390 research outputs found
Three-dimensional structure of the flow inside the left ventricle of the human heart
The laboratory models of the human heart left ventricle developed in the last
decades gave a valuable contribution to the comprehension of the role of the
fluid dynamics in the cardiac function and to support the interpretation of the
data obtained in vivo. Nevertheless, some questions are still open and new ones
stem from the continuous improvements in the diagnostic imaging techniques.
Many of these unresolved issues are related to the three-dimensional structure
of the left-ventricular flow during the cardiac cycle. In this paper we
investigated in detail this aspect using a laboratory model. The ventricle was
simulated by a flexible sack varying its volume in time according to a
physiologically shaped law. Velocities measured during several cycles on series
of parallel planes, taken from two orthogonal points of view, were combined
together in order to reconstruct the phase averaged, three-dimensional velocity
field. During the diastole, three main steps are recognized in the evolution of
the vortical structures: i) straight propagation in the direction of the long
axis of a vortex-ring originated from the mitral orifice; ii) asymmetric
development of the vortex-ring on an inclined plane; iii) single vortex
formation. The analysis of three-dimensional data gives the experimental
evidence of the reorganization of the flow in a single vortex persisting until
the end of the diastole. This flow pattern seems to optimize the cardiac
function since it directs velocity towards the aortic valve just before the
systole and minimizes the fraction of blood residing within the ventricle for
more cycles
Turbulence investigation in a laboratory model of the ascending aorta
This study aims to investigate turbulence inside a model of the
human ascending aorta as a function of the main flow control
parameters. For this purpose, we performed a two-dimensional
in vitro investigation of the pulsatile flow inside a laboratory
model of a healthy aorta by varying both the Reynolds and
Womersley numbers. Our findings indicate that the velocity
fluctuations become significant particularly during the
deceleration phase of the flow, reach the maximum near the
systolic peak and then decay during the rest of the diastole
phase. Higher levels of turbulence were recovered for
increasing Stroke Volumes, in particular maxima of Turbulent
Kinetic Energy occurred in the bulk region while higher
values of Reynolds shear stresses were found in
correspondence of the sinus of Valsalva
Considering mesohabitat scale in ecological impact assessment of sediment flushing
Benthic macroinvertebrates respond to several factors characterizing the physical habitats, as water depth, current and streambed substrate. Thus, anthropogenic disturbances altering these factors may have different effects on benthos, also depending on mesohabitats. These disturbances include sediment flushing operations, commonly carried out to recover reservoir capacity, and investigating their effects at mesohabitat scale could be relevant for an adequate ecological impact assessment of these operations. Here, we compared benthic macroinvertebrate communities sampled before and after a controlled sediment flushing operation in three different mesohabitats (a pool, a riffle and a step-pool) of an Alpine stream. Contrary from expectations, the composition of macroinvertebrate assemblages was not significantly different among mesohabitats. Moreover, the impact of sediment flushing was more significant in terms of density rather than in richness. Two stressor-specific indices were tested, but only one (the Siltation Index for LoTic EcoSystems - SILTES) clearly detected the impact of sediment flushing on the macroinvertebrate community structure. Finally, some differences in the temporal trajectories and recovery times to pre-flushing conditions were observed among mesohabitats, both if the three mesohabitats were considered separately and if all their possible combinations were accounted for. Particularly, riffle was the most sensitive mesohabitat, not fully recovering one year after the sediment disturbance
Eddy-wave duality in a rotating flow
A series of experiments with rotating, electromagnetically forced, turbulent flows were carried out at the Sapienza University of Rome to investigate the eddy-wave duality in flows with a β-effect and the electromagnetic force acting in the westward direction. When the β-effect is significant, i.e., as in planetary atmospheric and oceanic circulations, nonlinear eddy/wave interactions facilitate flow self-organization into zonal patterns in which Rossby waves and westward propagating cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies coexist. Upon time averaging, eddies disappear and the flow pattern transforms into a system of alternating zonal jets. What is the relationship between eddies, jets, and Rossby waves? To address this issue, we designed a laboratory experiment in which a westward zonal flow is produced by applying an electromagnetic small-scale forcing to a thin layer of a rotating fluid. In order to investigate different levels of flow zonality and a wider range of zonal modes, we varied the forcing intensity and the area of the forced sector. The zonal flow evolves as a system of westward propagating, large scale, cyclonic, and anticyclonic eddies. The propagation speed of the traveling structures was calculated from the Hovmöller diagrams of both the streamfunction and the centroids of clusters of different types (cyclonic and anticyclonic eddy cores and saddle point neighborhoods) obtained via an Okubo-Weiss analysis. The results were compared with the theoretical phase speed of a Rossby wave. The correspondence between these two characteristics at the radius of maximum shear corresponding to the epicenter of the barotropic instability is quite good, particularly after including the radial variation of the zonal velocity in the β-term. It is concluded that the Rossby waves and eddies are inseparable as the former maintain the instability that sustains the latter. This symbiosis visually resembles the Rossby soliton
Experimental evidence of chaotic advection in a convective flow
Lagrangian chaos is experimentally investigated in a convective flow by means
of Particle Tracking Velocimetry. The Fnite Size Lyapunov Exponent analysis is
applied to quantify dispersion properties at different scales. In the range of
parameters of the experiment, Lagrangian motion is found to be chaotic.
Moreover, the Lyapunov depends on the Rayleigh number as . A
simple dimensional argument for explaining the observed power law scaling is
proposed.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figur
Beta-diversity and stressor specific index reveal patterns of macroinvertebrate community response to sediment flushing
Anthropogenic increase of fine sediment loading is one of the main pressures for rivers worldwide. Particularly, Alpine streams are increasingly facing this issue due to sediment flushing operations from hydropower reservoirs, aimed at recovering storage for preserving electricity generation. Although Controlled Sediment Flushing Operations (CSFOs) are becoming increasingly frequent, ecological indicators to adequately assess and monitor their impact on the stream ecosystem have been poorly developed. In this work, we aimed to perform a screening of currently available biomonitoring tools to evaluate the CSFO effects on the riverine biota and adequately assess its recovery, starting from the recognition of the main ecological mechanisms triggered by the mentioned activities on benthic macroinvertebrate communities. We used two independent datasets concerning two reservoirs in the central Italian Alps to investigate the temporal effects of CSFOs repeated for four consecutive years (case-study I), and the impact of a single CSFO at a seasonal scale through a before/after-control/impact approach (case-study II). Initially, we quantified the CSFO impact on the richness and beta-diversity of macroinvertebrate communities by combining multivariate and univariate statistical techniques. Then, we compared the performance of the Siltation Index for LoTic EcoSystems (SILTES), recently developed for detecting siltation impact in Alpine streams, with that of the generic index currently adopted to assess the ecological status (sensu Water Framework Directive) of the Italian rivers, and of another sediment-specific index, but developed for a different bio-geographical area. The analysis of the two case-studies demonstrated that the nestedness (i.e. taxa loss) is the primary source of biological impairment caused by CSFOs. Moreover, we found that SILTES was more effective than the other indices because of its strong correlation with the nestedness, and since it properly discriminated impaired and pristine conditions, at both multi-annual and seasonal scale. In the first case-study, a threshold in the temporal trend of this index was detected, indicating a recovery within three months. In the second one, SILTES showed a recovery to pre-event seasonal values after nine months from the CSFO, due to larger and more persistent sediment deposition. This study demonstrates that SILTES could be adopted as a benchmark to improve the management of CSFOs from an ecological viewpoint. Our findings can be extended to the management of other sediment-related activities affecting mountainous streams worldwide, and, more generally, the adopted approach can be replicated for developing new ecological tools to manage other disturbances to river environments
Comparison of the EPIC Physical Activity Questionnaire with combined heart rate and movement sensing in a nationally representative sample of older British adults
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Towards ecological flows: status of the benthic macroinvertebrate community during summer low-flow periods in a regulated lowland river
Climate change along with the increasing exploitation of water resources exacerbates low-flow periods, causing detrimental effects on riverine communities. The main mitigation measure currently adopted to counteract hydrological alterations induced by off-stream diversion is the release of minimum flows (MFs), even if within the European Union Water Framework Directive an upgrade towards ecological flows is urgently required to achieve good ecological status (GES). In this study, we investigated the temporal evolution of the benthic macroinvertebrate community in an Italian regulated lowland river (Ticino River) to clarify the ecological effects of summer low flows, and we evaluated the current MFs in the perspective of meeting GES standard. Biomonitoring was carried out for four
consecutive years (2019-2022), in a river site immediately below a large off-stream diversion. The four study years were characterized by different streamflow patterns, thus allowing us to compare the temporal trajectories of the community under different flow conditions. Moreover, the interruption of the low-flow periods due to overflow spilled by the upstream dam gave us the opportunity to assess the effects of experimental flow peaks. Contrary to the expectation, the macroinvertebrate assemblage kept almost unvaried across the years, showing great resistance and resilience to hydrological changes. Even in extraordinarily dry 2022, the community composition varied only slightly, with a reduction of mayflies and an increase of mollusks. However, a deterioration of the ecological status below
GES standard was recorded that summer, indicating the need for an upgrading of the current MFs. This upgrade would include experimental flow peaks in critical periods, which act as intermediate disturbances, enhancing community richness, diversity, and overall quality, as well as compliance with a threshold of an index specifically developed for the hydrological pressure
Three-dimensional structure of the flow inside the left ventricle of the human heart
Exp Fluids (2013) 54(1):1-9 The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00348-013-1609-0 1 The laboratory models of the human heart left ventricle developed in the last decades gave a valuable contribution to the comprehension of the role of the fluid dynamics in the cardiac function and to support the interpretation of the data obtained in vivo. Nevertheless, some questions are still open and new ones stem from the continuous improvements in the diagnostic imaging techniques. Many of these unresolved issues are related to the three-dimensional structure of the leftventricular flow during the cardiac cycle. In this paper we investigated in detail this aspect using a laboratory model. The ventricle was simulated by a flexible sack varying its volume in time according to a physiologically shaped law. Velocities measured during several cycles on series of parallel planes, taken from two orthogonal points of view, were combined together in order to reconstruct the phase averaged, threedimensional velocity field. During the diastole, three main steps are recognized in the evolution of the vortical structures: i) straight propagation in the direction of the long axis of a vortex-ring originated from the mitral orifice; ii) asymmetric development of the vortex-ring on an inclined plane; iii) single vortex formation. The analysis of three-dimensional data gives the experimental evidence of the reorganization of the flow in a single vortex persisting until the end of the diastole. This flow pattern seems to optimize the cardiac function since it directs velocity towards the aortic valve just before the systole and minimizes the fraction of blood residing within the ventricle for more cycles
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