Numerical investigations on bubble-induced jetting and shock wave focusing: application on a needle-free injection

The formation of a liquid jet into air induced by the growth of a laser-generated bubble inside a needle-free device is numerically investigated by employing the compressible Navier–Stokes equations. The three co-existing phases (liquid, vapour and air) are assumed to be in thermal equilibrium. A transport equation for the gas mass fraction is solved in order to simulate the non-condensable gas. The homogeneous equilibrium model is used in order to account for the phase change process between liquid and vapour. Thermodynamic closure for all three phases is achieved by a barotropic Equation of State. Two-dimensional axisymmetric simulations are performed for a needle-free device for which experimental data are available and used for the validation of the developed model. The influence of the initial bubble pressure and the meniscus geometry on the jet velocity is examined by two different sets of studies. Based on the latter, a new meniscus design similar to shaped-charge jets is proposed, which offers a more focused and higher velocity jet compared to the conventional shape of the hemispherical gas–liquid interface. Preliminary calculations show that the developed jet can penetrate the skin and thus, such configurations can contribute towards a new needle-free design

Cavitation Induction by Projectile Impacting on a Water Jet

The present paper focuses on the simulation of the high-velocity impact of a projectile impacting on a water-jet, causing the onset, development and collapse of cavitation. The simulation of the fluid motion is carried out using an explicit, compressible, density-based solver developed by the authors using the OpenFOAM library. It employs a barotropic two-phase flow model that simulates the phase-change due to cavitation and considers the co-existence of non-condensable and immiscible air. The projectile is considered to be rigid while its motion through the computational domain is modelled through a direct-forcing Immersed Boundary Method. Model validation is performed against the experiments of Field et al. [Field, J., Camus, J. J., Tinguely, M., Obreschkow, D., Farhat, M., 2012. Cavitation in impacted drops and jets and the effect on erosion damage thresholds. Wear 290–291, 154–160. doi:10.1016/j.wear.2012.03.006. URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043164812000968 ], who visualised cavity formation and shock propagation in liquid impacts at high velocities. Simulations unveil the shock structures and capture the high-speed jetting forming at the impact location, in addition to the subsequent cavitation induction and vapour formation due to refraction waves. Moreover, model predictions provide quantitative information and a better insight on the flow physics that has not been identified from the reported experimental data, such as shock-wave propagation, vapour formation quantity and induced pressures. Furthermore, evidence of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability developing on the liquid-air interface are predicted when sufficient dense grid resolution is utilised

Social Housing as a State-Funded Mega Project: A Case Study From Saudi Arabia

There are many kinds of war. They span from typical military conflicts to socially and politically charged environments, from fiscal colonization to ghostly wars about information and the internet. But what about the fear of a possible war? Could housing initiatives be connected to that? What kind of design methods and standards as well as processes would that specific case entail? What other factors would add pressure to studying and implementing housing projects in this context? What could be the possible measure of such projects’ eventual assessment? This paper is based on the assumption that fear of a spreading of the Arab Spring in the Saudi Kingdom triggered a massive state-funded housing project. The ambitious case of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Housing (MoH) will be discussed and gradually unfolded within its social, cultural, economic, and technical-design conditions. The project’s development is discussed both before its launch-conceptualization and throughout its implementation. The original insight given stems from the authors’ participation as lead urban planners in one of the major companies awarded the project

Modelling cavitation during drop impact on solid surfaces

The impact of liquid droplets on solid surfaces at conditions inducing cavitation inside their volume has rarely been addressed in the literature. A review is conducted on relevant studies, aiming to highlight the differences from non-cavitating impact cases. Focus is placed on the numerical models suitable for the simulation of droplet impact at such conditions. Further insight is given from the development of a purpose-built compressible two-phase flow solver that incorporates a phase-change model suitable for cavitation formation and collapse; thermodynamic closure is based on a barotropic Equation of State (EoS) representing the density and speed of sound of the co-existing liquid, gas and vapour phases as well as liquid-vapour mixture. To overcome the known problem of spurious oscillations occurring at the phase boundaries due to the rapid change in the acoustic impedance, a new hybrid numerical flux discretization scheme is proposed, based on approximate Riemann solvers; this is found to offer numerical stability and has allowed for simulations of cavitation formation during drop impact to be presented for the first time. Following a thorough justification of the validity of the model assumptions adopted for the cases of interest, numerical simulations are firstly compared against the Riemann problem, for which the exact solution has been derived for two materials with the same velocity and pressure fields. The model is validated against the single experimental data set available in the literature for a 2-D planar drop impact case. The results are found in good agreement against these data that depict the evolution of both the shock wave generated upon impact and the rarefaction waves, which are also captured reasonably well. Moreover, the location of cavitation formation inside the drop and the areas of possible erosion sites that may develop on the solid surface, are also well captured by the model. Following model validation, numerical experiments have examined the effect of impact conditions on the process, utilizing both planar and 2-D axisymmetric simulations. It is found that the absence of air between the drop and the wall at the initial configuration can generate cavitation regimes closer to the wall surface, which significantly increase the pressures induced on the solid wall surface, even for much lower impact velocities. A summary highlighting the open questions still remaining on the subject is given at the end

Numerical investigation of bubble dynamics using tabulated data

An explicit density-based solver of the compressible Euler equations suitable for cavitation simulations is presented, using the full Helmholtz energy Equation of State (EoS) for n-Dodecane. Tabulated data are derived from this EoS in order to calculate the thermodynamic properties of the liquid, vapour and mixture composition during cavitation. For determining thermodynamic properties from the conservative variable set, bilinear interpolation is employed; this results to significantly reduced computational cost despite the complex thermodynamics model incorporated. The latter is able to predict the temperature variation of both the liquid and the vapour phases. The methodology uses a Mach number consistent numerical flux, suitable for subsonic up to supersonic flow conditions. Finite volume discretization is employed in conjunction with a second order Runge-Kutta time integration scheme. The numerical method is validated against the Riemann problem, comparing it with the exact solution which has been derived in the present work for an arbitrary EoS. Further validation is performed against the well-known Rayleigh collapse of a pure vapour bubble. It is then used for the simulation of a 2-D axisymmetric n-Dodecane vapour bubble collapsing in the proximity of a flat wall placed at different locations from the centre of the bubble. The predictive capability of the incorporated Helmholtz EoS is assessed against the widely used barotropic EoS and the non-isothermal Homogeneous Equilibrium Mixture (HEM)

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of a laser pulse impact onto a liquid metal droplet

The impact of a laser pulse onto a liquid metal droplet is numerically investigated by utilising a weakly compressible single phase model; the thermodynamic closure is achieved by the Tait equation of state (EoS) for the liquid metal. The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, which has been employed in the arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) framework, offers numerical efficiency, compared to grid related discretization methods. The latter would require modelling not only of the liquid metal phase, but also of the vacuum, which would necessitate special numerical schemes, suitable for high density ratios. In addition, SPH-ALE allows for the easy deformation handling of the droplet, compared to interface tracking methods where strong mesh deformation and most likely degenerate cells occur. Then, the laser-induced deformation of the droplet is simulated and cavitation formation is predicted. The ablation pattern due to the emitted shock wave and the two low pressure lobes created in the middle of the droplet because of the rarefaction waves are demonstrated. The liquid metal droplet is subject to material rupture, when the shock wave, the rarefaction wave and the free surface interact. Similar patterns regarding the wave dynamics and the hollow structure have been also noticed in prior experimental studies

On the Feasibility of Real-Time 3D Hand Tracking using Edge GPGPU Acceleration

This paper presents the case study of a non-intrusive porting of a monolithic C++ library for real-time 3D hand tracking, to the domain of edge-based computation. Towards a proof of concept, the case study considers a pair of workstations, a computationally powerful and a computationally weak one. By wrapping the C++ library in Java container and by capitalizing on a Java-based offloading infrastructure that supports both CPU and GPGPU computations, we are able to establish automatically the required server-client workflow that best addresses the resource allocation problem in the effort to execute from the weak workstation. As a result, the weak workstation can perform well at the task, despite lacking the sufficient hardware to do the required computations locally. This is achieved by offloading computations which rely on GPGPU, to the powerful workstation, across the network that connects them. We show the edge-based computation challenges associated with the information flow of the ported algorithm, demonstrate how we cope with them, and identify what needs to be improved for achieving even better performance.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Simulation of cavitation using compressible flow solvers

An explicit density-based solver suitable for multiphase flows has been developed and implemented in OpenFOAM. Phase change is predicted through the density variation under the HEM assumption and different thermodynamic models that have been utilized, starting from barotropic EoS to more complicated ones that include real fluid thermodynamics (Helmholtz EoS). In the latter, a tabulated data technique has been followed aiming to reduce the computational cost; the value of each thermodynamic quantity within each thermodynamic element is approximated by a finite element interpolation. Apart from the liquid and vapour phases, the non-condensable gas is modelled by adding a transport equation for the gas mass fraction (2-phase model). Finite volume discretization is employed in conjunction with high order Runge-Kutta methods for time integration. A Mach number consistent numerical flux, based on approximate Riemann solvers, is proposed and renders the solver suitable for low subsonic flows of the liquid regime, up to highly supersonic flow conditions noticed in the vapour phase. The validity of the developed models has been assessed against the exact solution of the Riemann problem, experimental data, other numerical tools and parametric studies. Different multiphase flow simulations have been performed, from fundamental studies of bubble dynamics and droplet impacts on a solid surface to industrial applications such as Diesel injectors, needle-free devices and nozzles in cryogenic flows. Concerning the real fluid thermodynamics model, n-Dodecane bubble dynamics simulations in the proximity of a wall have been performed. The effect of the initial conditions and the different thermodynamic models utilized was investigated. The methodology has been also applied to cryogenic flows inside converging-diverging nozzles and demonstrated satisfactory agreement with prior experimental studies. The 2-phase solver was employed for modelling the wave dynamics and the cavitation regime inside a droplet which impacts a solid surface. Finally, the influence of the initial bubble pressure and the meniscus geometry on the developed jet velocity of a needle-free device is studied

Heating Effects During Bubble Collapse Using Tabulated Data

An explicit density-based solver for the compressible Navier-Stokes equations able to simulate cavitating flows has been developed and utilised for the simulation of collapsing vapour bubbles. Phase-change is considered by employing the homogeneous equilibrium model (HEM). The wide variation of Mach numbers between the liquid, vapour and mixture regimes is tackled by a Mach consistent numerical flux, suitable for subsonic up to supersonic flow conditions. Time discretisation is performed using a second order low storage Runge-Kutta scheme. Thermodynamic closure is achieved by utilising the Helmholtz energy equation of state (EoS), making feasible simulation of conditions at subcritical and supercritical regions considering the variations of liquid and vapour temperatures during bubble collapse. In order to reduce the computational cost associated with the solution of the Helmholtz EoS at each time step, a tabulated data technique has been followed. The unstructured thermodynamic table, containing the thermodynamic properties derived from the Helmholtz EoS, has been constructed for n-dodecane, which has been the considered as the working fluid. The efficiency of the method is enhanced by a static linked-list algorithm for searching among the elements of the table. In addition, a finite element bilinear interpolation is used for approximating the unknown thermodynamic properties. After validating the numerical method, parametric studies considering 2-D axisymmetric vaporous bubble collapse in the proximity of a wall have been performed at conditions realised in micro-orifice flow passages. The temperature and pressure changes on the wall are estimated as function of the surrounding liquid pressure, the initial bubble radius and the location of the wall from the center of the initial bubble, revealing the expected range of variation as function on the set parameters