The velocity field near the orifice of a Helmholtz resonator in grazing flow

Measurement of the time-dependent velocities induced inside and outside the opening of acoustically excited, two-dimensional Helmholtz resonator imbedded in a grazing flow are presented. The remarkably clear structure of the perturbation field which evokes a pulsating source and a coherently pulsating vortex-image pair is described. The simple phenomenological "lid-model" which correlates the variation in the components of the acoustic impedance with the velocity of the grazing flow is discussed and extended

Dynamic response of viscous compressible fluids in rigid tubes

Data on experimental verification of Iberall's analysis applies to such problems as pressure sensing, pneumatic control circuits with bellows, measuring irregular shaped volumes, and transmitting fluid power by pulsating flow

Moth-inspired navigation algorithm in a turbulent odor plume from a pulsating source

Some female moths attract male moths by emitting series of pulses of pheromone filaments propagating downwind. The turbulent nature of the wind creates a complex flow environment, and causes the filaments to propagate in the form of patches with varying concentration distributions. Inspired by moth navigation capabilities, we propose a navigation strategy that enables a flier to locate a pulsating odor source in a windy environment using a single threshold-based detection sensor. The strategy is constructed based on the physical properties of the turbulent flow carrying discrete puffs of odor and does not involve learning, memory, complex decision making or statistical methods. We suggest that in turbulent plumes from a pulsating point source, an instantaneously measurable quantity referred as a "puff crossing time", improves the success rate as compared to the navigation strategy based on "internal counter" that does not use this information. Using computer simulations of fliers navigating in turbulent plumes of the pulsating point source for varying flow parameters: turbulent intensities, plume meandering and wind gusts, we obtained trajectories qualitatively resembling male moths flights towards the pheromone sources. We quantified the probability of a successful navigation as well as the flight parameters such as the time spent searching and the total flight time, with respect to different turbulent intensities, meandering or gusts. The concepts learned using this model may help to design odor-based navigation of miniature airborne autonomous vehicles

Transition to turbulence in pulsating pipe flow

Fluid flows in nature and applications are frequently subject to periodic velocity modulations. Surprisingly, even for the generic case of flow through a straight pipe, there is little consensus regarding the influence of pulsation on the transition threshold to turbulence: while most studies predict a monotonically increasing threshold with pulsation frequency (i.e. Womersley number, $\alpha$), others observe a decreasing threshold for identical parameters and only observe an increasing threshold at low $\alpha$. In the present study we apply recent advances in the understanding of transition in steady shear flows to pulsating pipe flow. For moderate pulsation amplitudes we find that the first instability encountered is subcritical (i.e. requiring finite amplitude disturbances) and gives rise to localized patches of turbulence ("puffs") analogous to steady pipe flow. By monitoring the impact of pulsation on the lifetime of turbulence we map the onset of turbulence in parameter space. Transition in pulsatile flow can be separated into three regimes. At small Womersley numbers the dynamics are dominated by the decay turbulence suffers during the slower part of the cycle and hence transition is delayed significantly. As shown in this regime thresholds closely agree with estimates based on a quasi steady flow assumption only taking puff decay rates into account. The transition point predicted in the zero $\alpha$ limit equals to the critical point for steady pipe flow offset by the oscillation Reynolds number. In the high frequency limit puff lifetimes are identical to those in steady pipe flow and hence the transition threshold appears to be unaffected by flow pulsation. In the intermediate frequency regime the transition threshold sharply drops (with increasing $\alpha$) from the decay dominated (quasi steady) threshold to the steady pipe flow level

Discrete-vortex simulation of pulsating flow on a turbulent leading-edge separation bubble

Studies are made of the turbulent separation bubble in a two-dimensional semi-infinite blunt plate aligned to a uniform free stream with a pulsating component. The discrete-vortex method is applied to simulate this flow situation because this approach is effective for representing the unsteady motions of the turbulent shear layer and the effect of viscosity near the solid surface. The numerical simulation provides reasonable predictions when compared with the experimental results. A particular frequency with a minimum reattachment is related to the drag reduction. The most effective frequency is dependent on the amplified shedding frequency. The turbulent flow structure is scrutinized. This includes the time-mean and fluctuations of the velocity and the surface pressure, together with correlations between the fluctuating components. A comparison between the pulsating flow and the non-pulsating flow at the particular frequency of the minimum reattachment length of the separation bubble suggests that the large-scale vortical structure is associated with the shedding frequency and the flow instabilities

Optimal behavior of viscoelastic flow at resonant frequencies

The global entropy generation rate in the zero-mean oscillatory flow of a Maxwell fluid in a pipe is analyzed with the aim at determining its behavior at resonant flow conditions. This quantity is calculated explicitly using the analytic expression for the velocity field and assuming isothermal conditions. The global entropy generation rate shows well-defined peaks at the resonant frequencies where the flow displays maximum velocities. It was found that resonant frequencies can be considered optimal in the sense that they maximize the power transmitted to the pulsating flow at the expense of maximum dissipation.Comment: Paper accepted to be published in Phys. Rev.

An observer's view on the future of asteroseismology

Scientific research is a continuous process, and the speed of future progress can be estimated by the pace of finding explanations for previous research questions. In this observers based view of stellar pulsation and asteroseismology, we start with the earliest observations of variable stars and the techniques used to observe them. The earliest variable stars were large amplitude, radial pulsators but were followed by other classes of pulsating stars. As the field matured, we outline some cornerstones of research into pulsating star research with an emphasis on changes in observational techniques. Improvements from photographs, to photometry, CCDs, and space telescopes allowed researchers to separate out pulsating stars from other stars with light variations, recognize radial and nonradial pulsation courtesy of increased measurement precision, and then use nonradial pulsations to look inside the stars, which cannot be done any other way. We follow several highlighted problems to show that even with excellent space data, there still may not be quick theoretical explanations. As the result of technical changes, the structure of international organizations devoted to pulsating stars has changed, and an increasing number of conferences specialized to space missions or themes are held. Although there are still many unsolved problems, such as mode identification in non-asymptotic pulsating stars, the large amount of data with unprecedented precision provided by space missions (MOST, CoRoT, Kepler) and upcoming missions allow us to use asteroseismology to its full potential. However, the enormous flow of data will require new techniques to extract the science before the next missions. The future of asteroseismology will be successful if we learn from the past and improve with improved techniques, space missions, and a properly educated new generation.Comment: Review appeared in "Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Science" special issue Future of Asteroseismolog

COMPARISON OF FLOW FIELD BETWEEN STEADY AND UNSTEADY FLOW OF AN AUTOMOTIVE MIXED FLOW TURBOCHARGER TURBINE

Global decarbonizing efforts in transportation industry have forced the automotive manufacturers to opt for highly downsized high power-to-weight ratio engines. Since its invention, turbocharger remains as integral element in order to achieve this target. However, although it has been proven that a turbocharger turbine works in highly pulsatile environment, it is still designed under steady state assumption. This is due to the lack of understanding on the nature of pulsating flow field within the turbocharger turbine stage. This paper presents an effort to visualize the pulsating flow feature using experimentally validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. For this purpose, a lean-vaned mixed-flow turbine with rotational speed of 30000 rpm at 20 Hz flow frequency, which represent turbine operation for 3-cylinder 4-stroke engine operating at 800 rpm has been used. Results indicated that the introduction of pulsating flow has resulted in more irregular pattern of flow field as compared to steady flow operation. It has also been indicated that the flow behaves very differently between pressure increment and decrement instances. During the pressure decrement instance, flow blockage in terms of low pressure region occupies most of the turbine passage as the flow exit the turbine

Large Eddy Simulation of combustion instabilities in a lean partially premixed swirled flame

This paper investigates one issue related to Large Eddy Simulations (LES) of self- excited combustion instabilities in gas-fueled swirled burners: the effects of incom- plete mixing between the gas injection and the combustion chamber. For simplicity reasons, many LES assume perfect premixing of the gases entering the combustion chamber. In practice this is rarely the case and this study addresses the question by comparing LES assuming perfect premixing and LES where the fuel jets are resolved and fuel/air mixing is explicitely computed. This is done for the Preccin- sta swirled burner which has been carefully studied experimentally at DLR. All previous LES studies of Preccinsta have assumed perfect premixing and this work demonstrates that this assumption is reasonable for stable flows but is not accept- able to predict self-excited unstable cases. This is shown by comparing LES and experimental fields in terms of mean and RMS fields of temperature, species and velocities as well as mixture fraction pdfs and unsteady activity for two regimes: a stable one at equivalence ratio 0.83 and an unstable one at 0.7