The objective of a coating operation is to transfer a defect free liquid film onto a continuous substrate in order to meet the requirements of the final products. Mainly two concerns govern the process. The first concern is the economics of the process and the second concern is the quality of the coated film. The economics of the process are dictated by the speed of coating and the film thickness. Clearly, higher speeds mean better productivity hence less cost of operation and thinner films are desirable because less material is being used. Quality is governed by film uniformity and integrity, indicating that the film will perform as designed. Film defects such as streaks or tiny air bubbles are indication that the film properties are not uniform rendering it unacceptable to customers. One of the most versatile coating systems to achieve thin films at high speeds is reverse roll coating which has been used for a long time all over the world. At low speed, typically 1m/s, this coating operation is inherently stable and with small gaps of order 100 microns can ii lead to film thickness of order 30-50 microns. Much research, theoretical and experimental, has been devoted to this coating flow but only at low speeds and for large gaps (>100 microns). There are no comprehensive data how very thin films, 20 microns and less (particularly lower limits in the region of 5 microns) can be achieved at high speeds, of 2 or more metres per second. This study is concerned precisely with this aim, that of investigating the effect of large speeds and small roller gaps (rollers nearly touching or in elastohydrodynamic contact) to achieve the very thin films desired by modern applications (electronics, medical and others). In order to achieve this aim, a rig was designed and built to enable to understand the effect of various coating conditions and liquid properties on the metered film thickness and coating instability. To achieve thin films at high speeds, small roll gap and low viscosity are needed, however flow instabilities will develop under these conditions. To achieve stable coating window at high speeds high surface tension is needed. It was found that the roll gap and the viscosity have complicated effect on the coating window. In the case of low viscosity liquid (7mPa.s), small roll gaps are needed, whereas in the case of high viscosity liquid (more than 30mPa.s), large gaps are needed. It was found that Weber number is better describer for ribbing instability in rigid reverse roll coating unlike in rigid forward roll coating in which capillary number is the one. In addition the potential of reverse deformable roll coating (rolls in elastohydrodynamic contact) was investigated in order to achieve much thinner films at higher speeds. As a result of the investigation of reverse deformable roll coating, it was found that there is a possibility to get much thinner stable films at much higher speeds compared to reverse rigid roll coating. The liquid transfer from an applicator roller to a PET film was investigated in this study. It was found that air stagnation at downstream meniscus and air entrainment at upstream meniscus depend on the liquid properties such as viscosity and surface tension and coating conditions such as web tension and wrap angle of web. As a result, wet film instability also depends on liquid properties and coating conditions. It was found that air stagnation causes streaks on the wet film and air entrainment caused bubbles on the wet film. To get a stable wet film, it was found that suitable viscosity and high surface tension were needed.

In all coating applications, a liquid film displaces air in contact with a dry solid substrate. At a low substrate speed a thin uniform wetting line is formed on the substrates surface, but at a high speed the wetting line becomes segmented and unsteady as air becomes entrained between the substrate and the liquid. These air bubbles affect the quality of the coated product and any means to postpone this at higher speeds without changing the specifications of the coating liquid is desirable. This research assesses the validity of a theoretically based concept developed by Blake and Rushack [1] and exploited by Cohu and Benkreira [2] for dip coating. The concept suggests that angling the wetting line by an angle ß would increase the speed at which air is entrained by a factor 1/cos ß. In practice, if achieved this is a significant increase that would result in more economical operation. This concept was tested in a fast coating operation that of curtain coating which is already enhanced by what is known as hydrodynamic assistance [2]. Here we are effectively checking an additional assistance to wetting. The work, performed on a purposed built curtain coater and a rotating die, with a range of fluids showed the concept to hold but provided the data are processed in a way that separate the effect of curtain impingement from the slanting of the wetting line.

Vortex drop shafts are used to transport water or wastewater from over-stressed existing sewer systems to underground tunnels. During the plunge a large amount of air is entrained into the water and released downstream of the drop shaft into the tunnel. This air is unwanted and becomes costly to treat and move back to the surface. Determining the amount of air that will be entrained is a difficult task. A common method is to build a scale model and measure the air discharge and scale it back to prototype. This study investigated a possible relationship between the geometry of the drop structure, the water discharge and the amount of air entrained. The results have shown that air entrainment is still not entirely understood, however we are close to a solution. Using a relationship of the air core diameter, drop shaft length and terminal velocity of the water, a likely exponential relationship has been developed.

The majority of dams contain low-level outlet works, which typically consist of closed conduits that run through the dam, and are used to release water from the reservoir when the water level is below the level of the surface spillways. It is also used to flush the reservoir of sediments and to control the elevation of the reservoir. Low-level outlet works typically consist of a gate that controls the flow within a closed conduit that runs through the dam and an air vent that supplies air behind the gate. In the absence of properly designed air vents, negative pressures may develop downstream of the gate. These negative pressures could potentially lead to cavitation and vibration damage. Properly sized air vents help maintain the downstream air pressure at or near atmospheric pressure and/or provide air to absorb the energy generated by cavitation, reducing the potential for damage. The majority of research done on air vent sizing is for dams having large dam geometry, which consist of a pressurized conduit leading to a vertical slide gate that is followed by a discharge tunnel. The typical air vent design for these large dams uses the water flow rate and the Froude number measured at the vena contracta downstream of the gate. The low-level outlet works for small-to-medium-sized embankment dam geometries typically have an inclined slide gate, installed at the inlet on the upstream face of the dam slope, followed by an elbow that connects to a conduit that passes through the dam and discharges downstream. This type of outlet geometry does not produce the typical vena contracta. Consequently, the use of the Froude number, at the vena contracta , as a characteristic parameter for characterizing airflow demand is not practical. Recently a laboratory study was performed calculating the head-discharge characteristics of low-level outlets for small-to-medium sized dam geometries. In addition to validating some of the previous laboratory-scale air venting research, the objective of this study was field verification of air-demand/air vent sizing predicted by the laboratory-based method. The influence of conduit slope, air port location, and hydraulic jumps on air demand was also evaluated in the laboratory. The findings of this study can be found within this thesis.

L'une des principales missions de l'Ifremer consiste à étudier les ressources sous-marines et les fonds marins via une flotte océanographique importante, employée à travers le globe. Pour ce faire, les navires sont équipés d'équipements acoustiques de type SONAR afin d'obtenir les informations recherchées dans la colonne d'eau. Dans certaines conditions de navigation, la houle et les mouvements du navire génèrent un entraînement d'air conséquent sous la surface. Des nuages de bulles sont ainsi formés et entraînés sous la carène par l'écoulement. L'interaction entre ces bulles et les ondes acoustiques peuvent entraîner des pertes de données, et par conséquent une diminution importante de la productivité du navire. Les outils permettant l'étude du phénomène sont actuellement limités. Les modèles numériques ne sont pas suffisamment performants, pour simuler conjointement les mécanismes d'entraînement d'air à l'étrave puis l'écoulement dysphasique autour de la carène, et les essais classiques en bassin de traction ne donnent pas entière satisfaction. Dans le cadre de cette thèse, une méthode d'essai spécifique, pour l'étude de ce phénomène, a été développée et mise en place au bassin à houle et courant de l'Ifremer. Cette méthode nécessite la synchronisation entre un générateur de houle et un générateur de mouvement (hexapode), permettant d'imposer les mouvements calculés au préalable par simulation numérique à la maquette. Cette configuration permet d'étudier indépendamment les effets de la houle et des mouvements sur la génération des bulles. L'instrumentation employée permet de filmer et de caractériser l'entraînement d'air à l'étrave de la maquette. Deux mécanismes distincts ont été observés : la génération de bulles par entraînement tourbillonnaire ou par le déferlement de la vague d'étrave. Une méthode de traitement d'image a été élaborée pour analyser ces mécanismes pour de nombreuses configurations d'essais. Une étude paramétrique a été réalisée afin de calculer la fréquence de génération de bulles en fonction de chaque paramètre d'essai. Des mesures PIV de l'écoulement permettent de corréler la dynamique des nuages de bulles et de l'écoulement. L'ensemble des résultats obtenus permet d'apporter des éléments nouveaux pour la compréhension et l'étude du phénomène, avec la perspective d'obtenir un outil fiable facilitant la conception des navires océanographiques. / One of the main assignments of Ifremer is to study the seabed and the resources undersea, through a large oceanographic fleet used across the globe. For that purpose, ships are equipped with different kinds of SONAR (SOund Navigation And Ranging) to obtain the information sought in the water column. In some sea conditions, waves and ship motions generate significant air entrainment below the surface. Bubble clouds are then carried under the hull by the flow. The interaction between these bubbles and the acoustic waves may result in data loss, and therefore in a considerable reduction of the vessel’s productivity. The tools used to study this phenomenon are currently limited : the numerical models are not efficient enough to simulate at a time air entrainment at the bow and the two phase flow around the hull. On the other hand conventional towing tank tests are not entirely satisfactory. During this PhD research work, a specific test method to study this phenomenon has been developed and implemented at the Ifremer wave and current tank. This method requires the synchronization between a wave generator and a movement generator (hexapod) that enables to force the model motions, calculated in advance by numerical simulations. With this configuration, the effects of waves or motions characteristics on the bubbles generation can be studied independently. A complete instrumentation allowed to acquire images sequences to characterize the air entrainment at the bow of the model. Two distinct mechanisms have been observed : the generation of bubbles by vortex shedding or by the breaking bow wave. A post-processing method has been developed to analyse these mechanisms, for many test configurations. A parametric study was performed to calculate the frequency of bubbles generation for each test parameter. PIV measurements allowed to correlate the dynamic of bubbles clouds with the own flow dynamic. The overall results provide new elements for the understanding and the study of the phenomenon, with the final objective of obtaining a reliable tool that facilitates the design of research vessels.

The majority of dams contain low-level outlet works, which typically consist of closed conduits that run through the dam, and are used to release water from the reservoir when the water level is below the level of the surface spillways. It is also used to flush the reservoir of sediments and to control the elevation of the reservoir. Low-level outlet works typically consist of a gate that controls the flow within a closed conduit that runs through the dam and an air vent that supplies air behind the gate. In the absence of properly designed air vents, negative pressures may develop downstream of the gate. These negative pressures could potentially lead to cavitation and vibration damage. Properly sized air vents help maintain the downstream air pressure at or near atmospheric pressure and/or provide air to absorb the energy generated by cavitation, reducing the potential for damage. The majority of research done on air vent sizing is for dams having large dam geometry, which consist of a pressurized conduit leading to a vertical slide gate that is followed by a discharge tunnel. The typical air vent design for these large dams uses the water flow rate and the Froude number measured at the vena contracta downstream of the gate. The low-level outlet works for small-to-medium-sized embankment dam geometries typically have an inclined slide gate, installed at the inlet on the upstream face of the dam slope, followed by an elbow that connects to a conduit that passes through the dam and discharges downstream. This type of outlet geometry does not produce the typical vena contracta. Consequently, the use of the Froude number, at the vena contracta , as a characteristic parameter for characterizing airflow demand is not practical. Recently a laboratory study was performed calculating the head-discharge characteristics of low-level outlets for small-to-medium sized dam geometries. In addition to validating some of the previous laboratory-scale air venting research, the objective of this study was field verification of air-demand/air vent sizing predicted by the laboratory-based method. The influence of conduit slope, air port location, and hydraulic jumps on air demand was also evaluated in the laboratory. The findings of this study can be found within this thesis.

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