Numerical investigation of electrohydrodynamic instability in a vertical porous layer

The electrohydrodynamic instability of a vertical dielectric fluid saturated Brinkman porous layer whose vertical walls are maintained at different temperatures is considered. An external AC electric field is applied across the vertical porous layer to induce an unstably stratified electrical body force. The stability eigenvalue equation is solved numerically using the Chebyshev collocation method. The presence of inertia is found to instill instability on the system and the value of modified Darcy�Prandtl number PrD at which the transition from stationary to travelling-wave mode takes place is independent of the AC electric field but increases considerably with an increase in the value of Darcy number Da. The presence of AC electric field promotes instability but its effect is found to be only marginal. Although the flow is stabilizing against stationary disturbances with increasing Da, its effect is noted to be dual in nature if the instability is via travelling-wave mode. The streamlines and isotherms for various values of physical parameters at their critical state are presented and analyzed. Besides, energy norm at the critical state is also computed and found that the disturbance kinetic energy due to surface drag, viscous force and dielectrophoretic force have no significant effect on the stability of fluid flow. © 2017 Elsevier Inc

Stability of natural convection in a vertical dielectric couple stress fluid layer in the presence of a horizontal AC electric field

The combined effect of couple stresses and a uniform horizontal AC electric field on the stability of buoyancy-driven parallel shear flow of a vertical dielectric fluid between vertical surfaces maintained at constant but different temperatures is investigated. Applying linear stability theory, stability equations are derived and solved numerically using the Galerkin method with wave speed as the eigenvalue. The critical Grashof number Gc, the critical wave number ac and the critical wave speed cc are computed for wide ranges of couple stress parameter  Λc, AC electric Rayleigh number Rea and the Prandtl number Pr. Based on these parameters, the stability characteristics of the system are discussed in detail. The value of Prandtl number at which the transition from stationary to travelling-wave mode takes place is found to be independent of AC electric Rayleigh number even in the presence of couple stresses but increases significantly with increasing Λc. Moreover, the effect of increasing Rea is to instill instability, while the couple stress parameter shows destabilizing effect in the stationary mode but it exhibits a dual behavior if the instability is via travelling-wave mode. The streamlines and isotherms presented demonstrate the development of complex dynamics at the critical state

Bioconvective electromagnetic nanofluid transport from a wedge geometry : simulation of smart electro-conductive bio-nano-polymer processing

A mathematical model is presented for steady, two-dimensional, stagnation-point flow, heat, mass, and micro-organism transfer in a viscous, incompressible, bioconvective, electromagnetic nanofluid along a wedge with Stefan blowing effects, hydrodynamic slip, and multiple convective boundary conditions. Gyrotactic micro-organisms are present in the nanofluid and bioconvection arises, characterized by micro-organisms swimming under a competing torque. Similarity transformations are used to render the system of governing partial differential equations into a system of coupled similarity equations. The transformed equations are solved numerically with the BVP5C method. The impact of emerging parameters on dimensionless velocity, temperature, magnetic induction function, nanoparticle volume fraction, and density of motile micro-organisms is studied graphically. Furthermore, the responses of the local skin friction, local Nusselt number, local Sherwood number, and the wall gradient of density of motile micro-organism number to variation in these parameters are elaborated. Validation of solutions with previous studies based on special cases of the general model is included. The simulations are relevant to the processing of biological, electro-conductive nanomaterials and industrial hygienic coating systems exploiting combined electromagnetics, nano-systems, and microscopic, bio-propulsion mechanisms

The Influence of Pulsating Throughflow on the Onset of Electro-Thermo-Convection in a Horizontal Porous Medium Saturated by a Dielectric Nanofluid

The joint effect of pulsating throughflow and external electric field on the outset of convective instability in a horizontal porous medium layer saturated by a dielectric nanofluid is investigated. Pulsating throughflow alters the basic profiles for temperature and the volumetric fraction of nanoparticle from linear to nonlinear with layer height, which marks the stability expressively. To treat this problem, the Buongiorno’s two-phase mathematical model is used taking the flux of volumetric fraction of nanoparticle is vanish on the horizontal boundaries. Using the framework of linear stability theory and frozen profile approach, the stability equations are derived and solved analytically applying the Galerkin weighted residuals method with thermal Rayleigh-Darcy number as the eigenvalue. The effect of increasing the external AC electric Rayleigh-Darcy number , the modified diffusivity ratio and the nanoparticle Rayleigh number is to favorable for the convective motion, while the Lewis number and porosity parameter have dual influence on the stability scheme in the existence of pulsating throughflow. The frozen profile method shows that the result of pulsating throughflow in both directions is stabilizing. An enlarged amplitude of throughflow fluctuations offers to increased stability by an amount that vary on frequency. It is also found that the oscillatory mode of convection is not favorable for nanofluids if the vertical nanoparticle flux is vanish on the boundaries

Electrohydrodynamic Instability in a Heat Generating Porous Layer Saturated by a Dielectric Nanofluid

In this paper, a theoretical investigation has been carried out to study the combined effect of AC electric field and temperature depended internal heat source on the onset of convection in a porous medium layer saturated by a dielectric nanofluid. The model used for nanofluid incorporates the combined effect of Brownian diffusion, thermophoresis and electrophoresis, while for porous medium Darcy model is employed. The flux of volume fraction of a nanoparticle with the effect of thermophoresis is taken to be zero on the boundaries and the eigenvalue problem is solved using the Galerkin method. Principle of exchange of stabilities is found to be valid and subcritical instability is ruled out. The results show that increase in the internal heat source parameter , AC electric Rayleigh-Darcy number , the Lewis number , the modified diffusivity ratio and the concentration Rayleigh-Darcy number are to hasten the onset of convection. The size of convection cells decreases with increasing the internal heat source parameter and the AC electric Rayleigh-Darcy number

Electrohydrodynamic Enhancement of Heat Transfer and Mass Transport in Gaseous Media, Bulk Dielectric Liquids and Dielectric Thin Liquid Films

Controlling transport phenomena in liquid and gaseous media through electrostatic forces has brought new important scientific and industrial applications. Although numerous EHD applications have been explored and extensively studied so far, the fast-growing technologies, mainly in the semiconductor industry, introduce new challenges and demands. These challenges require enhancement of heat transfer and mass transport in small scales (sometimes in molecular scales) to remove highly concentrated heat fluxes from reduced size devices. Electric field induced flows, or electrohydrodynamics (EHD), have shown promise in both macro and micro-scale devices. Several existing problems in EHD heat transfer enhancements were investigated in this thesis. Enhancement of natural convection heat transfer through corona discharge from an isothermal horizontal cylindrical tube at low Rayleigh numbers was studied experimentally and numerically. Due to the lack of knowledge about local heat transfer enhancements, Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) was used for thermal boundary layer visualization. For the first time, local Nusselt numbers were extracted from the interferograms at different applied voltages by mapping the hydrodynamic and thermal field results from numerical analysis into the thermal boundary layer visualizations and local heat transfer results. A novel EHD conduction micropump with electrode separations less than 300 µm was fabricated and investigated experimentally. By scaling down the pump, the operating voltage was reduced one order of magnitude with respect to macro-scale pumps. The pumping mechanism in small-scales was explored through a numerical analysis. The measured static pressure generations at different applied voltages were predicted numerically. A new electrostatically-assisted technique for spreading of a dielectric liquid film over a metallic substrate was proposed. The mechanism of the spreading was explained through several systematic experiments and a simplified theoretical model. The theoretical model was based on an analogy between the Stefan’s problem and current problem. The spreading law was predicted by the theoretical approach and compared with the experimental results. Since the charge transport mechanism across the film depends on the thickness of the film, by continuing the corona discharge exposure, the liquid film becomes thinner and thinner and both hydrodynamic and charge transport mechanisms show a cross-over and causes different regimes of spreading. Four different regimes of spreading were identified. For the first time, an electrostatically accelerated molecular film (precursor film) was reported. The concept of spreading and interfacial pressure produced by a corona discharge was applied to control an impacting dielectric droplet on non-wetting substrate. For the first time, the retraction phase of the impact process was actively suppressed at moderate corona discharge voltages. At higher corona discharge strengths, not only was the retraction inhibited but also the spreading phase continued as if the surface was a wetting surface

Performance Evaluation of Insoluble Surfactants on the Behavior of Two Electric Layers

The purpose of this study is to establish the effects of insoluble surfactants on the stability of two layers flow down an inclined wall in the limit of Stokes and long-wavelength approximations. The dynamics of the liquid-liquid interface is described for arbitrary amplitudes by evolution equations derived from the basic hydrodynamic equations, in which the fluids are subjected to a uniform electric field. The principle aim of this work is to investigate the interfacial stability as well as the growth rate in the presence of insoluble surfactants. The parameters governing the flow system, such as Marangoni, Weber, capillary numbers and the inclined substrate strongly affect the waveforms and their amplitudes and hence the stability of the fluid. Approximate solutions of this system of linear evolution equations are performed. epending on the selected parameters, the phenomenon of the dual role is found with respect to the electric Weber number as well as the viscosity ratio. The interfacial waves will be more stable due to the growth of the Marangoni number while, while the opposite effect is found for the increase in capillary number. In the longwave perturbations, the stability process is found to confirm the stabilizing effect of the Marangoni number and the destabilizing influence of both capillary and Reynolds numbers, whereas the dual role is observed for the dielectric ratio

An investigation of yarn spinning from electrospun nanofibres

The aim of the thesis is to investigate yarn spinning from electrospun nanofibres. The concepts of staple and core yarn spinning on electrospun nanofibres has been investigated by examining nanofibre uniformity, alignment, twist insertion and yarn take up by engining and engineering a new take up mechanism. Nylon 6 nanofibres have been fabricated and used throughout this work. The effects of varying the electrospinning parameters such as applied voltage, polymer solution concentration and electrospinning distance on fibre morphology have been established for process optimization. A novel nanofibre aligning mechanism has been devised and systematically revised to enable optimization of alignment process parameters. MWCNTs have been successfully dispersed into nylon 6 nanofibres and have been aligned along the nanofibre body by manipulating the electric and stretching forces with the aid of the alignment mechanism. Novel mechanisms for spinning continuous twisted nanofibre/composite nanofibre yarn and core electrospun yarn have been researched, developed and implemented by making samples. It has been found that defining the velocity and count of the nanofibres entering the spinning zone is important for controlling the yarn count and twist per unit length. By modelling the electrospinning jet, mathematical equations for theoretically calculating the velocity of the jet and nanofibres and their count have been established, necessary for process control. Aspects of practical measurement and comparison of jet and nanofibre velocities have been described and discussed. Tensile testing of single nanofibre and nanofibre mats has been attempted for mechanical characterization. Initial results show the range of tensile strength of nylon 6 nanofibre assemblies and indicate the effect of change of process parameters. A review of those engineering mechanisms related to various nanofibre architectures and their industrial and commercial importance has also been reviewed, described and discussed