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Particle ingestion and deposition is an issue of concern for gas turbine engines operating in harsh environments. The ingested particles accelerate the deterioration of engine components and thus reduce its service life. This effect is observed to a greater extent in aircrafts/helicopters operating in particle laden environment. Understanding the effects of particle ingestion at engine representative condition leads to improved designs for turbomachinery. Experiments have been in an Aerothermal Rig facility at Virginia Tech to study particle deposition at engine representative temperatures. The Aerothermal Rig was upgraded to achieve air temperatures of up to 1100°C at the test section. The experiments are performed using Arizona Road Dust (ARD) of 20-40 μm size range. The temperature of air and particles are around 1100°C at a constant velocity of 70 m/s. The target coupon is made of Hastelloy X, a nickel-based alloy and the angle at which the particles impact the coupon varies from 30° to 80°. The experiments were performed with different amounts of total particle injected, concentration, and coupon angle to understand their effects on deposition. Similar research was carried out in the past at the same facility to study particle deposition at temperatures up to 1050°C and 70 m/s flow velocity. However, this previous research only studied how the coupon angle affects particle deposition; other parameters such as total particle input and particle concentration were not studied. It was found that particle deposition increases significantly at higher temperatures beyond 1050°C for higher coupon angle and amount of sand injected. Results from current study also show that deposition increases with increase in total sand injected, concentration, and coupon angle for a given temperature and velocity. / Master of Science

The theoretical and experimental investigation of the novel in-line CMOS image sensor was performed. This sensor is aimed to investigate particle size distribution, particle concentration and shape in hydraulic liquid in order to implement the proactive maintenance of hydraulic equipment. The existing instruments such as automatic particle counters and techniques are not sufficiently enough to address this task because of their restricted sensitivity, limit of concentration to be measured and they cannot determine particle shape. Other instruments cannot be used as inline sensors because they are not resistant to the arduous conditions such as high pressure and vibration. The novel mathematical model was proposed as it is not possible to use previously developed techniques based on using optical system and complicated algorithms. This model gives the output signal of the image sensor depending on the particle size, its distance from the light source (LED) and image sensor. Additionally, the model takes into account the limited exposure time and particle track simulation. The results of simulation based on the model are also performed in thesis. On the basis of the mathematical model the image processing algorithms were suggested in order to determine particle size even when this size is lower than pixel size. There are different approaches depending on the relation between the size of the particle and the pixel size. The approach to the volume of liquid sample estimation was suggested in order to address the problem of low accuracy of concentration measurement by the conventional automatic particle counters based on the single photodiode. Proposed technique makes corrections on the basis of particle velocity estimation. Approach to the accuracy estimation of the sensor was proposed and simulation results are shown. Generally, the accuracy of particle size and concentration measurement was considered. Ultimately, the experimental setup was used in order to test suggested techniques. The mathematical model was tested and the results showed sufficient correlation with the experiment. The zinc dust was used as a reference object as there are the particles within the range from 1 to 25 microns which is appropriate to check the sensitivity. The results of experiments using reference instrument showed the improved sensitivity and accuracy of volume measured compared to the reference one.

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The addition of coarse particles to a flocculating fine particle slurry increases the Bingham yield stress of the resulting mixture, which can drastically alter the laminar-to-turbulent transition velocity. The objective of this study is to quantify the effect of coarse particle size and volume concentration on mixture rheology. Fine particle (kaolin) mixtures of 10% to 22% (by volume) were prepared, to which sand particles were added to provide a coarse solid concentration of 5% to 20% (by volume). Sand particles of two different sizes – 90 and 190 microns – were added and these kaolin-sand-water mixtures tested with a concentric cylinder viscometer. At higher total solids concentrations, the Bingham yield stress of the bimodal mixture can increase by as much as 80% over that of a kaolin-only slurry. Coarse particle diameter had little effect. This study demonstrates that the use of existing correlations should be eschewed. System-specific high-quality measurements are necessary. / Chemical Engineering

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Des mélanges de gaz et de particules sont présents dans divers environnements géophysiques. De tels mélanges chauds sont générés par des éruptions volcaniques explosives et comprennent des écoulements de conduit, des jets et des panaches, ainsi que des courants de densité pyroclastiques. La concentration de particules dans ces mélanges volcaniques peut varier fortement, allant de concentrations élevées (>50 % en volume) dans les écoulements denses fluidisés à des concentrations très faibles dans les suspensions diluées dans lesquelles les particules sont mises en suspension par la phase gazeuse turbulente. Une limite de concentration inférieure à ~% en volume dans les suspensions diluées a été suggérée par des études récentes, car des concentrations plus élevées nécessiteraient une énergie cinétique turbulente excessive. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'étudier expérimentalement le comportement d'un écoulement d'air turbulent dans un cylindre avec des concentrations de particules croissantes, pour différents nombres de Reynolds et en utilisant différents types de particules. Les nombres de Reynolds des mélanges gaz-particules dans les expériences atteignaient ~106. Une première série d'expériences a été menée avec des billes de verre de différentes tailles allant de 75-80 μm jusqu'à 2 mm, pour un total de huit tailles de particules. Au-dessus d'un seuil de concentration moyenne de 0.5-3 % en volume, qui augmentait avec le nombre de Reynolds, le comportement de l'écoulement a montré une transition d'une suspension homogène de particules (sous la concentration maximale) vers une séparation en une partie basale dense et une partie supérieure diluée contenant la concentration maximale des particules. Ce seuil de concentration a été détecté à l'aide de mesures de pression et d'une méthode impliquant une sphère dont la densité était légèrement inférieure à la densité apparente des particules et qui pouvait donc flotter au-dessus de la partie basale dense, si celle-ci était présente. Des vidéos à haute vitesse ont révélé que l'apparition de la concentration maximale de particules coïncidait avec l'émergence d’amas de particules dans la partie turbulente diluée. Dans une deuxième partie de la thèse, les expériences ont été répétées pour cinq gammes de tailles de particules de céramique et elles ont révélé le même comportement général que pour les billes de verre. Pour les deux types de particules, une concentration maximale a pu être détectée pour presque toutes les tailles de particules et a montré une augmentation avec le nombre de Reynolds à la puissance 1/5 (billes de verre) ou 0.4 (billes de céramique). Compte tenu du nombre de Reynolds des particules, la concentration maximale des particules augmente ensuite jusqu'à la puissance de 1/6 pour les particules de céramique et de verre. Ces résultats ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives sur la structure des mélanges gaz-particules volcaniques et ils fournissent également des contraintes pour les données d'entrée et de sortie des simulations numériques et pour les observations géophysiques. / Mixtures consisting of gas and particles can be found in various geophysical environments. Hot mixtures are generated by explosive volcanic eruptions and include conduit flows, jets and buoyant plumes, and pyroclastic density currents. The particle concentration within these volcanic mixtures can vary highly, from high concentrations (>50 vol. %) in dense fluidized flows to very low concentrations in dilute suspensions in which the particles are suspended by the turbulent gas phase. A concentration limit of less than ~1 vol. % in dilute suspensions was suggested by recent studies, as higher concentrations would require excessive turbulent kinetic energy. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate experimentally the behavior of a turbulent air flow in a pipe with increasing particle concentrations, for different Reynolds numbers and using different types of particles. The Reynolds numbers of the gas-particle mixtures in the experiments were up to ~106. A first set of experiments was conducted with glass beads of varying sizes from 75-80 μm up to 2 mm, for eight particle size ranges in total. Above a bulk concentration threshold of ~0.5-3 vol. %, which increased with the Reynolds number, the flow behavior changed from a homogeneous suspension of particles (below the maximum concentration) to a separation into a dense basal part and an upper dilute part carrying the maximum concentration of particles. This concentration threshold was detected with pressure measurements and a method that involved a ball of a slightly lower density than the bulk density of the particles, which could thus float over the dense basal part, if present. High-speed videos revealed that the occurrence of the maximum particle concentration coincided with the emergence of particle clusters in the dilute turbulent part. In a second part of the thesis, the experiments were repeated for five ceramic particle size ranges and they yielded the same general behavior as for the glass beads. For both types of particles, a maximum concentration could be detected for almost all particle size ranges and showed an increase with the mixture Reynolds number to the power 1/5 (glass beads) or 0.4 (ceramic beads). Considering the particle Reynolds number the maximum particle concentration then increase to the power 1/6 for both ceramic and glass particles. These results give new insights about the structure of volcanic gas-particle mixtures and they also provide constraints for input and output data of numerical simulations and for geophysical observations.

A hybrid FEM/FDM algorithm for particle migration of quasi-steady flow in concentrated suspension materials is proposed in this study. This hybrid FEM/FDM algorithm in which the planar variables, such as pressure field, are described in terms of finite element method, and gapwise variables of temperature, density concentration and time derivatives are expressed by finite difference method. The particle concentration inhomogeneities can be predicted, which is ignored by the existing injection molding simulation packages. Simulation results indicated that powder concentration variation could be significant in practical processing in PIM. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Particle-laden turbulent flow through a straight square duct at Reτ = 300 is studied using direct numerical simulation (DNS) and Lagrangian particle tracking. A parallelized 3-D particle tracking direct numerical simulation code has been developed to perform the large-scale turbulent particle transport computations reported in this thesis. The DNS code is validated after demonstrating good agreement with the published DNS results for the same flow and Reynolds number. Lagrangian particle transport computations are carried out using a large ensemble of passive tracers and finite-inertia particles and the assumption of one-way fluid-particle coupling. Using four different types of initial particle distributions, Lagrangian particle dispersion, concentration and deposition are studied in the turbulent straight square duct. Particles are released in a uniform distribution on a cross-sectional plane at the duct inlet, released as particle pairs in the core region of the duct, distributed randomly in the domain or distributed uniformly in planes at certain heights above the walls. One- and two-particle dispersion statistics are computed and discussed for the low Reynolds number inhomogeneous turbulence present in a straight square duct. New detailed statistics on particle number concentration and deposition are also obtained and discussed.