Modern construction practices require proper knowledge to predict concrete pumping pressure, especially in high-volume and high-rise applications. Despite the progress made over the last decades, the spread of concrete pumping to high-rise construction has been hampered by the lack of standardized operating procedures and performance criteria. By and large, the guidelines available today focus predominantly on pumping Conventional Vibrated Concrete (CVC), while ambiguity still surrounds pumping Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) and other types of Highly-Workable Concrete (HWC). This PhD dissertation focuses on the fundamental principles relevant to the flow of high-strength SCC in pumping pipes, and it aims to develop methods to predict and reduce the required pumping pressure. The flow pattern of SCC in pipes is analytically investigated, providing a numerical approach to predict the pumping pressure based on the properties of both concrete and the lubrication layer, the pipe diameter, and the flow rate. The analytical results are further validated through full-scale pumping tests executed at the laboratory of the Université de Sherbrooke. Through this phase 26 optimal concrete mixtures were pumped in a 30-m pumping circuit to investigate the interactions between the concrete properties and pressure loss. The same tests are also employed to empirically correlate pressure loss with rheological and tribological properties of concrete at different flow rates. The resulting correlations furnish instrumental models capable of computing pressure loss for a wide range of concrete properties. In another application, the experimental results are analyzed to identify the influence of pumping on concrete properties with time. Full-scale pumping results are statistically analyzed in order to establish a quantitative description of the most influential parameters governing the concrete flow in pipes. As a result, concrete pipe flow is statically modeled, allowing the computation of pressure loss at different flow rates based on the the rheological and tribological properties of the concrete and the pipe diameter. Another statistical model is derived to calculate the pressure loss as a function of the V-funnel flow time, granting the advantage of predicting the pressure loss on job sites without the need for complex rheological and tribological measurements. In light of the research findings of the previous phases, a new simple test method called the pipe flow test (PFT) is developed in the context of this research, specifically for predicting pipe flow pressure loss. With preceding research phases as insights, the final stage of this project is directed toward mix design optimization faced with the challenge of reducing the pumping pressure and meeting the strength requirements of high-strength SCC. Ultimately, the research findings emanating from this investigation provide practical guidelines and conclusive models to predict and reduce pumping pressure for a wide scope of concrete mixtures and pipe diameters.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo principal estudar a propagação acústica em escoamentos monofásicos. Para tal, são analisados sinais transientes de pressão fornecidos por sensores instalados em posições conhecidas na linha de teste, através do estudo de técnicas de análise de sinais, a fim de investigar se as variações do conteúdo espectral dos sinais são influenciadas pela ocorrência de vazamentos no duto. A análise dos sinais foi realizada nos planos temporal, frequencial, tempo-frequência e estatístico. Os resultados experimentais foram obtidos no oleoduto piloto do NETeF - Núcleo de Engenharia Térmica e Fluidos da USP - Universidade de São Paulo, com uma seção de testes com 1500 metros e diâmetro de 51,2 mm, com escoamento monofásico de água. Os resultados obtidos através da análise tempo-frequência mostraram-se satisfatórios, sendo esta técnica capaz de identificar a composição espectral instantânea de um sinal, ou seja, foi eficiente na identificação de picos de amplitude da frequência ao longo do eixo temporal. Além disso, a análise probabilística, através do desvio-padrão do sinal também mostrou-se eficiente exibindo uma disparidade significativa entre os sinais com e sem vazamento. / The present dissertation reports on the study of the acoustic propagation in single-phase flow. It analyzes the transient signals provided by pressure sensors in known locations in the test line through the study of signal analysis techniques to investigate if the variations in spectral content of the signals are influenced by the occurrence of leaks in the pipe. The analysis of signals was performed in the time, frequency, time-frequency and statistical plans. The experimental results were obtained in a 1500 meter-long and 51.2 millimeter-diameter pilot pipeline at the Center of Thermal Engineering and Fluids, with single-phase flow of water. The results obtained by time-frequency analysis were satisfactory, allowing identifying the spectral composition of an instantaneous signal, i.e., the analysis was effective in identifying the frequency amplitude peaks along the time axis. Moreover, probabilistic analysis using the standard deviation of the signal was also efficient, displaying a significant disparity between the signals with and without leakage.

Accurate hydraulic conductivity values are necessary for understanding groundwater flow. Methods for estimating hydraulic conductivity show limitations because measured values vary several orders of magnitude in high permeability aquifers. Slug tests, while cost and time efficient, result in values lower than expected. It is proposed that underdamped behavior of water in a well is similar to mass on a damped spring; hence, models constructed to simulate behavior independent of aquifer effects might replicate some tests. The Poiseuille and Darcy-Weisbach models, and extensions of these models considering entry/exit effects, are applied to an aquifer-free laboratory test, and real wells. Aquifer-free laboratory tests are modeled well using both Poiseuille and Darcy-Weisbach models with entry/exit effects. The Poiseuille model for wells does not agree with observed data, possibly because of high Reynolds numbers. The Darcy-Weisbach model does agree with well data significantly better, although the friction factor relies on a single Reynolds number.

The following paper presents a one-dimensional numerical model for simulating transient thermohydraulic pipe flow based on the Method of Characteristics. In addition to mass and momentum conservation, the proposed scheme also guarantees compliance with the laws of thermodynamics by solving the energy equation. The model covers transient changes in fluid properties due to pressure changes, heat transfer and dissipation. The presented methodology also allows the computation of the transient temperature distribution in the pipe wall through an additional ordinary finite difference scheme. The numerical procedure is implemented in the commercial simulation software DSHplus. The capability of the code is examined by comparing the simulation results with theoretical solutions and experimental data.

<div>With the rapid development of the advanced two-phase flow experimental technologies, more experimental databases with extended measurement ranges have been established to support the two-phase flow model development. The advantage of the Two Fluid model in modeling the complex two-phase flow phenomena over the mixture models stands out. One key aspect in the Two Fluid model development is the accurate modeling of the interfacial area between phases, which is strongly related to the interfacial mass, momentum, and energy transfer. As a closure relation of interfacial area concentration (interfacial area per unit volume) for the Two Fluid model, the Interfacial Area Transport Equation (IATE) provides dynamic predictions on the interfacial area change. It substantially solves the shortcoming of using flow-regime-dependent empirical correlations that can introduce numerical discontinuities between flow regimes. </div><div><br></div><div>The IATE has been extensively developed over the past twenty-five years. Many studies targeted on improving its prediction capability by developing bubble interaction source terms based on their experimental data. </div><div>The existing models are usually based on medium and large flow channels, yet the models may not be physically fit the small flow channels. The major reason is that the wall effect can have a larger influence on the two-phase flow in a small flow channel, as the surface area to volume ratio greatly increases. Therefore, the primary objectives of this study are to physically investigate the wall effect on two-phase flow and develop a generalized IATE by extending the application range of existing IATE from large and medium flow channels to small flow channel.</div><div><br></div><div>To achieve the objective, this study established a rigorous database of air-water two-phase flows in a small diameter pipe with its inner diameter of 12.7 mm, focusing on the bubbly-to-slug transition regime. The experimental analysis was performed on the pipe wall effect on the interfacial characteristics, based on the current experimental database and the existing experimental database collected on vertical pipes of different sizes. It is observed that 1) the pipe wall effect can alter the non-uniform radial two-phase distribution; 2) the bubbly-to-slug flow regime transition in a small diameter pipe happens in a smaller void fraction than in a large diameter pipe; 3) the bubble coalescence phenomenon can be more dominant for small pipe flow, and an intensive intergroup transfer can happen for the two-group interfacial area transport in two-phase flows. </div><div>As the interfacial area transport is directly related to the two-phase geometrical configuration, the two-phase geometrical parameters, void fraction and relative bubble size, are identified as the key parameters for modeling.</div><div><br></div><div>In the modeling of IATE source terms, the high geometrical scalability of the model is realized by properly including the wall effect into the modeling consideration. The following major improvements on the existing models are: 1) the inertia subrange assumption on the turbulent-driven interaction is properly improved; 2) the bubble-induced turbulent-driven interactions such as wake entrainment is revised by considering the wall effect on the wake region. In summary, models of bubble interaction due to random collision, wake entrainment, turbulent impact, and shearing-off are revised based on the existing studies on the IATE source terms development. The newly proposed interfacial area transport models are evaluated against an experimental database with 112 test conditions in total from a wide range of experimental pipe diameters from 12.7 mm to 304.8 mm. The new models can accurately capture the drastic intergroup transfer of void fraction and interfacial area concentration between two groups in transition flows. Overall, the relative error of void fraction and interfacial area concentration comparing with the experimental data are within ±15\% and ±10\%, respectively.</div>

L'objectif de cette thèse est de fournir une analyse de la transition vers la turbulence d'un fluide rhéofluidifiant (fluide de Carreau) dans une conduite cylindrique. Pour cela, un code pseudo-spectral de type Petrov-Galerkin a été développé. Une analyse linéaire de stabilité de l'écoulement laminaire est effectuée, montrant que cet écoulement est linéairement stable. Ensuite, des perturbations sous la forme des rouleaux longitudinaux contra-rotatifs sont utilisées comme condition initiale. Les termes non linéaires d'inertie et visqueux créent un écoulement secondaire avec des points d'inflexion, linéairement instable vis-à-vis de perturbations 3D. Une analyse linéaire de stabilité de ce nouvel écoulement de base bidimensionnelle est réalisée. La forme des vecteurs propres critiques est analysé. Enfin, une analyse non linéaire de stabilité de rouleaux vis-à-vis des perturbations tridimensionnelles de faible amplitude est effectuée, obtenant un retard pour la transition vers la turbulence des fluides rhéofluidifiants par rapport au cas Newtonien et une tendance à l'asymétrie du profil de vitesse axiale / The main objective of this thesis is to provide a description of the transition to turbulence of a shear thinning fluid in pipe flow. A linear stability analysis of the base flow is done. Results show that the flow is linearly stable and the optimal perturbation is given by a pair of counter rotating vortex. This kind of perturbation is used as an initial condition of a computational code which integrates the governing equations. Inertial and viscous non linear terms generate a secondary base flow with inflection points, which is linearly unstable to 3D perturbations. A secondary instability analysis is done, regarding the shape of unstable eigenvectors. Depending the rheological parameters and the size of the primary perturbation, the unstable mode might be near the wall or the center of the pipe. Finally, a non linear stability analysis of the streaks to 3D perturbations of weak amplitude, obtaining a delay in the transition to turbulence due to shear thinning

Air borne or liquid-laden solid particle transport is a common phenomenon in various industrial applications. Solid particles, transported at severe operating conditions such as high flow velocity, can cause concerns for structural integrity through wear originated from particle impacts with structure. To apply Acoustic Emission (AE) in particle impact monitoring, previous researchers focused primarily on dry particle impacts on dry target plate and/or wet particle impacts on wet or dry target plate. For dry particle impacts on dry target plate, AE events energy, calculated from the recorded free falling or air borne particle impact AE signals, were correlated with particle size, concentration, height, target material and thickness. For a given system, once calibrated for a specific particle type and operating condition, this technique might be sufficient to serve the purpose. However, if more than one particle type present in the system, particularly with similar size, density and impact velocity, calculated AE event energy is not unique for a specific particle type. For wet particle impacts on dry or wet target plate (either submerged or in a flow loop), AE event energy was related to the particle size, concentration, target material, impact velocity and angle between the nozzle and the target plate. In these studies, the experimental arrangements and the operating conditions considered either did not allow any bubble formation in the system or even if there is any at least an order of magnitude lower in amplitude than the sand particle impact and so easily identifiable. In reality, bubble formation can be comparable with particle impacts in terms of AE amplitude in process industries, for example, sand production during oil and gas transportation from reservoir. Current practice is to calibrate an installed AE monitoring system against a range of sand free flow conditions. In real time monitoring, for a specific calibrated flow, the flow generated AE amplitude/energy is deducted from the recorded AE amplitude/energy and the difference is attributed to the sand particle impacts. However, if the flow condition changes, which often does in the process industry, the calibration is not valid anymore and AE events from bubble can be misinterpreted as sand particle impacts and vice versa. In this research, sand particles and glass beads with similar size, density and impact velocity have been studied dropping from 200 mm on a small cylindrical stepped mild steel coupon as a target plate. For signal recording purposes, two identical broadband AE sensors are installed, one at the centre and one 30 mm off centred, on the opposite of the impacting surface. Signal analysis have been carried out by evaluating 7 standard AE parameters (amplitude, energy, rise time, duration, power spectral density(PSD), peak frequency at PSD and spectral centroid) in the time and frequency domain and time-frequency domain analysis have been performed applying Gabor Wavelet Transform. The signal interpretation becomes difficult due to reflections, dispersions and mode conversions caused by close proximity of the boundaries. So, a new signal analysis parameter - frequency band energy ratio - has been proposed. This technique is able to distinguish between population of two very similar groups (in terms of size and mass and energy) of sand particles and glass beads, impacting on mild steel based on the coefficient of variation (Cv) of the frequency band AE energy ratios. To facilitate individual particle impact identification, further analysis has been performed using Support Vector Machine (SVM) based classification algorithm using 7 standard AE parameters, evaluated in both the time and frequency domain. Available data set has been segmented into two parts of training set (80%) and test set (20%). The developed model has been applied on the test data for model performance evaluation purpose. The overall success rate of individually identifying each category (PLB, Glass bead and Sand particle impacts) at S1 has been found as 86% and at S2 as 92%. To study wet particle impacts on wet target surface, in presence of bubbles, the target plate has been sealed to a cylindrical perspex tube. Single and multiple sand particles have been introduced in the system using a constant speed blower to impact the target surface under water loading. Two sensor locations, used in the previous sets of experiments, have been monitored. From frequency domain analysis it has been observed that characteristic frequency for particle impacts are centred at 300-350 kHz and for bubble formations are centred at 135 – 150 kHz. Based upon this, two frequency bands 100 – 200 kHz (E1) and 300 – 400 kHz (E3) and the frequency band energy ratio (E3E1,) have been identified as optimal for identification particle impacts for the given system. E3E1, > 1 has been associated with particle impacts and E3E1, < 1 has been associated with bubble formations. Applying these frequency band energy ratios and setting an amplitude threshold, an automatic event identification technique has been developed for identification of sand particle impacts in presence of bubbles. The method developed can be used to optimize the identification of sand particle impacts. The optimal setting of an amplitude threshold is sensitive to number of particles and noise levels. A high threshold of say 10% will clearly identify sand particle impacts but for multiparticle tests is likely to not detect about 20% of lower (impact) energy particles. A threshold lower than 3% is likely to result in detection of AE events with poor frequency content and wrong classification of the weakest events. Optimal setting of the parameters used in the framework such as thresholds, frequency bands and ratios of AE energy is likely to make identification of sand particle impacts in the laboratory environment within 10% possible. For this technique, once the optimal frequency bands and ratios have been identified, then an added advantage is that calibration of the signal levels is not required.

La thèse traite de recherches numériques et expérimentales sur l’écoulement à traves des conduites circulaires ou des tubes avec une petite entrée et un diamètre de sortie plus grand, parfois appelées élargissement ou divergents. L’écoulement dans un élargissement est globalement stable pour des nombres de Reynolds élevés. Ainsi la simulation numérique de ce type d’écoulement nécessite de grands domaines de calcul contenant la zone de recirculation, qui croît linéairement. En outre, les études expérimentales dans les élargissements brusques indiquent que la transition se produit à des nombres de Reynolds plus faibles que prévue par la théorie linéaire de stabilité. La raison pour cette transition précoce est due à la présence d’imperfections dans le dispositif expérimental, qui agit comme une perturbation d’amplitude finie de l’écoulement. Des simulations numériques directes des équations de Navier-Stokes ont été réalisées avec deux types différents de perturbations (i) l’inclination et (ii) le vortex. Tout d’abord, la perturbation de type inclinaison, qui est appliqué à l’entrée, crée une zone de recirculation asymétrique, puis se casse pour former une turbulence localisée en aval de l’expansion. Deuxièmement, la perturbation de type vortex, crée des structures qui ressemblent à un mode azimutal d’ordre inférieur, déjà identifié comme une perturbation optimale amplifiée. Il croît en raison de l’instabilité convective, puis forme une tâche de turbulence localisée. Enfin, la corrélation spatiale et la décomposition en modes propres révèlent que cette turbulence localisée obtient son énergie de l’écoulement d’entrée. / The thesis deals with numerical and experimental investigations of flow through circular pipes with smaller inlet and larger outlet diameter, also known as expansion pipes. The hydrodynamic expansion pipe flow is globally stable for high Reynolds number. In order to numerically simulate these types of flows, large computational domains that could accommodate the linearly growing symmetric recirculation region is needed. Moreover, experimental studies of expansion pipe flows indicate that the transition occurs at lower Reynolds number than predicted by the linear stability theory. The reason for early transition is due to the presence of imperfections in the experimental setup, which acts as a finite-amplitude perturbation of the flow. Three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations with two different types of perturbations (i) the tilt and (ii) the vortex are investigated. First, the tilt perturbation, which applied at the inlet, creates an asymmetric recirculation region and then breaks to form localised turbulence downstream the expansion section. Second, the vortex perturbation, creates structures that looks like lower order azimuthal mode, resembles an optimally amplified perturbation. It grows due to convective instability mechanism and then breaks to form localised turbulence. Spatial correlation and the proper orthogonal decomposition reveal that this localised turbulence gains it energy from the core flow coming out of the inlet pipe.

No description available.

Experimente mit neuartigen Messverfahren lieferten Daten über die Struktur von transienten Flüssig-keits-Gas-Strömungen für die Entwicklung und Validierung von mikroskopischen, d.h. geometrieunabhängigen Konstitutivbeziehungen zur Beschreibung des Impulsaustauschs zwischen Flüssig-phase und Gasblasen sowie zur Quantifizierung der Häufigkeit von Blasenkoaleszenz und -zerfall. Hierzu wurde eine vertikale Testsektion der Zweiphasentestschleife MTLoop in Rossendorf genutzt, wobei erstmals Gittersensoren mit einer Auflösung von 2-3 mm bei einer Messfrequenz von bis zu 10 kHz angewandt wurden. Dabei wurde die Evolution von Gasgehalts-, Geschwindigkeits- und Bla-sengrößenverteilungen entlang des Strömungsweges und bei schnellen Übergangsprozessen aufge-nommen und so die für die Modellbildung erforderlichen Daten bereitgestellt. Für den Test der Mo-dellbeziehungen wurde ein vereinfachtes Verfahren zur Lösung der Strömungsgleichungen entlang des Strömungswegs erstellt. Es basiert auf der Betrachtung einer größeren Anzahl von Blasengrö-ßenklassen. Die erhaltenen numerische Lösungen haben erstmals gezeigt, dass der bei Erhöhung der Gasvolumenstromdichte stattfindende Übergang von einer Blasenströmung mit Randmaximum zu einem Profil mit Zentrumsmaximum und anschließend zu einer Pfropfenströmung ausgehend von einem einheitlichen Satz physikalisch begründeter und geometrieunabhängiger Konstitutivgleichun-gen modelliert werden kann. Die Modellbeziehungen haben sich in einem abgegrenzten Gebiet der Volumenstromdichten als generalisierungsfähig erwiesen und sind für den Einbau in CFD-Modelle geeignet. Weiterhin wurden Arbeiten zur Kondensation durchgeführt, die direkten Bezug zu den Kon-densationsmodellen haben, die in Thermohydraulik-Codes enthalten sind. Die Untersuchung liefert darüber hinaus experimentelle Daten für die Modellvalidierung hinsichtlich des Verhaltens und des Einflusses nichtkondensierbarer Gase. Hierfür wurden spezielle Sonden für die Bestimmung der Konzentration und für die Lokalisierung von Pfropfen nichtkondensierbarer Gase entwickelt und bei transienten Kondensationsversuchen in einem leicht geneigten Wärmeübertragerrohr eingesetzt.