Experiments in Fluids最新文献

Electric motors with high-power densities are required for the implementation of electromobility. To achieve this, direct liquid cooling methods are increasingly being considered, in which oil is injected into the motor compartment. This results in a two-phase flow that can be used for efficient cooling. However, the oil, which can also penetrate the air gap between the rotor and stator, can also lead to additional losses due to increased friction. Since little is known about the two-phase flow in such systems, especially in the air gap, it is investigated by means of simple optical visualizations and high-speed laser-induced fluorescence imaging as well as torque measurements. The measurements are carried out in the air gap of an optically accessible generic model of a directly cooled electric motor. Speed variations were performed from 100 to 2000 rpm, and three different two-phase flow regimes were observed. At low speeds (Flow Regime 1), the air gap is filled locally with oil in radial direction, in the medium speed range (Flow Regime 2) with foam, while at high speeds (Flow Regime 3) separated films were observed on the rotor and stator. The torque difference between the two-phase and single-phase operation, which quantifies the mechanical losses due to the injected oil, increased continuously due to the oil in the air gap until it reached a maximum in Flow Regime 2 due to foam formation. In Flow Regime 3, the torque difference was negative. This was attributed to the fact that the grooves in the stator were filled with oil, thus reducing the turbulence generation of the air flow.

This study investigates the evolution of a single-stream shear layer (SSSL) originating from a wall boundary layer past a backward-facing step. Utilizing a time-resolved 3D-Particle Tracking Velocimetry (4D-PTV) technique, we track the trajectories of fluorescent particles to gain insight into the flow characteristics of the SSSL. A compact water tunnel facility ((textrm{Re}_tau =1,240)) is fabricated to obtain an SSSL with a perpendicular slow entrainment stream past the separation edge. A hybrid interpolation approach that combines ensemble binning and Gaussian weighting is implemented to derive minimally filtered mean and instantaneous lower- and higher-order flow field parameters. Spanwise-dominant coherent motion accompanied by finer flow scales is observed to grow due to flow entrainment through “nibbling” actions of small-scale vortices, “engulfing” by large-scale vortices, and vortex pairing events. Furthermore, the non-zero-speed stream edge grows relatively faster than the zero-speed stream edge, showing a strong asymmetry in mixing composition across a mixing layer. The SSSL reaches self-similarity at a streamwise distance of (approx 55,theta _{0}), where (theta _0) is the initial momentum thickness from the separation edge, i.e., considerably shorter than reported in previous studies. A literature comparison of growth rate parameters raises intriguing questions regarding a potential inclusive growth scaling unifying the free shear layers. A turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) budget analysis reveals a negative production region immediately downstream of the separation edge attributed to a large positive streamwise gradient of streamwise velocity. In the self-similar region, the phase-averaged flow mapping demonstrates a larger concentration of turbulence production rate around the outer edges of spanwise vortices, specifically at the intersection of braids and vortices. Furthermore, a spatial separation exists in the regions of peak production and dissipation rates within the vortex core region favoring dissipation. The braids exhibit a larger concentration of turbulence diffusion rates, indicating their function as a conduit for exchanging turbulence between neighboring coherent motions.

In the frame of the European funded H2020 project RETALT (retro propulsion-assisted landing technologies), the unsteady aerodynamics of vertically descending and landing launchers have been investigated. In this paper, experimental data of the landing burn tested in the Vertical Free-Jet Facility Cologne at DLR in Cologne are presented. The landing burn was simulated with a cold gas jet of pressurized air opposing the wind tunnel free stream. Tests with several jet conditions were compared to results without active jet. Proper orthogonal decomposition of schlieren recordings and spectral analyses of their time histories are performed and are compared to frequencies in pressure measurements. Dominant frequencies were found, which are strongest at Mach 0.8. Especially, a Strouhal number of 0.2 was found to be most dominant. The intensity of the dominant frequencies can be lowered if the engine is active. The normalized root mean square pressure fluctuations are between 0.1 and 0.3 during the landing maneuver. Additionally, the steady flow features scale well with the ambient pressure ratio and the momentum flux ratio. The unsteady flow field dynamics of the subsonic retro propulsion flow field can likely be linked to large-scale turbulent structures in the supersonic jet, triggering large-scale pressure fluctuations and altering the overall flow field.

In this paper, we apply a framework based on decomposition techniques to study the synchronization of flow velocity with acoustic pressure and heat release rate in swirl flames. The framework uses the extended proper orthogonal decomposition to identify regions of the velocity field where velocity and heat release fluctuations are highly correlated. We apply this framework to study coupled interactions associated with period-1 and period-2 type thermoacoustic instability in a technically premixed, swirl-stabilized gas turbine-type model combustor operated with hydrogen-enriched natural gas. We find the structures in the flame surface and the heat release rate correlated with the dominant coherent structures of the flow field using extended POD. We observe that the correlated structures in the flow velocity, flame surface and heat release rate fields share the same spatial regions during thermoacoustic instability with period-1 oscillations. In the case of period-2 oscillations, the structures from flame surface and heat release rate field are strongly correlated. However, these structures contribute less to the coherent structures of the flow field. Using the temporal coefficients of the dominant POD modes of the flow velocity field, we also observed 1:1 and 2:1 frequency locking behaviour among the time series of acoustic pressure, heat release rate and the temporal coefficients of the first two dominating POD modes of velocity field during the state of period-1 and period-2 oscillations, respectively. These frequency-locked states, which indicate the underlying phase-synchronization states, correlate with coherent structures in the flow velocity field.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) poses a major public health challenge. No proven therapies for the condition exist so protective equipment that prevents or mitigates these injuries plays a critical role in minimizing the societal burden of this condition. Our ability to optimize protective equipment depends on our capacity to relate the mechanics of head impact events to morbidity and mortality. This capacity, in turn, depends on correctly identifying the mechanisms of injury. For several decades, a controversial theory of TBI biomechanics has attributed important classes of injury to cavitation inside the cranial vault during blunt impact. This theory explains counter-intuitive clinical observations, including the coup–contre-coup pattern of injury. However, it is also difficult to validate experimentally in living subjects. Also, blunt impact TBI is a broad term that covers a range of different head impact events, some of which may be better described by cavitation theory than others. This review surveys what has been learned about cavitation through mathematical modeling, physical modeling, and experimentation with living tissues and places it in context with competing theories of blunt injury biomechanics and recent research activity in the field in an attempt to understand what the theory has to offer the next generation of innovators in TBI biomechanics.

As a simple and affordable alternative to often prohibitively expensive or unavailable X-ray and neutron imaging, an improved optical imaging method for bubble flow in Hele-Shaw liquid metal cells is presented, enabling measurements with a significantly greater liquid metal layer thickness than previously reported. This enables studying bubble dynamics with varying degrees of geometric confinement, without or with applied magnetic field. The main principles and the experiment setup as well as the necessary image/data processing pipeline are described, and preliminary results show that the proposed methods can be used to quantify the effects of varying gas flow rate and magnetic field configuration on bubble chain flow in a Hele-Shaw cell.

Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) measurements of nitric oxide (NO) using a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) in the vicinity of 5.26 μm were conducted in a hypervelocity flow generated in the Texas A&M Hypervelocity Expansion Tunnel (HXT). The nascent NO was produced downstream of symmetric Mach reflections generated in Mach 8.5 flows with stagnation enthalpies from 6.9 to 11.1 MJ/kg. Path-averaged flow parameters of rotational and vibrational temperatures and NO concentration at a measurement rate of 30 kHz were obtained. By probing the R-branch of the fundamental absorption band in NO, thermal nonequilibrium and NO concentration levels in the post-shock region were measured. Measurements are compared to equilibrium calculations. NO equilibrium values during the 1 ms test period differ from the experimental rotational and vibrational measurements across the same time period. The experimental measurements of the rotational temperature show a consistent value around 3000 K larger than the recovered vibrational temperature across any run. The NO concentrations in all runs are near to the reported equilibrium value; often beginning higher than, and over time decaying to, the equilibrium concentration value of the specific tunnel run.

A novel test setup called the asymmetric shock tube for experiments on nonideal rarefaction waves (ASTER) has been commissioned at Delft University of Technology. The ASTER, which works according to the principle of Ludwieg tubes, is designed to generate and measure the speed of small and finite amplitude waves propagating in the dense vapors of fluids formed by complex organic molecules, therefore in the nonideal compressible fluid dynamics regime. The ultimate goal of the associated research is to prove the existence of nonclassical gasdynamics. The setup consists of a high-pressure charge tube and a vacuum tank separated by a glass disk equipped with a breaking mechanism for rarefaction waves experiments. When the glass disk is broken, an expansion wave propagates into the tube in the direction opposite to the fluid flow. The propagation speed of this wave is measured using a time-of-flight method with the help of four fast-response pressure sensors placed equidistantly in the middle of the tube. The charge tube can withstand pressures and temperatures of up to 15 bar and 400(^{circ }mathrm{C}). Preliminary rarefaction experiments were successfully conducted using dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane, (hbox {D}_{6}), as the working fluid and at pressures and temperatures of up to 9.4 bar and 372(^{circ }mathrm{C}) , respectively. The results of an experiment featuring the initial state for which a theoretical model predicts the nonclassical acceleration of rarefaction waves show that the propagation is qualitatively different from that put into evidence by experiments for which the propagation is classic. Upcoming setup improvements and experimental campaigns are planned with the objective of experimentally verifying the existence of nonclassical gasdynamics.

Graphical abstract

An isooctane spray from a high-pressure multihole GDI injector (Bosch HDEV6) was characterised by means of optical extinction tomography, relying on collimated illumination by a focused shadowgraph setup. The tests were carried out in air under ambient conditions at an injection pressure of 300 bar. Spray images were acquired over a 180-degree angular range in 1-degree increments. The critical issues of optical extinction tomography of sprays, related to the strong light extinction by the dense liquid core of fuel jets, were addressed. To mitigate artefacts arising from the reconstruction process, the extinction data were subjected to spatially-variant filtering steps for both raw and post-log data before being analytically inverted through the inverse Radon transform. This approach made it possible to process extinction data at very large optical depths. A nearly complete three-dimensional reconstruction of the spray was obtained, providing significant details of the spray morphology and the internal structure of the jets throughout spray development. Different phases of the atomization process, from the near-field to the far-field regions of the spray, were observed.

This work studies the link between the bursting process of a flat plate laminar separation bubble and the modification of the stability characteristics of the separated shear layer due to changes in the flow parameters. A vast population of short and long laminar separation bubbles was surveyed by means of Particle Image Velocimetry instrumentation for different values of the Reynolds number, the free-stream turbulence intensity and the streamwise pressure gradient. A fine-step variation of the free-stream velocity allowed us to determine the critical Reynolds number at which bursting occurs. Successively, the most amplified wavelength and frequency were computed for both the short and the long bubble regimes. Once scaled with the boundary layer displacement thickness at separation, the average wavenumber of the vortices shed by the bubble was found to be constant and equal to about 0.9 in the short regime, accordingly to previous studies. Differently, this quantity reduces to about 0.6 in the long bubble regime, and a marked change in the Strouhal number of vortex shedding occurs. Also, the temporal growth of spanwise vortices was seen to occur in the recirculation region of long type bubbles, being linked to an absolute instability of disturbances. The currently acquired data demonstrate the existing link between the bursting process of a laminar separation bubble and a marked change in the instability mechanisms driving the transition process of the boundary layer. A simplified correlation for the prediction of bursting is provided in this work as a function of the free-stream turbulence intensity and the streamwise pressure gradient.