This project studied the physical and chemical effects of typical impurities on CO2 storage using both experimental approaches and theoretical simulation. Results show that the presence of typical non-condensable impurities from oxyfuel combustion such as N2, O2, and Ar resulted in lower density than pure CO2, leading to decreased CO2 storage capacity and increased buoyancy in saline aquifers. In contrast, inclusion of condensable SO2 in CO2 resulted in higher density than pure CO2 and therefore increased storage capacity. These impurities also had a significant impact on the phase behaviours of CO2, which is important to CO2 transportation. Different effects on rock chemistry were detected with experimental systems containing pure CO2, CO2 with SO2, or CO2 with SO2 and O2 under conditions simulating that in a potential storage site. An equation was proposed to predict the effects of the rock chemistry on the porosity of rocks.

We investigate the effect of thermal expansion and gravity on the propagation and stability of flames in inhomogeneous mixtures. We focus on laminar flames in the simple configuration of an infinitely long channel with rigid porous walls in order to understand the effect of inhomogeneities on these fundamental structures. The first part of the thesis is concerned with premixed flames propagating against a prescribed parallel (Poiseuille) flow and subject to thermal expansion. We show that in a narrow channel (corresponding to a relatively thick flame), if the Peclet number is fixed and of order unity, a premixed flame propagating against a parallel flow is governed by the equation for a planar premixed flame with an effective diffusion coefficient. The enhanced diffusion is shown to correspond to Taylor dispersion, or shear-enhanced diffusion. Several important applications of the results are discussed. One of the topics of relevance is the bending effect of turbulent combustion. The results of our analysis show that, for a large flow intensity, the effective propagation speed of the premixed flame for depends only on the Peclet number (which is equal to the Reynolds number if the Prandtl number is unity). This mimics the behaviour of the turbulent premixed flame when the effective propagation speed is plotted versus the turbulence intensity for fixed values of the Reynolds number. The second part of the thesis is concerned with triple flames, subject to thermal expansion and buoyancy. A study is undertaken to investigate the stability of a diffusion flame subject to these effects, which gives rise to a problem analogous to the classical Rayleigh--B\'nard convection problem. A linear stability analysis in the Boussinesq approximation is performed, which leads to analytical results showing that the Burke-Schumann flame is unstable if the Rayleigh number is above a critical value which is determined. Numerical results confirm and complement the analytical results. A full numerical investigation of the effects of gravity and thermal expansion on triple flames propagating in a direction perpendicular to the direction of gravity is then carried out. This configuration does not seem to have received dedicated attention in the literature. It is found that the well-known monotonic relationship between the propagation speed $U$ and the flame-front thickness $\epsilon$, which exists in the constant density case when the Lewis numbers are of order unity or larger, persists for triple flames undergoing thermal expansion. Under strong enough gravitational effects, however, the relationship is no longer found to be monotonic, exhibiting hysteresis if the Rayleigh number is large enough. Finally, the initiation of triple flames from a hot two-dimensional ignition kernel is investigated. Particular attention is devoted to the energy required for ignition and the transient evolution of triple flames after initiation. Steady, non-propagating, two-dimensional solutions representing "flame tubes" are determined; their thermal energy is used to define a minimum ignition energy for the two-dimensional triple flame in the mixing layer. The transient behaviour of triple flames following "energy-increasing" or "energy-decreasing" perturbations to the flame tube solutions is described in situations where the underlying diffusion flame is either stable or unstable.

The rise of soft robots poses a promising revolution across a variety of fields, such as invasive surgical procedures or aquatic animal monitoring and sampling, by providing a softer solution to delicate problems. However, with their youth comes a need for growth, particularly in regard to increasing mobility in aquatic environments seeing as motion is often slow and belabored. Additionally, exit strategies in breaking the air-water interface are not thoroughly explored to date. To address these challenges, this study looks to bioinspiration for the answer in the form of Emperor Penguins. By utilizing microbubbles in their plumage to decrease drag forces on their bodies, Emperor Penguins are able to propel themselves out of the water to heights not theoretically achievable through buoyancy alone. Not only is the strategy highly effective, it lends well to the soft robotic field as pneumatic actuation is a commonly used mechanism of locomotion. To explore this behavior and simulate its effects, this study tests a hollow silicone ellipsoid with hole punctures applied to its surface for microbubble release. Bubble characteristics such as separation point, bubble diameter, and downstream bubble expansion were monitored when subjected to a fluid flow to determine ideal air pressure through the ellipsoid body. Drag reduction is tested by measuring the robot’s leap height out of the water.

Due to the recent advancement in computer capability, numerical modelling starts to play an important role in making predictions and improving the understanding of physics in the studies of convective heat transfer to supercritical fluids. Many computational studies have been carried out in recent years to assess the ability of different turbulence models in reproducing the experimental data. The performance of these turbulence models varied significantly in predicting the heat transfer at supercritical pressures, especially for the phenomena of heat transfer deterioration (HTD). The results of these studies showed that the accuracy of different turbulence models was also dependent on the flow conditions. It is still necessary to test these turbulence models against newly available experimental data before the final conclusion can be drawn. In this work computational simulations on convective heat transfer of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) at supercritical pressures flowing upward in vertical circular pipes have been carried out using the commercial code STAR-CCM+. Detailed comparisons are made between five turbulence models, including AKN low-Reynolds model by Abe et al. (AKN), Standard low-Reynolds k-ε model by Lien et al. (SLR), k-ω model by Wilcox (WI), SST k-ω model by Menter (SST), and the Reynolds Stress Transport (RST) model, against two independent experiments, i.e., water data by Watts (1980) and the recently published carbon dioxide data by Zahlan (2013). The performance of k-ε models with a two-layer approach, and that of k-ε models with wall-functions are also investigated. For the CO2 study, where wall temperatures in most cases are above the pseudo-critical temperature (Tpc), RST model is found both qualitatively and quantitatively better than other turbulence models in predicting the wall temperatures when HTD occurs. The RST model while superior, predicted HTD at higher heat fluxes as compared to experiments. The wall temperature trends predicted by SST and WI models are very similar to that predicted by RST, except that they start to predict HTD at even higher heat fluxes than RST, and the peak temperatures are overestimated significantly. Because RST and k-ω models (SST and WI) predict the HTD at higher heat fluxes as compared to experiments, often in literature they are overlooked. Rather CFD users should conduct sensitivity analyses on heat flux, and quite often as a result qualitatively excellent agreement can be observed in some of these models. The low-Reynolds turbulence models, i.e., SLR and AKN, tended to over-predict the wall temperature after the onset of first temperature peak, because the turbulence production predicted by these models failed to regenerate. The wall temperatures for these models did not show recovery after deterioration until the bulk temperature is close to Tpc, while experimentally recovery happened well upstream of this location. The k-ε models with two-layer approach, and the k-ε models with wall-functions both failed to predict the HTD in all cases. For the H2O study, where the wall temperatures in most cases are below the pseudo-critical temperature, the SLR model performed the best among all turbulence models in reproducing the experimental data. AKN model was also able to qualitatively predict the observed HTD, however, not as well as SLR. SST and RST models, on the other hand, under-predicted the buoyancy effect even at the lowest mass fluxes and hence did not adequately predict deterioration. In a few high-heat-flux cases with wall temperatures above Tpc, all the turbulence models show consistent response to that discussed in the CO2 study, i.e. RST model is quantitatively better than other turbulence models. Nevertheless, the wall temperature peaks predicted by RST model is very different from that observed experimentally, i.e. the measured peaks are much milder and more flattened than the predicted ones. All the turbulence models including RST overestimate the wall temperatures significantly when Tb<Tpc<Tw. The sensitivity studies of mesh parameters, user-defined fluid properties, turbulent Prandtl number, gravitational orientation, and various boundary conditions (e.g. heat flux, mass flux, pressure, and inlet temperature) have also been carried out, aiming to ensure the reliability of the obtained results, and to gain a deeper insight into the physics of heat transfer deterioration in supercritical fluids. Detailed mechanistic studies of HTD have been carried out for both the CO2 and H2O simulations using different turbulence models (RST, SST, and SLR) in various flow conditions. The radial distribution of fluid properties and turbulence at various axial locations provides direct evidence of the mechanisms involved near the locations of deterioration. The buoyancy effect is found to be responsible for the observed HTD in both experiments (i.e., when gravity forces are removed no deterioration is observed). The buoyancy force exerted on the near-wall low-density layer modifies the velocity profile (thus shear stress distribution) in a way that greatly reduces the near-wall turbulence production, resulting in the impairment of heat transfer. In the CO2 study where the wall temperature exceeds the Tpc in a very short distance from the inlet, the “entrance effect” is found to play a more important role in initially impairing the turbulence production. However, this effect is not observed in cases where wall temperature is below Tpc, which is attributed to the weaker density variation below Tpc. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Solar chimney power plants use the buoyancy-nature of heated air to harness the Sun's energy without using solar panels. The flow is driven by a pressure difference in the chimney system, so traditional chimneys are extremely tall to increase the pressure differential and the air's velocity. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to model the airflow through a solar chimney. Different boundary conditions were tested to find the best model that simulated the night-time operation of a solar chimney assumed to be in sub-Saharan Africa. At night, the air is heated by the energy that was stored in the ground during the day dispersing into the cooler air. It is necessary to model a solar chimney with layer of thermal storage as a porous material for FLUENT to correctly calculate the heat transfer between the ground and the air. The solar collector needs to have radiative and convective boundary conditions to accurately simulate the night-time heat transfer on the collector. To correctly calculate the heat transfer in the system, it is necessary to employ the Discrete Ordinates radiation model. Different chimney configurations were studied with the hopes of designing a shorter solar chimney without decreases the amount of airflow through the system. Clusters of four and five shorter chimneys decreased the air's maximum velocity through the system, but increased the total flow rate. Passive advections wells were added to the thermal storage and were analyzed as a way to increase the heat transfer from the ground to the air. / Master of Science

Natural ventilation is an effective method to save energy required to condition buildings and to improve indoor air quality. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to model single-sided buoyancy-driven natural ventilation in a single room with a heater and door. The velocity and temperature profiles at the doorway agreed fairly well with published literature that includes Mahajan's experimental [2] and Schaelin et al's numerical studies [1]. The 2D and 3D models predicted the neutral level with a difference of 5.6 % and 0.08 % compared to the experimental results, respectively. Using solutions at the doorway, heat transfer rates were calculated. More realistic situations were studied considering conduction, various ambient conditions, wind speeds, and additional heat sources and furniture in the room. The heat loss through the wall was modeled and the airflow and temperature within the room showed no significant changes despite modeling conduction through the walls. Various ambient temperatures and wind speeds were tested, and the neutral level height and total heat transfer rate through the doorway increased with decreasing ambient temperatures. However, the neutral level did not significantly change as wind speeds varied. Total heat transfer rate at the doorway became positive, that is heat transferred into the room, with wind speed. Lastly, the effect of additional heat sources (mini-refrigerator, monitor and computer) and furniture (bookshelf, desk, chair and box) on airflow and heat transfer in the room was analyzed by comparing with a simple case of a room with a heater. Large velocities and high temperatures were predicted in the vicinity of the heat sources. However, the spatially averaged velocity and temperature did not change significantly despite additional heat sources. The room with furniture was modeled at lower ambient temperature, where the spatially averaged velocities were larger and temperatures were lower than the simple case. The room heated up and reached its thermal comfort level, but the velocities exceeded the maximum acceptable level set by ASHRAE guidelines [8]. Wind was considered simultaneously with the lower temperature, and the room was cooled faster with wind. However, the room was never able to achieve the comfortable level both in velocity and temperature. / Master of Science

Yes / Results are presented from a numerical simulation to investigate the vertical buoyant wall jet discharged into a linearly stratified environment. A tracer transport model considering density variation is implemented. The standard k-ε model with the buoyancy effect is used to simulate the evolution of the buoyant jet in a stratified environment. Results show that the maximum jet velocity trend along vertical direction has two regions: acceleration region and deceleration region. In the deceleration region, jet velocity is reduced by the mixing taking place between jet fluid and ambient lighter fluid. Jet velocity is further decelerated by the upwards buoyant force when ambient fluid density is larger than jet fluid density. The normalized peak value of the cross sectional maximum jet velocity decreases with λ (the ratio between the characteristic momentum length and the buoyancy length). When λ<1, the dimensionless maximum penetration distance (normalized by the characteristic buoyancy length) does not vary much and has a value between 4.0 and 5.0, while it increases with increasing λ for λ≥1. General good agreements between the simulations and measurements are obtained, indicating that the model can be successfully applied to investigate the mixing of buoyant jet with ambient linearly stratified fluid. / Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC: EP/G066264/1), National Natural Science Foundation of China (51609214,41376099,51609213), National Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No.51425901),Public Project of Zhejiang Province (2016C33095)

This study sought to demonstrate the potential applications of the solar chimney for the naturally ventilating a building. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to model various room configurations to assess ventilation strategies. A parametric study of the solar chimney system was executed, and three-dimensional simulations were compared and validated with experiments. A new definition for the hydraulic diameter that incorporated the chimney geometry was developed to predict the flow regime in the solar chimney system. To mitigate the cost and effort to use experiments to analyze building energy, a mathematical approach was considered. A relationship between small- and full-scale models was investigated using non-dimensional analysis. Multiple parameters were involved in the mathematical model to predict the air velocity, where the predictions were in good agreement with experimental data as well as the numerical simulations from the present study. The second part of the study considered building design optimization to improve ventilation using air changes per hour (ACH) as a metric, and air circulation patterns within the building. An upper vent was introduced near the ceiling of the chimney system, which induced better air circulation by removing the warm air in the building. The study pursued to model a realistic scenario for the solar chimney system, where it investigated the effect of the vent sizes, insulation, and a reasonable solar chimney size. It was shown that it is critical to insulate the backside of the absorber and that the ratio of the conditioned area to chimney volume should be at least 10. Lastly, the application of the solar chimney system for basement ventilation was discussed. Appropriate vent locations in the basement were determined, where the best ventilation was achieved when the duct inlet was located near the ceiling and the exhaust vent was located near the floor of the chimney. Sufficient ventilation was also achieved even for scenarios of a congested building when modeling the presence of multiple people. / Ph. D. / Energy consumption is an important issue and has become a great concern during the last few decades, where most energy consumption is utilized for conditioning buildings. Natural ventilation is a method to provide fresh air into the building as well as save energy. The solar chimney system is a natural ventilation technique that utilizes solar energy to ventilate buildings. This study sought to demonstrate the potential applications of the solar chimney to naturally ventilate a building. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to model various room configurations to assess ventilation strategies. This study presented a computational model to study the performance of a solar chimney system in buildings. To mitigate the cost and effort to use experiments to analyze building energy, a mathematical approach was considered, and relationships between small- and full-scale models were developed. The air velocity through the window was predicted using the geometry of the solar chimney system and building, and outdoor conditions, where the predictions agreed well with the experimental data as well as the numerical simulations from the present study. In the second part of the study, building designs were modified to improve ventilation rate and thermal condition of the building. Additionally, multiple factors (insulation, vent sizes, and solar chimney size) were considered in an effort to examine the performance of the solar chimney system in a realistic scenario. Lastly, the application of the solar chimney system for basement ventilation was discussed. Appropriate vent locations in the basement were determined, where the best ventilation was achieved when the duct inlet was located near the ceiling and the exhaust vent was located near the floor of the chimney. Sufficient ventilation was also achieved even for scenarios of a congested building when modeling the presence of multiple people.

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) play a vital role in the surveillance and mapping of our oceans, often requiring extensive travel in extreme environments. These data-gathering missions benefit from extended durations, making the minimization of power consumption a key consideration in AUV design. One effective strategy to reduce energy use in AUVs is to implement a variable buoyancy system (VBS) for depth control. The purpose of this work is to design, develop, test, and model a variable buoyancy system to enhance the efficiency and capabilities of a high-speed, long-range AUV. After evaluating various VBS designs, a piston-cylinder buoyancy system was selected and developed. A prototype was produced, featuring two manually controlled piston-cylinder units housed within a cylindrical acrylic shell. This setup was tested at shallow depths, successfully demonstrating the VBS’s ability to achieve depth control and its potential for additional functionalities such as orientation control. A Simulink model of the system was also created to simulate its performance. The results from these simulations were compared to both theoretical calculations and experimental data. This model is then used to establish a framework for the design of a depth controller for the VBS once integrated onto an AUV.

La stabilité d’un fluide Newtonien diélectrique confiné dans un anneau cylindrique et soumis à un gradient radial de température et à un champ électrique est étudiée. Le gradient de température induit une stratification de la permittivité électrique du fluide et de sa masse volumique. Trois poussées thermiques rentrent alors en jeu : la gravité terrestre créée la poussée d’Archimède, la rotation des cylindres engendre la poussée centrifuge, et le champ électrique induit la poussée diélectrophorétique. L’effet de ces poussées est étudié dans différentes combinaisons, principalement à travers l’étude de la stabilité linéaire, mais également par la simulation numérique directe. / The stability of a Newtonian dielectric fluid confined in a cylindrical annulus and submitted to a radial temperature gradient and an electric field is studied. The temperature gradient induces a stratification of the electric permittivity and of the density. Thus three thermal buoyancies intervene: the Earth gravity creates the Archimedean buoyancy, the rotation of the cylinders generates the centrifugal buoyancy, and the electric field induces the dielectrophoretic buoyancy. The effect of these buoyancies is studied in different combination, principally through the linear stability analysis, but also by direct numerical simulation.