Visualizing Fluid Flows With X-Rays

There are several methods available to visualize fluid flows when one has optical access. However, when optical access is limited to near the boundaries or not available at all, alternative visualization methods are required. This paper will describe flow visualization using an X-ray system that is capable of digital X-ray radiography, digital X-ray stereography, and digital X-ray computed tomography (CT). The unique X-ray flow visualization facility will be briefly described, and then flow visualization of various systems will be shown. Radiographs provide a two-dimensional density map of a three dimensional process or object. Radiographic images of various multiphase flows will be presented. When two X-ray sources and detectors simultaneously acquire images of the same process or object from different orientations, stereographic imaging can be completed; this type of imaging will be demonstrated by trickling water through packed columns and by absorbing water in a porous medium. Finally, local time-averaged phase distributions can be determined from X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging, and this will be shown by comparing CT images from two different gas-liquid sparged columns.

Data Analysis Methods for Stereo PIV of a High Aspect Ratio Flexible Cylinder

Stereo Particle Image velocimetry data was collected over high aspect ratio flexible cylinders (L/a = 1.5 to 3 × 105) to evaluate the axial development of the turbulent boundary layer where the boundary layer thickness becomes significantly larger than the cylinder diameter (δ/a>>1). The flexible cylinders are approximately neutrally buoyant and have an initial length of 152 m and radii of 0.45 mm and 1.25 mm. The cylinders were towed at speeds ranging from 3.8 to 15.4 m/sec in the David Taylor Model Basin. The analysis of the SPIV data required a several step procedure to evaluate the cylinder boundary flow. First, the characterization of the flow field from the towing strut is required. This evaluation provides the residual mean velocities and turbulence levels caused by the towing hardware at each speed and axial location. These values, called tare values, are necessary for comparing to the cylinder flow results. Second, the cylinder flow fields are averaged together and the averaged tare fields are subtracted out to remove strut-induced ambient flow effects. Prior to averaging, the cylinder flow fields are shifted to collocate the cylinder within the field. Since the boundary layer develops slowly, all planes of data occurring within each 10 meter increment of the cylinder length are averaged together to produce the mean boundary layer flow. Corresponding fields from multiple runs executed using the same experimental parameters are also averaged. This flow is analyzed to evaluate the level of axisymmetry in the data and determine if small changes in cylinder angle affect the mean flow development. With axisymmetry verified, the boundary flow is further averaged azimuthally around the cylinder to produce mean boundary layer profiles. Finally, the fluctuating velocity levels are evaluated for the flow with the cylinder and compared to the fluctuating velocity levels in the tare data. This paper will first discuss the data analysis techniques for the tare data and the averaging methods implemented. Second, the data analysis considerations will be presented for the cylinder data and the averaging and cylinder tracking techniques. These results are used to extract relevant boundary layer parameters including δ, δ* and θ. Combining these results with wall shear and momentum thickness values extracted from averaged cylinder drag data, the boundary layer can be well characterized.

Effects of Multiple Impacts and Size Distribution of Particles on Erosion Predictions Using CFD

Erosion equations are usually obtained from experiments by impacting solid particles entrained in a gas or liquid on a target material. The erosion equations are utilized in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) models to predict erosion damage caused by solid particle impingements. Many erosion equations are provided in terms of an erosion ratio. By definition, the erosion ratio is the mass loss of target material divided by the mass of impacting particles. The mass of impacting particles is the summation of (particle mass × number of impacts) of each particle. In erosion experiments conducted to determine erosion equations, some particles may impact the target wall many times and some other particles may not impact the target at all. Therefore, the experimental data may not reflect the actual erosion ratio because the mass of the sand that is used to run the experiments is assumed to be the mass of the impacting particles. CFD and particle trajectory simulations are applied in the present work to study effects of multiple impacts on developing erosion ratio equations. The erosion equation as well as the CFD-based erosion modeling procedure is validated against a variety of experimental data. The results show that the effect of multiple impacts is negligible in air cases. In water cases, however, this effect needs to be accounted for especially for small particles. This makes it impractical to develop erosion ratio equations from experimental data obtained for tests with sand in water or dense gases. Many factors affecting erosion damage are accounted for in various erosion equations. In addition to some well-studied parameters such as particle impacting speed and impacting angle, particle size also plays a significant role in the erosion process. An average particle size is usually used in analyzing experimental data or estimating erosion damage cases of practical interest. In petroleum production applications, however, the size of sand particles that are entrained in produced fluids can vary over a fairly broad range. CFD simulations are also performed to study the effect of particle size distribution. In CFD simulations, particle sizes are normally distributed with the mean equaling the average size of interest and the standard deviation varying over a wide range. Based on CFD simulations, an equation is developed and can be applied to account for the effect of the particle size distribution on erosion prediction for gases and liquids.

Bubble Breakup Phenomena in a Venturi Tube

Microbubble generation techniques have been proposed in former investigations. Here, we study an effective technique using air bubbly flow into a convergent-divergent nozzle (venturi tube). Pressure change in the diverging section induces bubble breakup. The purpose of this study is to clarify the effect of flow velocity at the throat with respect to the bubble breakup process and the bubble behavior in a venturi tube. Relations between generated bubble diameter and bubble breakup process are also described. Using high speed camera for detailed observation of bubble behavior, the following features were obtained. The velocity at the throat is expected to be of the order of the magnitude of the speed of sound of bubbly flow and a drastic bubble expansion and a shrink is induced. Besides, a liquid column appeared after the bubble flowing into the throat, and it grew up to stick to the bubble like in the form of a jet. This jet induced both unstable surface waves and the breakup of a single large bubble into several pieces.

Cavitation Inception Behind a Jet-Propelled Body

Cavitation inception behind an axissymmetric body driven by a waterjet has been studied experimentally and numerically. Water tunnel tests have been performed with the body mounted on a force balance. The transom of the body contained a nozzle located along the centerline. Tests were carried out for various water tunnel speeds such that jet velocity ratio, VJ/U, could be varied in the range 0 to 2. Distinctly different cavitation patterns were observed at zero jet velocity (when cavitation appeared in spiral vortices in such flows) and at a various jet velocity ratios (when cavitation appeared between counter-rotating vortices around the jet in such flows). Cavitation inception/disappearance has been determined visually. The body drag was also measured. An analytical method for determination of cavitation inception index has been developed on the basis of a viscous-inviscid interaction concept, with employment of special semiempirical approximations for vortices and consideration of surface tension. These approximations have been preliminarily validated for nozzle jet cavitation (for nozzle discharge in co-flow). It was assumed that visualization allows detection of cavities (bubbles) of 0.4mm-0.5mm diameter or larger. The cavitation inception index is defined as the cavitation index for cavities of such minimum diameter when these cavities are located between counter-rotating vortices. The initial comparison of predicted and measured values of the cavitation inception index shows good agreement.

The Application of Shape Memory Alloy as Vortex Generators and Flow Control Devices for Enhanced Convective Heat Transfer

This paper is concerned with convective heat transfer enhancement of heated surfaces through the use of vortex generators and flow control devices. A preliminary proof-of-concept investigation has been carried out into the use of active vortex generators and flow control elements, both manufactured from Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) which are activated at set temperatures. The vortex generators change their shape to intrude further into the flow at high temperature to enhance heat transfer, while they maintain a low profile at low temperatures to minimise flow pressure losses. One set of vortex generators was made from pre-alloyed powders of SMA material in an advanced rapid prototyping process known as Selective Laser Melting (SLM). Another set of devices was also made from commercially available flat annealed thin SMA sheets for comparison purposes. The flow control elements are devices that preferentially guide the flow to heated parts of a surface, again using temperature-activated SMAs. Promising results were obtained for both the vortex generator and flow control device when their temperatures were varied from 20° to 85°C. The vortex generators responded by increasing their angle of attack from 20° to 35° while the wavy flow control elements straightened out at higher temperatures. As the designs were two-way trained, they regain their initial position and shape at a lower temperature. The surface temperature of the heated plate on which the active devices were positioned reduced between 8 to 51%, indicating heat transfer enhancement due to the generated vortices and changes in air flow rates.

Investigation of Luminous/Nonluminous Radiation in a Vortex Engine

Investigation of radiation heat transfer In vortex engine is an important and new phenomenon in combustion for scientists and combustion researchers. In this research some parts of the combustion chamber wall are insulated using Blanket as a high insulating material. The rate of radiative heat transfer to the chamber wall is calculated using temperature difference between inner and outer surface of chamber. In the experiments this parts are protected from direct contact with hot combustion media using quartz window. The luminous radiative transfer per volume of chamber and also volume of flame in a vortex engine are compared with that in a similar axial flow type engine. A detector sensitive to emission from C2* excited radically is utilized for the measurement of chemiluminescence emission at the centerline of chamber along all axial positions. The filtered photographs of flame are used to compare total C2* emission from flame.

Flow Stability in Pool-and-Weir Fishways, Plunging and Streaming Flows

In Japanese rivers, there are many river constructions, i.e., dams, weirs, drops, for the purpose of flood control. Fishways are river constructions which facilitate migration of fish past dams and weirs. There are a lot of fishway types such as pool-and-weir type, stream type, operation type and so on (see Nakamura, 1995). The pool-and-weir fishway is typical type in Japanese rivers. There are three types of flow regimes in pool-and-weir fishways such as a plunging flow, streaming flow and intermixed flow of plunging and streaming flows. Rajaratnam et al. (1988) proposed a prediction formula of these flow regimes. However, this formula has no physical meaning. Further the accuracy of formula is not high. In this study, the criterion formula, which can predict the flow regime in the pool-and-weir fishway, is suggested semi-theoretically. The experiments were conducted with changing the aspect ratio and discharge in the pool-and-weir fishway. The water surface profiles were measured with a point gauge and also two components velocities were measured with a 2-D electromagnetic current meter. A new criterion formula, which is able to predict the flow formation, is proposed.

Behavior of Underexpanded Jet Impinging on Sphere

An underexpanded jet is utilized in industries as well as aviation field, e.g. to cool a body by the jet impingement, to remove molten metal in laser cutting, etc. One of the biggest problems is noise radiating from the jet which has high frequency, or screech tone. It is pointed out that the noise is closely related to the structure of the jet. In this paper, the underexpanded jets on a plate and hemispheres of different radii are visualized using the shadowgraph and Schlieren methods so as to analyze the jet structure, especially the flow field above the object, or the shock region. As a result, the radius of the hemisphere is found to have an effect not on the shape greatly, but on the location of the plate shock, and furthermore on the formation of separation bubble on the surface.

Numerical Simulation of Sand Erosion Phenomena in Square-Section 90 Degree Bend With Linear/Nonlinear RANS Turbulence Models

Sand erosion is a phenomenon where solid particles impinging to a wall cause serious mechanical damages to the wall surface. This phenomenon is a typical gas-particle two-phase turbulent flow and a multi-physics problem where the flow field, particle trajectory and wall deformation interact with among others. On the other hand, the sand erosion is a serious problem to install pneumatic conveying systems for handling abrasive materials. Incidentally, the bend erosion is typical target of sand erosion experiments and is useful for verification of numerical simulations. Although, the secondary flow which occurs in such a flow field including streamline curvature cannot be reproduced by the standard k-ε model. To predict this flow field, a more universal model which can estimate anisotropic Reynolds stress is required. In the present study, we simulate sand erosion of 90 degree bend with a square cross-section. We use some linear/nonlinear turbulence models to predict the secondary flow of the bend. Besides, the performance of each model to predict clear/eroded bend flow field is studied.