In comparison to the flow in a rigid channel, there is a multi-fold reduction in the transition Reynolds number for the flow in a micro channel when one of the walls is made sufficiently soft, due to a dynamical instability induced by the fluid-wall coupling. The flow after transition is characterized using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) in the x − y plane where x is the stream-wise direction and y is the cross-stream co-ordinate along the small dimension of the channel of height 0.2 − 0.3mm. For the two different soft walls of shear modulus 18 kPa and 2.19 kPaused here, the transition Reynolds number is about 250 and 330 respectively. The deformation of the microchannel due to the applied pressure gradient is measured in the experiments, and is used to predict the laminar mean velocity profiles for comparison with the experimental results. The mean velocity profiles in the microchannel are in quantitative agreement with those predicted for the laminar flow before transition, but are flatter near the centerline and have higher gradients at the wall after transition. The flow after transition is characterized by a mean velocity profile that is flatter at the center and steeper at the walls in comparison to that for a laminar flow. The root mean square of the stream-wise fluctuating velocity shows the characteristic sharp increase from the wall and a maximum close to the wall, as observed in turbulent flows in rigid-walled channels. However, the profile is asymmetric with a significantly higher maximum close to the soft wall in comparison to that close to the hard wall, and the Reynolds stress is found to be non-zero at the soft wall, indicating that there is a stress exerted by fluid velocity fluctuations on the wall. The turbulent energy production profile has a maximum at the soft wall, in contrast to the flow at a rigid surface where the turbulent energy production is zero at the wall (due to the zero Reynolds stress). The maximum of the root mean square of the velocity fluctuations and the Reynolds stress (divided by the fluid density) in the soft-walled microchannel for Reynolds numbers in the range 250-400, when scaled by suitable powers of the maximum velocity, are comparable to those in a rigid channel at Reynolds numbers in the range 5000-20000. The near-wall velocity profile shows no evidence of a viscous sub-layer for (yv∗/ν) as low as 2, but there is a logarithmic layer for (yv∗/ν) up to about 30, where the von Karman constants are very deferent from those for a rigid-walled channel. Here, v∗ is the friction velocity, ν is the kinematic viscosity and y is the distance from the soft surface. . The surface of the soft wall in contact with the fluid is marked with dye spots to monitor the deformation and motion along the fluid-wall interface. The measured displacement of the surface in the stream-wise direction, which is of the order of 5 − 12µm, is consistent with that calculated on the basis of linear elasticity. Low-frequency oscillations in the displacement of the surface are observed after transition in both the stream-wise and span-wise directions, indicating that the turbulent velocity fluctuations are dynamically coupled to motion in the solid. Modification of soft-wall turbulence in a micro channel due to the addition of small amounts of polymer The modification of soft-wall turbulence in a microchannel due to the addition of small amounts of polymer is experimentally studied using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to measure the mean and the fluctuating velocities. The micro channels are of rectangular cross-section with height about 160 µm, width about 1.5 mm and length about 3 cm, with three walls made of hard Poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) gel, and one wall made of soft PDMS gel with an elasticity modulus of about 18 kPa. A dynamical instabilty of the laminar flow due to the fluid-wall coupling, and a transition to turbulence, is observed at a Reynolds number of about 290 for the flow of pure water in the soft-walled microchannel (Verma and Kumaran, J. Fluid Mech., 727, 407-455, 2013). Solutions of polyacrylamide of molecular weight 5 × 106 and mass fraction up to 50 ppm, and of molecular weight 4 × 104 and mass fraction up to 1500 ppm, are used in the experiments. In all cases, the solutions are in the dilute limit be-low the critical concentration where the interactions between polymer molecules become important. The modification of the fluid viscosity due to addition of polymer molecules is small; the viscosity of the solutions with the highest polymer concentration exceed those for pure water by about 10% for the polymer with molecular weight 5 × 106, and by about 5% for the polymer with molecular weight 4 × 104. Two distinct types of flow modifications below and above a threshold mass fraction for the polymer, cTHRESHOLD , which is about 1 ppm for the polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 × 106, and about 500 ppm for the polyacrylamide with molecular weight 4 × 104. As the polymer mass fraction increases up to the threshold value, there is no change in the transition Reynolds number, but there is significant turbulence attenuation the root mean square velocities in the stream wise and cross-stream directions decrease by a factor of 2, and the Reynolds stress decreases by a factor of 4 in comparison to that for pure water. When the polymer concentration increases beyond the threshold value, there is a decrease in the decrease in the transition Reynolds number by nearly one order of magnitude, and a further decrease in the intensity of the turbulent fluctuations. The lowest transition Reynolds number of about 35 for the solution of polyacrylamide with molecular weight 5 × 106 and mass fraction 50 ppm. For the polymer solutions with the highest concentrations, the fluctuating velocities in the stream wise and cross-stream direction are lower by a factor of 5, and the Reynolds stress is lower by a factor of 10, in comparison to pure water. Despite the significant turbulence attenuation, a sharp increase in the intensity of the fluctuating velocities is evident at transition for all polymer concentrations. Transitions to deferent kinds of turbulence in a channel with soft walls The flow in a rectangular channel with walls made of soft polyacrylamide gel is studied to examine the effect of soft walls on transition and turbulence. The width of the channel is much larger than the height, so that the flow can be considered approximately two-dimensional, the wall thickness is much larger than the channel height (smallest dimension), the bottom wall is fixed to a substrate and the top wall is unrestrained. The fluid velocity is measured using Particle Image Velocimetry, while the wall motion is studied by embedding beads in the soft wall, and measuring the time-variation of the displacement both parallel and perpendicular to the surface. As the Reynolds number increases, two different flow regimes are observed in sequence. The first is the ‘soft-wall turbulence’ resulting from a dynamical instability of the base flow due to the fluid-wall coupling. The flow in this case exhibits many of the features of the turbulent flow in a rigid channel, including the departure of the velocity profile from the parabolic profile, and the near-wall maxima in the stream-wise root mean square fluctuating velocity. However, there are also significant differences. The turbulence intensities, when scaled by suitable powers of the mean velocity, are much larger than those after the hard-wall laminar-turbulent transition at a Reynolds number of about 1000. The Reynolds stress profiles do not decrease to zero at the walls, indicating that the wall motion plays a role in the generation of turbulent fluctuations. There is no evidence of a viscous sub-layer close to the wall to within the experimental resolution. The mean velocity profile does satisfy a logarithmic law close to the surface within a region between 2-30 wall units from the surface, but the von Karman constants are very different from those for the hard-wall turbulence. The wall displacement measurements indicate that there is no observable motion perpendicular to the surface, but displacement fluctuations parallel to the surface are observed after transition, coinciding with the onset of velocity fluctuations in the fluid. The fluid velocity fluctuations are symmetric about the center line of the channel, and they show relatively little downstream variation after a flow development length of about 5 cm. As the Reynolds number is further increased, there is a second ‘wall flutter’ transition, which involves visible downstream traveling waves in the top (unrestrained) wall alone. Wall displacement fluctuations of low frequency (less than about 500 rad/s) are observed both parallel and perpendicular to the wall. The mean velocity profiles and turbulence intensities are asymmetric, with much larger turbulence intensities near the top wall. There is no evident logarithmic profile close to either the top or bottom wall. Fluctuations are initiated at the entrance of the test section, and the fluctuation intensities decrease with downstream distance, the fluctuation intensities first rapidly increase and then decrease as the Reynolds number is increased. For a channel with relatively small height (0.6 mm), the transition Reynolds number for the soft-wall instability is lower the hard-wall transition Reynolds number of about 1000, and the laminar flow becomes unstable to the soft-wall instability leading to soft-wall turbulence and then to wall flutter as the Reynolds number is increased. For a channel with relatively large height (1.8 mm), the transition Reynolds number for the soft-wall instability is higher than 1000, the flow first undergoes the hard-wall laminar-turbulent transition at a Reynolds number of about 1000, the turbulent flow undergoes the soft-wall transition leading to soft-wall turbulence, and then to wall flutter.

<p>A small plasma generation system was first developed using a ring-pin electrode configuration with the goal of producing a plasma disk at the burner outlet. Two distinct plasma regimes were identified: diffused and filamentary. Diffuse discharges were generated at low frequencies while filamentary discharges were generated at moderate to high frequencies. The induced flow fields generated by both diffuse and filamentary plasma discharges were investigated using high-speed schlieren visualization and particle image velocimetry. The rise in gas temperature was measured using optical emission spectroscopy. Lastly, the electrical properties for both types of plasma discharges was measured. The measurements provided a set of pulse parameters for the investigation of the plasma-flame interaction on the atmospheric pressure burner. </p> An atmospheric pressure plasma-assisted burner with a ring-pin electrode geometry was designed and fabricated to investigate the effect of nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharges on methane-air flames. The burner can produce both Bunsen-type and swirl-stabilized flames (helical vane swirlers, swirl number of 0.62) with a modular design to allow for a removable block swirler component. Flame chemiluminescence and direct imaging of flame structure and dynamics was done to understand the burner’s operating limits. The burner can operate 6 – 13 kW flames, with flames stabilizing at approximately 2 inches above the burner exit. The effect of air flow rate on plasma formation was investigated and it was found that the high velocity of the incoming gas changes the plasma regime and electrical properties. Finally, the plasma discharge was applied on lifted, swirled flames and used for plasma-assisted ignition. For lifted swirled flames, we found that a minimum of 100 pulses is required to generate a filamentary discharge in the air stream. Higher number of pulses at high frequencies appeared to extinguish the primary flame. A minimum of 6000 was used for ignition. The plasma-assisted burner will allow for future studies to investigate the plasma flame coupling for various conditions using a wide variety of diagnostics. <br>

S požadavky materiálových věd na stále menší částice jsou potřebné i nové přístupy a metody jejich klasifikace. V disertační práci jsou zkoumány struktury turbulentního proudění a trajektorie částic uvnitř dynamického větrného třídiče. Zvyšující se výpočtový výkon a nové modely turbulence a přístupy modelování komplexních plně turbulentních problémů řešením Navier-Stokesových rovnic umožňují zkoumání stále menších lokálních proudových struktur a vlastností proudění s větší přesností. Částice menší než 10 mikronů jsou více ovlivnitelné a jejich klasifikace do hrubé nebo jemné frakce závisí na malých vírových strukturách. Práce se zaměřuje na podmínky nutné ke klasifikaci částic pod 10 mikronů, což je současná hranice možností metody větrné separace. CFD software a poslední poznatky modelování turbulence jsou použity v numerické simulaci proudových polí dynamického větrného třídiče a jsou zkoumány efekty měnících se operačních parametrů na proudová pole a klasifikaci diskrétní fáze. Experimentální verifikace numerických predikcí je realizovaná prostřednictvím částicové anemometrie na základě statistického zpracování obrazu (PIV) a proudění lopatkami rotoru je vizualizováno. Predikované trajektorie částic jsou experimentálně ověřeny třídícími testy na větrném třídiči a granulometrie je určená pomocí laserové difrakční metody. Zkoumány jsou Trompovy křivky a efektivita třídění.

The theme of this thesis is continue on examining relatively commonly used measurement flow field metods, which assessing the variables flows at a high level. Thesis follow up mainly the flow field in the channel bottom boundary-layer and its depending on different factors. To calculate velocity in boundary-layer is common used extrapolation method, because this boundary layer is only the small part of measuring cross section. Increase the accuracy of measurement of flow variables make the flow in the boundary layer also important. Thesis is a summary of a basic theory of flow field, but mainly is about dependent local flow velocity on position, and about deformation of flow field in boundary layer. The aim thesis is description different calculation methods of flow flow field in boundary layer and comparison to with real condition which was measured in laboratory UVS-LVV. Real condition flow field in channel bottom boundary layer is based on exact method Particle image velocimetry. The measurement results serve to compare commonly used calculation methods or different theories velocity in the channel bottom boundary layer. Outputs this thesis offers comparison, confirmation or specification calculation methods according to the results. It has been suggested several limitations on certain methods of calculation, or coefficient were modified or alternative has been proposed to calculate them.

Diplomová práce se zabývá měřením charakteristik sprejů dvou tlakových vířivých trysek pro spalovací komoru malého turbínového motoru na zkušebním stavu za studena pomocí metod Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) a fázové Dopplerovské anemometrie (PDA). Cílem měření bylo stanovit a porovnat charakteristiky sprejů obou trysek. Výsledky měření mají objasnit rozdílnost chování trysek za provozu a možný dopad na proces spalování. Úvodní teoretická část pojednává o základních fyzikálních principech atomizace kapalin, konstrukci a oblasti uplatnění tlakových vířivých trysek a o principech laserových diagnostických metod použitých při experimentálním měření. Nasledující část popisuje návrh a montáž zkušební trati a dalších zařízení navržených pro experimentální měření v této práci. Experimentální část se zabývá nastavením parametrů měřícího systému a zpracováním dat. Výsledky měření zahrnují vektorová rychlostní pole, axiální rychlostní profily a distribuce velikosti kapek pro různé provozní podmínky obou trysek.

<p>There is growing interest in the use of nanosecond surface dielectric barrier discharge (ns-SDBD) actuators for high-speed (supersonic/hypersonic) flow control. A plasma discharge is created using a nanosecond-duration pulse of several kilovolts, and leads to a rapid heat release and a complex three-dimensional flow field. Past work has been limited to qualitative visualizations such as schlieren imaging, and detailed measurements of the induced flow are required to develop a mechanistic model of the actuator performance. </p><p><br></p><p></p><p>Background-Oriented Schlieren (BOS) is a quantitative variant of schlieren imaging and measures density gradients in a flow field by tracking the apparent distortion of a target dot pattern. The distortion is estimated by cross-correlation, and the density gradients can be integrated spatially to obtain the density field. Owing to the simple setup and ease of use, BOS has been applied widely, and is becoming the preferred density measurement technique. However, there are several unaddressed limitations with potential for improvement, especially for application to complex flow fields such as those induced by plasma actuators. </p><p></p><p>This thesis presents a series of developments aimed at improving the various aspects of the BOS measurement chain to provide an overall improvement in the accuracy, precision, spatial resolution and dynamic range. A brief summary of the contributions are: </p><p>1) a synthetic image generation methodology to perform error and uncertainty analysis for PIV/BOS experiments, </p><p>2) an uncertainty quantification methodology to report local, instantaneous, a-posteriori uncertainty bounds on the density field, by propagating displacement uncertainties through the measurement chain,</p><p>3) an improved displacement uncertainty estimation method using a meta-uncertainty framework whereby uncertainties estimated by different methods are combined based on the sensitivities to image perturbations, </p><p>4) the development of a Weighted Least Squares-based density integration methodology to reduce the sensitivity of the density estimation procedure to measurement noise.</p><p>5) a tracking-based processing algorithm to improve the accuracy, precision and spatial resolution of the measurements, </p><p>6) a theoretical model of the measurement process to demonstrate the effect of density gradients on the position uncertainty, and an uncertainty quantification methodology for tracking-based BOS,</p><p>Then the improvements to BOS are applied to perform a detailed characterization of the flow induced by a filamentary surface plasma discharge to develop a reduced-order model for the length and time scales of the induced flow. The measurements show that the induced flow consists of a hot gas kernel filled with vorticity in a vortex ring that expands and cools over time. A reduced-order model is developed to describe the induced flow and applying the model to the experimental data reveals that the vortex ring's properties govern the time scale associated with the kernel dynamics. The model predictions for the actuator-induced flow length and time scales can guide the choice of filament spacing and pulse frequencies for practical multi-pulse ns-SDBD configurations.</p>

No description available.

No description available.

In this thesis I investigate characteristics of turbulent flow in a channel where one of the walls has riblets, superhydrophobic microribs, or a hybrid surface with traditional riblets built on a superhydrophobic microrib surface. PIV measurements are used to find the velocity profile, the turbulent statistics, and shear stress profile in the rectangular channel with one wall having a structured test surface. Both riblets and superhydrophobic surfaces can each provide a reduction in the wall shear stress in a turbulent channel flow. Characterizing the features of the flow using particle image velocimetry (PIV) is the focus of this research. Superhydrophobicity results from the combination of a hydrophobic coating applied to a surface with microrib structures, resulting in a very low surface energy, such that the fluid does not penetrate in between the structures. The micro-rib structures are aligned in the streamwise flow direction. The riblets are larger than the micro-rib structure by an order of magnitude and protrude into the flow. All the test surfaces were produced on silicon wafers using photolithographic techniques. Pressure in the channel is maintained below the Laplace pressure for all testing, creating sustainable air pockets between the microribs. Velocity profiles, turbulent statistics, shear stress profiles, and friction factors are presented. Measurements were acquired for Reynolds numbers ranging from 4.5x10^3 to 2.0x10^4. Modest drag reductions were observed for the riblet surfaces. Substantial drag increase occurred over the superhydrophobic surfaces. The hybrid surfaces showed the greatest drag reduction. Turbulence production was strongly reduced during riblet and hybrid tests.

No description available.