An experimental program is designed to study the salient features of separated and reattached flows in pressure gradients generated in asymmetric diverging and converging channels. The channels comprised a straight flat floor and a curved roof that was preceded and followed by straight parallel walls. Reference measurements were also made in a parallel-wall channel to facilitate the interpretation of the pressure gradient flows. A transverse square rib located at the start of convergence/divergence was used to create separation inside the channels. In order to simplify the interpretation of the relatively complex separated and reattached flows in the asymmetric converging and diverging channels, measurements were made in the plain converging and diverging channel without the rib on the channel wall. All the measurements were obtained using a high resolution particle image velocimetry technique. The experiments without the ribs were conducted in the diverging channel at Reynolds number based on half channel depth (Reh) of 27050 and 12450 and in the converging channel at Reh = 19280. For each of these three test conditions, a high resolution particle image velocimetry technique (PIV) was used to conduct detailed velocity measurements in the upstream parallel section, within the converging and diverging section, and downstream of the converging and diverging sections. From these measurements, the boundary layer parameters and profiles of the mean velocities, turbulent quantities as well as terms in the transport equations for turbulent kinetic energy and Reynolds stresses were obtained to document the effects of pressure gradient on the flow. In the adverse pressure gradient case, the turbulent quantities were enhanced more significantly in the lower boundary layer than the upper boundary layer. On the other hand, favorable pressure gradient attenuated the turbulence levels and the effect was found to be similar on both the upper and the lower boundary layers. For the separated and reattached flows in the converging, diverging and parallel-wall channels at Reh = 19440, 12420 and 15350, respectively. The Reynolds number based on the approach velocity and rib height was Rek  2700. From these measurements, profiles of the mean velocities, turbulent quantities and the various terms in the transport equations for turbulent kinetic energy and Reynolds stresses were also obtained. The flow dynamics in the upper boundary layer in the separated region and the early stages of flow redevelopment were observed to be insensitive to the pressure gradients. In the lower boundary layer, however, the flow dynamics were entirely dominated by the separated shear layer in the separated region as well as the early region of flow redevelopment. The effects of the separated shear layer diminished in the redevelopment region so that the dynamics of the flow were dictated by the pressure gradients. The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) was applied to educe the dominant large scale structures in the separated and reattached flows. These dominant scales were used to document structural differences between the canonical upstream flow and the flow field within the separated and redeveloping region. The contributions of these dominant structures to the dynamics of the Reynolds normal and shear stresses are also presented and discussed. It was observed that the POD recovers Reynolds shear stress more efficiently than the turbulent kinetic energy. The reconstruction reveals that large scales contribute more to the Reynolds shear stress than the turbulent kinetic energy.

Stepped chutes have been used as hydraulic structures for more than 3.5 millennia for different purposes: For example, to dissipate energy, to enhance aeration rate in the flow and to comply with aesthetical functions. They can be found acting as spillways in dams and weirs, as energy dissipators in artificial channels, gutters and rivers, and as aeration enhancers in water treatment plants and fountains. Spillways are used to prevent dam overtopping caused by floodwaters. Their design has changed through the centuries. In ancient times, some civilizations used steps to dissipate energy in open channels and dam over-falls in a similar fashion as natural cascades. However, in the first half of the twentieth century, the use of concrete became popular and the hydraulic jump was introduced as an efficient energy dissipator. In turn, the use of a stepped geometry became obsolete and was replaced with smooth chutes followed by hydraulic jump stilling basins. In recent years, new construction techniques and materials (Roller Compacted Concrete RCC, rip-rap gabions, wire-meshed gabions, etc.) together with the development of new applications (e.g. re-aeration cascades, fish ladders and embankment overtopping protection or secondary spillways) have allowed cheaper construction of stepped chutes, increasing the interest in stepped chute design. During the last three decades, research in the hydraulics of stepped spillways has been very active. However, studies prior to 1993 neglected the effect of free-surface aeration. A number of studies since this time have focused on air-water flows in steep chutes (θ ≈ 50o). But experimental data is still scarce, and the hydraulic performance of stepped cascades with moderate slope is not yet understood. This study details an experimental investigation of physical air-water flow characteristics down a stepped spillway conducted in two laboratory models with moderate slopes: the first model was a 3.15 m long stepped chute with a 15.9o slope comprising two interchangeable-height steps (h = 0.1 m and h = 0.05 m); the second model was a 2.5 m long, stepped channel with a 21.8o slope comprising 10 steps (h = 0.1 m). Different arrangements of turbulence manipulators (vanes) were also placed throughout the chute in the second model. A broad range of discharges within transition and skimming flow regimes was investigated to obtain a reliable representation of the air-water flow properties. Measurements were conducted using single and double tip conductivity probes at multiple span wise locations and at streamwise distances along the cavity between step edges to obtain a complete three-dimensional representation of the flow. Although the present study was conducted for two moderate slope chutes (θ = 15.9º & 21.8o), it is believed that the outcomes are valid for a wider range of chute geometry and flow conditions. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of turbulent air-water flows cascading down moderate slope stepped chutes, and gain new understandings of the interactions between aeration rate, flow turbulence and energy dissipation; scale effects are also investigated. The study provides new, original insights into air-water turbulent flows cascading down moderate slope stepped spillways not foreseen in prior studies, thus contributing to improve criterion designs. It also presents an extensive experimental database (available in a CD-ROM attached at the end of this thesis) and a new design criterion that can be used by designers and researchers to improve the operation of stepped chutes with moderate slopes. The present thesis work included a twofold approach. Firstly, the study provided a detailed investigation of the energy dissipative properties of a stepped channel, based upon detailed airwater flow characteristics measurements conducted with sub-millimetric conductivity probes. Secondly, the study focused on the microscopic scale properties of the airwater flow, using the experimental data to quantify the microscopic scale physical processes (e.g. momentum transfer, shear layer development, vertical mixing, airbubbles/ water-droplets break-up and coalescence etc.) that are believed to increase the flow resistance in stepped canals. The study highlighted the tridimensionality of skimming flows and hinted new means of enhancing flow resistance by manipulating turbulence in the stepped chute. Basic dimensional analysis results emphasized that physical modelling of stepped chutes is more sensitive to scale effects than classical smooth-invert chute studies and thus suggested that the extrapolation of results obtained from heavily scaled experimental models should be avoided. The present study also demonstrated that alterations of flow recirculation and fluid exchanges between free-stream and cavity flow affects drastically form losses and in turn the rate of energy dissipation. The introduction of vanes demonstrated simple turbulence manipulation and form drag modification that could lead to more efficient designs in terms of energy rate dissipation without significant structural load on the stepped chute.

Cette thèse traite par simulation numérique les écoulements turbulents compressibles avec transferts de chaleur, en relation avec les applications moteurs-fusées. Elle concerne, plus particulièrement, les systèmes de refroidissement des chambres de combustion. Le fluide refroidissant circule dans un état supercritique (haute pression et basse température) dans des canaux millimétriques, entourant la chambre de combustion. Ces problèmes font appel à une physique assez complexe et mettent en jeu un couplage fort entre les aspects compressibles et les transferts thermiques, en plus des phénomènes liés à la thermodynamique supercritique. D’un point de vue numérique, deux solveurs spécifiques ont été utilisés dans le cadre de cette thèse. Il s’agit, d’une part, du code CHOC-WAVES développé au CORIA pour la partie compressible et onde de choc et, d’autre part, le code PPMBFS développé à l’Université de Pennsylvanie (USA) pour les applications supercritiques et avec une thermodynamique variable. Sur le plan de la modélisation physique, l’approche LES a été utilisée, en appui des simulations DNS. Dans ce contexte, un modèle de sous-maille thermique, pour la prise en compte du Prandtl turbulent variable, a été intégré et validé. Les résultats obtenus, dans le cadre des LES et DNS d’un canal supersonique refroidi, ont permis de mieux analyser les corrélations aérothermiques ainsi que les structures cohérentes présentes au sein de cet écoulement. En particulier, il a été montré les limites de l’hypothèse de l’Analogie Forte de Reynolds (SRA) dans le cas d’écoulements fortement anisothermes, et le rôle joué par les structures tourbillonnaires dans l’accentuation des transferts pariétaux. La problématique des gaz réels a été ensuite examinée dans le cadre d’un canal industriel (en l’occurence EH3C). Cette étude a permis de mettre en évidence les difficultés (à la fois numérique et physique) liées à ce type d’écoulement. Les différentes investigations ont permis de fournir des informations utiles, notamment en ce qui concerne la phénoménologie des structures cohérentes et les différentes corrélations aérothermodynamiques. / This research deals with the numerical simulation of compressible turbulent flows with heat transfers, applied to rocket engines. It relates more particularly the cooling of combustion chambers, in which a fluid flows in a supercritical state (high pressure and low temperature) inside millimeter channels. These problems involve complex physical phenomena and coupling between compressible aspects and heat transfer phenomena as well as supercritical thermodynamics. From a numerical point of view, two specific solvers have been used in the context of this thesis. The first code (CHOC-WAVES) has been developed in the CORIA lab for compressible flows and shock waves. The second one (PPMBFS) has been developed at the Pennsylvania University for applications with supercritical thermodynamics variables. In terms of physical modeling, the LES approach has been widely used in support of DNS. In this context, a thermal subgrid model using a variable turbulent Prandtl number has been integrated and validated. A supersonic cooled channel has been simulate dusing both LES and DNS techniques and its results have been carefully analysed through the aerothermics correlations and coherent structures. In particular, it has been shown that the Strong Reynolds Analogy hypothesis (SRA), in the case of a strongly anisothermal flow is not valid anymore. The wall heat flux had an impact on the coherent structures. The issue of real gases was then examined through the industrial channel flow simulation (EH3C). This study has high lighted the difficulties (both numerical and physical) associated with this type of flow. The various investigations have provided useful information, especially regarding the phenomenology of coherent structures and various aerothermodynamics correlations.

Although spectral methods have been in use for decades, there is still room for innovation, refinement and improvement of the methods in terms of efficiency and accuracy, for generalized homogeneous turbulent flows, and especially for specialized applications like the computation of atmospheric flows and numerical weather prediction. In this thesis, two such innovations are presented. First, inspired by the adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) technique, which was developed for the computation of fluid flows in physical space, an algorithm is presented for accelerating direct numerical simulation (DNS) of isotropic homogeneous turbulence in spectral space. In the adaptive spectral resolution (ASR) technique developed here the spectral resolution in spectral space is dynamically refined based on refinement criteria suited to the special features of isotropic homogeneous turbulence in two, and three dimensions. Applying ASR to computations of two- and three-dimensional turbulence allows significant savings in the computational time with little to no compromise in the accuracy of the solutions. In the second part of this thesis the effect of explicit filtering on large eddy simulation (LES) of atmospheric flows in spectral space is studied. Apply an explicit filter in addition to the implicit filter due to the computational grid and discretization schemes in LES of turbulent flows allows for better control of the numerical error and improvement in the accuracy of the results. Explicit filtering has been extensively applied in LES of turbulent flows in physical space while few studies have been done on explicitly filtered LES of turbulent flows in spectral space because of perceived limitations of the approach, which are shown here to be incorrect. Here, explicit filtering in LES of the turbulent barotropic vorticity equation (BVE) as a first model of the Earth's atmosphere in spectral space is studied. It is shown that explicit filtering increases the accuracy of the results over implicit filtering, particularly where the location of coherent structures is concerned. / Ph. D.

Particle laden turbulent flows find applications in many industrial processes such as energy conversion, air pollution control etc. In these types of flows, there are strong coupling between the turbulent fluctuations in the fluid velocity fields, and the fluctuating velocities of the particles. In order to analyze the stresses and the heat and mass transfer properties in turbulent suspensions, it is necessary to have a good understanding of not just the mean flow of the gas and particles, but also of the fluctuations in the two phases. The coupling is a two-way coupling; the fluid turbulence contributes to the velocity fluctuations in the particles, and conversely, the particle velocity fluctuations generate fluctuations in the fluid. Two-phase flow models capture these interactions only in an indirect way, usually through a ‘particle pressure’ term for the particle phase. In the present work the effect of fluid velocity fluctuations on the dynamics of the particles in a turbulent gas-solid suspension is analyzed in the low Reynolds number and high Stokes number limit, where the particle relaxation time is long compared to the correlation time for the fluid velocity fluctuations. The direct numerical simulation (DNS) is used for solving the Navier-Stokes equations for the fluid, the particles are modeled as hard spheres which undergo elastic collisions. A one-way coupling algorithm is used where the force exerted by the fluid on the particles is incorporated, but not the reverse force exerted by the particles on the fluid. This is because the main focus of our study is to examine the effect of the fluid turbulence on the particle fluctuations, and we are interested in examining whether a Langevin model with random forcing can accurately capture the effect of fluid turbulence on the particle phase. First, the turbulent flow in a plane Couette is analyzed. Though this is a model flow which is not encountered often in applications, it is easier to analyze because the turbulent velocity fluctuations are maximum at the center of the channel, in contrast to the Poiseuille flow, where the velocity fluctuations are maximum at a location between the center and the wall. Also, in a Couette flow, the wall-normal and the spanwise root mean square velocities are nearly a constant in the central region in the channel, and the percentage variation in the stream-wise velocity fluctuations is also less than that in a pressure driven Poiseuille flow. Therefore, it is possible to treat the central region as a region with homogeneous, but anisotropic, fluid velocity fluctuations and with a linear mean velocity variation. The particle mean and root mean square fluctuating velocities, as well as the probability distribution function for the fluid velocity fluctuations and the distribution of acceleration of the particles in the central region of the Couette, which comprises about 20% of the entire channel have been studied. It is found that the distribution of particle velocities is very different from a Gaussian, especially in the span-wise and wall-normal directions. However, the distribution of the acceleration fluctuation on the particles is found to be close to a Gaussian, though the distribution is highly anisotropic and there is a correlation between the fluctuations in the flow and gradient directions. The non-Gaussian nature of the fluid velocity fluctuations is found to be due to inter-particle collisions induced by the large particle velocity fluctuations in the flow direction. Another interesting result is a comparison of the distribution of the acceleration on a particle due to the fluid velocity fluctuation at the particle position, and the distribution of the ratio of fluid velocity fluctuation to the viscous relaxation time in the fluid. The comparison shows that these two distributions are almost identical, indicating that the fluid velocity fluctuations are not correlated over time scales comparable to the relaxation time of a particle. This result is important because it indicates that in order to model the fluctuating force on the particle, it is sufficient to obtain the variance of the force distribution from the variance of the fluid velocity distribution function. Finally, the correlation time for the acceleration correlations is calculated along the trajectory of a particle. The correlation time is found to be of the same magnitude as the correlation time for the fluid velocity in an Eulerian reference frame, and much smaller than the viscous relaxation time and the time between collisions of the particles. All of these results indicate that the effect of the turbulent fluid velocity fluctuations can be accurately represented by an anisotropic Gaussian white noise. The above results are used to formulate a ‘fluctuating force’ model for the particle phase alone, where the force exerted by the fluid turbulent velocity fluctuations is modeled as random Gaussian white noise, which is incorporated into the equation of motion for the particles. The variance of the distribution function for the fluctuating force distribution is obtained from the variance of the local turbulent fluid velocity fluctuations, assuming linear Stokes drag law. The force distribution is anisotropic, and it has a non-zero correlation between the flow and gradient directions. It is found that the results of the fluctuating force simulations are in quantitative agreement with the results of the complete DNS, both for the particle concentration and variances of the particle velocity fluctuations, at relatively low volume fractions where the viscous relaxation time is small compared to the time between collisions, as well as at higher volume fractions where the time between collisions is small compared to the viscous relaxation time. The simulations are also able to predict the velocity distributions in the center of the Couette, even in cases where the velocity distribution is very different from a Gaussian distribution. The fluctuating force model is applied to the turbulent flow of a gas-particle suspension in a vertical channel in the limit of high Stokes number. In contrast to the Couette flow analyzed the fluid velocity variances in the different directions in the channel are highly non-homogeneous, and they exhibit a significant variation across the channel. First, we analyze the fluctuating particle velocity and acceleration distributions at different locations across the channel using direct numerical simulation. The distributions are found to be non-Gaussian near the center of the channel, and they exhibit significant skewness. The time correlations of the fluid velocity fluctuations and the acceleration fluctuations on the particles are evaluated and compared. Unlike the case of Couette flow it is found that the time correlation functions for the fluid in the fixed Eulerian frame are not in agreement with the time correlation of the acceleration on the particles. However, the time correlations of the particle acceleration are in good agreement with the velocity time correlations in the fluid in a ‘moving Eulerian’ reference frame, moving with the mean velocity of the fluid. The fluctuating force simulations are used to model the particle phase, where the force on the particles due to the fluid velocity fluctuations are substituted by random white noise in the equations for the particle motion. The random noise is assumed to be Gaussian and anisotropic. The variances of the fluctuating force are calculated form the fluid velocity fluctuations in a moving Eulerian reference frame using DNS. The results from the fluctuating force simulations are then compared with the results obtained from DNS. Quantitative agreement between the two simulations are obtained provided the particle viscous relaxation time is at least five times larger than the fluid integral time. The interactions between the solid particles and the fluid turbulence have been investigated experimentally in a vertical fully developed channel flow of air and solid particles. Experiments are conducted at low volume fraction for which viscous relaxation time of the particle is expected to be lower than the particle particle collision time, as well as at moderately high volume fraction where the particle particle collision time is expected to be lower than the particle relaxation time. Velocity statistics of both the particle and gas phases are obtained using high spatial resolution Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system. It is observed that at low solid volume fraction, the particle root mean square velocities and the velocity distribution are in good agreement with those predicted by the fluctuating force simulation, provided the polydispersity in the particle size distribution is incorporated in the fluctuating force simulations. In this case, the modification of turbulence in the center of the channel due to the particles is small. At much higher volume fraction, the mean gas flow is significantly affected by the presence of particles, and the mean flow is no longer symmetric about the center line of the channel. Simultaneously, there is also a significant change in the volume fraction across the channel, and the volume fraction is also not symmetric about the center line. This seems to indicate that there is a spontaneous instability of the symmetric volume fraction and velocity profiles, giving rise to a region of high fluid velocity and high particle volume fraction coexisting with a region of low gas velocity and low particle volume fraction. There is some recirculation of the gas within the channel, and the gas phase turbulence intensity is significantly enhanced when the velocity and volume fraction profiles become asymmetric. As we have considered only one way coupling in the computation of the particle laden flow it is expected that the particle statistics obtained for this condition can not be predicted by our fluctuating force model due to modification of the gas phase statistics.

The studies of particles advected by tubulent flows is an active area of research across many streams of sciences and engineering, which include astrophysics, fluid mechanics, statistical physics, nonlinear dynamics, and also chemistry and biology. Advances in experimental techniques and high performance computing have made it possible to investigate the properties these particles advected by fluid flows at very high Reynolds numbers. The main focus of this thesis is to study the statistics of Lagrangian tracers and heavy inertial particles in hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulent flows by using direct numerical simulations (DNSs). We also study the statistics of particles in model stochastic flows; and we compare our results for such models with those that we obtain from DNSs of hydrodynamic equations. We uncover some of aspects of the statistical properties of particle trajectories that have not been looked at so far. In the last part of the thesis we present some results that we have obtained by solving the three-dimensional Euler equation by using a new method based on the Cauchy-Lagrange formulation. This thesis is divided into 6 chapters. Chapter 1 contains an introduction to the background material that is required for this thesis; it also contains an outline of the problems we study in subsequent Chapters. Chapter 2 contains our study of “Persistence and first-passage time problems with particles in three-dimensional, homogeneous, and isotropic turbulence”. Chapter 3 is devoted to our study of “Universal Statistical Properties of Inertial-particle Trajectories in Three-dimensional, Homogeneous, Isotropic, Fluid Turbulence”. Chapter 4 deals with “Time irreversibility of Inertial-particle trajectories in Homogeneous, Isotropic, Fluid Turbulence”. Chapter 5 contains our study of the “Statistics of charged inertial particles in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence”. Chapter 6 is devoted to our study of “The Cauchy-Lagrange method for the numerical integration of the threedimensional Euler equation”.

The prediction of two-phase fluid-solid (gas-solid and liquid-solid) flow remains a major challenge in many engineering and industrial applications. Numerical modeling of these flows is complicated and various studies have been conducted to improve the model performance. In the present work, the two-fluid model of Bolio et al. (1995), developed for dilute turbulent gas-solid flows, is employed to investigate turbulent two-phase liquid-solid flows in both a vertical pipe and a horizontal channel. <p>Fully developed turbulent gas-solid and liquid-solid flows in a vertical pipe and liquid-solid (slurry) flow in a horizontal channel are numerically simulated. The momentum equations for the fluid and solid phases were solved using the finite volume technique developed by Patankar (1980). Mean and fluctuating velocities for both phases, solids concentration, and pressure drop were predicted and compared with the available experimental data. In general, the mean velocity predictions for both phases were in good agreement with the experimental data for vertical flow cases, considered in this work. <p>For dilute gas-solid vertical flows, the predictions were compared with the experimental data of Tsuji et al. (1984). The gas-phase fluctuating velocity in the axial direction was significantly under-predicted while the results for the solids fluctuating velocity were mixed. There was no data to compare the solids concentration but the profiles looked realistic. The pressure drop was observed to increase with increasing Reynolds number and mass loading when compared with the data of Henthorn et al. (2005). The pressure drop first decreased as particle size increased and then started increasing. This behaviour was shown by both experimental data and model predictions. <p>For the liquid-solid flow simulations the mean velocity profiles for both phases, and the liquid-phase turbulence kinetic energy predictions (for dilute flow case), were in excellent agreement with the experimental data of Alejbegovic et al. (1995) and Sumner et al. (1990). The solids concentration profiles were poorly predicted, especially for the lighter particles. The granular temperature profiles, accounting for the solids velocity fluctuations, for the dilute flow case failed to agree with the data, although they captured the overall trend. The liquid-solid pressure drop predictions, using the present model, were only successful for some particles. <p>The solids concentration predictions for the horizontal flow case were similar to the experimental measurements of Salomon (1965), except for a sharp peak at the bottom wall and the opposite curvature. The mixture velocity profiles were asymmetric, due to the addition of particles, and were similar to the experimental data, though only a partial agreement was observed between the predictions and the data.<p>A conclusion from this work is that the present model, which was developed for dilute gas-solid flows, is inadequate when liquid-solid flows are considered. Further improvements, such as including the interstitial fluid effects while computing the liquid-phase stress, are needed to improve the predictive capability of this two-fluid model.

The prediction of two-phase fluid-solid (gas-solid and liquid-solid) flow remains a major challenge in many engineering and industrial applications. Numerical modeling of these flows is complicated and various studies have been conducted to improve the model performance. In the present work, the two-fluid model of Bolio et al. (1995), developed for dilute turbulent gas-solid flows, is employed to investigate turbulent two-phase liquid-solid flows in both a vertical pipe and a horizontal channel. <p>Fully developed turbulent gas-solid and liquid-solid flows in a vertical pipe and liquid-solid (slurry) flow in a horizontal channel are numerically simulated. The momentum equations for the fluid and solid phases were solved using the finite volume technique developed by Patankar (1980). Mean and fluctuating velocities for both phases, solids concentration, and pressure drop were predicted and compared with the available experimental data. In general, the mean velocity predictions for both phases were in good agreement with the experimental data for vertical flow cases, considered in this work. <p>For dilute gas-solid vertical flows, the predictions were compared with the experimental data of Tsuji et al. (1984). The gas-phase fluctuating velocity in the axial direction was significantly under-predicted while the results for the solids fluctuating velocity were mixed. There was no data to compare the solids concentration but the profiles looked realistic. The pressure drop was observed to increase with increasing Reynolds number and mass loading when compared with the data of Henthorn et al. (2005). The pressure drop first decreased as particle size increased and then started increasing. This behaviour was shown by both experimental data and model predictions. <p>For the liquid-solid flow simulations the mean velocity profiles for both phases, and the liquid-phase turbulence kinetic energy predictions (for dilute flow case), were in excellent agreement with the experimental data of Alejbegovic et al. (1995) and Sumner et al. (1990). The solids concentration profiles were poorly predicted, especially for the lighter particles. The granular temperature profiles, accounting for the solids velocity fluctuations, for the dilute flow case failed to agree with the data, although they captured the overall trend. The liquid-solid pressure drop predictions, using the present model, were only successful for some particles. <p>The solids concentration predictions for the horizontal flow case were similar to the experimental measurements of Salomon (1965), except for a sharp peak at the bottom wall and the opposite curvature. The mixture velocity profiles were asymmetric, due to the addition of particles, and were similar to the experimental data, though only a partial agreement was observed between the predictions and the data.<p>A conclusion from this work is that the present model, which was developed for dilute gas-solid flows, is inadequate when liquid-solid flows are considered. Further improvements, such as including the interstitial fluid effects while computing the liquid-phase stress, are needed to improve the predictive capability of this two-fluid model.

Lean premixed combustors are highly susceptible to combustion instabilities, caused by the coupling between heat release fluctuations and combustor acoustics. In order to predict the conditions under which these instabilities occur and their limit cycle amplitudes, understanding of the amplitude dependent response of the flame to acoustic excitation is required. Extensive maps of the flame response were obtained as a function of perturbation amplitude, frequency, and flow velocity. These maps illustrated substantial nonlinearity in the perturbation velocity - heat release relationship, with complex topological dependencies that illustrate folds and kinks when plotted in frequency-amplitude-heat release space. A detailed analysis of phase locked OH PLIF images of acoustically excited swirl flames was used to identify the key controlling physical processes and qualitatively discuss their characteristics. The results illustrate that the flame response is not controlled by any single physical process but rather by several simultaneously occurring processes which are potentially competing, and whose relative significance depends upon forcing frequency, amplitude of excitation, and flame stabilization dynamics. An in-depth study on the effect of acoustic forcing on the turbulent flame properties was conducted in a turbulent Bunsen flame using PIV measurements. The results showed that the flame brush thickness and the local consumption speed were modulated in the presence of acoustic forcing. These results will not only be a useful input to help improve combustion dynamics predictions but will also help serve as validation data for models.

In the present doctoral work we have developed and tested a model for dissolved oxygen (DO) transfer from water to underlying flat and cohesive sediment beds populated with DO-absorbing bacteria. The model couples Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) of turbulent transport in the water-column, a biogeochemical model for DO transport and consumption in the sediment, and Darcy’s Law for the pore water-driven solute dispersion and advection. The model’s predictions compare well against experimental data for low friction-Reynolds numbers (Re). The disagreement for higher Re is investigated by progressively increasing the complexity of the model. A sensitivity analysis shows that the sediment-oxygen uptake (or demand, SOD) is approximately proportional to the bacterial content of the sediment layer, and varies with respect to fluid dynamics conditions, in accordance to classic high-Schmidt-number mass-transfer laws. The non- linear transport dynamics responsible for sustaining a statistically steady SOD are investigated by temporal- and-spatial correlations and with the aid of instantaneous visualizations: the near-wall coherent structures modulate the diffusive sublayer, which exhibits complex spatial and temporal filtering behaviours; its slow and quasi-periodic regeneration cycle determines the streaky structure of the DO field at the sediment-water interface (SWI), retained in the deeper layers of the porous medium. Oxygen depletion dynamics are then simulated by preventing surface re-areation with turbulent mixing driven by an oscillating low-speed current — an idealization of hypolimnetic DO depletion in the presence of a non-equilibrium periodic forcing. The oxygen distribution exhibits a self-similar pattern of decay with, during the deceleration phase, oscillations modulated by the periodic ejection of peaks of high turbulent mass flux (pumping oxygen towards the SWI), generated at the edge of the diffusive sublayer at the end of the acceleration phase. These fronts of highly turbulent mixing propagate away from the SWI, at approximately constant speed, in layers of below-average oxygen concentration. Finally, the model has been tested in a real geophysical framework, reproducing published in-situ DO measurements of a transitional flow in the bottom boundary layer of lake Alpnach. A simple model for the SOD is then derived for eventual inclusion in RANSE biogeochemical management-type models for similar applications. / Thesis (Ph.D, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2012-07-04 11:13:24.936