Flow measurements in microporous media using micro-particle image velocimetry

An experimental study focused on the identification of the flow regimes and quantification of the velocity field at pore scale in microporous media is presented and discussed. Transparent porous media are fabricated by removing a pore forming agent in slightly sintered glass beads of size 50 μ m between two glass slides, leaving typical pores with a size of 500 μ m . Pressure-drop measurements and particle image velocimetry measurements are conducted simultaneously in order to evaluate the flow regimes and flow behaviors at pore size based Reynolds numbers from 0.1 to 140. Four different regimes, pre-Darcy, Darcy, Forchheimer, and turbulent, are found and presented. Spatial distribution and characteristics of the time-averaged velocity in all regimes and fluctuation intensity in transitional and turbulent regimes are investigated. Critical Reynolds numbers are identified using both velocity and pressure-drop measurements and the results agree very well, providing direct evidence underpinning the transition. The effects of porosity on these flow properties are also studied, and finally the flow regime boundaries are compared with the literature. These data provide an insight into the flow properties in microporous media with various porosities and an improved understanding that could be further utilized to enhance the flow and heat transfer performance of microporous media. It also demonstrates that velocity and pressure measurements used in combination can be an effective method for studying microporous media

The atmospheric boundary layer over urban-like terrain: influence of the plan density on roughness sublayer dynamics

We investigate the effect of the packing density of cubical roughness elements on the characteristics of both the roughness sublayer and the overlying turbulent boundary layer, in the context of atmospheric flow over urban areas. This is based on detailed wind-tunnel hot-wire measurements of the streamwise velocity component with three wall-roughness configurations and two freestream flow speeds. The packing densities are chosen so as to obtain the three near-wall flow regimes observed in urban canopy flows, namely isolated-wake, wake-interference and skimming-flow regimes. Investigation of the wall-normal profiles of the one-point statistics up to third order demonstrates the impossibility of finding a unique set of parameters enabling the collapse of all configurations, except for the mean streamwise velocity component. However, spectral analysis of the streamwise velocity component provides insightful information. Using the temporal frequency corresponding to the peak in the pre-multiplied energy spectrum as an indicator of the most energetic flow structures at each wall-normal location, it is shown that three main regions exist, in which different scaling applies. Finally, scale decomposition reveals that the flow in the roughness sublayer results from a large-scale intrinsic component of the boundary layer combined with canopy-induced dynamics. Their relative importance plays a key role in the energy distribution and influences the near-canopy flow regime and its dynamics, therefore suggesting complex interactions between the near-wall scales and those from the overlying boundary layer

Experiments on low Reynolds number turbulent flow through a square duct

Previous experimental studies on turbulent square duct flow have focused mainly on high Reynolds numbers for which a turbulence-induced eight-vortex secondary flow pattern exists in the cross-sectional plane. More recently, direct numerical simulations (DNS) have revealed that the flow field at Reynolds numbers close to transition can be very different; the flow in this ‘marginally turbulent’ regime alternating between two states characterised by four vortices. In this study, we experimentally investigate the onset criteria for transition to turbulence in square ducts. In so doing, we highlight the potential importance of Coriolis effects on this process for low-Ekman-number flows. We also present experimental data on the mean flow properties and turbulence statistics in both marginally and fully turbulent flow at relatively low Reynolds numbers using laser Doppler velocimetry. Results for both flow categories show good agreement with DNS. The switching of the flow field between two flow states at marginally turbulent Reynolds numbers is confirmed by bimodal probability density functions of streamwise velocity at certain distances from the wall as well as joint probability density functions of streamwise and wall normal velocities which feature two peaks highlighting the two states