Th. doct.-ing.--Méc.--Toulouse--I.N.P., 1985. N°: 365.

The plasma jet, a commonly used ignition device, has been investigated as a source of acoustic energy suitable for sub-bottom profiling. Named the plasma gun, the device discharges electrical energy in a cylindrical arc ignited in a gaseous environment surrounded by water. When the arc energy evaporates water, it produces a rapidly expanding vapor bubble that creates the acoustic pressure wave. Acoustic properties of the device are similar to small explosives, and to electric sparkers. Multiple bubble oscillations, a problem of explosive-type sources, are generally less troublesome for the plasma gun than with the sparker sources. Some degree of frequency control of the acoustic pulse is possible if proper values are selected for the electrical circuit components and for the total stored electrical energy. Peak acoustic pressures are controlled both by the total electric energy and by the rate it is delivered to the arc. These quantities are determined by capacitance, inductance, and charging voltage. Frequency components of the primary pressure pulse depend on the arc discharge frequency and on the immersion depth of the device. The bubble period depends primarily on the amount of energy discharged into the water; this in turn is proportional to the total stored electrical energy. The plasma gun has been compared to small air guns, pingers, sparkers, and boomers. Sub-bottom profiles obtained show penetration less than the 1 in3 air gun but with more resolution. Stored energy in the plasma gun, however, was nearly five times less. Penetration was equal and resolution better than electric sparkers of the same energy. Penetration was better and resolution poorer than the pinger, and resolution poorer and penetration slightly better than the boomer source. Except for the sparkers, which used the same power supply, the plasma gun has a decided advantage in equipment size and ease of deployment. / Graduate

Dans les chambres de combustion des moteurs fusées cryotechniques, la pression excède la pression critique des réactifs. Les interactions moléculaires ne sont plus négligeables et le comportement du fluide n’est plus celui d’un gaz parfait. Le but de cette thèse est de développer un outil de Simulation des Grandes Echelles (SGE) pour étudier la combustion et la dynamique dans des géométries réalistes de moteur fusées. L’utilisation de l’équation d’état de Peng-Robinson, associée à une formulation thermodynamique généralisée, et des coefficients de transports appropriés permettent au code de SGE AVBP du CERFACS de simuler des systèmes réactifs à pression supercritique. Les changements thermodynamiques au sein d’AVBP nécessitent également l’adaptation des conditions limites et des schémas numériques. L’outil est validé sur une configuration mono-espèce à pression supercritique, puis sur un cas représentatif d’un injecteur coaxial de moteur-fusée. Les résultats obtenus sont en bon accord avec l’expérience et offrent des perspectives encourageantes pour des études futures, telles que des configurations multi-injecteurs ou l’analyse des instabilités de combustion haute fréquence. / In cryogenic engines combustion chambers, pressure exceeds the propellants critical pressure. Molecular interactions are generally no longer negligible and fluid behavior deviates from that of a perfect gas. The objective of this thesis is to develop a Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) tool to study combustion and dynamics in realistic geometries of rocket engines. The use of the Peng-Robinson equation of state, in conjunction with a generalized treatment of thermodynamics and appropriate transport coefficients, allows the CERFACS’ LES code AVBP to handle reactive systems at supercritical pressure. Change of the thermodynamics in AVBP necessarily leads to an adaptation of boundary conditions treatment and numerical schemes. The tool is validated on a mono-species configuration at supercritical pressure, and a reactive single coaxial injector, representative of a rocket injector. Results are in good agreement with experiments and provide encouraging perspectives for future studies, such as multi-injector configurations and high-frequency combustion instabilities.

Despite advances in multivariate visualisations and computer graphics, allowing for effective implementations, most particle physics analyses still rely on conventional data visualisations. The currently available software implementing these techniques has been found to be inadequate for use with the large volume of multivariate data produced from modern particle physics experiments. After a design and development period, a novel piece of software, DataViewer, was produced. DataViewer was used as part of a physics analysis at the CMS experiment, searching for an associated Higgs decaying through a dark sector into collimated groups of electrons, called Electron Jets. Observation of such a signature could explain astrophysical anomalies found by numerous telescopes. The full 2011 dataset, equivalent to an integrated luminosity of 4.83 fb^(-1) at a centre of mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, recorded by the experiment was analysed. DataViewer was found to be extremely powerful in rapidly identifying interesting attributes of the signature which could then be exploited in the analysis. Additionally it could be used for cross checking other complex techniques, including multivariate classifiers. No evidence was found for the production of a Higgs boson in association with a Z boson, where the Higgs subsequently decays to Electron Jets. Upper limits on the production of benchmark models were set at the 95% Confidence Level.

The spout formed at the free surface of a gas-stirred liquid has received little attention even though it has both theoretical and practical significance. In steelmaking ladles, for example, the spout is the site of strong metal-slag-air mixing which affects: the kinetics of reactions at the slag-metal interface, the absorption of oxygen by the bath and the temperature drop of the bath. Notwithstanding its importance, the spout is usually neglected in flow models of gas-stirred baths because it has not been characterized quantitatively; assumption of a flat top surface, however, reduces the accuracy of the velocity and kinetic energy predictions, particularly close to the spout region. Thus in this study, the spout of upwardly injected gas jets in water was characterized experimentally in terms of gas fraction, bubble frequency and axial velocity distributions. The measurements were made with a two-element electroresistivity probe coupled to a microcomputer. Special hardware and software were developed to analyze the signals generated by contact of the bubbles with the sensor, in real time, for the turbulent flow conditions prevailing in the jet plume and spout. Correlations of the gas fraction with axial and radial position for different gas flow rates have been established from the measurements. The dimensions of the spout were obtained from time-exposure photographs; when compared with the gas fraction measurements, the spout boundary always corresponded to values ranging from 0.82 to 0.86. The radial profiles of bubble frequency at different levels in the spout have a bell shape; the bubble frequency decreases with increasing height. The velocity of the bubbles in the spout drops linearly with increasing axial position. Measurements of bath velocity near the walls of the vessel were also conducted with a laser doppler velocimeter for comparison to model predictions. The gas fraction data obtained for the spout then were incorporated into a mathematical model of turbulent recirculatory flow with which predictions of velocity, kinetic energy and effective viscosity in the bath were made. Predictions of the model were compared with the experimental measurements as well as with predictions assuming a flat bath surface (no spout); and the importance of incorporating the spout thus was demonstrated. The variation of the total kinetic energy in the spout with gas flow rate was determined. The energy increased with flow rate, as expected, but at a critical value, the rate of increase abruptly rose. Based on photographs taken of the gas/liquid dispersion, the increased spout kinetic energy appears to be related to the location of bubble break-up and possibly to gas channeling. At lower flow rates below the critical value, the bubble break-up occurs relatively close to the nozzle, whereas at higher flow rates bubble disintegration is nearer to the surface. At the lower flow rates the gas/liquid interaction was maximum which promoted the gas/liquid momentum transfer. Moreover, at the higher flow rates the gas dispersion was observed intermittently to be a continuous chain of large envelopes which could permit a fraction of the gas to channel through the bath for a considerable distance. The channeling phenomenon could lead to an inefficient gas/liquid energy transfer resulting in a reduced efficiency of bath mixing and enhanced energy release at the surface. These results can explain the observations of previous investigators who found that beyond a critical gas injection rate, the rate of decrease of mixing time with flow rate decreased. The metallurgical consequences of the spout and its influence on the flow field, especially in the near-surface region, have been highlighted, thus unveiling the practical bearing of the spout on the gas injection process. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Materials Engineering, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this thesis is to review the history and discuss the present work being done in particle-gas flow, with application to air- augmentation of a particle-carrying, fuel-rich gas jet. A drawing of the model considered is shown in Figure 1, with the area of interest labeled. The thesis is intended as a thorough literature review and analysis.

This dissertation describes experiments on drop dynamics. It is split into two main parts: The first investigates the breakup of liquid during the impact of a drop on a pool surface, with focus on the smallest and fastest splashed satellite droplets. The second part studies the much slower coalescence of two minute water droplets in oil inside a micro-channel, with applications to separation of water droplets from crude oil emulsions. First, we study drop-on-liquid impacts in high-speed experiments with extreme time and spatial resolutions using up to 5 million frames-per-second video imaging. This is used to identify and explain two primary mechanisms which produce the smallest and fastest splashed secondary droplets, i.e. ejecta sheets and singular jets. Using a novel 25-m-tall vacuum tube we generate very large impact velocities, to reach regimes in parameter-space never studied before. During the earliest stage of the impact a fast-moving horizontal ejecta sheet emerges from the neck between drop and pool. The breakup of this sheet forms a myriad of micron-size droplets. The ejecta bending is dominated by air resistance, which we investigate under reduced ambient pressures and successfully model based on Bernoulli suction which pulls down the ejecta to hit the pool surface. The ejecta can initially bend up or down depending on the relative viscosities of the drop and pool, bending up if the pool is less viscous. Singular jets are produced by the collapse of drop-impact craters for deep pools, when a dimple forms at the bottom of the crater focusing the energy into a micron-sized region, with jetting velocities over 100 m/s. We use Gerris to study the fine details, obscured in the experiments. In the second part, we study the coalescence of water droplets inside an oil emulsion, developing an empirical relation between the coalescence interaction time tc and the modified shear-rate. This is done by tracking 3-D drop trajectories inside a microchannel, with two perpendicular high-speed cameras. For droplets in crude oil, we implement near-infrared visualization in an innovative device to quantify demulsifier efficiency, using mono-disperse micro-droplets.

The contribution of the gluon helicity to the spin of the proton is being studied through the use of the unique capability of the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) to collide polarized protons at √s = 200 GeV and √s = 510 GeV. The kinematic coverage of the Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC (STAR) allows access to gluons through quark-gluon and gluon-gluon scattering processes which dominate jet production at low and medium transverse momentum. The polarized gluon distribution function, ∆g(x), can be constrained through a global analysis by measuring the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry (ALL) of inclusive jet and dijet production. Published inclusive jet results from 2009 at mid-rapidity (|η|< 1) at √s = 200 GeV have been used in global analyses and suggest a statistically significant non-zero truncated first moment of ∆g(x) for x > 0.05. An additional data sample with an integrated luminosity of 43 pb−1 has been collected in 2015, which is over twice as large as the corresponding 20 pb−1 of the 2009 data. Longitudinal double-spin asymmetry results from this new large data sample will further improve the precision of ∆g(x) for x > 0.05. / Physics

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