In patients with aortic stenosis, accurate assessment of severity with echocardiography is central to surgical decision making. But, when image quality is poor or equivocal results obtained, another robust non-invasive technique would be invaluable. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) may be a useful alternative. Phase contrast CMR can measure ow and velocity, therefore it is theoretically possible to estimate the main determinant of severity aortic valve area, using the continuity approach. However, it was found that the phase contrast estimate of stroke volume, sampled in the stenotic jet, systematically underestimated left ventricular stroke volume. This underestimation was greater with increasing aortic stenosis severity. Critical clinical treatment decisions depend on the ability to reliably differentiate between patients with moderate and severe aortic stenosis. To achieve accurate estimation of aortic valve areas the velocity and ow data obtained in these turbulent, high velocity jets must be accurate. In this thesis, non-stenotic and stenotic phantoms were designed and constructed to experimentally interrogate the error. It was determined that signal loss, due to intravoxel dephasing, decreased the reliability of the measured forward ow jet velocities. Extreme signal loss in the jet eventuated in salt and pepper noise, which, with a mean velocity of zero, resulted in the underestimation. Intravoxel dephasing signal loss due to higher order motions, turbulence and spin mixing could all be mitigated by reducing the duration of the velocity sensitivity gradients and shortening the overall echo time (TE). However, improvements in an optimised PC sequence (TE 1:5ms) were not satisfactory. Flow estimates remained variable and were underestimated beyond the aortic valve. To reduce the TE further, a new phase contrast pulse sequence based on an ultrashort TE readout trajectory and velocity dependent slice excitation with gradient inversion was designed and implemented. The new sequence's TE is approximately 25% (0:65ms) of what is currently clinically available (TE 2:8ms). Good agreement in the phantom was maintained up to very high ow rates with improved signal characteristics shown in-vivo. This new phase contrast pulse sequence is worthy of further investigation as an accurate evaluation of patients with aortic stenosis. / This work in this thesis was conducted at The Auckland Bioengineering Institute, The Centre for Advanced MRI and The Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance in collaboration with Siemens Health care.

Cette étude s'intéresse aux risques associés à la formation d'une ATmosphère EXplosive (ATEX) née d'une fuite d'hydrogène et de sa dispersion dans l'air ambiant. La fuite a été modélisée par un jet turbulent à densité variable libre, impactant sur une sphère de diamètre 20mm ou sur une plaque plane. Dans un premier temps, les champs de vitesses et de concentration ont été obtenus expérimentalement en proche sortie grâce à des mesures de Vélocimétrie par Images de Particules (PIV) et de Fluorescence Induite par Plan Laser sur l'acétone (PLIF). La turbulence et le mélange ont été caractérisés pour le cas d'un jet libre ou en présence d'un obstacle. A partir de ces mesures, la structure générale de l'écoulement a été étudiée à partir des champs moyens et fluctuants par comparaison avec les données de la bibliographie. Puis, les données issues des fluctuations ont été analysées statistiquement par l'étude des fonctions de densité de probabilité du scalaire. Ces travaux se sont poursuivis avec la mise en relation des résultats expérimentaux avec ceux obtenues par des simulations numériques DNS (Direct Numerical Simulation) utilisant la méthode Boltzmann sur Réseau (LBM) d'un scalaire passif dans un jet d'air. Cette étude a permis de recueillir et d'analyser des données supplémentaires sur le mélange d'un jet à masse volumique variable libre ou impactant. Ces données sont directement applicables à la maitrise des risques liés aux fuites d'hydrogène. / This study examines the risks associated with the formation of an explosive atmosphere from a hydrogen leak and its dispersion into the air. We considered the leak as a turbulent jet with density variable, free and impinging a $20,mm$ diameter sphere or a flat plate. Firstly, velocity and scalar fields have been measured experimentally in the near field through Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and acetone Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF). Turbulence and mixing have been defined in the case of free jet and impinging jet. From this measurements, the flow structure has been presented from the mean and fluctuating flow measurements by comparison with literature data. Next, the fluctuation scalar fields are studied with the probability density function method. Finally, a comparison has been conducted between the experiments and direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulence based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for passive scalar in air jet. This study is gathering and analyzing data on the mixing of jet with density variable, free and impinging jet. Such data is directly useful to identify and control risks incurred due to hydrogen leak.

Development of modern safety standards for hydrogen storage infrastructure requires fundamental insight into the physics of buoyant gas dispersion into ambient air. Also, from a practical engineering stand-point, flow patterns and dispersion of gas originating from orifices in the side wall of circular pipe or storage tank need to be studied. In this thesis, novel configurations were considered to investigate the evolution of turbulent jets issuing from realistic pipeline geometries. First, the effect of jet densities and Reynolds numbers on vertical jets were investigated, as they emerged from the side wall of a circular pipe, through a round orifice. The resulting jet flow was thus issued through a curved surface from a source whose original velocity components were nearly perpendicular to the direction of the ensuing jets. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) techniques were employed simultaneously to provide instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields of velocity and concentration. The realistic flow arrangement resulted in an asymmetric flow pattern and a significant deflection from the vertical axis of jets. The deflection was influenced by buoyancy, where heavier gases deflected more than lighter gases. These realistic jets experienced faster velocity decay, and asymmetric jet spreading compared to round jets due to significant turbulent mixing in their near field. In addition to that, horizontal multi-component jets issuing from a round orifice on the side wall of a circular tube were also investigated experimentally by the means of simultaneous velocity and concentration measurements. A range of Reynolds numbers and gas densities were considered to study the effects of buoyancy and asymmetry on the resulting flow structure. The realistic pipeline jets were always exhibited an asymmetry structure and found to deflect about the jet's streamwise axis in the near field. In the far field, the buoyancy dominated much closer to the orifice than expected in the axisymmetric round jet due to the realistic leak geometry along with the pipeline orientation considered in this study. In general, significant differences were found between the centreline trajectory, spreading rate, and velocity decay of conventional horizontal round axisymmetric jets issuing through flat plates and the pipeline leak-representative jets considered in the present study. Finally, the dispersion of turbulent multi-component jets issuing from high-aspect-ratio slots on the side wall of a circular tube were studies experimentally by employing simultaneous PIV and PLIF techniques. Two transversal & longitudinal oblong geometries in respect to the longitudinal axes of the tube , and with an aspect ratio of 10 were considered in this study. Both horizontal and vertical orientations along with broad range of Reynolds numbers and gas densities were considered to investigate the effects of buoyancy and asymmetry on the resulting flow structure. The ensuing jets were found to deflect along the jet streamwise axis, once more, due to the realistic pipeline leak-representative configuration. It was also found that increases in aspect ratio of these realistic jets caused a reduction in the angle of deflection, jet centreline decay rates and the width growth on both velocity and scalar fields compared to their round jets counterparts, most notably in the far field. These findings indicate that conventional jets (those that are issuing through flat surfaces) assumptions are inadequate to predict gas concentration, entrainment rates and, consequently, the extent of the flammability envelope of realistic gas leaks. Thus, extreme caution is required when using conventional jet assumptions to describe the physics of a buoyant jet emitted from realistic geometries. / Graduate

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / We numerically investigate the underlying physics of two peculiar phenomena, which are axis-switching and saddle-back velocity profile, in both laminar and turbulent rectangular jets using lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Previously developed computation protocols based on single-relaxation-time (SRT) and multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) lattice Boltzmann equations are utilized to perform direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large eddy simulation (LES) respectively. In the first study, we systematically study the axis-switching behavior in low aspect-ratio (AR), defined as the ratio of width over height, laminar rectangular jets with <italic>AR=1</italic> (square jet), 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3. Focuses are on various flow properties on transverse planes downstream to investigate the correlation between the streamwise velocity and secondary flow. Three distinct regions of jet development are identified in all the five jets. The <italic>45&deg</italic> and <italic>90&deg</italic> axis-switching occur in characteristic decay (CD) region consecutively at the early and late stage. The half-width contour (HWC) reveals that <italic>45&deg</italic> axis-switching is mainly contributed by the corner effect, whereas the aspect-ratio (elliptic) feature affects the shape of the jet when <italic>45&deg</italic> axis-switching occurs. The close examinations of flow pattern and vorticity contour, as well as the correlation between streamwise velocity and vorticity, indicate that <italic>90&deg</italic> axis-switching results from boundary effect. Specific flow patterns for <italic>45&deg</italic> and <italic>90&deg</italic> axis-switching reveal the mechanism of the two types of axis-switching respectively. In the second study we develop an algorithm to generate a turbulent velocity field for the boundary condition at jet inlet. The turbulent velocity field satisfies incompressible continuity equation with prescribed energy spectrum in wave space. Application study of the turbulent velocity profile is on two turbulent jets with <italic>Re=25900</italic>. In the jets with <italic>AR=1.5</italic>, axis-switching phenomenon driven by the turbulent inlet velocity is more profound and in better agreement with experimental examination over the laminar counterpart. Characteristic jet development driven by both laminar and turbulent inlet velocity profile in square jet (<italic>AR=1</italic>) is also examined. Overall agreement of selected jet features is good, while quantitative match for the turbulence intensity profiles is yet to be obtained in future study. In the third study, we analyze the saddle-back velocity profile phenomenon in turbulent rectangular jets with AR ranging from 2 to 6 driven by the developed turbulent inlet velocity profiles with different turbulence intensity (<italic>I</italic>). Saddle-back velocity profile is observed in all jets. It has been noted that the saddle-back's peak velocities are resulted from the local minimum mixing intensity. Peak-center difference <italic>&Delta_pc</italic> and profound saddle-back (PSB) range are defined to quantify the saddle-back level and the effects of AR and <italic>I</italic> on saddle-back profile. It is found that saddle-back is more profound with larger AR or slimmer rectangular jets, while its relation with <italic>I</italic> is to be further determined.