Like virtually every other human activity, air transport has an impact on the environment and similar to all other industries environmental impacts and economic issues are exerting more pressure on aircraft sector to meet the demands and implicated conditions. Secondly in today’s competitive industrial performance index new modern techniques are being introduced to improve the aerodynamics so that the efficiency of the newly designed aircrafts could be enhanced. The active flow control techniques have been proved vital towards achieving more effective air flow on the aircraft wing and that eventually helps to increase the lift coefficient at full scale flight. Synthetic jet actuators have been experimentally proved a promising technique towards achieving flow separation delay on the surface they have been deployed on. For the operation the synthetic jet actuators offer a unique characteristic in that they make use of the ambient work fluid and that deny the need of any extra fluid from outside the system and that helps in two fold. Firstly the need to make additional arrangements for air supply through the complex piping system has been ruled out completely. Secondly in the system the addition of any new weight that usually associates with the introduction of any new technique has been avoided. In this work firstly the dye visualization technique is used to study the interaction of the synthetic jet with both types of boundary layers that is laminar and turbulent. Secondly PIV measurements are performed to quantitatively analyze the evolution of vortical structures in the boundary layer. The aim is to understand the fluid dynamics involved in the interaction of the vortical structures with the neal wall fluid that ultimately re-attach the flow with the surface. Lastly an artificial flow separation is generated on the deflected flat plate surface and the synthetic jet is deployed to observe the separation delay on the surface. Various vortical structures have been generated by operating the actuator at varying parameters and issued into the boundary layer upstream of the separation line. The effectiveness of each type of vortices has been evaluated quantitatively to work out the optimum parameters at which the actuator must be operated to achieve the best control effect at the given free-stream condition.

De nouvelles connaissances sur les écoulements autour des véhicules automobiles doivent aujourd'hui être apportées pour envisager une amélioration de leurs performances aérodynamiques. Ce travail de thèse repose sur des études expérimentales, réalisées en soufflerie, permettant l'analyse et la compréhension des mécanismes physiques associés aux écoulements décollés tridimensionnels et instationnaires se développant à l'arrière des véhicules automobiles. Il se concentre plus particulièrement sur la géométrie générique du corps de Ahmed permettant de reproduire les écoulements à l'arrière de véhicule de type bicorps (lunette arrière et culot). L'étude compare deux maquettes de géométrie différente dont l'une permet d'obtenir une zone de recirculation tridimensionnelle sur la lunette arrière et l'autre de conserver l'écoulement attaché. L'analyse et la comparaison des topologies moyennes des écoulements permettent d'évaluer les interactions entre la recirculation 3D et les autres structures en présence. On montre plus particulièrement que l'absence du décollement sur la lunette arrière modifie la topologie de l'écoulement à l'arrière du culot avec une réduction de traînée de l'ordre de 10%. Les résultats montrent que les effets de la recirculation ne sont pas assez importants pour modifier la position des structures tourbillonnaires longitudinales se développant sur les arêtes latérales de la lunette, mais modifient légèrement leur intensité. L'analyse spectrale des fluctuations de vitesse et de pression indique que la recirculation est le siège d'activités instationnaires pseudopériodiques. La Décomposition Orthogonale Propre des champs de vitesse et de pression montre finalement que ces activités sont associées à un mécanisme de battement de la recirculation passant d'une configuration décollée à une configuration attachée et à une émission de structures tourbillonnaires formées par la couche cisaillée de la recirculation. / More and more knowledge related to flows behind road vehicles must be provided to improve their aerodynamic performances. This PhD thesis deals with experimental studies carried out in a wind tunnel, and enables analysis and understanding of physical mechanisms related to three-dimensionnal and unsteady separated flows that develop behind road vehicles. More specifically, it focuses on the generic model of Ahmed body that recreates flows behind common fastback cars (rear window and rear part). This study compares two models with different shape, the first one having a sharped edge between the roof and the rear window enabling the development of a separated region, and the second one having a rounded edge preventing separation. Analysis and understanding of the time averaged topology of both flow configurations are performed to characterize interactions between the three-dimensionnal separation and the other structures. More specifically, it is observed that suppressing separated region over the rear window changes the flow topology behind the rear base with a drag reduction of approximately 10%. Results show that the influence of the separated region is not strong enough to modify the location of the longitudinal vortical structures, which develop at each side of the model, but is strong enough to slightly modify their intensity. Spectral analysis of the velocity and pressure fluctuations indicates that the separated region is characterized by pseudo-periodic unsteady activities. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of instantaneous velocity and pressure fields shows that these activities are respectively related to a flapping mechanism of the separated zone moving between a shrinked state and an enlarged state, and a large scale vortices emmission resulting from the shear layer of the separated region.

The form and dynamics of ocean turbulence are critical to all marine processes; biological, chemical and physical. The three-dimensional turbulence characteristics of the bottom boundary layer of the coastal ocean are examined using a series of 29,991 instantaneous velocity distributions. These data, recorded by a submersible 3D-PTV system at an elevation of 0.64 m above the seabed, represent conditions typical of moderate tidal flows in the coastal ocean. A complexity associated with submersible 3D-PTV in the coastal ocean is that gaps and noise affect the accuracy of the data collected. To accommodate this, a new Physics-Enabled Flow Restoration Algorithm has been tested for the restoration of gappy and noisy velocity measurements where a standard PTV or PIV laboratory set-up (e.g. concentration / size of the particles tracked) is not possible and the boundary and initial conditions are not known a priori. This is able to restore the physical structure of the flow from gappy and noisy data, in accordance with its hydrodynamical basis. In addition to the restoration of the velocity flow field, PEFRA also estimates the maximum possible deviation of the output from the true flow. 3D-PTV measurements show coherent structures, with the hairpin-like vortices highlighted in laboratory measurements and numerical modelling, were frequently present within the logarithmic layer. These exhibit a modal alignment of 8 degrees from the mean flow and a modal elevation of 27 degrees from the seabed, with a mean period of occurrence of 4.3 sec. These appear to straddle sections of zero-mean along-stream velocity, consistent with an interpretation as packets. From these measurements, it is clear that data collected through both laboratory and numerical experiments are directly applicable to geophysical scales – a finding that will enable the fine-scale details of particle transport and pollutant dispersion to be studied in future. Conditional sampling of the Reynolds shear stress (without using Taylor’s hypothesis) reveals that these coherent structures are responsible for the vertical exchange of momentum and, as such, are the key areas where energy is extracted from the mean flow and into turbulence. The present study offers the first assessment of the magnitude of the errors associated with assuming isotropy on shear-based sensors of the TKE dissipation rate and its consequential effect on the Kolmogorov microscale using 3D-PTV data from the bottom boundary layer of the coastal ocean. The results indicate a high degree of spatial variability associated with the low conditions. The averaged data supports the validity of measurements obtained by horizontal and vertical profilers, however along-stream velocity derivatives underestimate the TKE dissipation rate by more than 40% – a factor of two higher than for the equivalent cross-stream and vertical estimates. This has important implications for the deployment of these sensors and the subsequent interpretation of higher-order statistics. Finally, the data have been processed to test four popular sub-grid scale (SGS) stress models and SGS dissipation rate estimates for Large-Eddy Simulations using these in situ experimental data. When the correlation and SGS model coefficients are assessed, the nonlinear model represents the best stress models to use for the present data, consistent with the substantial anisotropy and inhomogeneity associated with these flows. The detailed measurement and analysis of coherent structures in the coastal ocean undertaken therefore supports the development of numerical models and assists with the understanding of all marine processes.

The present research project is carried out at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Belgium) with the financial support of the European Space Agency. The first stage of spacecrafts (e.g. Ariane 5, Vega, Shuttle) generally consists of large solid propellant rocket motors (SRM), which often consist of segmented structure and incorporate a submerged nozzle. During the combustion, the regression of the solid propellant surrounding the nozzle integration part leads to the formation of a cavity around the nozzle lip. The propellant combustion generates liquefied alumina droplets coming from chemical reaction of the aluminum composing the propellant grain. The alumina droplets being carried away by the hot burnt gases are flowing towards the nozzle. Meanwhile the droplets may interact with the internal flow. As a consequence, some of the droplets are entrapped in the cavity forming an alumina puddle (slag) instead of being exhausted through the throat. This slag reduces the performances. The aim of the present study is to characterize the slag accumulation process in a simplified model of the MPS P230 motor using primarily optical experimental techniques. Therefore, a 2D-like cold-gas model is designed, which represents the main geometrical features of the real motor (presence of an inhibitor, nozzle and cavity) and allows to approximate non-dimensional parameters of the internal two-phase flow (e.g. Stokes number, volume fraction). The model is attached to a wind-tunnel that provides quasi-axial flow (air) injection. A water spray device in the stagnation chamber realizes the models of the alumina droplets, which are accumulating in the aft-end cavity of the motor. To be able to carry out experimental investigation, at first the the VKI Level Detection and Recording(LeDaR) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement techniques had to be adapted to the two-phase flow condition of the facility. A parametric liquid accumulation assessment is performed experimentally using the LeDaR technique to identify the influence of various parameters on the liquid deposition rate. The obstacle tip to nozzle tip distance (OT2NT) is identified to be the most relevant, which indicates how much a droplet passing just at the inhibitor tip should deviate transversally to leave through the nozzle and not to be entrapped in the cavity. As LeDaR gives no indication of the driving mechanisms, the flow field is analysed experimentally, which is supported by numerical simulations to understand the main driving forces of the accumulation process. A single-phase PIV measurement campaign provides detailed information about the statistical and instantaneous flow structures. The flow quantities are successfully compared to an equivalent 3D unsteady LES numerical model. Two-phase flow CFD simulations suggest the importance of the droplet diameter on the accumulation rate. This observation is confirmed by two-phase flow PIV experiments as well. Accordingly, the droplet entrapment process is described by two mechanisms. The smaller droplets (representing a short characteristic time) appear to follow closely the air-phase. Thus, they may mix with the air-phase of the recirculation region downstream the inhibitor and can be carried into the cavity. On the other hand, the large droplets (representing a long characteristic time) are not able to follow the air-phase motion. Consequently, a large mean velocity difference is found between the droplets and the air-phase using the two-phase flow measurement data. Therefore, due to the inertia of the large droplets, they may fall into the cavity in function of the OT2NT and their velocity vector at the level of the inhibitor tip. Finally, a third mechanism, dripping is identified as a contributor to the accumulation process. In the current quasi axial 2D-like set-up large drops are dripping from the inhibitor. In this configuration they are the main source of the accumulation process. Therefore, additional numerical simulations are performed to estimate the importance of dripping in more realistic configurations. The preliminary results suggest that dripping is not the main mechanism in the real slag accumulation process. However, it may still lead to a considerable contribution to the final amount of slag.

Bubbly turbulent flows occur in a variety of industrial, naval and geophysical problems. In these flows, the bubbles in the flow interact with turbulence and/or vortical structures present in the continuous phase, resulting in bubble motion and deformation, and at the same time modifying the turbulence and/or vortical structures. Despite the fact that this has been a subject of interest for some time, mechanisms of bubble break-up due to turbulence and turbulence modulation due to bubbles are not well understood. To help understand this two-way coupled problem, we study in this thesis, the interaction of single and multiple bubbles with vortical structures; the thesis being broadly divided in to three parts. In the first part, we study the interaction of a single bubble with a single vortical structure, namely a vortex ring, formed in the continuous phase (water). This may be thought of as a simplified case of the interaction of bubbles with vortical structures in any turbulent flow. We then increase the complexity and study the interaction of a single bubble with naturally occurring vortical structures present in a fully developed turbulent channel flow, and then finally to the case of a large number of bubbles injected in to a fully developed turbulent channel. The bubble motions and deformations in all three cases are directly imaged using high speed visualizations, while the flow field information is obtained using time-resolved Particle-Image Velocimetry (PIV) in the first two cases, and from pressure drop measurements within the channel in the latter case. The interaction of a single vortex ring with a bubble has been studied for a large range of vortex ring strengths, represented in terms of a Weber number (We). We find that in all cases, the bubble is first captured by the low pressure within the core of the ring, then stretched azimuthally within the core, and gradually broken up in to a number of smaller bubbles. Along with these bubble deformations, the vorticity within the core of the ring is also modified significantly due to bubble capture. In particular, at low We, we find that the core of the ring fragments as a result of the interaction resulting in a large reduction in the enstrophy of the ring and its convection speed. In the second part of the thesis, interaction of a single bubble with naturally occurring vortical structures present in a fully developed turbulent channel is studied. In this case, single bubbles of different sizes are injected either from bottom or top wall into a channel at Reynolds number of about 60,000. We study the trajectories of the single bubble, and also investigate the effect that such bubbles have on the naturally occurring vortical structures present in these flows. The injected bubble is found to have three broadly different types of bubble paths when injected from the bottom wall, which are sliding along the wall, bouncing motions and vertical escape from the vicinity of the wall. Even at the same bubble diameter Db and channel flow Re, we find that different realizations show considerable variations, with all three bubble paths being possible. PIV measurements of a bubble captured by a naturally occurring vortical structure in the flow, shows a more rapid decrease in enstrophy compared to naturally occurring structures in the absence of bubbles, as seen in the interaction of a bubble with a vortex ring. We also find that the bubble can interact with multiple vortical structures, depending on their strength and spatial distribution in the flow, resulting in a complex bouncing bubble motion. In the third part of the study, a large number of bubbles are injected in to the channel through porous plates fixed at the top and bottom channel walls. The main parameters here are the channel Re, bubble void fraction (α) and the orientation of injection. In this case, in addition to bubble visualizations, the pressure drop through the channel is measured at different vertical locations. These measurements show large vertical variations in the measured pressure drop due to the presence of bubbles. The overall drag reduction in these cases is obtained from an integral of the pressure drop variation along the vertical direction. The visualizations show a number of bubble dynamics regimes depending on the parameters, with possibilities of both increased and decreased drag compared to the reference no bubble case. From simultaneous measurements, we relate the variations in drag reduction to the different bubble dynamics regimes. We find that at the same void fraction (α), the drag reduction obtained can be very different due to changes in bubble dynamics regimes caused by changes in other parameters. Top wall injection is observed to give good drag reductions over a wide range of flow Re and α, but is seen to saturate beyond a threshold α. In contrast, the bottom wall injection case shows that drag reduction continuously increases with αat high Re. The present study shows a maximum of about 60% increase and a similar 60% reduction in wall drag over the entire range of conditions investigated.

Cette thèse porte sur la caractérisation expérimentale et la simulation numérique d’une configurationde jet rond en impact peu rencontrée dans la littérature : un jet chauffé issu d’une conduitepleinement développée à un haut nombre de Reynolds (ReD = 60 000) impacte normalement uneparoi située à trois diamètres en aval. Le premier volet de ce travail est dédié à la génération d’unebase de donnée expérimentale à l’aide de plusieurs moyens de mesure, avec pour objectif de caractériserà la fois la dynamique et la thermique de l’écoulement. Les techniques complémentaires devélocimétrie laser à franges (LDV) et vélocimétrie par image de particules (S-PIV) ont été mises àprofit pour la caractérisation du champ de vitesse et du tenseur de Reynolds tandis que les champsde température moyenne et fluctuante ont été mesurés à l’aide d’un fil froid. Enfin, les échangesthermiques au niveau de la paroi ont été obtenus par la méthode inverse de thermographie en facearrière (ThEFA). En plus de fournir une base de donnée très complète nécessaire à la validation dessimulations numériques, ces mesures ont également permis de mettre en évidence l’organisation àgrande échelle de l’écoulement, avec la présence de grandes structures tourbillonnaires dont la fréquencede passage correspond au mode colonne du jet libre et qui s’approchent de la paroi d’impactaux alentours du second maximum observé dans la distribution des échanges pariétaux. Le secondvolet concerne les simulations numériques visant à reproduire la configuration expérimentale. Deuxapproches ont été évaluées : l’approche RANS pour quantifier la pertinence des modèles utilisés parles industriels et l’approche LES, plus coûteuse, mais donnant accès aux propriétés instationnaireset tridimensionnelles de l’écoulement. Les simulations RANS ont montré que les modèles reconnuscomme les plus performants pour ce type de configuration sont incapables de prévoir correctementle niveau des échanges pariétaux. Ils sont, en revanche, bien reproduits par la simulation LES. Lesdonnées obtenues ont été mises à profit pour mieux comprendre les mécanismes liés à l’apparitiondu second maximum. Cette analyse a mis en avant le rôle des « points chauds ». Seuls certains d’entreeux ont pu être reliés à la présence de régions « décollées » tandis que la majorité est associée à desstructures allongées dans la direction de l’écoulement. / This thesis is dedicated to the experimental characterisation and the numerical simulations ofa round impinging jet configuration seldom dealt with in the literature : a heated jet issues from apipe fully developed pipe at a high Reynolds number (ReD = 60 000) and normally impinges a platelocated three diameters downstream. The first part of this work is directed towards the generationof an experimental database by means of several measurement techniques in order to characteriseboth the dynamical and thermal flow features. The complementary techniques of laser Doppler velocimetry(LDV) and particle image velocimetry (S-PIV) allowed for the velocity and Reynolds tensorfield characterisation. The mean and fluctuating temperature fields were measured through cold-wirethermometry. Finally, the plate heat transfer distribution was obtained through the inverse methodof « rear face thermography » (ThEFA). The gathered data not only provided a comprehensive databasenecessary to validate numerical simulations but also permitted to highlight the large-scale floworganisation, with the presence of large vortices shedding at the free jet preferred mode and closelyapproaching the plate in the vicinity of the secondary peak observed in the heat transfer distribution.The second part of this thesis focuses on the numerical simulations aiming at reproducing the experimentalconfiguration. Two approaches were evaluated : the RANS approach in order to quantifythe relevance of industrial turbulence models and the Large-Eddy Simulation, more expensive, butproviding the 3D unsteady flow features. The RANS simulations showed that the models recognisedas the most efficient for this kind of configuration are unable to correctly predict the heat transferlevels. They are, on the other hand, well reproduced by the LES. The generated data allowed for betterunderstanding of the mechanisms leading to the secondary peak. This analysis highlighted theprominent role of the "hot spots", where only some of them can be related to « separated » regions,while the majority are associated with streamwise elongated structures.

Dans cette thèse, nous analysons l’écoulement et les transferts thermiques convectifs dans des modèles géométriques d’échangeurs de chaleur multi-rangs de tubes à ailettes planes continues. Dans un premier temps, les phénomènes Aérauliques qui s’y développent sont mis en évidence par des mesures PIV et LDA. Une étude locale de la génération, du développement, de l’évolution spatiale etde la dissipation des enroulements tourbillonnaires produits dans l’échangeur est effectuée. Dans un second temps, des simulations numériques U-RANS sont réalisées et validées par comparaison de la structuration de l’écoulement et de la dynamique tourbillonnaire aux mesures expérimentales. Dansun troisième temps, l’influence de ces tourbillons sur le transfert thermique est mise en exergue. Les performances d’échange sont caractérisées selon une analyse de synergie entre le champ de vitesse, les gradients de vitesse et de température ainsi qu’en évaluant les irréversibilités thermoaérauliques produites dans l’écoulement. Dans un quatrième temps, une analyse de l’influence de la forme du tube sur les performances thermoaérauliques locales et globales de l’échangeur est effectuée selon le premier et le second principe de la Thermodynamique. Les transferts thermiques, les pertes visqueuses ainsique les taux de production d’entropie thermique et visqueuse dans le fluide sont évalués. Enfin une méthode d’optimisation géométrique globale basée sur l’analyse factorielle de TAGUCHI est utilisée pour sélectionner les paramètres les plus influents sur les performances thermoaérauliques globales dans l’optique d’une conception optimisée des surfaces d’échange pour une application à la climatisationferroviaire. / In this thesis, we analyze the flow and convective heat transfer in multi-row plain fin and tube heat exchangers. The aeraulic phenomena that occur in these devices are first highlighted by means of PIV and LDA measurements. A local study of horseshoe vortices production, development, spatial evolution and dissipation is therefore performed. Secondly, Unsteady RANS modeling of the flow is carried out by means of numerical simulations and the results are validated by comparing theflow structure and the vortex dynamics with experimental data. In a third step, the influence of these vortices on heat transfer is highlighted. The thermalhydraulic performances are characterized on the basis of an analysis of synergy between the velocity field, velocity gradients and temperature gradients.The thermal and viscous entropy rate generated in the flow are locally characterized. In a fourth step, an analysis of the influence of the tube pattern on thermalhydraulic performances is performed by considering the first and the second law of thermodynamics. The convective heat transfer and wallviscous friction losses are evaluated as well as thermal and viscous entropy production rates. Finally an overall geometrical optimization process based on the factorial analysis of TAGUCHI is used to select the major parameters that affect the thermalhydraulic performances aiming to optimize the design ofmultirow plain fin-and-tube heat exchangers for HVAC applications in rail transport.

In the first part of this dissertation, the phenomenon of self-sustained pressure os-cillations due to the flow past a circular, axisymmetric cavity, associated with inline gate valves, was investigated. In many engineering applications, such as flows through open gate valves, there exists potential for coupling between the vortex shedding from the up-stream edge of the cavity and a diametral mode of the acoustic pressure fluctuations. The effects of the internal pipe geometry immediately upstream and downstream of the shal-low cavity on the characteristics of partially trapped diametral acoustic modes were in-vestigated numerically and experimentally on a scaled model of a gate valve mounted in a pipeline that contained convergence-divergence sections in the vicinity of the valve. The resonant response of the system corresponded to the second acoustic diametral mode of the cavity. Excitation of the dominant acoustic mode was accompanied by pressure oscillations, and, in addition to that, as the angle of the converging-diverging section of the main pipeline in the vicinity of the cavity increased, the trapped behavior of the acoustic diametral modes diminished, and additional antinodes of the acoustic pressure wave were observed in the main pipeline. In addition to that, the effect of shallow chamfers, introduced at the upstream and/or downstream cavity edges, was investigated in the experimental system that con-tained a deep, circular, axisymmetric cavity. Through the measurements of unsteady pressure and associated acoustic mode shapes, which were calculated numerically for several representative cases of the internal cavity geometry, it was possible to identify the configuration that corresponded to the most efficient noise suppression. This arrangement also allowed calculation of the azimuthal orientation of the acoustic modes, which were classified as stationary, partially spinning or spinning. Introduction of shallow chamfers at the upstream and the downstream edges of the cavity resulted in changes of azimuthal orientation and spinning behaviour of the acoustic modes. In addition, introduction of splitter plates in the cavity led to pronounced change in the spatial orientation and the spinning behaviour of the acoustic modes. The short splitter plates changed the behaviour of the dominant acoustic modes from partially spinning to stationary, while the long split-ter plates enforced the stationary behaviour across all resonant acoustic modes. Finally, the evolution of fully turbulent, acoustically coupled shear layers that form across deep, axisymmetric cavities and the effects of geometric modifications of the cavity edges on the separated flow structure were investigated using digital particle image velocimetry (PIV). Instantaneous, time- and phase-averaged patterns of vorticity pro-vided insight into the flow physics during flow tone generation and noise suppression by the geometric modifications. In particular, the first mode of the shear layer oscillations was significantly affected by shallow chamfers located at the upstream and, to a lesser degree, the downstream edges of the cavity. In the second part of the dissertation, the performance of aortic heart valve pros-thesis was assessed in geometries of the aortic root associated with certain types of valve diseases, such as aortic valve stenosis and aortic valve insufficiency. The control case that corresponds to the aortic root of a patient without valve disease was used as a reference. By varying the aortic root geometry, it was possible to investigate corresponding changes in the levels of Reynolds shear stress and establish the possibility of platelet activation and, as a result of that, the formation of blood clots. / Graduate / 0541 / 0546 / 0548 / 0986 / alexbn024@gmail.com

In the first part of this dissertation, the phenomenon of self-sustained pressure os-cillations due to the flow past a circular, axisymmetric cavity, associated with inline gate valves, was investigated. In many engineering applications, such as flows through open gate valves, there exists potential for coupling between the vortex shedding from the up-stream edge of the cavity and a diametral mode of the acoustic pressure fluctuations. The effects of the internal pipe geometry immediately upstream and downstream of the shal-low cavity on the characteristics of partially trapped diametral acoustic modes were in-vestigated numerically and experimentally on a scaled model of a gate valve mounted in a pipeline that contained convergence-divergence sections in the vicinity of the valve. The resonant response of the system corresponded to the second acoustic diametral mode of the cavity. Excitation of the dominant acoustic mode was accompanied by pressure oscillations, and, in addition to that, as the angle of the converging-diverging section of the main pipeline in the vicinity of the cavity increased, the trapped behavior of the acoustic diametral modes diminished, and additional antinodes of the acoustic pressure wave were observed in the main pipeline. In addition to that, the effect of shallow chamfers, introduced at the upstream and/or downstream cavity edges, was investigated in the experimental system that con-tained a deep, circular, axisymmetric cavity. Through the measurements of unsteady pressure and associated acoustic mode shapes, which were calculated numerically for several representative cases of the internal cavity geometry, it was possible to identify the configuration that corresponded to the most efficient noise suppression. This arrangement also allowed calculation of the azimuthal orientation of the acoustic modes, which were classified as stationary, partially spinning or spinning. Introduction of shallow chamfers at the upstream and the downstream edges of the cavity resulted in changes of azimuthal orientation and spinning behaviour of the acoustic modes. In addition, introduction of splitter plates in the cavity led to pronounced change in the spatial orientation and the spinning behaviour of the acoustic modes. The short splitter plates changed the behaviour of the dominant acoustic modes from partially spinning to stationary, while the long split-ter plates enforced the stationary behaviour across all resonant acoustic modes. Finally, the evolution of fully turbulent, acoustically coupled shear layers that form across deep, axisymmetric cavities and the effects of geometric modifications of the cavity edges on the separated flow structure were investigated using digital particle image velocimetry (PIV). Instantaneous, time- and phase-averaged patterns of vorticity pro-vided insight into the flow physics during flow tone generation and noise suppression by the geometric modifications. In particular, the first mode of the shear layer oscillations was significantly affected by shallow chamfers located at the upstream and, to a lesser degree, the downstream edges of the cavity. In the second part of the dissertation, the performance of aortic heart valve pros-thesis was assessed in geometries of the aortic root associated with certain types of valve diseases, such as aortic valve stenosis and aortic valve insufficiency. The control case that corresponds to the aortic root of a patient without valve disease was used as a reference. By varying the aortic root geometry, it was possible to investigate corresponding changes in the levels of Reynolds shear stress and establish the possibility of platelet activation and, as a result of that, the formation of blood clots. / Graduate / 0541 / 0546 / 0548 / 0986 / alexbn024@gmail.com

Flow separation and reattachment happens in many fluid mechanical situations occurring in engineering applications as well as in nature. The flow over a backward-facing step represents a geometrically simple flow situation exhibiting both flow separation and reattachment. Broadly speaking there are only two important parameters in the problem, the Reynolds number(Re) based on the step height(h),and a geometrical parameter, referred to as the Expansion ratio(ER), defined as the downstream channel height to the upstream channel height. In spite of the relative simplicity of this geometry, the flow downstream is quite complex. The main focus of the present work is to elucidate the unsteady three-dimensional coherent structures present in this flow at large Re, Re>36,000,based on the step height(h). For this, we use velocity field measurements from Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)in conjunction with hotwire anemometry measurements. The time-averaged structure of this flow is first studied in detail, including the effect of Reynolds number(Re) and Expansion Ratio(ER), on it. These studies show that at sufficiently large Re (Re>20,000), the reattachment length becomes independent of Re. The detailed internal structure of the separation bubble is also found to be independent of Re, but for Revalues that are relatively larger(Re>36,000). At large Re, the main effect of ER ,is found to be on the reattachment length, which increases with ER and saturates for ER values greater than about 1.8. The detailed internal structure of the separation bubble has been mapped at high Re and is found to be nearly the same for all ER, when the streamwise length is normalized by the reattachment length. In order to elucidate the unsteady coherent vortical structures, PIV measurements are done in two orthogonal planes downstream of the backward-facing step. These measurements are done for ER= 1.50 at large Re(Re=36,000) and in a large aspect ratio facility(AR= span length/step height= 24); the latter being important to avoid any effects due to span-wise confinement. In the spanwise plane parallel to the lower wall(x-z plane),instantaneous velocity fields show counter rotating vortex pairs, which is a signature of the three-dimensional vortical structures in this plane. Using conditional averaging, this counter-rotating vortex pair signature is captured right from upstream of the step, to well after reattachment. Spatial correlations are used to get the length scale of these coherent vortical structures, which varies substantially from the attached boundary layer before separation to the region after reattachment. The variation of these structures in the cross-stream (vertical) direction at reattachment and beyond gives an idea about their three dimensional shape. The circulation of these counter-rotating pairs is measured from the conditionally aver-aged fields, and is found to increase with streamwise distance reaching normalized circulation values (Γ/Uoh) of about 0.5 around reattachment. Velocity spectra downstream of the step show peaks corresponding to both the shear layer frequency(Stsl)and a relatively lower frequency that corresponds to large-scale shedding from the separation bubble (Stb); the latter in particular being quasi-periodic. Small amplitude sinusoidal forcing at the shedding frequency(Stb) is applied close to the step, by blowing and suction, to make the quasi-periodic shedding more regular. Measurements show that this has a very small effect on both the mean separation bubble and on the counter-rotating structures in the x-z plane. This mild forcing however enables phase locked PIV measurements to be made which shows the bubble shedding phenomenon in the cross-stream plane(side view or x-y plane). The phase-averaged velocity fields show significant variations from phase to phase. Although there is some hint of structures being shed, from these phase-averaged fields, it is not very clear. One of the primary reasons is the fact that the flow is effectively spanwise averaged, as the three-dimensional structures are not locked in the spanwise direction. To get a three dimensional view of the sheddin gphenomenon, it is necessary to lock the spanwise location with respect to the three-dimensional vortical structures before averaging across the different phases. We use the condition, u’<- urms, to locate the central plane between the counter-rotating structures, which in effect are the “legs” of the three-dimensional structure. With this condition, we effectively get a slice of the shedding cycle cutting through the “head” of the three-dimensional structure. Apart from this cut, we also get a cut between adjacent structures from the weak sweep events, with the condition u’<- urms. Using these conditions, on the phase-locked velocity fields, we effectively lock the structures in time, as well as in the spanwise direction. With this ,a clearer picture of the shedding process emerges. The flow is highly three-dimensional near reattachment and the shedding of the separation bubble is modulated in the spanwise direction owing to the three-dimensional hairpin like vortical structures in the flow. The separation bubble is seen bulged out and lifted high at locations where the head of the hairpin vortex passes, owing to the strong ejection of fluid caused by the vortical structure. On the other hand, outside the hairpin vortices, weak sweep events push the flow towards the wall and make it shallow and less prominent, with the shedding being very weak in this plane. From these observations, a three-dimensional picture of the flow is proposed.