Supercritical fluid jets provide a complex flow pattern and are present in many engineering applications. To date, studies have focused on wall jets, free jets, and two-dimensional offset jets. As a result, our understanding of three-dimensional offset jets is lacking. A deeper understanding of three-dimensional offset jets is important as they are seen in many engineering applications. Understanding the flow patterns of three-dimensional offset jets will aid hydraulic engineers to reduce anthropogenic effects when designing new and rehabilitating older hydraulic structures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of tailwater level and asymmetry ratio on three-dimensional offset jets. A physical model was constructed and three sets of experiments were conducted. Each set of experiments evaluated the effects of the Reynolds number, tailwater level, or asymmetry ratio. Velocity measurements were taken with an acoustic Doppler velocimeter. The acoustic Doppler velocimeter measured all three components of velocity which allowed the calculation of all six components of Reynolds shear stresses and ten components of triple velocity correlation. The effects of Reynolds number, tailwater level, and asymmetry ratio on streamwise flow development, distributions of mean velocities, and distribution of turbulence statistics were evaluated. Reynolds number effects were found to be insignificant at Reynolds number greater than 53,000. Two different trends were observed in the behavior of three-dimensional offset jets at different tailwater levels. At low tailwater levels the jet will not reattach to the channel bottom as it does at higher tailwater levels. Increasing the asymmetry ratio of an offset jet will make the jet curve towards the channel wall and bottom faster. Once reattached to the wall the velocity decay rate is greatly reduced. The results found in this study will be useful to a hydraulic engineer designing new or rehabilitating older hydraulic structures which have flow characteristics similar to that of three-dimensional offset jets. The data acquired during this study adds to the available data usable for calibration and validation of turbulence models. All three components of velocity were measured simultaneously which allowed to calculation of the six Reynolds shear stresses and ten triple velocity correlation terms. All velocities and turbulence statistics in this study were measured simultaneously which provides a data set that has rarely been seen before.

Isothermal flow development, gap instability, and gap vortex street generation in eccentric annular channels have been studied experimentally. A representative paradigm of a flow in a highly eccentric annular channel was examined for a channel having an inner-to-outer diameter ratio d/D = 0.50 and an eccentricity e = 0.8 for a Reynolds number Re = 7300. Observation of the flow development has identified three distinct regions: the entrance region, the fluctuation-growth region and the rapid-mixing region. Weak quasi-periodic velocity fluctuations were first detected in the downstream part of the entrance region, and grew into very strong ones, reaching peak-to-peak amplitudes in the narrow gap that were nearly 60% of the bulk velocity. The dependence on inlet conditions, d/D, e and Re on the development and structure of flows was also investigated. Experimental conditions covered the ranges: 0 ≤ Re ≤ 19000, 0 ≤ e ≤ 0.9 and d/D = 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75. For Re < 7000, the Strouhal number, the normalized mid-gap axial flow velocity and the axial and cross-flow fluctuation intensities at mid-gap were found to increase with increasing Re and to depend strongly on inlet conditions. At higher Re, however, these parameters reached asymptotic values that were only mildly sensitive to inlet conditions. A map was constructed for the various stages of periodic motions vs. e and Re and it was found that, for e < 0.5 or Re < 1100, the flow was unconditionally stable as far as gap instability is concerned. For e ≤ 0.5, transition to turbulence occurred at Re ≈ 6000, whereas, for 0.6 ≤ e ≤ 0.9, the critical Reynolds number for the formation of periodic motions was found to increase with eccentricity from 1100 for e = 0.6 to 3800 for e = 0.9. The use of an empirically derived "mixing layer Strouhal number" permitted a universal description of gap vortex street periodicity in eccentric annular channels. This study has contributed to our understanding of the physical mechanisms that lead to gap instability and the development of a gap vortex street and the dependence of these flow phenomena on the channel geometry and the dynamic conditions of the flow.

An aluminum NACA 0018 airfoil testbed was constructed with 95 static pressure taps and 25 embedded microphones to enable novel time-resolved measurements of surface pressure. The main objective of this investigation is to utilize time-resolved surface pressure measurements to estimate salient flow characteristics in the separated flow region over the upper surface of an airfoil. The flow development over the airfoil was examined using hot wire anemometry and mean surface pressure for a range of Reynolds numbers from 80x103 to 200x103 and angles of attack from 0° to 18°. For these parameters, laminar boundary layer separation takes place on the upper surface and two flow regimes occur: (i) separation is followed by flow reattachment, so that a separation bubble forms and (ii) separation occurs without subsequent reattachment. Measurements of velocity and mean surface pressure were used to characterize the separated flow region and its effect on airfoil performance using the lift coefficient. In addition, the transition process and the evolution of disturbances were examined. The lift curve characteristics were found to be linked to the rate of change of the separation, transition, and reattachment locations with the angle of attack. For both flow regimes, transition was observed in the separated shear layer. Specifically, the amplification of disturbances within a band of frequencies in the separated shear layer resulted in laminar to turbulent transition. Validation of time-resolved surface pressure measurements was performed for Rec = 100x103 at α = 8° and α = 12°, corresponding to regimes of flow separation with and without reattachment, respectively. A comparative analysis of simultaneous velocity and time-resolved surface pressure measurements showed that the characteristics and development of velocity fluctuations associated with disturbances in the separated shear layer can be extracted from time-resolved surface pressure measurements. Specifically, within the separated flow region, the amplitude of periodic oscillations in the surface pressure signal associated with disturbances in the separated shear layer grew in the streamwise direction. In addition, the frequency at the spectral peak of the amplified disturbances in the separated shear layer was identified. Based on the results of the validation analysis, time-resolved surface pressure measurement analysis techniques were applied for a Reynolds number range from 60x103 to 130x103 and angles of attack from 6° to 16°. Within the separated flow region, the streamwise growth of surface pressure fluctuations is distinctly different depending on the flow regime. Specifically, within the separation bubble, the RMS surface pressure fluctuations increase in the streamwise direction and reach a peak just upstream of the reattachment location. The observed trend is in agreement with that observed for other separating-reattaching flows on geometries such as the forward and backward facing step and splitter plate with fence. In contrast to the separation bubble formation, when the separated shear layer fails to reattach to the airfoil surface, RMS surface pressure fluctuations increase in the streamwise direction with no maximum and the amplitude is significantly lower than those observed in the separation bubble. Surface pressure signals were further examined to identify the frequency, convective velocity, and spanwise uniformity of disturbances in the separated shear layer. Specifically, for both flow regimes, the fundamental frequency and corresponding Strouhal number exhibit a power-law dependency on the Reynolds number. Based on the available data for which velocity measurements were obtained in the separated flow region, the convective velocity matched the mean velocity at the wall-normal distance corresponding to the maximum turbulence intensity. A distinct increase in the convective velocity of disturbances in the separated shear layer was found when the airfoil was stalled in comparison to that found in the separation bubble. From statistical analysis of surface pressure signals in the spanwise direction, it was found that disturbances are strongly two-dimensional in the laminar portion of the separated shear layer and become three-dimensional through the transition process.

The study of turbulence has been dominated historically by a bottom-up approach, with a much stronger emphasis on the physical structure of flows than on that of the dynam- ical state space. Turbulence has traditionally been described in terms of various visually recognizable physical features, such as waves and vortices. Thanks to recent theoretical as well as experimental advancements, it is now possible to take a more top-down approach to turbulence. Recent work has uncovered non-trivial equilibria as well as relative periodic orbits in several turbulent systems. Furthermore, it is now possible to verify theoretical results at a high degree of precision, thanks to an experimental technique known as Particle Image Velocimetry. These results squarely frame moderate Reynolds number Re turbulence in boundary shear flows as a tractable dynamical systems problem. In this thesis, I intend to elucidate the finer structure of the state space of moderate Re wall-bounded turbulent flows in hope of providing a more accurate and precise description of this complex phenomenon. Computation of new undiscovered equilibria, relative equilibria, and their heteroclinic connections provide a skeleton upon which a numerically accurate description of turbulence can be framed. The behavior of the equilibria under variation of Reynolds number and cell aspect ratios is also examined. It is hoped that this description of the state space will provide new avenues for research into nonlinear control systems for shear flows as well as quantitative predictions of transport properties of moderate Re fluid flows.

Thesis (Doctora).

Small wind turbines that operate in low-wind environments are prone to suffer performance degradation as they often fail to accelerate to a steady, power-producing condition. The behaviour during this process is called “starting behaviour” and it is the subject of this present work. This thesis evaluates potential benefits that can be obtained from the improvement of starting behaviour, investigates, in particular, small wind turbine starting behaviour (both horizontal- and vertical-axis), and presents aerofoil performance characteristics (both steady and unsteady) needed for the analysis. All of the investigations were conducted using a new set of aerodynamic performance data of six aerofoils (NACA0012, SG6043, SD7062, DU06-W-200, S1223, and S1223B). All of the data were obtained at flow conditions that small wind turbine blades have to operate with during the startup - low Reynolds number (from 65000 to 150000), high angle of attack (through 360◦), and high reduced frequency (from 0.05 to 0.20). In order to obtain accurate aerodynamic data at high incidences, a series of CFD simulations were undertaken to illustrate effects of wall proximity and to determine test section sizes that offer minimum proximity effects. A study was carried out on the entire horizontal-axis wind turbine generation system to understand its starting characteristics and to estimate potential benefits of improved starting. Comparisons of three different blade configurations reveal that the use of mixed-aerofoil blades leads to a significant increase in starting capability. The improved starting capability effectively reduces the time that the turbine takes to reach its power-extraction period and, hence, an increase in overall energy yield. The increase can be as high as 40%. Investigations into H-Darriues turbine self-starting capability were made through the analogy between the aerofoil in Darrieus motion and flapping-wing flow mechanisms. The investigations reveal that the unsteadiness associated with the rotor is key to predicting its starting behaviour and the accurate prediction can be made when this transient aerofoil behaviour is correctly modelled. The investigations based upon the analogy also indicate that the unsteadiness can be exploited to promote the turbine ability to self-start. Aerodynamically, this exploitation is related to the rotor geometry itself.

Isothermal flow development, gap instability, and gap vortex street generation in eccentric annular channels have been studied experimentally. A representative paradigm of a flow in a highly eccentric annular channel was examined for a channel having an inner-to-outer diameter ratio d/D = 0.50 and an eccentricity e = 0.8 for a Reynolds number Re = 7300. Observation of the flow development has identified three distinct regions: the entrance region, the fluctuation-growth region and the rapid-mixing region. Weak quasi-periodic velocity fluctuations were first detected in the downstream part of the entrance region, and grew into very strong ones, reaching peak-to-peak amplitudes in the narrow gap that were nearly 60% of the bulk velocity. The dependence on inlet conditions, d/D, e and Re on the development and structure of flows was also investigated. Experimental conditions covered the ranges: 0 ≤ Re ≤ 19000, 0 ≤ e ≤ 0.9 and d/D = 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75. For Re < 7000, the Strouhal number, the normalized mid-gap axial flow velocity and the axial and cross-flow fluctuation intensities at mid-gap were found to increase with increasing Re and to depend strongly on inlet conditions. At higher Re, however, these parameters reached asymptotic values that were only mildly sensitive to inlet conditions. A map was constructed for the various stages of periodic motions vs. e and Re and it was found that, for e < 0.5 or Re < 1100, the flow was unconditionally stable as far as gap instability is concerned. For e ≤ 0.5, transition to turbulence occurred at Re ≈ 6000, whereas, for 0.6 ≤ e ≤ 0.9, the critical Reynolds number for the formation of periodic motions was found to increase with eccentricity from 1100 for e = 0.6 to 3800 for e = 0.9. The use of an empirically derived "mixing layer Strouhal number" permitted a universal description of gap vortex street periodicity in eccentric annular channels. This study has contributed to our understanding of the physical mechanisms that lead to gap instability and the development of a gap vortex street and the dependence of these flow phenomena on the channel geometry and the dynamic conditions of the flow.

Direct and large-eddy simulations of wall-bounded turbulent flows in complex geometries are presented in the thesis. To avoid the challenging resolution requirements of the near-wall region, we develop a virtual wall model in generalized curvilinear coordinates and incorporate the non-equilibrium effects via proper treatment of the momentum equations. The wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES) framework is formulated based on the wall model, accomplished via the stretched-vortex subgrid scale (SGS) model for the LES region. Based on this, we develop high-resolution in-house CFD codes, including direct numerical simulation (DNS), wall-resolved simulation (WRLES) and WMLES for wall-bounded turbulence simulations in complex geometries. First, we present LES of flow past different airfoils with Rec, based on the free-stream velocity and airfoil chord length, ranging from 104 to 2.1106. The numerical results are verified with DNS at low Rec, and validated with experimental data at higher Rec, including typical aerodynamic properties such as pressure coefficient distributions, velocity components, and also more challenging measurements such as skin-friction coefficient and Reynolds stresses. The unsteady separation behavior is investigated with skin friction portraits, which reveal a monotonic shrinking of the near wall structure scale. Second, we present LES of turbulent flow in a channel constricted by streamwise periodically distributed hill-shaped protrusions. Two Reynolds number cases, i.e. Reh=10595 and 33000 (based on the hill height and bulk mean velocity through the hill crest), are utilized to verify and validate our WMLES results. All comparisons show reasonable agreement, which enables us to further probe simulation results at higher Reynolds number (Reh=105). The Reynolds number effects are investigated, with emphasis on the mean skin-friction coefficients, separation bubble size and pressure fluctuations. The flow field at the top wall is evaluated with the empirical friction law and log-law as in planar channel flows. Finally, we present DNS of flow past the NACA0012 airfoil (Rec=104, AoA=10) with wavy roughness elements located near the leading edge. The effects of 2D surface roughness on the aerodynamic performance are investigated. For k8, massive separation occurs and almost covers the suction side of the airfoil dominating the airfoil aerodynamic performance.

It is well known that when a flexible or flexibly-mounted structure is placed perpendicular to the flow of a Newtonian fluid, it can oscillate due to the shedding of separated vortices at high Reynolds numbers. If the same flexible object is placed in non-Newtonian flows, however, the structure's response is still unknown. The main objective of this thesis is to introduce a new field of viscoelastic fluid-structure interactions by showing that the elastic instabilities that occur in the flow of viscoelastic fluids can drive the motion of a flexible structure placed in its path. Unlike Newtonian fluids, the flow of viscoelastic fluids can become unstable at infinitesimal Reynolds numbers due to the onset of a purely elastic flow instability. This instability occurs in the absence of nonlinear effects of fluid inertia and the Reynolds number of the flows studied here are in the order of 10-4. When such an elastic flow instability occurs in the vicinity of a flexible structure, the fluctuating fluid forces exerted on the structure grow large enough to cause a structural instability which in turn feeds back into the fluid resulting in a flow instability. Nonlinear periodic oscillations of the flexible structure are observed which have been found to be coupled to the time-dependent growth and decay of viscoelastic stresses in the wake of the structure. Presented in this thesis are the results of an investigation of the interaction occurring in the flow of a viscoelastic wormlike micelle solution past a flexible rectangular sheet. The structural geometries studied include: flexible sheet inclinations at 20°, 45° and 90° and flexible sheet widths of 5mm and 2.5mm. By varying the flow velocity, the response of the flexible sheet has been characterized in terms of amplitude and frequency of oscillations. Steady and dynamic shear rheology and filament stretching extensional rheology measurements are conducted in order to characterize the viscoelastic wormlike micelle solution. Bright field images show the deformation of the flexible sheet during an unstable oscillation while flow-induced birefringence images highlight the viscoleastic fluid stresses produced in the wake of the flexible sheet.

A caractérisation de l’écoulement, du transfert de chaleur et de masse lors du déplacement de gouttelettes de diamètre inferieur au millimètre dans un milieu extérieur font l’objet de notre étude. La première partie présente l’état de l’art des connaissances théoriques et expérimentales des comportements aérodynamiques ainsi que les mécanismes de transfert thermiques et massiques intervenant entre une phase dispersée et une phase continue. La deuxième partie est consacrée à l’étude du phénomène d’évaporation d’une gouttelette mono-dispersée en chute libre dans l’air. Pour cela, nous avons réalisé un dispositif expérimental. Les mesures, nous permettent de prédire l’évaporation de la gouttelette en fonction des caractéristiques physico-chimiques et de l’hygrométrie du milieu extérieur. Pour la modélisation du transfert de chaleur et de masse nous avons utilisé un modèle simple qui tient en compte du couplage entre le mouvement et les phénomènes de transferts, validé dans une précédente étude au sein du laboratoire. Un bon accord est observé. La troisième partie traite de la simulation numérique de l’interaction entre les particules sphériques dans un régime laminaire. Tout d’abord, nous avons proposé et validé un modèle simple qui ne tient pas en compte des phénomènes d’interaction. Les résultats obtenus sont en concordance avec la littérature. Par la suite, nous avons étudié l’interaction entre trois particules identiques et co-alignées. Ce modèle tient compte de la nature de la particule, du nombre du Reynolds et de la distance de séparation. Nous avons validé ce travail par une comparaison avec une étude précédente que nous avons généralisé. La dernière partie est cernée sur l’étude de la dispersion des gouttelettes dans un écoulement turbulent homogène et isotrope. Pour cela, nous avons proposé un modèle Lagrangien de suivi des trajectoires. La production de la turbulence est assurée par une condition de turbulence de grille. Nous avons considéré que les caractéristiques moyennes de l’écoulement fluide sont connues. La sélection des fluctuations de vitesse turbulente est assurée par une méthode probabiliste gaussienne que nous avons développée. La fluctuation est conservée durant un certain temps lié à turbulence, elle est renouvelée au cours du calcul. Ce renouvellement est donné par le temps caractéristique de turbulence. / The characterization of flow, mass and heat transfer during moving droplets of diameter inferior to the millimetre makes the object of our study. In the first part, we present the theoretical and experimental knowledge. In the second part, we studied the evaporation of a free falling droplet in the air. In the third part, we make a simulation of the interaction between the spherical particles in laminar flow. This model takes into account the nature of the particle, the Reynolds number and the separation distance. In the last part, we study the dispersion of droplets in a homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flow.