533 research outputs found
Internal stresses and breakup of rigid isostatic aggregates in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence
By characterising the hydrodynamic stresses generated by statistically
homogeneous and isotropic turbulence in rigid aggregates, we estimate
theoretically the rate of turbulent breakup of colloidal aggregates and the
size distribution of the formed fragments. The adopted method combines Direct
Numerical Simulation of the turbulent field with a Discrete Element Method
based on Stokesian dynamics. In this way, not only the mechanics of the
aggregate is modelled in detail, but the internal stresses are evaluated while
the aggregate is moving in the turbulent flow. We examine doublets and
cluster-cluster isostatic aggregates, where the failure of a single contact
leads to the rupture of the aggregate and breakup occurs when the tensile force
at a contact exceeds the cohesive strength of the bond. Due to the different
role of the internal stresses, the functional relationship between breakup
frequency and turbulence dissipation rate is very different in the two cases.
In the limit of very small and very large values, the frequency of breakup
scales exponentially with the turbulence dissipation rate for doublets, while
it follows a power law for cluster-cluster aggregates. For the case of large
isostatic aggregates it is confirmed that the proper scaling length for maximum
stress and breakup is the radius of gyration. The cumulative fragment
distribution function is nearly independent of the mean turbulence dissipation
rate and can be approximated by the sum of a small erosive component and a term
that is quadratic with respect to fragment size.Comment: 31 pages, 19 figure
An accurate and efficient Lagrangian sub-grid model
A computationally efficient model is introduced to account for the sub-grid
scale velocities of tracer particles dispersed in statistically homogeneous and
isotropic turbulent flows. The model embeds the multi-scale nature of turbulent
temporal and spatial correlations, that are essential to reproduce
multi-particle dispersion. It is capable to describe the Lagrangian diffusion
and dispersion of temporally and spatially correlated clouds of particles.
Although the model neglects intermittent corrections, we show that pair and
tetrad dispersion results nicely compare with Direct Numerical Simulations of
statistically isotropic and homogeneous turbulence. This is in agreement
with recent observations that deviations from self-similar pair dispersion
statistics are rare events
Scalar Turbulence in Convective Boundary Layers by Changing the Entrainment Flux
Abstract
A large-eddy simulation model is adopted to investigate the evolution of scalars transported by atmospheric cloud-free convective boundary layer flows. Temperature fluctuations due to the ground release of sensible heat and concentration fluctuations of a trace gas emitted at the homogeneous surface are mixed by turbulence within the unstable boundary layer. On the top, the entrainment zone is varied to obtain two distinct situations: (i) the temperature inversion is strong and the trace gas increment across the entrainment region is small, yielding to a small top flux with respect to the surface emission; (ii) the temperature inversion at the top of the convective boundary layer is weak, and the scalar increment large enough to achieve a concentration flux toward the free atmosphere that overwhelms the surface flux. In both cases, an estimation of the entrainment flux is obtained within a simple model, and it is tested against numerical data. The evolution of the scalar profiles is discussed in terms of the different entrainment–surface flux ratios.
Results show that, when entrainment at the top of the boundary layer is weak, temperature and trace gas scalar fields are strongly correlated, particularly in the lower part of the boundary layer. This means that they exhibit similar behavior from the largest down to the smallest spatial scales. However, when entrainment is strong, as moving from the surface, differences in the transport of the two scalars arise.
Finally, it is shown that, independently of the scalar regime, the temperature field exhibits more intermittent fluctuations than the trace gas
Lagrangian Structure Functions in Turbulence: A Quantitative Comparison between Experiment and Direct Numerical Simulation
A detailed comparison between data from experimental measurements and
numerical simulations of Lagrangian velocity structure functions in turbulence
is presented. By integrating information from experiments and numerics, a
quantitative understanding of the velocity scaling properties over a wide range
of time scales and Reynolds numbers is achieved. The local scaling properties
of the Lagrangian velocity increments for the experimental and numerical data
are in good quantitative agreement for all time lags. The degree of
intermittency changes when measured close to the Kolmogorov time scales or at
larger time lags. This study resolves apparent disagreements between experiment
and numerics.Comment: 13 RevTeX pages (2 columns) + 8 figures include
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Microconfined flow behavior of red blood cells by image analysis techniques
This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.Red blood cells (RBCs) perform essential functions in human body, such as gas exchange between
blood and tissues, thanks to their ability to deform and flow in the microvascular network. The high RBC
deformability is mainly due to the viscoelastic properties of the cell membrane. Since an impaired RBC
deformability could be found in some diseases, such as malaria, sickle cell anemia, diabetes and hereditary
disorders, there is the need to provide further insight into measurement of RBC deformability in a
physiologically-relevant flow field. Here, we report on an imaging-based in vitro systematic microfluidic
investigation of RBCs flowing either in microcapillaries or in a microcirculation-mimicking device
containing a network of microchannels of diameter comparable to cell size. RBC membrane shear elastic
modulus and surface viscosity have been investigated by using diverging channels, while RBC time recovery
constant have been measured in start-up experiments. Moreover, RBC volume and surface area have been
measured in microcapillary flow. The comprehension of the single cell behavior led to the analysis of the
RBC flow-induced clustering. Overall, our results provide a novel technique to estimate RBC deformability,
that can be used for the analysis of pathological RBCs, for which reliable quantitative methods are still
lacking
Anomalous and dimensional scaling in anisotropic turbulence
We present a numerical study of anisotropic statistical fluctuations in
homogeneous turbulent flows. We give an argument to predict the dimensional
scaling exponents, (p+j)/3, for the projections of p-th order structure
function in the j-th sector of the rotational group. We show that measured
exponents are anomalous, showing a clear deviation from the dimensional
prediction. Dimensional scaling is subleading and it is recovered only after a
random reshuffling of all velocity phases, in the stationary ensemble. This
supports the idea that anomalous scaling is the result of a genuine inertial
evolution, independent of large-scale behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Lyapunov exponents of heavy particles in turbulence
Lyapunov exponents of heavy particles and tracers advected by homogeneous and
isotropic turbulent flows are investigated by means of direct numerical
simulations. For large values of the Stokes number, the main effect of inertia
is to reduce the chaoticity with respect to fluid tracers. Conversely, for
small inertia, a counter-intuitive increase of the first Lyapunov exponent is
observed. The flow intermittency is found to induce a Reynolds number
dependency for the statistics of the finite time Lyapunov exponents of tracers.
Such intermittency effects are found to persist at increasing inertia.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Acceleration statistics of heavy particles in turbulence
We present the results of direct numerical simulations of heavy particle
transport in homogeneous, isotropic, fully developed turbulence, up to
resolution (). Following the trajectories of up
to 120 million particles with Stokes numbers, , in the range from 0.16 to
3.5 we are able to characterize in full detail the statistics of particle
acceleration. We show that: ({\it i}) The root-mean-squared acceleration
sharply falls off from the fluid tracer value already at quite
small Stokes numbers; ({\it ii}) At a given the normalised acceleration
increases with consistently
with the trend observed for fluid tracers; ({\it iii}) The tails of the
probability density function of the normalised acceleration
decrease with . Two concurrent mechanisms lead to the above results:
preferential concentration of particles, very effective at small , and
filtering induced by the particle response time, that takes over at larger
.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figs, 2 tables. A section with new results has been
added. Revised version accepted for pubblication on Journal of Fluid
Mechanic
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