Large eddy simulation of compressible turbulent channel and annular pipe flows with system and wall rotations

The compressible filtered Navier-Stokes equations were solved using a second order accurate finite volume method with low Mach number preconditioning. A dynamic subgrid-scale stress model accounted for the subgrid-scale turbulence. The study focused on the effects of buoyancy and rotation on the structure of turbulence and transport processes including heat transfer. Several different physical arrangements were studied as outlined below.;The effects of buoyancy were first studied in a vertical channel using large eddy simulation (LES). The walls were maintained at constant temperatures, one heated and the other cooled. Results showed that aiding and opposing buoyancy forces emerge near the heated and cooled walls, respectively. In the aiding flow, the turbulent intensities and heat transfer were suppressed at large values of Grashof number. In the opposing flow, however, turbulence was enhanced with increased velocity fluctuations.;Another buoyancy study considered turbulent flow in a vertically oriented annulus. Isoflux wall boundary conditions with low and high heating were imposed on the inner wall while the outer wall was adiabatic. The results showed that the strong heating and buoyancy force caused distortions of the flow structure resulting in reduction of turbulent intensities, shear stress, and turbulent heat flux, particularly near the heated wall.;Flow in an annular pipe with and without an outer wall rotation about its axis was first investigated at moderate Reynolds numbers. When the outer pipe wall was rotated, a significant reduction of turbulent kinetic energy was realized near the rotating wall.;Secondly, a large eddy simulation has been performed to investigate the effect of swirl on the heat and momentum transfer in an annular pipe flow with a rotating inner wall. The simulations indicated that the Nusselt number and the wall friction coefficient increased with increasing rotation speed of the wall. It was also observed that the axial velocity profile became flattened and turbulent intensities were enhanced due to swirl.;As a part of the study of rotation effects, large eddy simulation of a rotating ribbed channel flow with heat transfer was investigated. The rotation axis was parallel to the spanwise direction of the parallel plate channel. Uniform heat flux was applied to the channel for two rates of rotation. The results showed that near the stable (leading) side, the turbulent intensities and heat transfer were suppressed, but turbulence was enhanced with increasing shear stress and turbulent kinetic energy near the unstable (trailing) side

Two-phase numerical model for thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer in nanofluids

Due to the numerous applications of nanofluids, investigating and understanding of thermophysical properties of nanofluids has currently become one of the core issues. Although numerous theoretical and numerical models have been developed by previous researchers to understand the mechanism of enhanced heat transfer in nanofluids; to the best of our knowledge these models were limited to the study of either thermal conductivity or convective heat transfer of nanofluids. We have developed a numerical model which can estimate the enhancement in both the thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer in nanofluids. It also aids in understanding the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement. The study reveals that the nanoparticle dispersion in fluid medium and nanoparticle heat transport phenomenon are equally important in enhancement of thermal conductivity. However, the enhancement in convective heat transfer was caused mainly due to the nanoparticle heat transport mechanism. Ability of this model to be able to understand the mechanism of convective heat transfer enhancement distinguishes the model from rest of the available numerical models

In vitro and ex vivo measurement of the biophysical properties of blood using microfluidic platforms and animal models

Haemorheologically impaired microcirculation, such as blood clotting or abnormal blood flow, causes interrupted blood flows in vascular networks. The biophysical properties of blood, including blood viscosity, blood viscoelasticity, haematocrit, red blood bell (RBC) aggregation, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and RBC deformability, have been used to monitor haematological diseases. In this review, we summarise several techniques for measuring haemorheological properties, such as blood viscosity, RBC deformability and RBC aggregation, using in vitro microfluidic platforms. Several methodologies for the measurement of haemorheological properties with the assistance of an extracorporeal rat bypass loop are also presented. We briefly discuss several emerging technologies for continuous, long-term, multiple measurements of haemorheological properties under in vitro or ex vivo conditions.11Ysciescopu

Asymptotics and computations for approximation of method of regularization estimators

Inverse problems arise in many branches of natural science, medicine and engineering involving the recovery of a whole function given only a finite number of noisy measurements on functionals. Such problems are usually ill-posed, which causes severe difficulties for standard least-squares or maximum likelihood estimation techniques. These problems can be solved by a method of regularization. In this dissertation, we study various problems in the method of regularization. We develop asymptotic properties of the optimal smoothing parameters concerning levels of smoothing for estimating the mean function and an associated inverse function based on Fourier analysis. We present numerical algorithms for an approximated method of regularization estimator computation with linear inequality constraints. New data-driven smoothing parameter selection criteria are proposed in this setting. In addition, we derive a Bayesian credible interval for the approximated method of regularization estimators

Large eddy simulation of turbulent channel flow with buoyancy effects

Structured grid finite volume formulations have been developed to solve the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for performing large eddy simulation of turbulent flows. These compressible formulations were developed using low Mach number preconditioning. Time marching was done with a coupled strongly implicit scheme. The discretization schemes were second-order accurate central difference and third-order accurate upwind and a comparison was made between two schemes. Validations were performed using turbulent compressible benchmark flows with low heat transfer. The results were compared to direct numerical simulation, experimental, and other large eddy simulation results. The large eddy simulations yielded excellent agreement with the direct numerical simulation and experimental results for incompressible turbulence. For the significant property variations, high heat transfer rate was imposed and the effects of buoyancy on the turbulent structures under stably, and unstably stratified flows were investigated. The effects of buoyancy were larger in the central region of channel where the largest Richardson number occurred. Despite the fact that the relative buoyancy production was small near the boundary walls, effects of buoyancy were observed