This present study seeks to contribute detailed visualization data on a pool boiling experiments using HFE-7000. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the time resolved whole field liquid velocity. Bubble dynamic parameters such as nucleation site density, bubble departure diameter, contact angles and frequency were obtained in shadowgraphy measurements. Infrared thermometry with an IR camera was used for observation of temperature fluctuations of nucleation sites. The experiments were taken for the heat flux from 0.042 kW/m^2 to 0.266 kW/m^2, six experimental conditions in total. To provide a supplementary description of heat transfer mechanism, a novel bubble characterization technique, reflection interference contrast microscopy (RICM), was used to obtain detailed information on bubble dynamic parameters on the microscopic scale. Bubble diameter was obtained from RICM pictures. Comparison between the experiments results and previous empirical correlation were made. Agreements and discrepancies were discussed.

Au cours des dernières années, la culture de microalgues est largement étudiée pour produire des biocarburants et d’autres produits de valeur en fixant le dioxyde de carbone de l’atmosphère, afin d’atténuer simultanément les effets du changement climatique et de réduire la dépendance à l’égard des carburants fossiles. En comparaison avec les systèmes ouverts, les photobioréacteurs fermés sont davantage utilisés en laboratoire, car ils permettent de contrôler avec précision les facteurs environnementaux tels que le pH, la concentration en éléments nutritifs, etc. Le principe de fonctionnement d’un photobioréacteur repose sur l’injection de bulles dans le milieu de culture pour (i) apporter du dioxyde de carbone aux cellules (ii)agiter le liquide. Par l’apport d’énergie lumineuse les cellules transforment le carbone inorganique en carbone organique par photosynthèse. Ainsi, les phénomènes physiques - l’écoulement, transfert de matière, transfert radiatif - et les phénomènes biologiques - photosynthèse, croissance cellulaire et mort - coexistent dans un photobioréacteur. Plus important encore, tous les phénomènes de base ne sont pas complètement indépendants les uns des autres. Des recherches récentes ont révélé que le comportement des bulles avait également une incidence directe sur le processus biologique. En raison du comportement significatif des bulles sur la productivité d'un photobioréacteur, la génération de bulles a été étudiée dans cette thèse au moyen de méthodes expérimentales et numériques.Dans l'étude expérimentale, nous avons conçu puis fabriqué un nouveau photobioréacteur afin d'étudier le bullage in situ. L’emploi d’une technique d’ombroscopie couplée à une caméra vidéo a permis l’enregistrement de séries de bulles. Les images traitées ont permis de mesurer des caractéristiques de bulles (fréquence, volume, facteur de forme). Le volume moyen de bulle et la fréquence de formation de bulles augmentent avec le débit de gaz. De plus, la distribution volumique monodisperse à faible débit devient de plus en plus polydisperse par l’accroissement de celui-ci. L’évolution de la forme des bulles lors de leur remontée dans le liquide a été évaluée par l’emploi de facteurs de forme. Ces facteurs diminuent avec la remontée des bulles et traduisent une déformation horizontalement. A débit élevé, les formes des bulles oscillent et coalescent plus fréquemment.La simulation du bullage a été réalisé par l’emploi d’une méthode Volume of Fluid (VOF) et d’une bibliothèque open source de mécanique numérique des fluides OpenFOAM. Ces choix de méthodes sont motivés en raison de la robustesse d'OpenFOAM en matière de simulation d'écoulements diphasiques rapportée dans la littérature. Une première étude numérique de simulation 2D a permis de déterminer les valeurs appropriées des paramètres numériques (nombre de Courant et la taille du maillage) tout en minimisant le temps de calcul par rapport à une pré-étude 3D. Sans surprise, nous avons déterminé que la taille des mailles devait être inférieure au diamètre de la buse pour obtenir des résultats significatifs. De façon plus surprenante, nous avons observé que le nombre maximum de Courant n’a pas d’importance particulière pour ces simulations (dans une limite raisonnable : 0 à 1). Les simulations 3D ont été menées sur un supercalculateur. Elles ont montré que le volume des bulles et l’évolution de leur forme calculées numériquement étaient en accord avec les résultats expérimentaux. Cependant, les simulations 3D n’ont pas permis de représenter la polydispersité de la distribution volumique des bulles en raison d’un temps de calcul nécessaire trop important pour générer une population de bulles suffisamment nombreuse. Au final, l'outil numérique a aussi été utilisé avec succès pour explorer plusieurs caractéristiques hydrodynamiques de mélange dans le liquide. / The working principle of a typical photobioreactor is to inject gas bubbles into the culture medium, providing CO2 to the cells and also stirring the liquid. Subsequently, the cells convert inorganic carbon into organic carbon through photosynthesis under illumination. Therefore, physical phenomena, e.g. bubbly flow, mass transfer, radiative transfer, and biological phenomena, e.g. photosynthesis, cell growth and death, coexist in a photobioreactor. More importantly, all the basic phenomena are not completely independent to each other. For example, bubble volume and bubble shape can influence gas-liquid mass transfer according to Young-Laplace equation and Henry's law. Moreover, some recent research revealed that bubble behaviors also directly affect the biological process. In view of the important impact of bubble behaviors on productivity of a phototbioreactor, the bubbly flow was investigated in this thesis by both experimental and numerical methods.In the experimental study, we first manufactured a new photobioreactor in order to study the bubbles and other phenomena. Subsequently, the bubbles were captured by high speed camera by virtue of a shadowgraphy technique and bubble behaviors were obtained by processing and analyzing the images. From the experimental results, we found that both averaged bubble volume and bubbling frequency increased with gas flow rate. Furthermore, we also discovered that the distribution of bubble volume was almost monodisperse at low flow rate, and it became more and more polydisperse with increasing flow rate. Regarding bubble shape evolution, we used two shape factors, viz. aspect ration and circularity, to quantitatively study it. We found that both shape factors dropped rapidly during bubble rising (within the limit of the field of view of our video camera), which implied that bubbles were flattened in the course of rising. Nonetheless, bubbles became more vertically elongated at higher flow rate, partially due to the more frequent bubble coalescence at higher flow rate.In the numerical study, we adopted VOF method and OpenFOAM, an open source CFD library, as our numerical tool to represent bubbly flow. First of all, the robustness of OpenFOAM in simulating two-phase flow was validated by literature survey. Subsequently, 2D simulations were carried out for seeking the appropriate and not very time-consuming numerical parameters, i.e. maximum Courant number and mesh size. We found that mesh size should somehow be smaller than the nozzle diameter to have meaningful results. On the other hand, maximum Courant number had no particular importance in the simulations (as long as between 0 and 1). Furthermore, 3D simulations were in good agreement with the experiments in terms of bubble volume and bubble shape evolution. However, 3D simulations were not able to represent the polydispersity of bubble volume due to the limited computing power. In addition, several hydrodynamic characteristics were also explored by the proposed numerical tool, which gave reasonable results.To conclude, bubble behaviors were successfully captured by experimental methods and represented by numerical methods in this thesis, which will help us go further in understanding the complicated physical-biological phenomena of a photobioreactor.

In this study, the phenomenon of two-phase flow was investigated in a square channel. The experiment was performed with stagnant liquid conditions. The gas and liquid dynamics of the bubbly flow were observed in two regions far from the inlet. Air was inserted through a porous media at three superficial gas velocities: 4.6 mm/s, 2.5 mm/s, and 1.4 mm/s. Two techniques were applied in the experiment to measure the bubbly flow: an optical probe and an in-house developed tracking algorithm. Measurements of the bubble interface velocity, void fraction, bubble frequency, time of flight, and Sauter mean diameter were obtained by using the optical probe. The duration of the probe measurements for all three flow rates and both regions lasted approximately 33 hours. The tracking algorithm was used to analyze the experimental data for two visual methods: shadowgraphy and Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV). Shadowgraphy provided gas-phase measurements of the bubble centroid velocity and its fluctuations, void fraction, bubble size, and Reynolds stresses. Five data sets were acquired for each flow rate, resulting in a total of 327,540 shadowgraphy images. Liquid parameters such as the velocity, fluctuations in the velocity, and the Reynolds stresses were provided by PTV. Only one data set containing 10,918 images was obtained from liquid measurements for each flow rate. One data set was sufficient to provide reliable statistics since tracking two consecutive images lead to approximately 15,000 velocity vectors. The data obtained from this study was an effort to assist in the verification, validation, and improvement of two-phase flow simulations.

This dissertation presents an experimentally supported multi-physics model of a dielectric barrier discharge boundary layer flow control actuator. The model is independent of empirical data about the specific behavior of the system. This model contributes to the understanding of the specific mechanisms that enable the actuator to induce flow control. The multi-physics numerical model couples a fluid model, a chemistry model, and an electrostatics model. The chemistry model has been experimentally validated against known spectroscopic techniques, and the fluid model has been experimentally validated against the time-resolved shadowgraphy. The model demonstrates the capability to replicate emergent flow structures near a wall. These structures contribute to momentum transport that enhance the boundary layer’s wall attachment and provide for better flow control. An experiment was designed to validate the model predictions. The spectroscopic results confirmed the model predictions of an electron temperature of 0.282eV and an electron number density of 65.5 × 10⁻¹²kmol/m³ matching to within a relative error of 12.4% and 14.8%, respectively. The shadowgraphic results also confirmed the model predicted velocities of flow structures of 3.75m/s with a relative error of 10.9%. The distribution of results from both experimental and model velocity calculations strongly overlap each other. This validated model provides new and useful information on the effect of Dielectric Barrier Discharge actuators on flow control and performance. This work was supported in part by NSF grant CNS-0960081 and the HokieSpeed supercomputer at Virginia Tech. / Ph. D.

Laser-plasma-based ion accelerators are becoming a versatile platform to drive different fields of applied research and life sciences, for example translational research in radiation oncology. To ensure stable accelerator performance, complete control over the ion source, i.e., the high-intensity laser-solid interaction, is required. However, idealized interaction conditions are almost impossible to reach, as the utilized high-power lasers always feature a non-negligible amount of light preceding the laser peak. This leading edge of the laser pulse usually exceeds the ionization potential of bound electrons much earlier than the arrival of the high-power laser peak and the solid-density target undergoes significant modifications even before the actual high-intensity laser-plasma interaction starts. Control over this so-called target pre-expansion is a key requirement to achieve quantitative agreement between numerical simulations and experiments of high-intensity laser-solid interactions. This thesis investigates several aspects that are relevant to improve the capability of simulations to model realistic experimental scenarios. The corresponding experiments are conducted with cryogenic hydrogen-jet targets and the DRACO-PW laser at peak intensities between 10^12 W/cm^2 and 10^21 W/cm^2 . The experimental implementation of time-resolved optical-probing diagnostics and technical innovations with respect to the technique of off-harmonic optical probing overcome the disturbances by parasitic plasma self-emission and allow for unprecedented observations of the target evolution during the laser-target interactions. The laser-induced breakdown of solids, i.e., the phase transition from the solid to the plasma state, can be considered as an heuristic starting point of high-intensity laser-solid interactions. As it is highly relevant to simulations of target pre-expansion, Chapter 3 of this thesis presents time-resolved measurements of laser-induced breakdown in laser-target interactions at peak intensities between 0.6 * 10^21 W/cm^2 and 5.7 * 10^21 W/cm^2 . By increasing the peak intensity, a lowering of the applicable threshold intensity of laser-induced breakdown well below the appearance intensity of barrier-suppression ionization occurs. The observation demonstrates the relevance of the pulse-duration dependence of laser-induced breakdown and laser-induced damage threshold to the starting point of high-intensity laser-solid interactions. To apply the results to other laser-target assemblies, we provide a detailed instruction of how to pinpoint the starting point by comparing measurements of the laser contrast with a characterization study of the target-specific thresholds of laser-induced breakdown at low laser intensity. Chapter 4 of this thesis presents an example of how optical-probing diagnostics are able to estimate target pre-expansion as a starting condition for particle-in-cell simulations. The measurement allows to restrict the surface gradient of the pre-expanded plasma density to an exponential scalelength between 0.06 um and 0.13 um. Furthermore, the plasma-expansion dynamics induced by the ultra-relativistic laser peak are computed and post-processed by ray-tracing simulations. A comparison to the experimental results yields that the formation of the measured shadowgrams is governed by refraction in the plasma-density gradients and that the observed volumetric transparency of the target at 1.4 ps after the laser peak is not caused by relativistically induced transparency but by plasma expansion into vacuum instead.

Jusqu’à récemment, la plupart des applications des arcs électriques mettaient en oeuvre les propriétés du coeur de la colonne, un effort particulier a donc été effectué pour développer des méthodes de caractérisation de ces zones dont la température moyenne est de l’ordre de 10000 K. Avec le développement de la plasma-chimie, le diagnostic des zones périphériques d’arcs et des décharges hors équilibre est devenu un enjeu primordial. Les méthodes de mesure classiques sont mal adaptées pour cette tâche ; le but du travail présenté dans cette thèse se résume donc au développement et à la validation de techniques de diagnostic adaptées à ces zones, dont la température cinétique n’excède pas 8000 K. Deux méthodes innovantes basées sur l’indice de réfraction, l’ombroscopie quantitative et la déflectométrie moirée, ont été étudiées en détails. Les résultats théoriques ainsi que le traitement des données obtenues ont été validés sur un jet de plasma laminaire d’argon, un modèle parfait de zone périphérique. Pour sonder les décharges hors équilibre, l’utilisation du spectre UV de OH a été aussi envisagée. À cette occasion, un programme de simulation de spectre moléculaire a été développé. L’étude des spectres synthétiques obtenus a permis de mettre au point des méthodes de mesure simples de la température rotationnelle et vibrationnelle pour une large gamme de résolution. Une des méthodes développées a été mise en œuvre sur une décharge à faible intensité de courant. On montre que les résultats obtenus par spectroscopie moléculaire sur le radical OH sont très proches de ceux obtenus à l’aide d’une simulation. / Until recently, most of electrical arcs applications were dealing with the properties of the centre of the plasma column, a large number of works was then done to develop diagnostic techniques dedicated to those area where the mean temperature is about 10000 K. With the emergence of plasma chemistery, the diagnostic of arc’s peripheral areas and un-equilibrium discharges become a goal of prime importance. Classical diagnostic techniques are not adapted to those objects where the maximum temperature is around 8000 K; the principal aim of this work was to develop and check diagnostic techniques. Two inovating techniques based on refractive index, the quantitative shadowgraphy and the moiré deflectometry were studied extensively and checked on a laminar plasma jet, a perfect model of arc’s peripheral area. To probe unequilibrium discharge, the use of UV OH spectrum was considered. At this occasion, a spectrum simulation software was written. The study of synthetic spectra lead to the creation of simple measurement methods of rotationnal and vibrationnal OH temperature for a large range of resolution. Those methods was checked on a low power electric discharge. It can be shown that result from molecular spectroscopy are close to those obtained by simulation.

Three methods were developed to better understand and characterize the near-field dynamic processes of rotary bell atomization. The methods were developed with the goal of possible integration into industry to identify equipment changes through changes in the primary atomization of the bell. The first technique utilized high-speed imaging to capture qualitative ligament breakup and, in combination with a developed image processing technique and PIV software, was able to gain statistical size and velocity information about both ligaments and droplets in the image data. A second technique, using an Nd:YAG laser with an optical filter, was used to capture size statistics at even higher rotational speeds than the first technique, and was utilized to find differences between serrated and unserrated bell ligament and droplet data. The final technique was incorporating proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) into image data of a side-profile view of a damaged and undamaged bell during operation. This was done to capture differences between the data sets to come up with a characterization for identifying if a bell is damaged or not for future industrial integration.

Pas de résumé / Propagation of nonlinear acoustic waves in inhomogeneous media is an important problem inmany research domains of modern theoretical and applied acoustics. For example, studies onpropagation of high amplitude N-waves in turbulent atmosphere are relevant to the sonic boomproblem which involves high interest due to development of new civil supersonic aircrafts. Inrelation to sonic boom problem, many studies on spark-generated N-wave propagation through aturbulent layer were carried out in model laboratory-scale experiments which are more controlledand reproducible than field measurements. Propagation of high intensity focused ultrasound intissue (HIFU) is intensively studied for medical applications. HIFU is a basis of new surgicaldevices for noninvasive thermal and mechanical ablation of tumors.In this thesis, the problem of characterization of high amplitude N-waves generated in air byan electric spark was studied using combined acoustical and optical methods. The fine structureof shocks was deduced from the shadowgraphy images with a resolution that cannot be obtainedusing condenser microphones. It was shown that the combination of optical and acoustical methodsallows complete characterization of the N-waves.N-wave propagation through a layer of thermal turbulence was further studied in a laboratoryexperiment. The evolution of statistical distributions and average values of the most importantN-wave parameters was investigated at different propagation distances. Experimental results werecompared to data obtained in another experiment known in literature, where N-wave was propagatedthrough kinematic turbulence. It was shown that in the case of almost the same widths ofthe turbulent layers, values of the characteristic scales and rms of refractive index fluctuations, thekinematic turbulence leads to stronger distortions of the peak pressure and the shock rise time ofthe N-wave and to 2-3 greater probabilities to observe intense focusing in caustics.Effects of nonlinear propagation and random focusing on the statistics of N-wave amplitudewere studied theoretically using the KZK equation and the phase screen model. The phase screenwas characterized by the correlation length and the refraction length – the distance where firstcaustics occur. Probability distributions, mean values and standard deviations of the N-wave peakpressure were obtained from the numerical solutions and were presented as functions of the propagationdistance and the nonlinear length. Statistical results from the KZK model were comparedwith analytical predictions of the nonlinear geometrical acoustics approach (NGA). It was shown,that NGA approach is valid only up to the distance of one third of refraction length of the screen.Strong nonlinear effects were shown to suppress amplitude fluctuations. The effect of the scale ofinhomogeneities on amplitude statistics was also investigated.The problem of focusing of ultrasound beam through inhomogeneous medium is importantfor medical diagnostics and nondestructive testing problems. The inhomogeneities of biologicaltissue or of industrial materials can destroy beam focusing. In the thesis, distortions of a weaklynonlinear diagnostic beam focused through a phase layer of special configuration were consideredexperimentally and theoretically. Feasibility of selective destruction of focusing of differentharmonics in the beam was predicted in the modeling and confirmed in experiment.The most modern HIFU devices rely on using two-dimensional multi-element phased arrayswith elements randomly distributed over a segment of a spherical surface. Numerical experimentis an important tool to characterize pressure fields created by HIFU radiators. Intensity levels atthe focus of HIFU radiators can reach several tens of thousands of W/cm2, causing nonlinearpropagation effects and formation of shocks [...]

Growing interest in biomedical applications of nonthermal plasmas inspires the development of new plasmas sources. Dielectric barrier (DBD) and corona discharges produced in ambient air or in noble gas flow are typically applied. Direct production of plasma in liquids has a great potential for sterilization of liquid substances and extracorporeal blood treatment. The physical mechanisms of discharge formation in liquid medium are not fully understood.The first part of this thesis deals with the initiation and development of the nanosecond discharge in liquid dielectrics (deionized water, ethanol and n-pentane). Time-resolved shadowgraph visualization, optical emission spectroscopy and electrical diagnostics are applied to investigate the discharge formation on point anode.We have shown that depending on the applied voltage amplitude three different scenario can occur in the polar dielectric, namely, cavitation of a bubble, discharge development in the gaseous cavity (bush-like mode) and initiation of the filamentary discharge (tree-like mode) propagating in bulk liquid. Formation of the bush-like and the tree-like discharges is governed by distinct physical mechanisms, resulting in strongly different plasma parameters.In the second part of this work we address the question of how cold atmospheric plasma interacts with living cells in-vitro and in-vivo, and what is the mechanism of plasma induced cell death. Flowcytometry based cell viability assay with two markers AnnexinV (AV) and Propidium iodide (PI), demonstrates a dose dependent induction of the apoptosis for human T lymphocyte (Jurkat) and epithelial (HMEC) cells treated with DBD plasma. In nude mice model, induction of apoptosis and necrosis in dose dependant manner is observed by electron microscopy in thin epidermis sections. Histological analysis shows significant lesions appeared in epidermis, dermis, hypodermis and muscle as a function of treatment duration. Production of hydrogen peroxide in culture medium (PBS) exposed to DBD plasma is measured using selective fluorescent probe (Amplex® Red). Cell viability of human thyroid epithelial (HTori-3) and melanoma (1205Lu) cells demonstrates nonmonotonous dependence on H2O2 concentration. The major role of plasma produced hydrogen peroxide and DBD electric field is suggested.

L’aérosolthérapie a pour objectif de délivrer un médicament dans les voies respiratoires. Le nébuliseur pneumatique est un dispositif permettant de générer des gouttelettes de liquide de diamètre micrométrique. Son processus d’atomisation a cependant été peu analysé. Ainsi, les performances du nébuliseur, caractérisées par le diamètre des gouttes et la masse de médicament inhalable par le patient, et atteignent un palier. Notre travail consiste à utiliser un modèle numérique diphasique en 3D basé sur une géométrie donnée et paramétré sous ANSYS Fluent. Plusieurs méthodes sont utilisées pour caractériser expérimentalement la génération de l’aérosol : l’ombroscopie, la diffractométrie laser et l’anémométrie phase Doppler. Notre modèle est validé par rapport aux données expérimentales et peut donc être exploité pour analyser les processus de génération. L’influence de plusieurs paramètres physiques sur les caractéristiques de l’aérosol produit est étudiée. Ainsi, l’étape de génération de gouttelettes est optimisée pour le développement d’un nouveau nébuliseur. Le transport des gouttes aux poumons du patient est optimisé empiriquement. / The purpose of aerosol therapy is to deliver drugs into respiratory airways. The jet nebulizer is a device used to generate liquid droplets with a diameter lower than 5 μm. However its atomization process was not much analyzed. Nebulizer performances, which are characterized with droplet size and drug mass inhaled by the patient, are empirically optimized and have reached a plateau. Our work consists in setting a 3D diphasic numerical model on ANSYS Fluent, based on a given geometry. Several methods are used to experimentally characterize aerosol generation: shadowgraphy, laser diffractometry and phase Doppler anemometry. Our model is validated by experimental data and helps predicting generation processes. The influence of several geometric and physical parameters on the output is studied. From these data, droplet generation is optimized for the development of a new nebulizer. Droplet transport to the patient lungs is empirically optimized.