The tissue microenvironment is a complex living system containing heterogeneous mechanical and biophysical cues. Cellular components are surrounded by extracellular matrix and interstitial fluid, while transport of nutrients and biochemical factors is achieved via the vasculature. Each constituent of the tissue microenvironment can play a significant role in its ability to function normally. Many diseases including cancer have been linked with dysfunction in the tissue microenvironment; therefore an improved understanding of interaction between components of this complex system is needed. In vitro platforms mimicking the tissue microenvironment appear to provide the most promising avenue for studies of cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions as well as elucidation of the mechanisms leading to disease phenomena such as tumor metastasis. However, successful recapitulation of all three primary components of the tissue microenvironment in three dimensions has remained challenging. In particular, matching mechanical cues and biochemical transport to in vivo conditions is difficult because of lack of quantitative characterization of the physical properties and parameters of such platforms. In this work, extensive characterization of collagen I hydrogels, popular for use as extracellular matrix mimics, was performed in order to enable tuning to specific in vivo conditions. Additionally, perfusion of blood in a 3D tissue microenvironment platform fabricated using collagen hydrogels was characterized to enable future advances in in vitro modeling of the in vivo microenvironment. Finally, the tissue microenvironment platform is modified to enable biochemical gradients within the hydrogel and used to examine directed migration (chemotaxis) of human breast cancer cells in response to gradients in growth factor combined with varied stiffness and pore diameter of the extracellular matrix. / Ph. D.

Time varying flow structures are involved in a large percentage of fluid flows although there is still much unknown regarding their behavior. With the development of high spatiotemporal resolution measurement systems it is becoming more feasible to measure these complex flow structures, which in turn will lead to a better understanding of their impact. One method that has been developed for studying these flow structures is finite time Lyapunov exponents (FTLEs). These exponents can reveal regions in the fluid, referred to as Lagragnian coherent structures (LCSs), where fluid elements diverge or attract. Better knowledge of how these time varying structures behave can greatly impact a wide range of applications, from aircraft design and performance, to an improved understanding of mixing and transport in the human body. This work provides the development of new methodologies for measuring and studying three-dimensional time varying structures. Provided herein is a method to improve replacement of erroneous measurements in particle image velocimetry data, which leads to increased accuracy in the data. Also, a method for directly measuring the finite time Lyapunov exponents from particle images is developed, as well as an experimental demonstration in a three-dimensional flow field. This method takes advantage of the information inherently contained in these images to improve accuracy and reduce computational requirements. Lastly, this work provides an in depth look at the flow field for developing wall jets across a wide range of Reynolds numbers investigating the mechanisms that contribute to their development. / Ph. D.

Significant effort in the current technological development of aircraft is aimed at improving engine efficiency, while reducing fuel burn, emissions, and noise levels. One way to achieve these is to better integrate airframe and propulsion system. Tighter integration, however, may also cause adverse effects to the flow entering the engines, such as total pressure, total temperature, and swirl distortions. Swirl distortions are angular non-uniformities in the flow that may alter the functioning of specific components of the turbomachinery systems. To investigate the physics involved in the ingestion of swirl, pre-determined swirl distortion profiles were generated through the StreamVane method in a low-speed wind tunnel and in a full-scale turbofan research engine. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to collect three-component velocity fields at discrete planes downstream of the generation of the distortions with two main objectives in mind: identifying the physics behind the axial development of the distorted flow; and describing the generation of the distortion by the StreamVane and its impact to the flow as a distortion generating device. Analyses of the mean velocity, velocity gradients, and Reynolds stress tensor components in these flows provided significant insight into the driving physics. Comparisons between small-scale and full-scale results showed that swirl distortions are Mach number independent in the subsonic regime. Reynolds number independence was also verified for the studied cases. The mean secondary flow and flow angle profiles demonstrated that the axial development of swirl distortions is highly driven by two-dimensional vortex dynamics, when the flow is isolated from fan effects. As the engine fan is approached, the vortices are axially stretched and stabilized by the acceleration of the flow. The flow is highly turbulent immediately downstream of the StreamVane due to the presence of the device, but that vane-induced turbulence mixes with axial distance, so that the device effects are attenuated for distances greater than a diameter downstream, which is further confirmed by the turbulent length scales of the flow. These results provide valuable insight into the generation and development of swirl distortion for ground-testing environments, and establishes PIV as a robust tool for engine inlet investigations. / Ph. D. / In order to improve performance of the next generation of aircraft, engineers are developing research that aims at reducing fuel consumption, improving the efficiency of engines, and also decreasing the levels of produced noise. There are several ways to achieve these goals, but significant effort has been focused on modifying the position of the engines on the aircraft to improve the properties of the airflow entering them. Computational simulations and small-scale tests have shown that this approach can be beneficial, while also showing that adverse effects to the properties of the air can be caused, affecting the behavior of the propulsion system. This current work makes use of a technique called StreamVane™ to reproduce those modified airflows in laboratory testing environments in order to understand how that flow might behave in the inlet of an engine, and what effects it could cause. This helps scientists and engineers decide if those modifications to the engine would be worth the time and money investments to the aircraft even before a full-scale model of the aircraft is built. More specifically, this work is an experimental investigation of two different types of distortions to the inlet airflow that could be caused by the aforementioned novel aircraft configurations, or by existing ones that have not been fully described yet.

A comprehensive computational and experimental analysis has been conducted to characterize the flow dynamics and periodic structures formed in the wake of complex turning vanes. The vane packs were designed by the StreamVane swirl distortion generator technology, a design system that can efficiently reproduce swirl distortion for compressor rig and full turbofan engine testing. StreamVanes consist of an array of turning vanes that commonly contain variations in turning angle along their span, a nonaxisymmetric profile about the centerline, and vane-to-vane intersections or junctions to accurately generate the desired distortion. In this study, vane packs are considered complex if they contain two out of three of these features, a combination seen in other turbomachinery components outside of StreamVane design. Similar to all stator vanes or rotor blades, StreamVane vane packs are constructed using a series of cross-sectional airfoil profiles with blunt trailing edges and finite thicknesses. This, in turn, introduces periodic vortex structures in the wake, commonly known as trailing edge vortex shedding. To fully understand how the dynamics and coherent wake formations within vortex shedding impact both the flow distortion and structural durability of StreamVanes, it is first necessary to characterize the corresponding wakes in three dimensions. The current study provides an in-depth analysis to predict and measure the trailing edge vortex development using high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics and stereoscopic time-resolved particle image velocimetry experiments. Two testcase StreamVane geometries were specifically designed with complex features to evaluate their influence on the dynamics and coherence of the respective vane wakes. Fully three-dimensional, unsteady computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed using a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes solver coupled with a standard two-equation turbulence model and a hybrid, scale-resolving turbulence model. Both models predicted large-scale wake frequencies within 1—14% of experiment, with a mean difference of less than 3.2%. These comparisons indicated that lower fidelity simulations were capable of accurately capturing such flows for complex vane packs. Additionally, structural and modal analyses were conducted using finite element models to determine the correlations between dominant structural modes and dominant wake (flow) modes. The simulations predicted that vortex shedding modes generally contained frequencies 300% larger than dominant structural modes, and therefore, vortex induced vibrations were unlikely to occur. Lastly, mode decomposition methods were applied to the experimental results to extract energy ratios and reveal dynamic content across high-order wake modes. The vortex shedding modes generated more than 80% of the total wake energy for both complex vane packs, and dynamic decomposition methods revealed unique structures within the vane junction wake. In all analyses, comparisons were made between different vane parameters, such as trailing edge thickness and turning angle, where it was found that trailing edge thickness was the dominant vortex shedding parameter. The motivation, methodology, and results of the following research is presented to better understand the wake interactions, computational predictive capabilities, and structural dynamics associated with vortex shedding from complex vane packs. Although the results directly relate to StreamVane distortion generator technology, the qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the selected methods, geometry parameters, and flow conditions can be extrapolated to modern turbomachinery components in general. Therefore, this dissertation aims to benefit distortion generator and turbomachinery designers by providing insight into the underlying physics and overall modeling techniques of the wake dynamics in highly three-dimensional, complex components. / Doctor of Philosophy / A comprehensive analysis has been completed to characterize the unsteady wake flow produced by complex turning vane systems in three dimensions. Turning vanes are a common component utilized in the field of fluid dynamics and aerospace propulsion to effectively turn and manipulate the working fluid to the desired condition. For propulsion applications, similar vanes can alleviate performance losses by improving the overall aerodynamics and mitigating flow distortions entering the compressor of a jet engine. Conversely, complex turning vanes can also be used to reproduce the distortion for engineers to evaluate jet engine components when subjected to nonuniform flow ingestion. The distinct geometry features that make these vanes complex are also present in other turbomachinery systems outside of distortion generation. In any case, the cross-sectional profiles of the turning vanes commonly contain blunt ends or trailing edges due to engineering limitations and/or restrictions. This geometric feature introduces periodic wake structures, known as vortex shedding, that can negatively effect the performance of the overall system. It is therefore a necessity to characterize both the dynamics and coherence of vortex shedding to fully understand the flow features in highly three-dimensional flows. In the presented research, this is achieved by applying computational simulations and experimental measurements to extract the corresponding wake dynamics of complex vane packs. The selected testcases where designed using the StreamVane technology, a mature system that generates tailored turning vanes to reproduce flow distortion in jet engine or fan rig ground-testing facilities. The fluid simulations captured the expected wake flow and largescale structures convecting downstream of the vane packs. A comparison between two different flow models and the experimental results revealed minimal quantitative differences in the large-scale dynamics, which gave insight into the model selection to predict such flows. Additional structural simulations were performed to estimate the forcing and response of the vane packs when subjected to the aerodynamic loading. The results showed vortex shedding was highly unlikely to cause large amplitude vibrations and structural failures. In all analyses, the primary results were correlated with common vane parameters and operating conditions to evaluate their impact on the wake dynamics. The motivation, methodology, and results of the following research is presented to better understand the wake interactions, computational predictive capabilities, and structural dynamics associated with vortex shedding from complex vane packs. Although the results directly relate to StreamVane distortion generator technology, the qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the selected methods, geometry parameters, and flow conditions can be extrapolated to modern turbomachinery components in general. Therefore, this dissertation aims to benefit distortion generator and turbomachinery designers by providing insight into the underlying physics and overall modeling techniques of the wake dynamics in highly three-dimensional, complex components.

Fan system efficiency for modern aircraft engine design is increasing to the point that bypass duct geometry is becoming a significant contributor and could ultimately become a limiting factor. To investigate this, a number of methods are available to provide qualitative and quantitative analysis of the flow around the loss mechanisms present in the duct. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is a strong candidate among experimental techniques to address this challenge. Its use has been documented in many other locations within the engine and it can provide high spatial resolution data over large fields of view. In this work it is shown that these characteristics allow the PIV user to reduce the spatial sampling error associated with sparsely spaced point measurements in a large measurement region with high order gradients and small spatial scale flow phenomena. A synthetic flow featuring such attributes was generated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and was sampled by a virtual PIV system and a virtual generic point measurement system. The PIV sampling technique estimated the average integrated velocity field about five times more accurately than the point measurement sampling due to the large errors that existed between each point measurement location. Despite its advantages, implementation of PIV can be a significant challenge, especially for internal measurement where optical access is limited. To reduce the time and cost associated with iterating through experiment designs, a software package was developed which incorporates basic optics principles and fundamental PIV relationships, and calculates experimental output parameters of interest such as camera field of view and the amount of scattered light which reaches the camera sensor. The program can be used to judge the likelihood of success of a proposed PIV experiment design by comparing the output parameters with those calculated from benchmark experiments. The primary experiment in this work focused on the Pratt and Whitney Canada JT15D-1 aft support strut wake structure in the bypass duct and was comprised of three parts: a simulated engine environment was created to provide a proof of concept of the PIV experiment design; the PIV experiment was repeated in the full scale engine at four fan speeds ranging from engine idle up to 80% of the maximum corrected fan speed; and, finally, a CFD simulation was performed with simplifying assumptions to provide insight and perspective into the formation of the wake structures observed in the PIV data. Both computational and experimental results illustrate a non-uniform wake structure downstream of the support strut and support the hypothesis that the junction of the strut and the engine core wall is creating a separate wake structure from that created by the strut main body. The PIV data also shows that the wake structure moves in the circumferential direction at higher fan speeds, possibly due to bulk swirl present in the engine or a pressure differential created by the support strut. The experiment highlights the advantages of using PIV, but also illustrates a number of the implementation challenges present, most notably, those associated with consistently providing a sufficient number of seeding particles in the measurement region. Also, the experiment is the first to the author's knowledge to document the use of PIV in a full scale turbofan engine bypass duct. / Master of Science

This effort explores novel sub-resolution particle center estimation algorithms for Digital Particle Tracking Velocimetry (DPIV). The errors of these new methods were classified through Monte-Carlo simulations. These schemes provide direct measurements of the apparent particle image diameter and the subpixel position. The new methods significantly reduce the bias error due to pixel discretization, thus reducing the total error in the position and sizing measurement compared to the classic three point and least squares Gaussian estimators. In addition, the accuracy of the least-squares fits were essentially independent of the true particle diameter and significantly reduced the particle position error compared with current estimation schemes. The results of the Monte Carlo simulations were validated in a high pressure spray atomization experiment. / Master of Science

A particle image velocimetry (PIV) computer software is analyzed in this work by applying automatic differentiation on it. We create two artificial images that contained particles that where moved with a known velocity field over time. These artificial images were created with parameters that we would have on real PIV experiments. Then we applied a PIV software to find the velocity output vectors. As we mentioned before, we applied automatic differentiation through all the algorithm to track the derivatives of the output vectors regarding interesting parameters declared as inputs. By analyzing these derivatives we analyze the sensitivity of the output vectors to changes on each one of the parameters analyzed. One of the most important derivatives calculated in this project was the derivative of the output regarding the image intensity. In future work we plan to use this derivative combined with the intensity probability distribution of each image pixel, to find PIV uncertainties. If we achieve this goal we will find an uncertainty method that will save computational power and will give uncertainty values with computer accuracy.

Measuring the liquid velocity and turbulence parameters in multiphase flows is a challenging task. In general, measurements based on optical methods are hindered by the presence of the gas phase. In the present work, it is shown that this leads to a sampling bias. Here, particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to measure the liquid velocity and turbulence in a bubble column for different gas volume flow rates. As a result, passing bubbles lead to a significant sampling bias, which is evaluated by the mean liquid velocity and Reynolds stress tensor components. To overcome the sampling bias a window averaging procedure that waits a time depending on the locally distributed velocity information (hold processor) is derived. The procedure is demonstrated for an analytical test function. The PIV results obtained with the hold processor are reasonable for all values. By using the new procedure, reliable liquid velocity measurements in bubbly flows, which are vitally needed for CFD validation and modeling, are possible. In addition, the findings are general and can be applied to other flow situations and measuring techniques.

This thesis introduces and describes a new experimental setup for examining the effects of pulsating inflow to a ventilated enclosure. The study aimed to test the hypothesis that a pulsating inflow has potential to improve ventilation quality by reducing the stagnation zones through enhanced mixing. The experimental setup, which was a small-scale, two-dimensional (2D), water-filled room model, was successfully designed and manufactured to be able to capture two-dimensional velocity vectors of the entire field using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Using in-house software, it was possible to conclude that for an increase in pulsation frequency or alternatively in the flow rate, the stagnation zones were reduced in size, the distribution of vortices became more homogeneous over the considered domain, and the number of vortices in all scales had increased. Considering the occupied region, the stagnation zones were moved away in a favorable direction from a mixing point of view. In addition, statistical analysis unveiled that in the far-field occupied region of the room model, stronger eddies were developed that we could expect to give rise to improved mixing. As a fundamental experimental study performed in a 2D, small-scale room model with water as operating fluid, we can logically conclude that the positive effect of enhanced mixing through increasing the flow rate could equally be accomplished through applying a pulsating inflow. In addition, this thesis introduces and describes an experimental setup for study of air flow over a wall-mounted radiator in a mockup of a real room, which has been successfully designed and manufactured. In this experimental study, the airflow over an electric radiator without forced convection, a common room-heating technique, was measured and visualized using the 2D PIV technique. Surface blackening due to particle deposition calls for monitoring in detail the local climate over a heating radiator. One mechanism causing particle deposition is turbophoresis, which occurs when the flow is turbulent. Because turbulence plays a role in particle deposition, it is important to identify where the laminar flow over radiator becomes turbulent. The results from several visualization techniques and PIV measurements indicated that for a room with typical radiator heating, the flow over the radiator became agitated after a dimensionless length, 5.0–6.25, based on the radiator thickness. Surface properties are among the influencing factors in particle deposition; therefore, the geometrical properties of different finishing techniques were investigated experimentally using a structured light 3D scanner that revealed differences in roughness among different surface finishing techniques. To investigate the resistance to airflow along the surface and the turbulence generated by the surfaces, we recorded the boundary layer flow over the surfaces in a special flow rig, which revealed that the types of surface finishing methods differed very little in their resistance and therefore their influence on the deposition velocity is probably small. / Det övergripande syftet med den första studien i avhandlingen var att undersöka hypotesen att ett pulserande inflöde till ett ventilerade utrymme har en potential till att förbättra ventilationens kvalitet genom att minska stagnationszoner och därigenom öka omblandningen. För genomförande av studien byggdes en experimentuppställning i form av en tvådimensionell (2D) småskalig modell av ett ventilerat rum. Strömningsmediet i modellen var vatten. Det tvådimensionella hastighetsfältet registrerades över hela modellen med hjälp av Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Vid ett stationärt tillflöde bildas ett stagnationsområde i centrum av rumsmodellen. Vid ett pulserade inflöde genererades sekundära virvlar. Med en egen utvecklad programvara var det möjligt att kvantifiera statistiken hos virvlarna. Det pulserade inflödet gjorde att inom området där det vid stationärt tillflöde fanns en stagnationszon ökade antalet virvlar i alla storlekar och fördelningen av virvlar blev mera homogen än tidigare. Detta kan förväntas ge upphov till förbättrad omblandning. Baserat på en grundläggande experimentell studie utförd i en småskalig tvådimensionell rumsmodell med vatten som strömningsmedium kan vi logiskt dra slutsatsen att ett pulserande tilluftsflöde har en potential att förbättra omblandningen.  I en fortsatt studie i avhandlingen visuliserades och mättes hastighetsfältet och därefter beräknades statistiska värden av exempelvis medelhastighet, standardavvikelse och skjuvspänning hos hastighetsfluktuationerna i luftströmmen över en väggmonterad radiator med 2D-PIV-teknik.  Bakgrunden till studien är att en bidragande orsak till partikelavsättning på väggytor är turbofores som uppträder vid en turbulent luftström. Studien genomfördes genom uppbyggnad av en fullskalig rumsmodell. Eftersom turbulens spelar en roll vid partikelavsättning genom turbofores är det viktigt att identifiera var det laminära flödet över radiatorn blir turbulent. Resultaten baserat på visualisering och PIV-mätningar indikerade att, för ett rum med denna typ av radiatoruppvärmning, blev flödet över radiatorn turbulent efter en dimensionslös längd lika med 5,0‒6,25 gånger radiatorns tjocklek. Ytors egenskaper är viktiga vid partikelavsättning. Därför har de geometriska egenskaperna hos några olika metoder för ytbehandling undersökts experimentellt med hjälp av en scanner för strukturerat 3D-ljus. Resultaten visar på skillnader i ytråhet hos de olika ytbehandlingsmetoderna. För att undersöka motståndet mot luftströmning längs ytan och den turbulens som genereras av ytorna registrerade vi gränsskiktsflödet över ytorna i en speciell luftströmningsrigg. Detta påvisade att motståndet hos de olika typerna av ytbehandlingsmetoder skilde sig mycket litet åt och därför är troligt vid deras påverkan på depositionshastigheten mycket liten. / <p>QC 20150525</p>

Currently environmental concerns are driving internal combustion engine manufacturers to seek greater fuel efficiency, more refinement and lower emissions. Cyclic variation is a known obstacle to achieving the greatest potential against these goals and therefore an understanding of how to reduce these is sought. It is widely accepted that cyclic variation in in-cylinder flow motions is a key contributor to overall cyclic variation and therefore the characterisation of factors affecting these is an important step in the process of achieving a better understanding and ultimately control of cyclic variation. This thesis reports the development of a novel optical engine research facility in which high speed digital particle image velocimetry (HSDPIV) has been applied to the study of flow field behaviour within a direct injection spark ignition (DISI) engine. This study investigates the spatial and temporal development of flow structures over and within many engine cycles. Flow field PIV measurements have been captured with a high spatial resolution and temporal frequencies up to 5 kHz from a number of measurement locations at a large range of crank angles. The major contributions from this work have included the use of the novel measurement technique to investigate spatial and temporal flow field development in the intake runner, valve jet, in-cylinder tumble and swirl planes and the pent roof. The gathered data have been used to investigate cycle by cycle variations in both high and low frequency flow structures. Major findings of this work have included the observation of highly varying flow fields throughout the engine cycle. Frequency analysis of these flows has allowed the low frequency bulk motions and higher frequency turbulent components to be studied. The low frequency flow field components are shown to create varying flow field interactions within the cylinder that also affect the manner in which the flow develops over the course of the cycle. The intensity of the turbulence fluctuations, u , has been calculated based upon the high frequency components within the flow and variations within this are shown to correlate with pressure related combustion parameters.