Drop impact on a flexible fiber

When droplets impact fibrous media, the liquid can be captured by the fibers or contact then break away. Previous studies have shown that the efficiency of drop capture by a rigid fiber depends on the impact velocity and defined a threshold velocity below which the drop is captured. However, it is necessary to consider the coupling of elastic and capillary effects to achieve a greater understanding of the capture process for soft substrates. Here, we study experimentally the dynamics of a single drop impacting on a thin flexible fiber. Our results demonstrate that the threshold capture velocity depends on the flexibility of fibers in a non-monotonic way. We conclude that tuning the mechanical properties of fibers can optimize the efficiency of droplet capture.Comment: Soft Matter (2015

Damping of liquid sloshing by foams: from everyday observations to liquid transport

We perform experiments on the sloshing dynamics of liquids in a rectangular container submitted to an impulse. We show that when foam is placed on top of the liquid the oscillations of the free interface are significantly damped. The ability to reduce sloshing and associated splashing could find applications in numerous industrial processes involving liquid transport.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Visualizatio

Wetting morphologies on an array of fibers of different radii

We investigate the equilibrium morphology of a finite volume of liquid placed on two parallel rigid fibers of different radii. As observed for identical radii fibers, the liquid is either in a column morphology or adopts a drop shape depending on the inter-fiber distance. However the cross-sectional area and the critical inter-fiber distance at which the transition occurs are both modified by the polydispersity of the fibers. Using energy considerations, we analytically predict the critical inter-fiber distance corresponding to the transition between the column and the drop morphologies occurs. This distance depends both on the radii of the fibers and on the contact angle of the liquid. We perform experiments using a perfectly wetting liquid on two parallel nylon fibers: the results are in good agreement with our analytical model. The morphology of the capillary bridges between fibers of different radii is relevant to the modeling of large arrays of polydisperse fibers

Wetting morphologies on randomly oriented fibers

We characterize the different morphologies adopted by a drop of liquid placed on two randomly oriented fibers, which is a first step toward understanding the wetting of fibrous networks. The present work reviews previous modeling for parallel and touching crossed fibers and extends it to an arbitrary orientation of the fibers characterized by the tilting angle and the minimum spacing distance. Depending on the volume of liquid, the spacing distance between fibers and the angle between the fibers, we highlight that the liquid can adopt three different equilibrium morphologies: (1) a column morphology in which the liquid spreads between the fibers, (2) a mixed morphology where a drop grows at one end of the column or (3) a single drop located at the node. We capture the different morphologies observed using an analytical model that predicts the equilibrium configuration of the liquid based on the geometry of the fibers and the volume of liquid

Preliminary and robust design analysis of a solar thermal power block

Australia is endeavouring to expand the mix of power resources, and is investing heavily in the development of renewable generation methods such as concentrated solar thermal power. In these systems, the power block and turbine need to maintain high efficiency under non-ideal conditions away from the design point. Literature shows that there is a clear relationship between the selection of fluids, the design of the operating cycle, the fluctuation in operating conditions and changes in power block performance. It is thus important for innovative power block designs to consider the performance of the system as a whole rather than by component, mainly turbine design, cycle development and economic analysis. However, there are few works that consider the coupling of multidisciplinary design and robust design to turbine-fluid selection and economic analysis for realistic systems. Furthermore, existing methodologies for robust optimisation often do not consider the effects of high-density gas properties on the performance of the power block. It is also critical that a power generation system produces ideal economic outcomes that meet a number of key performance indicators including levelised cost of electricity. Therefore, this paper develops a preliminary multidisciplinary design and robust design applied to turbine-fluid selection and economic analysis of a solar-thermal power block. In this work, an Organic Rankine Cycle using novel working fluids for a solar thermal power system is developed. Integrating robust optimisation into the development of the power block is key to push efficiency further and guarantee power block feasibility when running at non-ideal conditions. A preliminary multidisciplinary optimisation is applied to design the complete power block concept such that the power block operates at peak performance across multiple analysis approaches. When using a multidisciplinary design approach, it is possible to perform robust optimisation on the whole power block where the target is on the economic outcomes rather than traditional targets such as efficiency, specific power generation capacity or size

Capillary Sorting of Particles by Dip Coating

In this letter, we describe the capillary sorting of particles by size based on dip coating. A substrate withdrawn from a liquid bath entrains a coating whose thickness depends on the withdrawal speed and the liquid properties. If the coating material contains particles, they will only be entrained when the viscous force pulling them with the substrate overcomes the opposing capillary force at the deformable meniscus. This force threshold occurs at different liquid thicknesses for particles of different sizes. Here, we show that this difference can be used to separate small particles from a mixed suspension through capillary filtration. In a bidisperse suspension, we observe three distinct filtration regimes. At low capillary numbers, Ca, no particles are entrained in the liquid coating. At high Ca, all particle sizes are entrained. For a range of capillary numbers between these two extremes, only the smallest particles are entrained while the larger ones remain in the reservoir. We explain how this technique can be applied to polydisperse suspension. We also provide an estimate of the range of capillary number to separate particles of given sizes. The combination of this technique with the scalability and robustness of dip coating makes it a promising candidate for high-throughput separation or purification of industrial and biomedical suspensions

Clogging by sieving in microchannels: Application to the detection of contaminants in colloidal suspensions

We report on a microfluidic method that allows measurement of a small concentration of large contaminants in suspensions of solid micrometer-scale particles. To perform the measurement, we flow the colloidal suspension through a series of constrictions, i.e. a microchannel of varying cross-section. We show and quantify the role of large contaminants in the formation of clogs at a constriction and the growth of the resulting filter cake. By measuring the time interval between two clogging events in an array of parallel microchannels, we are able to estimate the concentration of contaminants whose size is selected by the geometry of the microfluidic device. This technique for characterizing colloidal suspensions offers a versatile and rapid tool to explore the role of contaminants on the properties of the suspensions

Performance assessment of a standard radial turbine as turbo expander for an adapted solar concentration ORC

Organic Rankine cycles are one of the available solutions for converting low grade heat source into electrical power. However the development of plants tends to be very expansive due to the specific design of the expander. Usually, the input parameters for designing an ORC plant are the temperature and power of the heat and cold sources. They lead to the selection of a working fluid, pressures and temperatures. The expander is then designed based on the required operating parameters. Using standard turbine easily available on the market and with well known performances would allow to reduce the development and manufacturing cost. However, the ORC would have to be adapted to make the expander work in its best conditions. For a solar concentrated heat source, the temperature and power can be adapted by adjusting the concentration factor and the total area of the collector. In this paper, a given gas turbine is considered to be used as the expander of the ORC. Knowing the turbine's performances with air, the optimal operating parameters (pressure, temperature, flow rate and rotational speed) of the ORC with different fluids are sought based on similitude rules. The adaptation aims to maintain the same density evolution, inlet speed triangle and inlet Mach number with the working fluid as with air. The performance maps of the turbine are then computed with CFD simulations and showed a maximum isentropic efficiency close to the one with air, about 78%