Modelling viscous effects in offshore flow problems:A numerical study

The calculation tool ComFLOW, developed at the University of Groningen, is traditionally used to compute forces that result from wave impacts on offshore construction, whether it is a dike or the deck of a ship. ComFLOW is therefore a promising tool for engineers working in the offshore industry and having an interest in computing forces due to fluid flow phenomena.This thesis describes how the software tool ComFLOW can be extended to model the more subtle viscous effects that appear in fluid flows. Firstly, the forces acting on arbitrarily shaped objects that are immersed in a rectangular computational grid need to be accurately computed. In this thesis the range of applicability of existing models is extended and the resulting method is verified. Secondly, the physical phenomenon of turbulence is modelled. Several approaches to turbulence modelling are presented, derived, compared and verified. Finally, the combined methodology to modelling viscous flow effects that has been implemented in ComFLOW is validated for the phenomenon of sloshing water motion in specific ship hull openings, so-called moonpools

Modelling viscous effects in offshore flow problems:A numerical study

The calculation tool ComFLOW, developed at the University of Groningen, is traditionally used to compute forces that result from wave impacts on offshore construction, whether it is a dike or the deck of a ship. ComFLOW is therefore a promising tool for engineers working in the offshore industry and having an interest in computing forces due to fluid flow phenomena. This thesis describes how the software tool ComFLOW can be extended to model the more subtle viscous effects that appear in fluid flows. Firstly, the forces acting on arbitrarily shaped objects that are immersed in a rectangular computational grid need to be accurately computed. In this thesis the range of applicability of existing models is extended and the resulting method is verified. Secondly, the physical phenomenon of turbulence is modelled. Several approaches to turbulence modelling are presented, derived, compared and verified. Finally, the combined methodology to modelling viscous flow effects that has been implemented in ComFLOW is validated for the phenomenon of sloshing water motion in specific ship hull openings, so-called moonpools

Effect of DNA Repair Protein Rad18 on Viral Infection

Host factors belonging to the DNA repair machineries are assumed to aid retroviruses in the obligatory step of integration. Here we describe the effect of DNA repair molecule Rad18, a component of the post-replication repair pathway, on viral infection. Contrary to our expectations, cells lacking Rad18 were consistently more permissive to viral transduction as compared to Rad18(+/+) controls. Remarkably, such susceptibility was integration independent, since retroviruses devoid of integration activity also showed enhancement of the initial steps of infection. Moreover, the elevated sensitivity of the Rad18(−/−) cells was also observed with adenovirus. These data indicate that Rad18 suppresses viral infection in a non-specific fashion, probably by targeting incoming DNA. Furthermore, considering data published recently, it appears that the interactions between DNA repair components with incoming viruses, often result in inhibition of the infection rather than cooperation toward its establishment