Search Results (18)

The placement of artificial reefs (ARs) significantly influences local hydrodynamics and nutrient transport, both of which are crucial for enhancing marine ecosystems and improving marine habitats. Large eddy simulations (LESs) are performed to study the flow field around a cuboid artificial reef (CAR) with three inflow angles ($\alpha$ = 0°, 45°, and 90°). The numerical method is successfully validated with experimental data, and a reasonable grid resolution is chosen. The results demonstrate that the case with an inflow angle of 45° exhibits superior flow field performance, including the largest recirculation bubble length and the maximum volumes for both the upwelling and wake regions. Stronger turbulence is also observed around the CAR at this inflow angle, attributed to the intensified shear layer. The instantaneous flow features torn horseshoe vortices and rollers shed from the shear layer, which further develop into hairpin vortices. Full article

The unsteady three-dimensional flow interactions in the near field of square and circular jets issued normally to a crossflow were predicted by direct numerical simulations, aiming to investigate the effect of the nozzle cross-section on the vortical structures formed in this region. The analysis focuses on jets in crossflow with moderate Reynolds numbers ($R{e}_j=200$ and $R{e}_j=300$) based on the jet velocity the characteristic length of the nozzle and low jet-to-cross-flow velocity ratios, $0.25\le R\le 1.4$, where the jets are absolutely unstable. In this regime, the flow becomes periodic and laminar, and three distinct wake flow configurations were identified: (1) symmetric shedding of hairpin vortices at $R{e}_j=200$; (2) the formation of toroidal vortices as the legs of hairpin vortices merge and the vortices roll up at $R{e}_j=300$ and $R\le 0.67$; (3) asymmetric shedding of hairpin vortices in the square jet at $R{e}_j=300$ and $R\ge 0.9$, where higher-frequency hairpin vortex shedding combines with a low-frequency spanwise oscillation in the counter-rotating vortex pair. The dynamics of each of these flow states were analyzed. Power spectral density plots show a measurable increase in the shedding frequencies in $R{e}_j=300$ jets with R, and that these frequencies are consistently larger in circular jets. Full article

Dolphin swimming has been a captivating subject, yet the dorsal fin’s hydrodynamics remain underexplored. In this study, we conducted three-dimensional simulations of flow around a wall-mounted dolphin dorsal fin derived from a real dolphin scan. The NEK5000 (spectral element method) was employed with a second-order hex20 mesh to ensure high simulation accuracy and efficiency. A total of 13 cases were simulated, covering angles of attack (AoAs) ranging from $0^{°}$ to ${60}^{°}$ and Reynolds numbers (Re) between 691 and 2000. Our results show that both drag and lift increase significantly with the AoA. Almost no vortex was observed at $\mathrm{AoA}=0^{°}$, whereas complex vortex structures emerged for $\mathrm{AoA}\ge {30}^{°}$, including half-horseshoe, hairpin, arch, and wake vortices. This study offers insights that can inform the design of next-generation underwater robots, heat exchangers, and submarine sails. Full article

The use of film cooling is crucial to avoid high metal temperatures in gas turbine applications, thus ensuring a high lifetime for vanes and blades. The complex turbulent mixing process between the coolant and the main flow requires an accurate numerical prediction to correctly estimate the impact of ejection conditions on the cooling performance. Recent developments in numerical models aim at using hybrid approaches that combine high precision with low computational cost. This paper is focused on the numerical simulation of a cylindrical film cooling hole that operates at a unitary blowing ratio, with a hot gas Mach number of ${\mathit{Ma}}_m$ = 0.6, while the coolant is characterized by plenum conditions (${\mathit{Ma}}_c$ = 0). The adopted numerical approach is the Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation model (SBES), which is a blend between a Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes approach and a modeled Large Eddy Simulation based on the local flow and mesh characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ability of the hybrid model to capture the complex mixing between the coolant and the main flow. The cooling performance of the hole is quantified through the film cooling effectiveness, the Net Heat Flux Reduction (NHFR), and the discharge coefficient $C_D$ calculation. Numerical results are compared both with the experimental data obtained by the University of Karlsruhe during the EU-funded TATEF2 project and with a Scale Adaptive Simulation (SAS) run on the same computational grid. The use of ${\lambda }_2$ profiles extracted from the flow field allows for isolating the main vortical structures such as horseshoe vortices, counter-rotating vortex pairs (e.g., kidney vortices), Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities, and hairpin vortices. Eventually, the contribution of the unsteady phenomena occurring at the hole exit section is quantified through Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Spectral Proper Orthogonal Decomposition methods (SPOD). Full article

The effects of the coolant pulsation and the plasma aerodynamic actuation (PAA) on the film cooling are herein explored via large eddy simulations. The electrohydrodynamic force derived from the PAA was solved through the phenomenological plasma model. The Strouhal number of the sinusoidal coolant pulsation and the averaged pulsation blowing ratio were 0.25 and 1.0, respectively. Comprehensive analyses were carried out on the time-averaged flow fields, and the results reveal that the pulsed cooling jet might cause a deeper penetration into the crossflow, and this phenomenon could be remarkably mitigated by the downward force of the PAA. Comparing steady film cooling to pulsed film cooling revealed a modest 15.1% reduction in efficiency, while the application of the dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuator (DBDPA) substantially enhanced the pulsed film cooling efficiency by 42.1%. Moreover, the counter-rotating vortex pair (CRVP) was enlarged and lifted off from the wall more poorly due to the coolant pulsation, and the PAA weakened the detrimental lift-off effect and entrainment of the CRVP. Then, the spatial–temporal development of the coherent structures was figured out by the alterations in the centerline temperature, reflecting the formation of the intermittent coherent structures rather than hairpin vortices due to the coolant pulsation, and their size and upcast behaviors were reduced by the PAA; thus, the turbulent integration of the coolant with the crossflow was suppressed fundamentally. Finally, the three-dimensional streamlines confirmed that the coherent structure dynamic behaviors were significantly regulated by the PAA for alleviating the adverse influences of the coolant pulsation. In summary, the PAA can effectively improve the pulsed film cooling efficiency by controlling the spatial–temporal development of the dominant coherent structures. Full article

Carotid artery diseases, such as atherosclerosis, are a major cause of death in the United States. Wall shear stresses are known to prompt plaque formation, but there is limited understanding of the complex flow structures underlying these stresses and how they differ in a pre-disposed high-risk patient cohort. A ‘healthy’ and a novel ‘pre-disposed’ carotid artery bifurcation model was determined based on patient-averaged clinical data, where the ‘pre-disposed’ model represents a pathological anatomy. Computational fluid dynamic simulations were performed using a physiological flow based on healthy human subjects. A main hairpin vortical structure in the internal carotid artery sinus was observed, which locally increased instantaneous wall shear stress. In the pre-disposed geometry, this vortical structure starts at an earlier instance in the cardiac flow cycle and persists over a much shorter period, where the second half of the cardiac cycle is dominated by perturbed secondary flow structures and vortices. This coincides with weaker favorable axial pressure gradient peaks over the sinus for the ‘pre-disposed’ geometry. The findings reveal a strong correlation between vortical structures and wall shear stress and imply that an intact internal carotid artery sinus hairpin vortical structure has a physiologically beneficial role by increasing local wall shear stresses. The deterioration of this beneficial vortical structure is expected to play a significant role in atherosclerotic plaque formation. Full article

Hydraulic pipeline transportation of a piped vehicle is a new mode of transportation with energy-saving potential and environmental protection. In order to analyze the turbulent characteristics of the flow around the piped vehicle, a large eddy simulation (LES) method was adopted to simulate the hydraulic characteristics and vortex characteristics of the flow at a Reynolds number of Re = 140,467 with diameter-to-length ratios of 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7. The results showed that the main factor that affected the gap flow velocity, the backflow area length, and the turbulence intensity was the cylinder diameter in the diameter-to-length ratio of the piped vehicle. The backflow area lengths for piped vehicles with different diameter-to-length ratios were all less than 1 D, and the axial disturbance distances were about 7.5 D. In addition, a variety of vortex structures existed in the gap flow and the rear flow areas. At the beginning of vortex development, ring vortices were generated at the front and rear ends of the cylinder body. Subsequently, the front ring vortex fell off along the cylinder body and evolved into hairpin vortices. At the same time, a reflux vortex was formed after the rear ring vortex broke away from the cylinder body, and wake vortices were generated behind the rear supports. Finally, some worm vortices were dispersed from the wake vortices. These results can further improve the theoretical system for the hydraulic pipeline transportation of piped vehicles and can provide a theoretical basis for industrial application. Full article

The exploration of superhydrophobic drag reduction has been and continues to be of significant interest to various industries. In the present work, direct numerical simulation (DNS) is utilized to investigate the effect of the parameters on the drag-reducing performance of superhydrophobic surfaces (SHS). Simulations with a friction Reynolds number of 180 were carried out at solid fraction values of ${\varphi }_s=\frac{1}{16},\frac{1}{11}$, and $\frac{1}{4}$, and three distribution shapes: aligned, staggered, and random. The top wall is the smooth one, and the bottom wall is a superhydrophobic surface (SHS). Drag reduction and Reynolds stress profiles are compared for all cases. The turbulent kinetic energy budget, including production, dissipation, and diffusion, is presented with respect to the solid fraction and type of distribution to investigate the drag reduction mechanism. The sizes of the longitudinal vortices and formation of hairpin vortices are investigated through the observation of coherent structures. The simulation of a post model is a useful method to study the drag reduction for different solid fraction values and distribution geometries. Our study demonstrates that the drag reduction could acquire 42% with the solid fraction value ${\varphi }_s=\frac{1}{16}$ and an aligned distribution shape for post superhydrophobic surface geometry. Our study also showed the relationship of the Reynolds stress component (R₁₁, R₂₂, and R₃₃) to the drag reduction with the differences in the solid fraction values and distribution geometry. In which, the R₁₁ component has the most change between an aligned distribution and a random one. The peak value of R₁₁ tends to shift away from the SHS wall. In addition, the analysis of the TKE budget over the superhydrophobic surface was performed, which can be adopted as a useful resource in turbulence modeling based on RANS methodology. Full article

The hot jet of an aero engine is one of the main radiation sources of infrared detectors in 3–5 microwave bands. Transverse jets were introduced into a hot jet to enhance mixing and reduce the infrared radiation characteristics. This proved to be a high-efficiency and low-resistance infrared suppression technology. The steady-state distribution of temperature data was simulated, which was needed in the thermal radiation calculation. The radiation characteristics were calculated based on the anti-Monte Carlo method in 3–5 microwave bands. The mechanics of enhanced mixing by a rectangular nozzle or transverse jets was investigated with the LES simulation. Compared with an axisymmetric nozzle, a rectangular nozzle induced abundant counter-rotating vortex pairs (CVP), hairpins, shears, and helical vortexes, which resulted in significant mixing enhancement and infrared radiation decrease of the hot jets. Further, circumferential transverse jets of different types were introduced downstream of the nozzle. These jets enhanced the mixing and reduced the infrared radiation in the 3–5 µm band. The mixing characteristics of these different schemes were studied in detail. Large-scale vortices formed on the windward portion of the hot jet boundary under the effect of the transverse jets, which caused strong CVP structures. They also resulted in hairpin vortexes, shear vortexes, and helical vortexes appearing earlier and occurring more frequently than with nozzles without transverse jets. The enhanced mixing caused by the transverse jets led to an increase in temperature decay and a decrease in infrared radiation in the 3–5 µm band. Further, transvers jets of different geometrical shapes (rectangular, cube, and circular schemes) achieved different mixing characteristics, and the rectangular transverse jets allowed the most significant mixing for the largest Q criterion value. Full article

A fully resolved (FR) NREL 5 MW turbine model is employed in two unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations (one with and one without the turbine tower) of a periodic atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) to study the performance of an infinitely large wind farm. The results show that the power reduction due to the tower drag is about 5% under the assumption that the driving force of the ABL is unchanged. Two additional simulations using an actuator disc (AD) model are also conducted. The AD and FR results show nearly identical tower-induced reductions of the wind speed above the wind farm, supporting the argument that the AD model is sufficient to predict the wind farm blockage effect. We also investigate the feasibility of performing delayed-detached-eddy simulations (DDES) using the same FR turbine model and periodic domain setup. The results show complex turbulent flow characteristics within the farm, such as the interaction of large-scale hairpin-like vortices with smaller-scale blade-tip vortices. The computational cost of the DDES required for a given number of rotor revolutions is found to be similar to the corresponding URANS simulation, but the sampling period required to obtain meaningful time-averaged results seems much longer due to the existence of long-timescale fluctuations. Full article

The preferential organisation of coherent vortices in a turbulent boundary layer in relation to local large-scale streamwise velocity features was investigated. Coherent vortices were identified in the wake region using the Triple Decomposition Method (originally proposed by Kolář) from 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) data of a canonical turbulent boundary layer. Two different approaches, based on conditional averaging and quantitative statistical analysis, were used to analyze the data. The large-scale streamwise velocity field was first conditionally averaged on the height of the detected coherent vortices and a change in the sign of the average large scale streamwise fluctuating velocity was seen depending on the height of the vortex core. A correlation coefficient was then defined to quantify this relationship between the height of coherent vortices and local large-scale streamwise fluctuating velocity. Both of these results indicated a strong negative correlation in the wake region of the boundary layer between vortex height and large-scale velocity. The relationship between vortex height and full large-scale velocity isocontours was also studied and a conceptual model based on the findings of the study was proposed. The results served to relate the hairpin vortex model of Adrian et al. to the scale interaction results reported by Mathis et al., and Chung and McKeon. Full article

Even though the offshore wind industry’s growth potential is immense, the offshore wind industry is still suffering from problems, such as the large initial capital requirements. Many factors are involved, and among these, the extra costs incurred by the conservative design of offshore wind energy converters can be quickly addressed at the design stage by accounting for the nonlinear destructive interaction between wind and wave loads. Even when waves approach offshore wind energy converters collinearly with the wind, waves and wind do not always make the offshore wind energy converter’s substructure deformed. These environmental loads can intermittently exert a force of resistance against deformation due to the nonlinear destructive interaction between wind and wave loads. Hence, the nonlinear destructive interaction between wave and wind loads deserves much more attention. Otherwise, a very conservative design of offshore wind energy converters will hamper the offshore wind energy industry’s development, which is already suffering from enormous initial capital expenditures. In this rationale, this study numerically simulates a 5 MW offshore wind energy converter’s structural behavior subject to wind and random waves using the dynamic structural model developed to examine the nonlinear destructive interaction between wind and wave loads. Numerical results show that the randomly fluctuating water surface as the wind blows would restrict the offshore wind energy converter’s substructure’s deflection. Nonuniform growth of the atmospheric boundary layer due to the wavy motions at the water surface as the wind blows results in a series of hairpin vortices, which lead to the development of a large eddy out of hairpin vortices swirling in the direction opposite to the incoming wind near the atmospheric boundary layer. As a result, the vertical profile of the longitudinal wind velocity is modified; the subsequent energy loss drastically weakens the wind velocity, which consequently leads to the smaller deflection of the substructure of the offshore wind energy converter by 50% when compared with that in the case of wind with gusts over a calm sea. Full article

In many practical submerged objects, various types of cavitation such as bubble, sheet, and cloud cavitation occur according to flow conditions. In spite of numerous theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies, there are still many problems to be solved such as induced noise and damage potential due to cavitation. In this paper, an experimental investigation on coherent structures and induced noise characteristics of partial cavitation on a two-dimensional hydrofoil is presented. Experiments that focused on the dynamics of cavitation clouds were conducted in a cavitation tunnel. Using high-speed visualization, the series process consisting of inception, growth, and desinence of the partial cavity was investigated. The noise generated during the process was also measured, and the correlation with the cavity pattern was examined. The results show that the periodic behavior of cavitation clouds is directly reflected in the noise characteristics. In addition, the visualization of coherent structures within the sheet and cloud cavity provides a qualitative understanding of hairpin vortices and their packets, which play a dominant role in turbulent cavitating flows. Full article

The results of flow visualization and hot-film measurement in a water channel are presented in this paper, in which the effectiveness of controlling synthetic hairpin vortices in the laminar boundary layer is examined to reduce skin friction. In this study, hairpin vortices were generated by periodically injecting vortex rings into a cross flow through a hole on a flat plate. To control the hairpin vortices, jets were issued from a nozzle directly onto the head of the hairpins. The results of the flow visualization demonstrated that the jets destroyed the hairpins by disconnecting the heads from their legs, after which the weakened hairpin vortices could not develop. Therefore, the circulation around the legs was reduced, which suggests that the direct intervention on the hairpin heads resulted in the reduction of streamwise stretching. Data obtained by a hot-film sensor showed that the high-speed regions outside the hairpin legs were reduced in speed by this control technique, leading to a decrease in the associated local skin friction. Full article

Low- and high-speed streaks (ejection, Q2, and sweep, Q4, events in quadrant analysis) are significant features of coherent structures in turbulent flow. Streak formation is closely related to turbulent structures in several vortex models, such as attached eddy models, streamwise vortex analysis models, and hairpin vortex models, which are all standard models. Vortex models are complex, whereby the relationships among the different vortex models are unclear; thus, further studies are still needed to complete our understanding of vortices. In this study, 30 sets of direct numerical simulation (DNS) data were obtained to analyze the mechanics of the formation of coherent structures. Image processing techniques and statistical analysis were used to identify and quantify streak characteristics. We used a method of vortex recognition to extract spanwise vortices in the x–z plane. Analysis of the interactions among coherent structures showed that the three standard vortex models all gave reasonably close results. The attached eddy vortex model provides a good explanation of the linear dimensions of streaky structures with respect to the water depth and Q2 and Q4 events, whereby it can be augmented to form the quasi-streamwise vortex model. The legs of a hairpin vortex envelop low-speed streaky structures and so move in the streamwise direction; lower-velocity vortex legs also gradually accumulate into a streamwise vortex. Statistical analysis allowed us to combine our present results with some previous research results to propose a mechanism for the formation of streaky structures. This study provides a deeper understanding of the interrelationships among different vortex models. Full article