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This work aims to enhance fundamental and practical understanding of pre-chamber (PC) combustion engines, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations conducted with the software CONVERGE employing the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes turbulence closure and the well-stirred reactor combustion model for methane oxidation. First, to help the design of the KAUST pre-chamber, the simulations were conducted to assess the impact of design parameters such as throat and nozzle diameters, and nozzle length in a passively operated pre-chamber at lean conditions. The geometrical parameters showed to affect the pre-chamber combustion characteristics, such as pressure build-up, radical formation, heat release, and the composition of the jets penetrating and igniting the main chamber charge. It was found that the narrow-throat pre-chamber is strongly influenced by the throat diameter, but weakly influenced by nozzle length. A flow reversal pattern was observed, promoting the accumulation of intermediate species in the PC, leading to a secondary heat release. Subsequently, the validation of the actively fueled pre-chamber systems was assessed under different fueling strategy and validated against experimental data. The last chapter analyzes the impact of enrichment and stratification of the pre-chamber on the main chamber combustion. An open-cycle simulation was conducted to describe the full interaction between both chambers. The influence of fuel enrichment in the PC was compared to the passive mode operation and found to greatly impact in the overall system performance. It was found that the excessively rich PC does not yield the optimal results; instead, a pre-chamber with stoichiometric composition at spark timing does. Although the fuel distribution inside the PC was not homogeneous, the active control of the PC was shown to enable a command of the pressure response. It was found that the upstream flame propagation forces part of the PC mixture to leak to the main chamber, creating localized fuel rich regions, which enhances the combustion of the MC charge. The overall MC combustion is found to be complex, influenced by the turbulent mixing and local cooling, and possibly local quenching events. The detailed interaction of mixing and combustion in the MC is not fully understood and is subject of future studies.

Accurate measurement of skin friction in complex flows is important for: documentation and monitoring of fluid system performance, input information for flow control, development of turbulence models and CFD validation. The goal of this study was to explore using new materials to directly measure skin friction in a more convenient way than available devices. Conventional direct measurement skin friction sensors currently in use are intrusive, requiring movable surface elements with gaps surrounding that surface, or require optical access for measurements. Conventional direct measurement sensors are also difficult to apply in low shear environments, in the 1-10 Pa range. A new thin, flexible, nanoparticle infused, piezoresistive material called Metal Rubber" was used to create sensors that can be applied to any surface. This was accomplished by using modern computerized finite element model multiphysics simulations of the material response to surface shear loads, in order to design a sensor configuration with a reduced footprint, minimal cross influence and increased sensitivity. These sensors were then built, calibrated in a fully-developed water channel flow and tested in both the NASA 20x28 inch Shear Flow Control Tunnel and a backwards facing step water flow. The results from these tests showed accurate responses, with no amplification to the sensor output, to shear levels in the range of 1-15 Pa. In addition, the computer model of these sensors was found to be useful for studying and developing refined sensor designs and for documenting sources of measurement uncertainty. These encouraging results demonstrate the potential of this material for skin friction sensor applications. / Ph. D.

Large Scale Wind Turbines (LSWTs) have been extensively examined for decades but very few studies have been conducted on the small scale wind turbines (SSWTs) especially for the applications near ground level where wind speed is of order of few meters per second. This study provides the first systematic effort towards design and development of SSWTs (rotor diameter<50 cm) targeted to operate at low wind speeds (<5 m/s). An inverse design and optimization tool based on Blade Element Momentum theory is proposed. The utility and efficacy of the tool was validated by demonstrating a 40 cm diameter small-scale wind energy portable turbine (SWEPT) operating in very low wind speed range of 1 m/s-5 m/s with extremely high power coefficient. In comparison to the published literature, SWEPT is one of the most efficient wind turbines at the small scale and very low wind speeds with the power coefficient of 32% and overall efficiency of 21% at its rated wind speed of 4.0 m/s. It has very low cut-in speed of 1.7 m/s. Wind tunnel experiments revealed that SWEPT has rated power output of 1 W at 4.0 m/s, and it is capable of producing power output up to 9.3 W at wind speed of 10 m/s. The study was further extended to develop a piezoelectric wind turbine which operates below 2.0 m/s wind speed. The piezoelectric wind turbine of overall dimension of 100mm x 78mm x 65mm is capable of producing peak electric power of about 450 microwatt at the rated wind speed of 1.9 m/s. / Master of Science

In this study, CFD simulations of a complete truck are carried out to investigate the effect of altered simulation settings at cold climatic conditions. The aim of this study is to obtain knowledge through CFD simulations performed on a selected driving condition namely at a vehicle speed of 93 kph, an ambient temperature of -20 °C and for an engine operating at 25 % load. Data from measurement carried out in a climatic wind tunnel is available and utilized as boundary conditions for the simulations.The simulations are performed under steady state conditions utilizing the commercial software STAR-CCM+. The first simulation case (reference simulation case) is constructed through java macro-scripts as per the standard VTM settings at Scania. The results from the simulations are compared with the measurement data utilizing temperature validation probes. These probes are located around the engine and measure the air temperature in the underhood engine compartment. The results from the first simulation case show that the temperature of each probe located in front of the engine and above the engine agrees well with the measured probe temperatures. But the temperature of the remaining probes show larger differences with the measured probe temperatures. To investigate the larger differences in probe temperatures, additional simulations are carried out by changing specific simulation settings. For instance, this is achieved by including thermal radiation in the physics continua. Finally, a simulation of engine load of 100 % is carried out and the results from the simulation are compared with the measurement from the same engine load as well as the results from the measurement and simulation of 25 % engine load. The results from all the simulations indicate that additional boundaryconditions and/or different methodologies need to be explored to better replicate the cold climatic conditions in the simulations.

The exhaust after treatment system is responsible for removing particulates and contaminants from the exhaust gases. The flow entering the SCR, a catalyst utilizing ammonia to reduce NOx emissions, was studied. The quality and distribution of flow entering the SCR plays an important role in the efficiency of the systems. A CFD study was completed initially investigating the impact on solution accuracy of different modeling approaches with respect to pressure drop and flow uniformity entering SCRs. Next, multi-species simulations were completed to analyze different modeling approaches impact on ammonia distribution and flow rates through SCRs. RANS, URANS, and DES simulations were compared in both stages. An in depth analysis of the current methodology utilized at Scania to investigate pressure drop and velocity uniformity index concluded that there is minimal benefit in changing the current methodology. DDES and URANS simulations yielded results containing less than 2% difference when compared with the current methodology. Expanding the investigation to include ammonia mixing yielded interesting disparities between simulation methods with respect to multispecies flow characteristics. This difference was attributed to disparities between the initial mixing of ammonia within the domain. The RANS and URANS simulations contained a much larger dispersion of ammonia, accredited to an increased false diffusion. DDES simulations are very computationally costly but by following time reducing processes, DDES simulations could be used early in the design and analysis phase of exhaust after treatment systems to analyze ammonia distribution and mixing.

Multiphase flows are ubiquitous across engineering disciplines: water-sediment river flows in civil engineering, oil-water-sand transportation flows in petroleum engineering; and sorbent-flue gas reactor flows in chemical engineering. These multiphase flows can include a combination of momentum, heat, and mass transfer. Studying and understanding the behavior of multiphase, multiphysics flow configurations can be crucial for safe and efficient engineering design. In this work, a framework for the development and validation, verification and uncertainty quantification (VVUQ) of subgrid models for heat transfer in multiphase flows is presented. The framework is developed for a carbon capture reactor; however, the concepts and methods described in this dissertation can be generalized and applied broadly to multiphase/multiphysics problems. When combined with VVUQ methods, these tools can provide accurate results at many length scales, enabling large upscaling problems to be simulated accurately and with calculable errors. The system of interest is a post-combustion solid-sorbent carbon capture reactor featuring a solid-sorbent bed that is fluidized with post-combustion flue gas. As the flue gas passes through the bed, the carbon dioxide is exothermically adsorbed onto the sorbent particle’s surface, and the clean gas is passed onto further processes. To prevent overheating and degradation of the sorbent material, cooling cylinders are immersed in the flow to regulate temperatures. Simulating a full-scale, gas-particle reactor using traditional methods is computationally intractable due to the long time scale and variations in length scales: reactor, O(10 m); cylinders, O(1 cm); and sorbent particles, O(100 um). This research developed an efficient subgrid method for simulating such a system. A constitutive model was derived to predict the effective suspension-cylinder Nusselt number based on the local flow and material properties and the cylinder geometry, analogous to single-phase Nusselt number correlations. This model was implemented in an open source computational fluid dynamics code, MFIX, and has undergone VVUQ. Verification and validation showed great agreement with comparable highly-resolved simulations, achieving speedups of up to 10,000 times faster. Our model is currently being used to simulate a 1 MW, solid-sorbent carbon capture unit and is outperforming previous methods in both speed and physically accuracy. / 2017-06-21T00:00:00Z

The fluid circulation patterns, temperature distributions, and density gradients of the South Arm of the Great Salt Lake were modeled using the Estuary, Lake, and Coastal Ocean Model (ELCOM) from the Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia. The effort is part of a research study in conjunction with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Utah Water Research Lab located at Utah State University. The model was simulated for several different cases of salinity gradients over different time periods, using temperature and wind data from 2006. The model is then used to identify factors which may provide a transport mechanism of heavy metals such as selenium and mercury from the sediment layers to the upper brine layers where it is introduced into the food chain.

A novel high-order finite volume scheme using flux correction methods in conjunction with structured finite difference schemes is extended to low Mach and incompressible flows on strand grids. Flux correction achieves high-order by explicitly canceling low-order truncation error terms in the finite volume cell. The flux correction method is applied in unstructured layers of the strand grid. The layers are then coupled together using a source term containing the derivatives in the strand direction. Proper source term discretization is verified. Strand-direction derivatives are obtained by using summation-by-parts operators for the first and second derivatives. A preconditioner is used to extend the method to low Mach and incompressible flows. We further extend the method to turbulent flows with the Spalart Allmaras model. We verify high-order accuracy via the method of manufactured solutions, method of exact solutions, and physical problems. Results obtained compare well to analytical solutions, numerical studies, and experimental data. It is foreseen that future application in the Naval field will be possible.

There exist several different numerical models for predicting bubble coalescence and breakup using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Various combinations of these models will be employed to model a bioreactor process in a stirred reactor tank. A mass transfer coefficient, Kla, has been calculated and compared to those found experimentally by Thermo-Fisher Scientific, to validate the accuracy of currently available mathematical models for population balance equations. These include various combinations of bubble breakup and coalescence models coupled with the calculation of mass transfer coefficients.