A moving contact line is the idealized line of intersection between two immiscible fluids as one displaces the other along a solid boundary. The displacement process has been the subject of a large amount of theoretical and experimental research; however, the fundamental processes that govern contact line motion are still unknown. The challenge from an experimental perspective is to make measurements with high enough resolution to validate competing theories. An experimental method has been developed to simultaneously measure interface motion, dynamic contact angles, and local fluid velocity fields using micron-resolution Particle Image Velocimetry (µPIV). Capillary numbers range from 1.7 x 10^(⁻⁴) to 6.2 x 10^(⁻⁴). Interface velocities were measured between 1.7 µm/s and 33 µm/s. Dynamic contact angles were manually measured between 1.1 µm and 120 µm from the contact line, and calculated from µPIV data to within several hundred nanometers from the contact line. Fluid velocities were measured over two orders of magnitude closer to the contact line than published values with an increase in resolution of over 3400%. The appearance of a recirculation zone similar to controversial prediction below previously published limits demonstrates the power and significance of the method.

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The interaction of an unsteady wake with a solid body can induce sizable loading of the structure, which has many detrimental side effects in both the structural and acoustic senses. These interactions are ubiquitous in nature and engineering. A flow control technique is sought to mitigate this interaction, thereby decreasing the level of structural vibration. This thesis investigates the effectiveness of steady leading-edge blowing (LEB) flow control for modifying the vortex induced vibrations on an airfoil in the wake of a circular cylinder. The airfoil was allowed to oscillate perpendicular to the fluid flow direction in response to the impinging Von-Karman vortex street. The flow field and airfoil vibrations were simultaneously captured using Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) and accelerometer measurements in a time-resolved sense. The results indicate that LEB can significantly reduce the degree of unsteady loading due to the blade vortex interaction (BVI). In some cases, the LEB jet appears to break the coherency of a vortex incident on the airfoil, and in other cases the jet increase the mean stand-off distance of the vortex as it convects over the airfoil surface. It was also found that, for large circular cylinders, if the airfoil is within the mean closure point of the circular cylinder wake, the LEB can increase the level of BVI. The Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) was also used to analyze the DPIV data. POD is mathematically superior for reducing a data rich field into fundamental modes; a suitable basis function for the reduction is chosen mathematically and it is not left to the researcher to pick the basis function. A comparison of the energy in these modes is useful in ascertaining the dynamics of the BVI. For one of the two cases examined with POD, it was found for no LEB the fundamental (i.e. most energetic) mode is given by the vortex shedding of the circular cylinder upstream. The addition of LEB reduces the energy contained in this fundamental mode. Thus the LEB jet has the effect of reducing the flow field coherency; the structure of the large vortices is broken up into smaller vortices. For the other case, the LEB jet has the opposite effect: the jet has the ability to organize the circular cylinder wake into coherent structures. This acts to increase the coherency of the circular cylinder wake and increases the level of BVI. / Master of Science

Laser flare can often be a major issue in particle image velocimetry (PIV) involving solid boundaries in a flow or a gas-liquid interface. The use of fluorescent light from dye-doped particles has been demonstrated in water applications, but reproducing the technique in an airflow is more difficult due to particle size constraints and safety concerns. The following thesis is formatted in a hybrid manuscript style, including a full paper presenting the applications of fluorescent Kiton Red 620 (KR620)-doped polystyrene latex microspheres in PIV. These particles used are small and monodisperse, with a mean diameter of 0.87 μm. The KR620 dye exhibits much lower toxicity than other common fluorescent dyes, and would be safe to use in large flow facilities. The first sections present a general introduction followed by a validation experiment using a standard PIV setup in a free jet. This work was the first to demonstrate PIV using fluorescent KR620-doped microspheres in an airflow, and results from the experiment were compared to similar data taken using standard PIV techniques. For the free jet results, Mie-scattered and fluorescent PIV were compared and showed average velocities within 3% of each other at the nozzle exit. Based on the PIV validation requirements used, this was deemed to be more of an indication of nozzle unsteadiness rather than an error or bias in the data. Furthermore, fluorescent PIV data obtained vector validation rates over 98%, well above the standard threshold of 95%. The journal article expands on the introductory work and analyzes testing scenarios where fluorescent PIV allows for velocity measurements much closer to a solid surface than standard, Mie-scattered PIV. The fluorescent signal from the particles is measured on average to be 320 ± 10 times weaker than the Mie scattering signal from the particles. This fluorescence-to-Mie ratio was found to be nonuniform, with the typical signal ratio for a single particle expected to fall between 120 and 870. This reduction in signal is counterbalanced by greatly enhanced contrast via optical rejection of the incident laser wavelength. Fluorescent PIV with these particles is shown to eliminate laser flare near surfaces, in one case leading to 63 times fewer spurious velocity vectors than an optimized Mie scattering implementation in a region more than 5 mm from an angled surface. In the appendix, a brief summary of an experiment to characterize the temperature sensitivity of the KR620 dye is included. This experiment concluded that the KR620 particles did not exhibit sufficient temperature sensitivity to warrant further investigation at the time. / Master of Science

There is a present need for simulation and measuring the inlet swirl distortion generated by airframe/engine system interactions to identify potential degradation in fan performance and operability in a full-scale, ground testing environment. Efforts are described to address this need by developing and characterizing methods for complex, prescribed distortion patterns. A relevant inlet swirl distortion profile that mimics boundary layer ingesting inlets was generated by a novel new method, dubbed the StreamVane method, and measured in a sub scale tunnel using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) as a precursor for swirl distortion generation and characterization in an operating turbofan research engine. Diagnostic development efforts for the distortion measurements within the research engine paralleled the StreamVane characterization. The system used for research engine PIV measurements is described. Data was obtained in the wake of a total pressure distortion screen for engine conditions at idle and 80% corrected fan speed, and of full-scale StreamVane screen at 50% corrected fan speed. The StreamVane screen was designed to generate a swirl distortion that is representative for hybrid wing body applications and was made of Ultem*9085 using additive manufacturing. Additional improvements to the StreamVane method are also described. Data reduction algorithms are put forth to reduce spurious velocity vectors. Uncertainty estimations specific to the inlet distortion test rig, including bias error due to mechanical vibration, are made. Results indicate that the methods develop may be used to both generate and characterize complex distortion profiles at the aerodynamic interface plane, providing new information about airframe/engine integration. / Master of Science

The study of flow fields and heat transfer characteristics inside a gas turbine combustor provides one of the most serious challenges for gas turbine researchers because of the harsh environment at high temperatures. Design improvements of gas turbine combustors for higher efficiency, reduced pollutant emissions, safety and durability require better understanding of combustion in swirl flows and thermal energy transfer from the turbulent reacting flows to solid surfaces. Therefore, accurate measurement and prediction of the flows and heat loads are indispensable. This dissertation presents flow details and wall heat flux measurements for reacting flow conditions in a model gas turbine combustor. The objective is to experimentally investigate the effects of combustor operating conditions on the reacting swirl flows and heat transfer on the liner wall. The results shows the behavior of swirling flows inside a combustor generated by an industrial lean pre-mixed, axial swirl fuel nozzle and associated heat loads. Planar particle image velocimetry (PIV) data were analyzed to understand the characteristics of the flow field. Experiments were conducted with various air flow rates, equivalence ratios, pilot fuel split ratios, and inlet air temperatures. Methane and propane were used as fuel. Characterizing the impingement location on the liner, and the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) distribution were a main part of the investigation. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) further analyzed the data to compare coherent structures in the reacting and non-reacting flows. Comparison between reacting and non-reacting flows yielded very striking differences. Self-similarity of the flow were observed at different operating conditions. Flow temperature measurements with a thermocouple scanning probe setup revealed the temperature distribution and flow structure. Features of premixed swirl flame were observed in the measurement. Non-uniformity of flow temperature near liner wall was observed ranging from 1000 K to 1400 K. The results provide insights on the driving mechanism of convection heat transfer. As a novel non-intrusive measurement technique for reacting flows, flame infrared radiation was measured with a thermographic camera. Features of the flame and swirl flow were observed from reconstructed map of measured IR radiation projection using Abel transformation. Flow structures in the infrared measurement agreed with observations of flame luminosity images and the temperature map. The effect of equivalence ratio on the IR radiation was observed. Liner wall temperature and heat transfer were measured with infrared thermographic camera. The combustor was operated under reacting condition to test realistic heat load inside the industrial combustors. Using quartz glass liner and KG2 filter glass, the IR camera could measure inner wall surface temperature through the glass at high temperature. Time resolved axial distributions of inner/outer wall temperature were obtained, and hot side heat flux distribution was also calculated from time accurate solution of finite difference method. The information about flows and wall heat transfer found in this work are beneficial for numerical simulations for optimized combustor cooling design. Measurement data of flow temperature, velocity field, infrared radiation, and heat transfer can be used as validation purpose or for direct inputs as boundary conditions. Time-independent location of peak location of liner wall temperature was found from time resolved wall temperature measurements and PIV flow measurements. This indicates the location where the cooling design should be able to compensate for the temperature increase in lean premixed swirl combustors. The characteristics on the swirl flows found in this study points out that the reacting changes the flow structure significantly, while the operating conditions has minor effect on the structure. The limitation of non-reacting testing must be well considered for experimental combustor studies. However, reacting testing can be performed cost-effectively for reduced number of conditions, utilizing self-similar characteristics of the flows found in this study. / Ph. D.

Energy conservation, efficiency, and environmental responsibility are priorities for modern energy technologies. The ever increasing demands for lower pollutants and higher performance have driven the development of low-emission gas turbine engines, operating at lean equivalence ratios and at increasingly higher turbine inlet temperatures. This has placed new constraints on gas turbine combustor design, particularly in regards to the cooling technologies available for the combustor liner walls. To optimize combustor thermal management, and in turn optimize overall engine performance, detailed measurements of the flame side heat transfer are required. However, given the challenging environment at which gas turbine combustors operate, there are currently only limited studies that quantify flame side combustor heat transfer; in particular at reacting conditions. The objective of the present work was to develop methodologies to measure heat transfer within a reacting gas turbine combustor. To accomplish this, an optically accessible research combustor system was designed and constructed at Virginia Tech, capable of operating at 650 K inlet temperature, maximum air mass flow rates of 1.3 kg/s, and flame temperatures over 1800 K. Flow and heat transfer measurements at non-reacting and reacting conditions were carried out for Reynolds numbers (Re) with respect to the combustor diameter ranging from ~11 500 to ~140 000 (depending on the condition). Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the non-reacting flow field within the burner, leading to the identification of coherent structures in the flow that accounted for over 30% of the flow fluctuation kinetic energy along the swirling jet shear layers. The capability of infrared (IR) thermography to image surface temperatures through a fused silica (quartz) glass was demonstrated at non-reacting conditions. IR thermography was then used to measure the non-reacting steady state heat transfer along the combustor liner. A peak in heat transfer was identified at ~1 nozzle diameter downstream of the combustor dome plate. The peak Nusselt number along the liner was over 18 times higher than that predicted from fully developed turbulent pipe flow correlations, which have traditionally been used to estimate flame side combustor heat transfer. For the reacting measurements, a novel time-dependent heat transfer methodology was developed that allowed for the investigation of transient heat loads, including those occurring during engine ignition and shutdown. The methodology was validated at non-reacting conditions, by comparing results from an experiment with changing flow temperature, to the results obtained at steady state. The difference between the time-dependent and the steady state measurements were between 3% and 17.3% for different mass flow conditions. The time-dependent methodology was applied to reacting conditions for combustor Reynolds numbers of ~12 000 and ~24 000. At an equivalence ratio of ~0.5 and a combustor Reynolds number of ~12 000, the peak heat load location in reaction was shifted downstream by 0.2 nozzle diameters compared to the non-reacting cases. At higher equivalence ratios, and more visibly at a Reynolds number of ~24 000, the heat transfer distribution along the combustor liner exhibited two peaks, upstream and downstream of the impingement location (X/DN=0.8-1.0 and X/DN=2.5). Reacting PIV was performed at Re=12 000 showing the presence of a strong corner recirculation, which could potentially convect reactants upstream of the impingement point, leading to the double peak structure observed. The methodologies developed have provided insight into heat transfer within gas turbine combustors. The methods can be used to explore additional conditions and expand the dataset beyond what is presented, to fully characterize reacting combustor heat transfer. / Ph. D.

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) has become one of the most important tools for experimentally investigating the physics of fluid flows. In PIV, image-processing algorithms estimate flow velocity by measuring the displacements of flow-tracer particles suspended in a fluid. The fundamental operation in PIV is the cross correlation (CC), which measures the displacement between two similar patterns. These measurements can fail under circumstances that arise due to the nature of the underlying flow field (e.g., vortices and boundary layers, where particle patterns not only translate but also rotate, stretch, and shear) or of the images (e.g., X-ray images, with comparatively low signal to noise ratios). Despite these shortcomings, fairly little attention has been paid to fundamentally improving measurements at the level of the CC. The objective of this dissertation is to demonstrate specific modifications to the correlation kernel of PIV that increase its accuracy and in certain cases extend its utility to classes of flows and image types that were previously unresolvable. First, we present a new PIV correlation algorithm called the Fourier-Mellin correlation (FMC) that reduces velocity errors by an order of magnitude in rotating flows (chapter 1). Second, we develop a model of PIV cross correlations that explains the fundamental sources of several major drivers of error in these measurements. We show how the shapes of the tracer particles and the distributions of their individual displacements affect the correlation signal to noise ratio (SNR), whose effects have previously been described only heuristically. We use this insight to create an algorithm that automatically creates a Fourier-based weighting filter, and demonstrate that our algorithm reduces bias and RMS errors in multiple types of PIV experiments (chapter 2). Finally, we apply principles from our insights to measure blood flows in the hearts of grasshoppers using X-ray PIV, and discovered flow kinematics that were unexpected according to the current prevailing understanding of the heart as a peristaltic pump that produces directional flows. Our results suggest that flow production in insect hearts may be more complex than once thought (chapter 3). / Ph. D.

The Generation IV Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) design is being actively studied in various countries for application due to its inherent passive safe design, higher thermal efficiencies, and proposed capability of providing high temperature process heat. The pebble bed core is one of two core designs used in gas reactors. In the pebble bed core there are mechanisms present which can cause the flow to laminarize, thus reducing its heat transfer effectiveness. Wind tunnel experiments were conducted using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to investigate boundary layer laminarization due to flow acceleration and convex curvature effects. The flow was subject to acceleration and curvature both separately and together and the flow behavior characterized with velocity flow profiles, mean boundary layer parameters, and turbulence quantities. Laminarization was identified and the influence of acceleration and curvature was characterized. / Graduation date: 2013

Light field imaging, specifically synthetic aperture (SA) refocusing is a method used to combine images from an array of cameras to generate a single image with a narrow depth of field that can be positioned arbitrarily throughout the volume under investigation. Creating a stack of narrow depth of field images at varying locations generates a focal stack that can be used to find the location of objects in three dimensions. SA refocusing is particularly useful when reconstructing particle fields that are then used to determine the movement of the fluid they are entrained in, and it can also be used for shape reconstruction. This study applies SA refocusing to reacting flows and microscopic flows by performing shape reconstruction and 3D PIV on a flame, and 3D PIV on flow through a micro channel. The reacting flows in particular posed problems with the method. Reconstruction of the flame envelope was successful except for significant elongation in the optical axis caused by cameras viewing the flame from primarily one direction. 3D PIV on reacting flows suffered heavily from the index of refraction generated by the flame. The refocusing algorithm used assumed the particles were viewed through a constant refractive index (RI) and does not compensate for variations in the RI. This variation caused apparent motion in the particles that obscured their true locations making the 3D PIV prone to error. Microscopic PIV (µPIV) was performed on a channel containing a backward facing step. A microlens array was placed in the imaging section of the setup to capture a light field from the scene, which was then refocusing using SA refocusing. PIV on these volumes was compared to a CFD simulation on the same channel. Comparisons showed that error was most significant near the boundaries and the step of the channel. The axial velocity in particular had significant error near the step were the axial velocity was highest. Flow-wise velocity, though, appeared accurate with average flow-wise error approximately 20% throughout the channel volume.