No Arabic abstract
Spark plasma discharges induce vortex rings and a hot gas kernel. We develop a model to describe the late stage of the spark induced flow and the role of the vortex rings in the entrainment of cold ambient gas and the cooling of the hot gas kernel. The model is tested in a plasma-induced flow, using density and velocity measurements obtained from simultaneous stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (S-PIV) and background oriented schlieren (BOS). We show that the spatial distribution of the hot kernel follows the motion of the vortex rings, whose radial expansion increases with the electrical energy deposited during the spark discharge. The vortex ring cooling model establishes that entrainment in the convective cooling regime is induced by the vortex rings and governs the cooling of the hot gas kernel, and the rate of cooling increases with the electrical energy deposited during the spark discharge.
Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow induced by planar corona discharge in the wall boundary layer region is investigated experimentally and via a multiphysics computational model. The EHD phenomena has many potential engineering applications, its optimization requires a mechanistic understanding of the ion and flow transport. The corona EHD actuator consisting of two electrodes located in the wall boundary layer creates an EHD driven wall jet. The applied voltage between the electrodes is varied and the resulting effects in the charge density and flow field are measured. Constant current hotwire anemometry is used to measure velocity profile. The airflow near the wall acts a jet and it reaches a maximum of 1.7 m/s with an energy conversion efficiency of ~2%. The velocity decreases sharply in the normal direction. Multiphysics numerical model couples ion transport equation and the Navier Stokes equations to solve for the spatiotemporal distribution of electric field, charge density and flow field. The numerical results match experimental data shedding new insights into mass, charge and momentum transport phenomena. The EHD driven flow can be applied to flow control strategies and design of novel particle collectors.
For a limited set of impact conditions, a drop impacting onto a pool can entrap an air bubble as large as its own size. The subsequent rise and rupture of this large bubble plays an important role in aerosol formation and gas transport at the air-sea interface. The large bubble is formed when the impact crater closes up near the pool surface and is known to occur only for drops which are prolate at impact. Herein we use experiments and numerical simulations to show that a concentrated vortex ring, produced in the neck between the drop and pool, controls the crater deformations and pinch-off. However, it is not the strongest vortex rings which are responsible for the large bubbles, as they interact too strongly with the pool surface and self-destruct. Rather, it is somewhat weaker vortices which can deform the deeper craters, which manage to pinch off the large bubbles. These observations also explain why the strongest and most penetrating vortex rings emerging from drop impacts, are not produced by oblate drops but by more prolate drop shapes, as had been observed in previous experiments.
An electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow in a point-to-ring corona configuration is investigated experimentally, analytically and via a multiphysics numerical model. The interaction between the accelerated ions and the neutral gas molecules is modeled as an external body force in the Navier-Stokes equation (NSE). The gas flow characteristics are solved from conservation principles with spectral methods. The analytical and numerical simulation results are compared against experimental measurements of the cathode voltage, ion concentration, and velocity profiles. A nondimensional parameter, X, is formulated as the ratio of the local electric force to the inertial term in the NSE. In the region of X > 1, the electric force dominates the flow dynamics, while in the X << 1 region, the balance of viscous and inertial terms yields traditional pipe flow characteristics.
We study entrainment in dry thermals in neutrally and unstably stratified ambients, and moist thermals in dry-neutrally stratified ambients using direct numerical simulations (DNS). We find, in agreement with results of Lecoanet and Jeevanjee [1] that turbulence plays a minor role in entrainment in dry thermals in a neutral ambient for Reynolds numbers $Re < 10^4$ . We then show that the net entrainment rate increases when the buoyancy of the thermals increases, either by condensation heating or because of an unstably stratified ambient. This is in contrast with the findings of Morrison et al. [2]. We also show that the role of turbulence is greater in these cases than in dry thermals and, significantly, that the combined action of condensation heating and turbulence creates intense small scale vorticity, destroying the vortex ring that is seen in dry and moist laminar thermals. These findings suggest that fully resolved simulations at Reynolds numbers significantly larger than the mixing transition Reynolds number $Re = 10^4$ are necessary to understand the role of turbulence in the entrainment in growing cumulus clouds, which consist of a series of thermals rising and decaying in succession.
We explore the velocity fluctuations in a fluid due to a dilute suspension of randomly-distributed vortex rings at moderate Reynolds number, for instance those generated by a large colony of jellyfish. Unlike previous analysis of velocity fluctuations associated with gravitational sedimentation or suspensions of microswimmers, here the vortices have a finite lifetime and are constantly being produced. We find that the net velocity distribution is similar to that of a single vortex, except for the smallest velocities which involve contributions from many distant vortices; the result is a truncated $5/3$-stable distribution with variance (and mean energy) linear in the vortex volume fraction $phi$. The distribution has an inner core with a width scaling as $phi^{3/5}$, then long tails with power law $|u|^{-8/3}$, and finally a fixed cutoff (independent of $phi$) above which the probability density scales as $|u|^{-5}$, where $u$ is a component of the velocity. We argue that this distribution is robust in the sense that the distribution of any velocity fluctuations caused by random forces localized in space and time has the same properties, except possibly for a different scaling after the cutoff.