Point-source scalar turbulence

The statistics of a passive scalar randomly emitted from a point source is investigated analytically. Our attention has been focused on the two-point equal-time scalar correlation function. The latter is indeed easily related to the spectrum, a statistical indicator widely used both in experiments and in numerical simulations. The only source of inhomogeneity/anisotropy is in the injection mechanism, the advecting velocity here being statistically homogeneous and isotropic. Our main results can be summarized as follows. 1) For a very large velocity integral scale, a pure scaling behaviour in the distance between the two points emerges only if their separation is much smaller than their distance from the point source. 2) The value we have found for the scaling exponent suggests the existence of a direct cascade, in spite of the fact that here the forcing integral scale is formally set to zero. 3) The combined effect of a finite inertial-range extension and of inhomogeneities causes the emergence of subleading anisotropic corrections to the leading isotropic term, that we have quantified and discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Journal of Fluid Mechanic

Modélisation et simulation du mouvement de structures fines dans un fluide visqueux : application au transport mucociliaire

Numerous mucous membranes inside the human body are covered with cilia which, by their coordinated movements, lead to a circulation of the layer of fluid coating the mucous membrane, which allows, for example, in the case of the internal wall of the bronchi, the evacuation of the impurities inspired outside the respiratory system.In this thesis, we integrate the effects of the cilia on the fluid, at the scale of the cilium. For this, we consider the incompressible Stokes equations. Due to the very small thickness of the cilia, the direct computation would request a time-varying mesh grading around the cilia. To avoid too prohibitive computational costs, we consider the asymptotic of a zero diameter cilium with an infinite velocity: the cilium is modelled by a lineic Dirac of force in source term. In order to ease the computations, the lineic Dirac of forces can be approached by a sum of punctual Dirac masses distributed along the cilium. Thus, by linearity, we have switched our initial problem with the Stokes problem with a punctual force in source term. Thus, we simplify the computations, but the final problem is more singular than the initial problem. The loss of regularity involves a deeper numerical analysis and the development of a new method to solve the problem.We have first studied a scalar version of this problem: Poisson problem with a Dirac right-hand side. The exact solution is singular, therefore the finite element solution has to be defined with caution. In this case, the convergence is not as good as in the regular case, and thus we focused on local error estimates. We have proved a quasi-optimal convergence in H1-norm (s ď 1) on a sub-domain which does not contain the singularity. Similar results have been shown for the Stokes problem too.In order to recover an optimal convergence on the whole domain, we have developped a numerical method to solve elliptic problems with a Dirac mass or a punctual force in source term. It is based on the standard finite element method and the explicit knowl- edge of the singularity of the exact solution. Given the positions of the cilia and their parametrisations, this method permits to compute in 3d a very high number of cilia. We have applied this to the study of the mucociliary transport in the lung. This numerical tool gives us information we do not have with the experimentations and pathologies can be computed and studied by this way, like for example a small number of cilia.Une grande part des muqueuses à l’intérieur du corps humain sont recouvertes de cils qui, par leurs mouvements coordonnés, conduisent à une circulation de la couche de fluide nappant la muqueuse. Dans le cas de la paroi interne des bronches, ce processus permet l’évacuation des impuretés inspirées à l’extérieur de l’appareil respiratoire.Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons aux effets du ou des cils sur le fluide, en nous plaçant à l’échelle du cil, et on considère pour cela les équations de Stokes incompressible. Due à la finesse du cil, une simulation directe demanderait un raffinement important du maillage au voisinage du cil, pour un maillage qui évoluerait à chaque pas de temps. Cette approche étant trop onéreuse en terme de coûts de calculs, nous avons considéré l’asymptotique d’un diamètre du cil tendant vers 0 et d’une vitesse qui tend vers l’infini : le cil est modélisé par un Dirac linéique de forces en terme source. Nous avons montré qu’il était possible de remplacer ce Dirac linéique par une somme de Dirac ponctuels distribués le long du cil. Ainsi, nous nous sommes ramenés, par linéarité, à étudier le problème de Stokes avec en terme source une force ponctuelle. Si les calculs sont ainsi simplifiés (et leurs coûts réduits), le problème final est lui plus singulier, ce qui motive une analyse numérique fine et l’élaboration d’une nouvelle méthode de résolution.Nous avons d’abord étudié une version scalaire de ce problème : le problème de Poisson avec une masse de Dirac en second membre. La solution exacte étant singulière, la solution éléments finis est à définir avec précaution. La convergence de la méthode étant dégradée dans ce cas-là, par rapport à celle dans le cas régulier, nous nous sommes intéressés à des estimations locales. Nous avons démontré une convergence quasi-optimale en norme Hs (s ě 1) sur un sous-domaine qui exclut la singularité. Des résultats analogues ont été obtenus dans le cas du problème de Stokes.Pour palier les problèmes liés à une mauvais convergence sur l’ensemble du domaine, nous avons élaboré une méthode pour résoudre des problème elliptiques avec une masse de Dirac ou une force ponctuelle en terme source. Basée sur celle des éléments finis standard, elle s’appuie sur la connaissance explicite de la singularité de la solution exacte. Une fois données la position de chacun des cils et leur paramétrisation, notre méthode rend possible la simulation directe en 3d d’un très grand nombre de cils. Nous l’avons donc appliquée au cas du transport mucociliaire dans les poumons. Cet outil numérique nous donne accès à des informations que l’on ne peut avoir par l’expérience, et permet de simuler des cas pathologiques comme par exemple une distribution éparse des cils

Numerical integration of the contravariant integral form of the Navier–Stokes equations in time-dependent curvilinear coordinate systems for three-dimensional free surface flows

We propose a three-dimensional non-hydrostatic shock-capturing numerical model for the simulation of wave propagation, transformation and breaking, which is based on an original integral formulation of the contravariant Navier–Stokes equations, devoid of Christoffel symbols, in general time-dependent curvilinear coordinates. A coordinate transformation maps the time-varying irregular physical domain that reproduces the complex geometries of coastal regions to a fixed uniform computational one. The advancing of the solution is performed by a second-order accurate strong stability preserving Runge–Kutta fractional-step method in which, at every stage of the method, a predictor velocity field is obtained by the shock-capturing scheme and a corrector velocity field is added to the previous one, to produce a non-hydrostatic divergence-free velocity field and update the water depth. The corrector velocity field is obtained by numerically solving a Poisson equation, expressed in integral contravariant form, by a multigrid technique which uses a four-colour Zebra Gauss–Seidel line-by-line method as smoother. Several test cases are used to verify the dispersion and shock-capturing properties of the proposed model in time-dependent curvilinear grids

Regularization of the Lagrangian point force approximation for deterministic discrete particle simulations

International audienceThe current article presents a regularization procedure of the Lagrangian point-force approach commonly used to account for the perturbation of a fluid phase by a dispersed particle phase. The regularization procedure is based on a nonlinear diffusion equation to naturally ensure parallel efficiency when the regularization length scale extends over several grid cells. The diffusion coefficient thus becomes a function of the particle source term gradient and expressions allowing to approximately adjust the regularization length scale according to the local particle to mesh size ratio are proposed, so that mesh refinement or polydisperse sprays may be handled. Elementary numerical test cases confirm the convergence of the present procedure under mesh refinement and its ability to locally adapt the regularization length scale. Furthermore, the chosen regularization length scale allows to match the leading order term of the perturbation flow field set by the particle beyond approximately two particle diameters in the Stokes regime. When applying the presented source term regularization procedure, the terminal velocity of a particle settling under gravity in the Stokes regime becomes relatively insensitive to mesh refinement. However, errors with respect to the theoretical settling velocity remain substantial and removal of the particle's self induced velocity appears necessary to recover the undisturbed fluid velocity at the particle location and correctly evaluate the drag force. As the current regularization procedure yields source terms that are close to c 2019. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Gaussian, an analytic expression from the literature is used to estimate the particle's self induced velocity. When combining source term regularization and removal of the particle's self induced velocity, good results are obtained for the terminal settling speed in the Stokes regime. Results obtained for horizontally separated particle pairs settling under gravity in the Stokes regime show equally good agreement with theoretical results. Because analytic expressions for the particle's self-induced velocity are no longer available at finite particle Reynolds numbers, correlations recently proposed in the literature are used to obtain correct settling velocities beyond the Stokes regime

potential of the virtual blade model in the analysis of wind turbine wakes using wind tunnel blind tests

Abstract The present research frontier on wind turbine wake analysis is leading to a massive use of large-eddy simulations to completely solve the flow field surrounding the rotors; on the other hand, there is still room for lower-fidelity models with a more affordable computational cost to be used in extended optimization analyses, e.g. for a park layout definition. In this study, a customized version of the Virtual Blade Model (VBM) for ANSYS ® FLUENT ® is presented. The model allows a hybrid solution of the flow, in which the surrounding environment is simulated through a conventional RANS approach, while blades are replaced by a body force, calculated by a simplified version of the Blade Element Theory. The potential of the newly-customized VBM was evaluated by applying it to the famous NOWITECH-NORCOWE blind tests for horizontal axis wind turbines. Several test cases were analyzed and discussed including: 1) a single turbine; 2) an array of two turbines with one rotor working in the wake of the other one; 3) an array of two staggered rotors; 4) several configurations of rotors working in yawed-flow. The study proves that the VBM model can represent a valuable tool for the analysis of wind turbines wakes and of their interaction with near rotors

Hydrodynamic chronoamperometry for probing kinetics of anaerobic microbial metabolism : case study of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii

Monitoring in vitro the metabolic activity of microorganisms aids bioprocesses and enables better understanding of microbial metabolism. Redox mediators can be used for this purpose via different electrochemical techniques that are either complex or only provide non-continuous data. Hydrodynamic chronoamperometry using a rotating disc electrode (RDE) can alleviate these issues but was seldom used and is poorly characterized. The kinetics of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii A2-165, a beneficial gut microbe, were determined using a RDE with riboflavin as redox probe. This butyrate producer anaerobically ferments glucose and reduces riboflavin whose continuous monitoring on a RDE provided highly accurate kinetic measurements of its metabolism, even at low cell densities. The metabolic reaction rate increased linearly over a broad range of cell concentrations (9 x 10(4) to 5 x 10(7) cells. mL(-1)). Apparent Michaelis-Menten kinetics was observed with respect to riboflavin (K-M = 6 mu M; k(cat) = 5.3x10(5) s(-1), at 37 degrees C) and glucose (K-M = 6 mu M; k(cat) = 2.4 x 10(5) s(-1)). The short temporal resolution allows continuous monitoring of fast cellular events such as kinetics inhibition with butyrate. Furthermore, we detected for the first time riboflavin reduction by another potential probiotic, Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum. The ability of the RDE for fast, accurate, simple and continuous measurements makes it an ad hoc tool for assessing bioprocesses at high resolution

Self-propulsion of symmetric chemically active particles: Point-source model and experiments on camphor disks

International audienceSolid undeformable particles surrounded by a liquid medium or interface may propel themselves by altering their local environment. Such nonmechanical swimming is at work in autophoretic swimmers, whose self-generated field gradient induces a slip velocity on their surface, and in interfacial swimmers, which exploit unbalance in surface tension. In both classes of systems, swimmers with intrinsic asymmetry have received the most attention but self-propulsion is also possible for particles that are perfectly isotropic. The underlying symmetry-breaking instability has been established theoretically for autophoretic systems but has yet to be observed experimentally for solid particles. For interfacial swimmers, several experimental works point to such a mechanism, but its understanding has remained incomplete. The goal of this work is to fill this gap. Building on an earlier proposal, we first develop a point-source model that may be applied generically to interfacial or phoretic swimmers. Using this approximate but unifying picture, we show that they operate in very different regimes and obtain analytical predictions for the propulsion velocity and its dependence on swimmer size and asymmetry. Next, we present experiments on interfacial camphor disks showing that they indeed self-propel in an advection-dominated regime where intrinsic asymmetry is irrelevant and that the swimming velocity increases sublinearly with size. Finally, we discuss the merits and limitations of the point-source model in light of the experiments and point out its broader relevance