25,265 research outputs found
Mesoscopic simulation study of wall roughness effects in micro-channel flows of dense emulsions
We study the Poiseuille flow of a soft-glassy material above the jamming
point, where the material flows like a complex fluid with Herschel- Bulkley
rheology. Microscopic plastic rearrangements and the emergence of their spatial
correlations induce cooperativity flow behavior whose effect is pronounced in
presence of confinement. With the help of lattice Boltzmann numerical
simulations of confined dense emulsions, we explore the role of geometrical
roughness in providing activation of plastic events close to the boundaries. We
probe also the spatial configuration of the fluidity field, a continuum
quantity which can be related to the rate of plastic events, thereby allowing
us to establish a link between the mesoscopic plastic dynamics of the jammed
material and the macroscopic flow behaviour
Optimizing the geometrical accuracy of curvilinear meshes
This paper presents a method to generate valid high order meshes with
optimized geometrical accuracy. The high order meshing procedure starts with a
linear mesh, that is subsequently curved without taking care of the validity of
the high order elements. An optimization procedure is then used to both
untangle invalid elements and optimize the geometrical accuracy of the mesh.
Standard measures of the distance between curves are considered to evaluate the
geometrical accuracy in planar two-dimensional meshes, but they prove
computationally too costly for optimization purposes. A fast estimate of the
geometrical accuracy, based on Taylor expansions of the curves, is introduced.
An unconstrained optimization procedure based on this estimate is shown to
yield significant improvements in the geometrical accuracy of high order
meshes, as measured by the standard Haudorff distance between the geometrical
model and the mesh. Several examples illustrate the beneficial impact of this
method on CFD solutions, with a particular role of the enhanced mesh boundary
smoothness.Comment: Submitted to JC
Mechanistic and pathological study of the genesis, growth, and rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysms
Postprint (published version
Optimal villi density for maximal oxygen uptake in the human placenta
We present a stream-tube model of oxygen exchange inside a human placenta
functional unit (a placentone). The effect of villi density on oxygen transfer
efficiency is assessed by numerically solving the diffusion-convection equation
in a 2D+1D geometry for a wide range of villi densities. For each set of
physiological parameters, we observe the existence of an optimal villi density
providing a maximal oxygen uptake as a trade-off between the incoming oxygen
flow and the absorbing villus surface. The predicted optimal villi density
is compatible to previous experimental measurements. Several
other ways to experimentally validate the model are also proposed. The proposed
stream-tube model can serve as a basis for analyzing the efficiency of human
placentas, detecting possible pathologies and diagnosing placental health risks
for newborns by using routine histology sections collected after birth
Sand transverse dune aerodynamics: 3D Coherent Flow Structures from a computational study
The engineering interest about dune fields is dictated by the their
interaction with a number of human infrastructures in arid environments. Sand
dunes dynamics is dictated by wind and its ability to induce sand erosion,
transport and deposition. A deep understanding of dune aerodynamics serves then
to ground effective strategies for the protection of human infrastructures from
sand, the so-called sand mitigation. Because of their simple geometry and their
frequent occurrence in desert area, transverse sand dunes are usually adopted
in literature as a benchmark to investigate dune aerodynamics by means of both
computational or experimental approaches, usually in nominally 2D setups. The
present study aims at evaluating 3D flow features in the wake of a idealised
transverse dune, if any, under different nominally 2D setup conditions by means
of computational simulations and to compare the obtained results with
experimental measurements available in literature
Lateral migration of a 2D vesicle in unbounded Poiseuille flow
The migration of a suspended vesicle in an unbounded Poiseuille flow is
investigated numerically in the low Reynolds number limit. We consider the
situation without viscosity contrast between the interior of the vesicle and
the exterior. Using the boundary integral method we solve the corresponding
hydrodynamic flow equations and track explicitly the vesicle dynamics in two
dimensions. We find that the interplay between the nonlinear character of the
Poiseuille flow and the vesicle deformation causes a cross-streamline migration
of vesicles towards the center of the Poiseuille flow. This is in a marked
contrast with a result [L.G. Leal, Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 12,
435(1980)]according to which the droplet moves away from the center (provided
there is no viscosity contrast between the internal and the external fluids).
The migration velocity is found to increase with the local capillary number
(defined by the time scale of the vesicle relaxation towards its equilibrium
shape times the local shear rate), but reaches a plateau above a certain value
of the capillary number. This plateau value increases with the curvature of the
parabolic flow profile. We present scaling laws for the migration velocity.Comment: 11 pages with 4 figure
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