Yes / In this paper, an Euler-Lagrange model for computational fluid dynamics was used to model a full-scale gas-mixed anaerobic digester. The flow profiles, local values of non-Newtonian viscosity and average shear rate were analysed. Recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of mixing were given. In particular, the gas mixing input power can be reduced without appreciable detrimental effects on the mixing effectiveness.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第23614号 / 工博第4935号 / 新制||工||1771(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科機械理工学専攻 / (主査)教授 黒瀬 良一, 教授 花崎 秀史, 教授 岩井 裕 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DFAM

N/A / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Because of its thermochemical qualities, ammonia is an attractive alternative to carbon-based fuels. Indeed, the lack of carbon atoms in its molecular structure and the ease of storage make its widespread use desirable. However, there are a number of technological challenges that must be overcome due to the slow burning rate and its large latent heat. The objective of the dissertation is to model ammonia spray flames because direct liquid fuel injection in a combustion chamber is an essential aspect of the design of practical devices. The topic has been divided into a number of sub-problems, which are examined in each chapter of the thesis, due to the lack of fundamental physical details of the individual processes occurring and modeling considerations that cannot be ignored anymore.To better understand how the large latent heat affects the spray dynamics, a campaign of direct numerical simulations is initially performed at various ambient temperatures. Then, conducting large eddy simulations is preferred to lower the computational cost. The assessment of the dispersion models showed that the available options, however, are unable to reproduce the averaged droplet distribution across the entire domain and an improved model is proposed. Droplet evaporation causes local inhomogeneities in the mixture, which simultaneously induces multiple combustion modes. The Darmstadt Multi-Regime Burner (MRB) was the ideal candidate to investigate the physical aspects in advance. The best option for capturing its flame structure was the physically-derived multi-modal manifold and a regime classification index is formulated and tested on the MRB.Then, a machine learning strategy based on neural networks is suggested to quicken the look-up procedure, and preliminary validation of the methodology revealed that a time reduction of 30% is achieved without affecting the results' accuracy.

Wetland ecosystems play an important role in the global hydrologic cycle, and their hydrologicregime is a major factor for their general functioning (carbon, biodiversity, biogeochemicalcycle etc.). However, the factors that govern the hydrologic regime of wetlands, such asmoisture imports into their catchments and moisture cycling in wetland areas, remain largelyunderstudied.Wetlands, seen as part of the terrestrial land, often rely on moisture imports from terrestrialevaporation and moisture recycling within their catchments. This could make them especiallysusceptible to changes in their hydrologic regime caused by land cover and hydroclimaticchanges in their catchments. Hence, this study aims to provide an overview of atmosphericmoisture imports into iconic wetlands worldwide and investigates the precipitationsheds of 40globally distributed catchments of Ramsar wetlands.Here we show that some of the wetlands have already been affected by precipitation changescaused by land cover changes within and outside of their catchments, as well as hydroclimaticchanges. According to our analysis, most of the studied wetland catchments show decreases inannual terrestrial precipitation, which are caused by precedent land cover changes. Thestrongest effects are seen in (sub)tropical wetlands in South America, Africa and Asia, andcatchments whose precipitationsheds include large agricultural areas.This shows that land cover changes can cause wetlands to be less resilient under current andfuture hydroclimatic and land cover changes. An overlap of multiple stressors, like climatechange and precipitation changes through land cover conversions, make wetlands in someregions especially vulnerable.Based on our results, current wetland decline rates and predictions of future agricultural andurban expansion, we find that wetland sites in China, India, South America and Sub-Saharanare especially threatened. This study indicates further that we have to incorporate downwindeffects to land cover changes in sustainable ecosystem management approaches.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a severe genetic disease, affecting over 100,000 in the United States and millions worldwide. Individuals suffer from stroke, acute chest syndrome, and cardiovascular complications. Much of these associated morbidities are primarily mediated by blockages of the microvasculature, events termed vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs). Despite its prevalence and severity, the pathophysiological mechanisms behind VOCs are not well understood, and novel experimental tools and methods are needed to further this understanding. Microfluidics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are rapidly growing fields within biomedical research that allow for inexpensive simulation of the in vivo microenvironment prior to animal or clinical trials. This study includes the development of a CFD model capable of simulating diseased and healthy blood flow within a series of microfluidic channels. Results will be utilized to further improve the development of microfluidic systems.

No description available.

No description available.

The mixing and evaporation of Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) inside an Urea Selective Catalyst Reduction (SCR) chamber has been numerically investigated. The first task in this work has been to first look into the numerical framework and assess the models available in a commercial CFD software (ANSYS Fluent 14.5). Secondly the knowledge inherited from the model sensitivity analysis will be applied on the practical case of an Urea-SCR mixing chamber. Mass flow rate and temperature effects of the exhaust gas on the mixing and evaporation of the DEF spray has been investigated. The results indicate that evaporation rates inside the mixing chamber are dependent on the mass flow rate of the exhaust gas but not on the temperature due to compressibility effects of the exhaust gas. For a constant mass flow rate an increase in temperature decreases the residence time of droplets (due to compressibility) with a similar order of magnitude as the individual droplet evaporation rate increases (due to higher temperature) thus the two effects balances each other. The results could potentially contribute to the development and optimization of current SCR systems.

For larger instances of multi-objective optimisation problems, the exact Pareto frontier can be both difficult and time-consuming to calculate. There is a wide range of methods to find feasible solutions to such problems, but techniques for finding good optimistic bounds to compare the feasible solutions with are missing. In this study, we investigate the use of Lagrangian relaxation to create optimistic bounds to bi-objective optimisation problems with complicating side constraints. The aim is to develop an effective method to produce optimistic bounds that are closer to the Pareto frontier than the commonly used linear programming bounds.  In order to use Lagrangian relaxation on the bi-objective problem, the objectives are combined using the weighted sum method. A Lagrangian dual function is then constructed by relaxing the complicating constraints and the subgradient method is used to optimise the dual problem in order to find an optimistic solution. By solving the single-objective problem for multiple weights, an optimistic bound to the Pareto frontier can be constructed. The subgradient method also includes a heuristic to find feasible solutions. The feasible solutions found by the heuristic form a pessimistic bound to the frontier. The method has been implemented and tested on several instances of a capacitated facility location problem with cost and CO2 emission as objectives. The results indicate that, by using Lagrangian relaxation, an optimistic bound close to the Pareto frontier can be found in a relatively short time. The heuristic used also manages to produce good pessimistic bounds, and hence the Pareto frontier can be tightly enclosed. The optimistic bounds found by Lagrangian relaxation are better and more consistent along the Pareto frontier than the bounds found by linear programming.