlântico Sudoeste é caracterizado, no inverno, pela presença de uma frente oceanográfica entre a Corrente do Brasil (CB) e a Corrente Costeira do Brasil (CCB). A frente oceanográfica CB/CCB gera intensos gradientes horizontais termais entre as águas frias da plataforma continental do Sul do Brasil, dominadas pela CCB, e águas quentes do oceano profundo, dominadas pela CB. Esse trabalho analisa, pela primeira vez na literatura conhecida, os mecanismos de acoplamento entre o oceano e a atmosfera a partir de dados observacionais da atmosfera e do oceano que foram tomados simultaneamente durante um cruzeiro de pesquisa oceanográfica na costa sul do Brasil entre 11 a 21 de junho de 2012. Nesse experimento, foram lançadas radiossondas atmosféricas e realizadas estações hidrográficas para medidas de temperatura e salinidade do oceano. A área de estudo foi escolhida com base no gradiente termal local apresentado pela frente CB/CCB. Foram realizados cinco transectos perperndiculares à costa sul do Brasil, iniciando-se na localidade de Paranaguá (PR) até o Chuí (Rio Grande do Sul). As características oceanográficas e meteorológicas de inverno foram consideradas na determinação da derrota do navio. A instalação de uma torre micrometeorológica na proa do navio permitiu a realização de medições diretas dos fluxos de calor, momentum e CO2. Este estudo analisa as condições meteorológicas de grande escala e investiga o comportamento da camada limite atmosférica marinha a partir dos dados in situ das radiossondagens. No período em que os dados foram coletados foram observadas condições atmosféricas típicas de inverno, como a passagem de frente fria associada à incursão de uma massa de ar frio pós-frontal e a formação de ciclone extratropical. Observações meteorológicas e oceanográficas realizadas pelos instrumentos instalados no navio foram utilizadas para estimar os fluxos de calor pelo método bulk formulas. Essas estimativas foram comparadas aos fluxos medidos diretamente pelos sensores instalados na proa do navio. As medidas são obtidas utilizando o método de Covariância de Vórtices, usado amplamente em pesquisas micrometeorológicas. Para obter os fluxos turbulentos na interação oceano-atmosfera são necessárias correções nos dados observados devido ao movimento do navio. Durante a maior parte do período estudo, a temperatura da superfície do mar esteve maior do que a temperatura do ar, gerando uma transferência de calor do oceano para atmosfera. Os fluxos de calor foram, geralmente, positivos em ambos os lados da frente oceanográfica CB (quente)/CCB (frio). Contudo, há diferença na magnitude dos fluxos de calor entre os dois lados da frente com a troca foi mais intensa no lado da CB. Os resultados apresentados mostram que os intensos gradientes horizontais termais entre as águas da CB e da CCB que ocorrem durante o inverno ao largo da costa do RS, os sistemas transientes e as advecções térmicas têm um papel importante na modulação da camada limite atmosférica marinha e nos fluxos de calor e CO2. Observações meteorológicas e oceanográficas são fundamentais para ampliar o entendimento dos processos que ocorrem na interface oceano-atmosfera e tem importância primária para a previsão do tempo e clima.