Flow past circular cylinders with stepwise discontinuities in diameter was investigated experimentally and numerically for the diameter ratio D/d = 2 and three Reynolds numbers, Re = 150, 300, and 1050. The investigation was focused on the vortex shedding phenomena occurring in the wake of the cylinders. In the first series of experimental and numerical studies, the flow development past a single step cylinder was investigated. The single step cylinder model is comprised of a small diameter cylinder (d) attached coaxially to a large diameter cylinder (D). The results show that three distinct spanwise vortex cells form in the step cylinder wake: a single vortex shedding cell in the wake of the small cylinder (the S-cell) and two vortex shedding cells in the wake of the large cylinder, one in the region downstream of the step (the N-cell) and the other away from the step (the L-cell). Due to the differences in vortex shedding frequencies between the three cells, complex vortex connections occur in two vortex-interaction regions located between the adjacent cells. The region at the boundary between the S-cell and the N-cell is relatively narrow and its spanwise extent does not fluctuate significantly. In this region, vortex dislocations manifested as half-loop connections between two S-cell vortices of opposite sign. In contrast, the region at the boundary between the N-cell and the L-cell exhibits a transient behavior, with large scale vortex dislocations causing cyclic variation in the extent of N-cell vortices. For Re = 300 and 1050, small scale streamwise vortices forming in the wake complicate the vortex dynamics within the adjacent S-cell and L-cell. There is no significant Reynolds number effect on the average spanwise extent of the vortex cells and the two transition regions between neighboring cells. Finally, formation of N-cell vortices is linked to downwash fluctuations near the step. The flow development past a dual step cylinder was studied experimentally for Re = 1050. The dual step cylinder model is comprised of a small diameter cylinder (d) and a large diameter cylinder (D) mounted at the mid-span of the small cylinder. The experiments were completed for a range of large cylinder aspect ratios 0.2 ≤ L/D ≤ 17. The flow development is highly dependent on the aspect ratio of the large cylinder, L/D. The results identify four distinct flow regimes: (i) for L/D = 17, three vortex shedding cells form in the wake of the large cylinder, one central cell and two cells of lower frequency extending over about 4.5D from the large cylinder ends, (ii) for 7 < L/D ≤ 14, a single vortex shedding cell forms in the wake of the large cylinder, whose shedding frequency decreases with decreasing L/D, (iii) for 2 ≤ L/D ≤ 7, vortex shedding in the wake of the large cylinder is highly three-dimensional, with vortices deforming in the near wake, (iv) for 0.2 ≤ L/D ≤ 1, only small cylinder vortices are shed in the wake and can form vortex connections across the wake of the large cylinder.

An experimental investigation of condensation of hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon/refrigerant mixtures in horizontal tubes was conducted. Heat transfer coefficients and frictional pressure drops during condensation of a zeotropic binary mixture of R245fa and n-pentane in a 7.75 mm internal diameter round tube were measured across the entire vapor-liquid dome, for mass fluxes ranging from 150 to 600 kg m-2 s-1, and reduced pressures ranging from 0.06 to 0.23. Condensation experiments were conducted for the mixture, as well as its pure constituents over a similar range of conditions. In addition, condensing flow of the hydrocarbon propane was documented visually using high-speed video recordings. Results from these experiments were used to establish the two-phase flow regimes, void fractions, and liquid film thicknesses during condensation of propane flowing through horizontal tubes with internal diameters of 7 and 15 mm. These measurements were made over mass fluxes ranging from 75 to 450 kg m-2 s-1, operating pressures ranging from 952 to 1218 kPa, and vapor qualities ranging from 0.05 to 0.95. Liquid film thickness and void fraction data were subsequently be used to assist the development of heat transfer and pressure drop models. In particular, the heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops observed in the mixture were compared with the corresponding values for the pure constituents. Models for heat transfer and pressure drop in the pure components as well as the mixtures were developed based on the data from the present study. This work extends the available literature on two-phase flow regimes for air-water mixtures, steam, and refrigerants to include hydrocarbons. Additionally, the limited information on condensation in multi-constituent hydrocarbon-hydrocarbon and refrigerant-refrigerant mixtures was extended to include hydrocarbon-refrigerant mixtures. The findings of this study are expected to benefit applications such as refrigeration, low-grade heat-driven power generation, and the development of heat exchangers for the chemical and process industries.

Wind turbines installed in the open atmosphere experience much more complex and highly-varying flow than their counterparts in wind tunnels or numerical simulations. In particular, aerodynamic stall—which occurs often on stall-regulated wind turbines in such variable flow conditions—can affect both wind turbine blade lifespan and noise generation. A field test site was therefore installed at the outer limits of the city of Waterloo, Ontario to study a small-scale 30 kW stall-regulated wind turbine. Experimental equipment was installed to monitor parameters such as wind speed and direction, electrical power output, blade pitch angle, rotor rotational speed, and wind turbine yaw orientation. Extensive hardware and software was developed and installed to wirelessly collect data from all instrumentation. Tufts and a remote-operated camera were also installed on one of the two blades of the 10 m diameter horizontal-axis turbine. In a variation on the tuft flow visualisation technique, video files were analysed using a novel digital image processing code. The code was developed in MATLAB to calculate the fraction of the blade which was stalled by determining the position and angle of each tuft in every video frame. The algorithm was able to locate on average 85% of the visible tufts and correctly tagged those which were stalled with a bias of only −5% compared to the typical manual method. When the algorithm was applied to 7 h of tuft video at the outboard 40% of the blade, the total average fraction of stalled tufts varied from 5% at 5 m/s to 40% at 21 m/s. This trend was expected for the stall-regulated design since, as the wind speed is increased, the stall progresses from inboard to outboard regions and from trailing edge to leading edge. The 7 h time period represents at least a two order-of-magnitude increase compared with time periods analysed using previous manual methods. This work has demonstrated a digital implementation of tuft flow visualisation which lends statistical validity (through long-time-period averaging) to a common tool for researching wind turbine stall. The speed and ease with which the tuft method can be implemented, combined with the high cost per energy of small-scale wind turbines, suggest that this digital algorithm is a highly beneficial tool for future studies.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University (Canada), 1995. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-03, Section: B, page: 2118. Adviser: G. F. Round.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-12-27Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:50:59Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 mendes_faa_me_ilha.pdf: 2673818 bytes, checksum: 120558e9283b734ad04dda5b07ec06d0 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O princípio de funcionamento de um sistema gas-lift é bastante simples, baseando-se na injeção de um gás inerte próximo à extremidade submersa de um tubo utilizado para ascensão do líquido (riser). Esse sistema tem sido utilizado em diversos setores da indústria, dentre os quais se destaca o setor petroquímico. Apesar de ter sido concebido há mais de um século, e a despeito do considerável número de artigos publicados sobre o assunto, vários aspectos relativos às características do escoamento bifásico dentro do riser e ao funcionamento do sistema são, ainda, pouco conhecidos. No presente trabalho, um sistema air-lift de pequeno porte foi inteiramente desenvolvido e testado, permitindo observar o comportamento do sistema quando submetido a variações na vazão de ar, na razão de submersão e na geometria do injetor – contendo três (3F) ou quinze furos (15F). Ensaios de visualização foram conduzidos, possibilitando a caracterização do escoamento bifásico no interior do riser. Medições experimentais foram, também, realizadas para a obtenção da eficiência e das curvas características do sistema. Os resultados quantitativos foram interpretados em associação com imagens estáticas do escoamento, capturadas com uma câmera fotográfica digital, e com imagens dinâmicas, tomadas com o auxílio de uma filmadora de alta velocidade. A partir destas imagens, foi possível, ainda, a estimativa de alguns importantes parâmetros característicos do escoamento pistonado, associados ao deslocamento da chamada bolha de Taylor. Os dados assim obtidos foram comparados com valores oriundos de correlações empíricas propostas por outros autores, apresentando boa concordância. Com relação aos resultados quantitativos, observou-se que, sob determinadas condições de operação, o injetor 3F é capaz de atribuir ao sistema um rendimento significativamente maior... / The operation principle of a gas-lift system is very simple: it is based on the injection of an inert gas close to the immersed edge of a tube, which is used for the rising of the liquid (riser). This system has been used in several industrial areas and more often in the petrochemical industry. Despite the fact that it was conceived over a century ago and that there have been a considerable amount of articles published on the subject, several aspects concerning the two-phase flow characteristics inside the riser as well as its operational system are still not very well known. In the present work, a small size air-lift system was thoroughly developed and tested, which facilitated the visualization of the system behavior when submitted to variations in the air flow, the immersion ratio and the injector geometry – containing three (3H) or fifteen holes (15H). Observation experiments were carried out making it possible to characterize the two-phase flow inside the riser. Experimental measurements were also taken in order to obtain the system characteristic efficiency and slopes. The quantitative results were analyzed together with the statistic images of the flow - taken by a digital photo camera, and with the dynamic images – taken by a high-speed filming camera. Through these images, it was also possible to estimate some important characteristic parameters of the slug flow associated to the displacement of the so-called Taylor bubble. The data obtained this way were compared to the figures originated from experimental correlations proposed by other authors, and they showed a fine agreement. Regarding the quantitative results, it was observed that under certain operation conditions the 3F injector is able to give the system a significantly greater efficiency than when the 15F injector is used

Resumo: O princípio de funcionamento de um sistema gas-lift é bastante simples, baseando-se na injeção de um gás inerte próximo à extremidade submersa de um tubo utilizado para ascensão do líquido (riser). Esse sistema tem sido utilizado em diversos setores da indústria, dentre os quais se destaca o setor petroquímico. Apesar de ter sido concebido há mais de um século, e a despeito do considerável número de artigos publicados sobre o assunto, vários aspectos relativos às características do escoamento bifásico dentro do riser e ao funcionamento do sistema são, ainda, pouco conhecidos. No presente trabalho, um sistema air-lift de pequeno porte foi inteiramente desenvolvido e testado, permitindo observar o comportamento do sistema quando submetido a variações na vazão de ar, na razão de submersão e na geometria do injetor - contendo três (3F) ou quinze furos (15F). Ensaios de visualização foram conduzidos, possibilitando a caracterização do escoamento bifásico no interior do riser. Medições experimentais foram, também, realizadas para a obtenção da eficiência e das curvas características do sistema. Os resultados quantitativos foram interpretados em associação com imagens estáticas do escoamento, capturadas com uma câmera fotográfica digital, e com imagens dinâmicas, tomadas com o auxílio de uma filmadora de alta velocidade. A partir destas imagens, foi possível, ainda, a estimativa de alguns importantes parâmetros característicos do escoamento pistonado, associados ao deslocamento da chamada bolha de Taylor. Os dados assim obtidos foram comparados com valores oriundos de correlações empíricas propostas por outros autores, apresentando boa concordância. Com relação aos resultados quantitativos, observou-se que, sob determinadas condições de operação, o injetor 3F é capaz de atribuir ao sistema um rendimento significativamente maior... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The operation principle of a gas-lift system is very simple: it is based on the injection of an inert gas close to the immersed edge of a tube, which is used for the rising of the liquid (riser). This system has been used in several industrial areas and more often in the petrochemical industry. Despite the fact that it was conceived over a century ago and that there have been a considerable amount of articles published on the subject, several aspects concerning the two-phase flow characteristics inside the riser as well as its operational system are still not very well known. In the present work, a small size air-lift system was thoroughly developed and tested, which facilitated the visualization of the system behavior when submitted to variations in the air flow, the immersion ratio and the injector geometry - containing three (3H) or fifteen holes (15H). Observation experiments were carried out making it possible to characterize the two-phase flow inside the riser. Experimental measurements were also taken in order to obtain the system characteristic efficiency and slopes. The quantitative results were analyzed together with the statistic images of the flow - taken by a digital photo camera, and with the dynamic images - taken by a high-speed filming camera. Through these images, it was also possible to estimate some important characteristic parameters of the slug flow associated to the displacement of the so-called Taylor bubble. The data obtained this way were compared to the figures originated from experimental correlations proposed by other authors, and they showed a fine agreement. Regarding the quantitative results, it was observed that under certain operation conditions the 3F injector is able to give the system a significantly greater efficiency than when the 15F injector is used / Orientador: Sérgio Said Mansur / Coorientador: Edson Del Rio Vieira / Banca: André Luiz Seixlack / Banca: Ricardo Augusto Mazza / Mestre

The first step on the way to understanding the complicated dynamics of spray is to study the behavior of isolated droplets. In many industrial and natural processes such as turbulent combustion, agricultural sprays, spray cooler, falling raindrops and cloud evolution the droplet is subjected to a chaotic unsteady external flow field. The interaction between the liquid and gaseous phases results in very intricate droplet dynamics like capillary instabilities, atomization, droplet collision and coalescence and vaporization, to name a few. In this dissertation, the focus is on shape oscillations, atomization and vaporization dynamics of pendant and sessile droplets. A droplet residing on a substrate which vibrates vertically at ultrasonic frequency will exhibit different modes of shape oscillation. The competition between capillary forces and inertia forces is basically responsible for these oscillations. However, when an acoustic force field is introduced asymmetrically around the droplet, we discover with the help of ultra high-speed imaging, a new droplet spreading phase. This new method of droplet manipulation could nd application in micro fluidics and lab-on-a-chip systems. By lading the droplet with nanoparticles, the spreading rate can be easily controlled. The spreading phase is followed by an atomization phase where surface ligaments grow to disintegrate into daughter droplets; the intensity of atomization is found to decrease with increase in fluid viscosity. The ability to control atomization characteristics of droplets by lading them with nanoparticles is a powerful technique that may be implemented in spray coolers and combustors to control the spray characteristics or combustion efficiency. Both the spreading and ligament dynamics have been theoretically simulated and the physics behind the observed trends is explained. The growth rate of the ligaments is found to be governed by Weber number modified to include the acoustic pressure level of the standing wave. The frequency of ligament breakup is found to decrease with fluid viscosity and this observation is adequately supported by a theory developed based on the evolution crater on the droplet surface. Turning now to the pendant droplets, by decomposing the droplet shape into Legendre modes, the shape oscillations exhibited by a droplet hanging from the junction of cross-wire placed at the center of an air jet is studied. Both high-speed imaging and hot-wire anemometry are employed. The driving force of oscillation of droplets subjected to the air jet is proved to be the inherent pressure fluctuations in the jet. The effect of surface tension, viscosity and Reynolds number on the shape oscillation level has been examined. The first experimental evidence of viscous attenuation of lower frequencies in a particular mode in glycerol/water mixture is reported. A theoretical model was developed to simulate the droplet shape oscillations induced by different ambient flow fields like pulsatile flow, vortical flow and flow with broadband energy spectrum. The time of interaction of the droplet with an eddy in the flow is found to be very crucial in determining the amplitude of oscillation of the droplet. The shorter the interaction time, the higher are the chances of the droplet oscillation being pushed into resonance. Finally, the heat transfer and droplet regression dynamics of pendant droplets in a hot air stream of various chemical compositions (like conventional fuels, alternative fuels and nanosuspensions) have been experimentally analyzed using high speed imaging. The droplet is deployed at the junction of cross-wire at the centre of a vertical air jet. A hybrid timescale has been proposed which incorporates the effects of latent heat of vaporization, saturation vapor pressure and thermal diffusivity. This timescale in essence encapsulates the different parameters that influence the droplet vaporization rate. The analysis further permitted the evaluation of the effect of various parameters such as surrounding temperature, Reynolds number, far-field vapor presence, impurity content and agglomeration dynamics (nanosuspensions) in the droplet.

In the flying field of space transportation domain, the increased efforts involving design and development of hypersonic flight for space missions is on toe to provide the optimum aerothermodynamic design data to satisfy mission requirements. Aerothermodynamics is the basis for designing and development of hypersonic space transportation flight vehicles such as X 51 a, and other programmes like planetary probes for Moon and Mars, and Earth re-entry vehicles such as SRE and space shuttle. It enables safe flying of aerospace vehicles, keeping other parameters optimum for structural and materials with thermal protection systems. In this context, the experimental investigations on hypersonic waverider are carried out at design Mach 6. The hypersonic waverider has high lift to drag ratio at design Mach number even at zero degree angle of incidence, and this seems to be one of the special characteristics for its shape at hypersonic flight regime. The heat transfer rates are measured using 30 thin film platinum gauges sputtered on a Macor material that are embedded on the test model. The waverider has 16 sensors on top surface and 14 on bottom surface of a model. The surface temperature history is directly converted to heat transfer rates. The heat transfer data are measured for design (Mach 6) and off-design Mach numbers (8) in the hypersonic shock tunnel, HST2. The results are obtained at stagnation enthalpy of ~ 2 MJ/kg, and Reynolds number range from 0.578 x 106 m-1 to 1.461 x 106 m-1. In addition, flow visualization is carried out by using Schlieren technique to obtain the shock structures and flow evolution around the Waverider. Some preliminary computational analyses are conducted using FLUENT 6.3 and HiFUN, which gave quantitative results. Experimentally measured surface heat flux data are compared with the computed one and both the data agree well. These detailed results are presented in the thesis.

Experiments are done using a smooth solid rigid homogeneous acrylic sphere rolling on an inclined plane which is submerged in water. The motivation for these experiments comes from a need to understand a class of solid-fluid interaction problems that include sediment transport, movement of gravel on ocean floor and river bed due to water currents. Experiments are performed in a glass water tank 15 cm wide by 14 cm deep by 61 cm long which can be tilted to desired angle. The sphere is released from rest on the inclined false bottom of the tank in quiescent water. Our experimental study has twofold aim: (1)to study the boundary layer separation, the three-dimensional eddying motion in the wake and the near-wake structure and(2) to establish hydrodynamic force coefficients by analyzing kinematical data of the sphere motion from start to till it attains terminal velocity. Experiments are carried out at moderate Reynolds number Rearound1500. Previous studies on the first problem exist in the literature for Reup to 350. Previous studies on the second problem do not clearly define the added-mass coefficient and the influence of the water tank side-walls on the drag coefficient. In the first study, the characterization of the wake is done using flow visualization methods (fluoresce in dye visualization and particle streak visualization) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Laser light sheet obtained from an argon ion continuous laser beam is taken in different orientations to illuminate the fluoresce in dye or 14 m silver-coated hollow glass spheres. These experiments show that the wake behind the rolling sphere up to 1.6 diameters (or 1.6D) downstream is confined within height 1.2Dand width1.2D. At about 1.8Ddownstream, the wake sways alternately on either side of the equatorial plane, moving in lateral-vertical direction and moving out of the confining region; this gives zigzag appearance to the wake. Also in these experiments, we observe that the flow separations from the surface of the rolling sphere show three separation zones. The eddies shed from the primary separation surface on the upper hemisphere are symmetrical about the equatorial plane with Strouhal number St=1.0. The primary separation is affected by the symmetrical secondary separations on the rear surface in the piggyback region — it is the region near the upper rear surface of the sphere behind the transverse equatorial plane and below the primary separation surface. The lower eddies below the primary separation zone are shed alternately on either side of the equatorial plane with shedding frequency St=0.5. Our experiments show that there is a viscous blockage of width 0.4Dat the crevice near the point of contact. On either side of the viscous blockage at the crevice, we see weak symmetric eddies. Based on our experimental observations, we proceed to build a simple physical model of the separated flow on the surface of the rolling sphere. In the second study, the motion of the sphere is photographed and paired data of the displacement and time is obtained for the sphere motion from the start of motion till terminal velocity is reached at about 4.5 sphere diameters from the point of release of the sphere. Equation of motion of the sphere is solved numerically treating added-mass coefficient Ca and drag coefficient Cd as parameters. Experimental data is fitted on these solutions and the best fit gives the values of the force coefficients. Theoretical value of Ca equal to 0.621 is confirmed experimentally. Value of Cd is found to be 1.23 at Re=990 and it is 1.06 at Re= 1900. Side-wall effects become important for ratio of diameter of sphere to width of tank greaterthan0.20.

Swirling flows abound in nature and numerous engineering applications. Under conditions which are not completely understood, the swirling cores could undergo a sudden enlargement of their vortex core, leading to a ’vortex breakdown’. The physics of vortex breakdown and strategies to control it have been active areas of research for nearly half a century. There are many competing theories of vortex breakdown in the literature; broadly, these are surmised on similarities to flow separation, hydrodynamic instability or transition from a supercritical to a subcritical state. However, a rational criterion for vortex breakdown continues to be elusive. One of the most well known criteria in the literature is the one due to Brown and Lopez (1990) based on an inviscid vortex dynamics model which suggests that the helix angle of the velocity vector should enclose the helix angle of the vorticity vector. However it appears that this only suggests that the stream surface would diverge and not necessarily constitute a condition for breakdown. In this work, we propose a new criterion based on helicity (scalar product of velocity and vorticity vectors) for characterizing breakdown since it has fundamental topological interpretations relating to change in linkages of vortex lines. In particular, it is suggested that the breakdown location corresponds to the location where helicity becomes zero. We study the problem of vortex breakdown in a cylindrical container with a rotating top lid in order to clarify and elucidate our hypothesis. We present results from Direct Numerical Simulation of this problem for three different Reynolds numbers and evaluate the utility of our proposed helicity criterion. Our studies indicate that helicity is indeed a better choice for characterizing vortex breakdown.