No description available.

The objective of this research was to investigate parameters affecting vortex ring formation and propagation and their application to mixing of fluids. To this end both empirical and numerical simulation experiments were conducted. The empirical experiments involved observations and measurement of the volume, displacement and velocity of vortex rings generated from a 5 cm diameter tube. The results revealed that there is an optimal range of generation injection velocity for various mixing requirements. The numerical simulations were done using a commercial package, FLUENT. Both tube type and plate orifice type vortex ring generators were investigated. Also the affects of a central shaft and various projections on the control of the motion of a vortex ring. All models considered a polar model cylindrical tank with a diameter to height ratio of 3:10. The average injection velocity was in the range of 0.7 m/s to 3 m/s. When simulating the tube type generator various injection velocity profiles and value were investigated, which resulted in a fitted correlations of nondimension displacement versus non-dimension time as a function of infection profile. In order to control the forward motion of vortex rings some obstructions were considered. It was found that the trajectory and energy of a vortex ring can be controlled with shape and geometries of baffles. In the simulations for the orifice plate type generator, a moving mesh technique was used. As expected a pair of vortex rings were produced per half cycle of the plate oscillation, but they did not travel as fast as expected. Recommendations have been made to improve the simulation accuracy. It has also been found that the FLUENT package will not properly simulate turbulent vortex rings. However, this may be because a vortex ring is not truly homogeneously turbulent. The use of a laminar model appears to give quite good agreement with empirical data for tube type vortex ring generator. The results of this research are expected to be useful for the optimization of the design of vortex ring mixing systems. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

No description available.

<p> This thesis describes the study of plate vortex ring generators invented and developed by Latta and modified and constructed by E.S.Fox. The vortex ring generator has been applied to destratify and aerate a natural pond in this research. Experiments were conducted to mix and aerate a stagnant and stratified pond in a natural, outdoor setting. Mixing times, temperatures, dissolved oxygen, BOD, COD and pH were measured for each experiment trial. A fluctuating single plate vortex ring generator was constructed and used in four of the five experiments with the depth of the vortex ring plate varied to determine the effect on mixing and aeration. A final experiment used a dual plate vortex ring mixer to examine the advantages of multiple plates with regard to mixing and aeration as well.</p> <p> It was found that the single plate vortex ring generator with an operating range of 1 /2 to 4/5Hz effectively destratified and mixed the pond within a 12 hour mixing duration. The generator aerated the pond by establishing a flow pattern in the pond such that the water at the surface of the pond experienced increased contact with the atmospheric air thereby transferring oxygen to the water. The impact of atmospheric air temperature proved to be a significant factor as a heat source to the pond which affected the time taken to destratify the pond. The increased oxygen transferred to the pond increased dissolved oxygen in the pond. The microbial organisms present in the pond experienced increased activity due to the increased dissolved oxygen available in the water because of the mixing action provided by the vortex ring generator.</p> <p> The summary of calculated results for all five experiments with the vortex ring mixer is as follows: (Refer to page iv for chart). <p> On the basis of the experimental results it was determined that the vortex ring generator has a bright future as a tool to improve water quality in natural water courses.</p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

The objective of this research was to investigate the affects of various generator plate size, D/d ratio, stroke frequency and slurry concentration, for a plate type vortex ring mixer, on the drag force and power consumption. In this case CaCO3 aqueous slurry was used for the investigation. The generator plate was driven using an AC induction motor with gear type speed reducer which was controlled using a frequency inverter and a mechanism for converting rotational into translational motion. This drive system resulted in sinusoidal motion of the generator plate. The applied force, the displacement of the generator plate and the input power were measured using measurement cell developed for this purpose. The viscosity was also measured. The data were analyzed, organized and presented using appropriate graphs. The force measurement data showed that drag force was mainly affected by the size of generator plate and its oscillating frequency. Larger generator plates had greater drag force acting on them and, therefore, required more power for running. Oscillating frequency had similar effect on drag force and power consumption. However, tested CaCO3 slurry concentrations showed to have no significant affect on these two parameters. Drag force results obtained during this study are considered to be reasonably representative, while power consumption data, although representative for this system, will probably be different for different drive systems employed. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

No description available.

Les études sur le Vortex Ring State ont récemment reçu un regain d'intérêt suite à la mise en place de trajectoires d'approche à forte pente pour les atterrissages en ville qui conduisent à des conditions de vol proches des frontières du VRS. Dans les années antérieures, les aspects numériques ont été étudiés grâce à des méthodes empiriques ou des modèles analytiques, et des expériences ont été effectuées dans le but de mieux comprendre la physique du phénomène. Dans cette étude, le code CFD elsA a été utilisé dans le but de résoudre les équations d'Euler. Un balayage en vitesse de descente verticale avec différents maillages a été réalisé afin d'étudier la capacité du solveur à capturer le Vortex Ring State. Dans un premier temps, la précision de la représentation de l'écoulement a été évalué en fonction d'hypothèses numériques (stratégies et précision des maillages, consistance en temps des simulations, ...) et physiques (périodicité de l'écoulement, cinématique du rotor, ...). Ceci permet d'extraire les options pour effectuer, dans un second temps, des simulations les plus représentatives possible de l'état de VRS afin d'étudier et de pouvoir décrire les mécanismes d'apparition et d'évolution de ce phénomène.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / When a burst of air is produced in water, the result can be a toroidal bubble. This thesis is concerned with experimental investigations of three acoustical properties of toroidal bubbles: (i) propagation through high-intensity noise, (ii) emission, and (iii) scattering. In (i), an attempt to observe a recent prediction of the acoustic drag on a bubble is described, which is analogous to the Einstein-Hopf effect for an oscillating electric dipole in a fluctuating electromagnetic field. No effect was observed, which may be due to insufficient amplitude of the noise. In (ii), observations of acoustic emissions of volume oscillations of toroidal bubbles are reported. Surprisingly, the emission occurs primarily during the formation of a bubble, and is weak in the case of very smooth toroidal bubbles. In (iii), we describe an experiment to observe the effect of a toroidal bubble on an incident sound field. In addition to the acoustical investigations, we describe the construction of a large hallway apparatus for further investigations and for hands-on use by the public. The tank has cross section 2 feet by 2 feet and height 6 feet, and the parameters of reservoir pressure and time between air bursts are adjustable by the observer. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

A helicopter rotor in descent flight encounters its own wake, resulting in a doughnut-shaped ring around the rotor disk, known as the Vortex Ring State (VRS). Flight in VRS condition can be dangerous as it may cause uncommanded drop in descent rate, loss of control effectiveness, power settling, excessive thrust and torque fluctuations, and vibration. As simple momentum theory is no longer valid for a rotor in VRS, modeling of rotor inflow in VRS continues to challenge researchers, especially for flight simulation applications. In this dissertation, a simplified inflow model, called the ring vortex model, is developed for a helicopter rotor operating in descent condition. By creating a series of vortex rings near the rotor disk, the ring vortex model addresses the strong flow interaction between the rotor wake and the surrounding airflow in descent flight. In addition, the total mass flow parameter in the existing inflow models is augmented to create a steady state transition between the helicopter and the windmill branches. With the ring vortex model, rotor inflow can now be adequately predicted over a wide range of descent rates. Validations of the ring vortex model for helicopter rotors are conducted extensively in axial and inclined descent. Effects from blade taper, blade twist, and rotor thrust are also investigated with further application of the finite-state inflow model. The ring vortex model is applied to a single main-rotor helicopter. The main effort is to establish VRS boundary based on heave stability criterion. In addition, two important phenomena observed in the descent flight tests are addressed in the dynamic simulation, including uncommanded drop in descent rate and loss of collective control effectiveness. The ring vortex model is further applied to a side-by-side rotor configuration. Lateral thrust asymmetry on the side-by-side rotor configuration can be reproduced through uneven distribution of vortex rings at the two rotors. Two important issues are investigated, including the impact of vortex rings on lateral thrust deficit and on lateral AFCS limit.

Fluid dynamics considers the physics of liquids and gases. This is a branch of classical physics and is totally based on Newton's laws of motion. Nevertheless, the equation of fluid motion, Navier-Stokes equation, becomes very complicated to solve even for very simple configurations. This thesis treats mainly analytical vortex solutions to Navier-Stokes equations. Vorticity is usually concentrated to smaller regions of the flow, sometimes isolated objects, called vortices. If one are able to describe vortex structures exactly, important information about the flow properties are obtained. Initially, the modeling of a conical vortex geometry is considered. The results are compared with wind-tunnel measurements, which have been analyzed in detail. The conical vortex is a very interesting phenomenaon for building engineers because it is responsible for very low pressures on buildings with flat roofs. Secondly, a suggested analytical solution to Navier-Stokes equation for internal flows is presented. This is based on physical argumentation concerning the vorticity production at solid boundaries. Also, to obtain the desired result, Navier-Stokes equation is reformulated and integrated. In addition, a model for required information of vorticity production at boundaries is proposed. The last part of the thesis concerns the examples of vortex models in 2-D and 3-D. In both cases, analysis of the Navier-Stokes equation, leads to the opportunity to construct linear solutions. The 2-D studies are, by the use of diffusive elementary vortices, describing experimentally observed vortex statistics and turbulent energy spectrums in stratified systems and in soapfilms. Finally, in the 3-D analysis, three examples of recent experimentally observed vortex objects are reproduced theoretically. First, coherent structures in a pipe flow is modeled. These vortex structures in the pipe are of interest since they appear for Re in the range where transition to turbulence is expected. The second example considers the motion in a viscous vortex ring. The model, with diffusive properties, describes the experimentally measured velocity field as well as the turbulent energy spectrum. Finally, a streched spiral vortex is analysed. A rather general vortex model that has many degrees of freedom is proposed, which also may be applied in other configurations.