Behavior of spherical particles at low Reynolds numbers in a fluctuating translational flow

The behavior of spheres in non-steady translational flow has been studied experimentally for values of Reynolds number from 0.2 to 3000. The aim of the work was to improve our qualitative understanding of particle transport in turbulent gaseous media, a process of extreme importance in power plants and energy transfer mechanisms.

Particles, subjected to sinusoidal oscillations parallel to the direction of steady translation, were found to have changes in average drag coefficient depending upon their translational Reynolds number, the density ratio, and the dimensionless frequency and amplitude of the oscillations. When the Reynolds number based on sphere diameter was less than 200, the oscillation had negligible effect on the average particle drag.

For Reynolds numbers exceeding 300, the coefficient of the mean drag was increased significantly in a particular frequency range. For example, at a Reynolds number of 3000, a 25 per cent increase in drag coefficient can be produced with an amplitude of oscillation of only 2 per cent of the sphere diameter, providing the frequency is near the frequency at which vortices would be shed in a steady flow at the mean speed. Flow visualization shows that over a wide range of frequencies, the vortex shedding frequency locks in to the oscillation frequency. Maximum effect at the natural frequency and lock-in show that a non-linear interaction between wake vortex shedding and the oscillation is responsible for the increase in drag.

Combinatorial properties of finite geometric lattices

Let L be a finite geometric lattice of dimension n, and let w(k) denote the number of elements in L of rank k. Two theorems about the numbers w(k) are proved: first, w(k) ≥ w(1) for k = 2, 3, ..., n-1. Second, w(k) = w(1) if and only if k = n-1 and L is modular. Several corollaries concerning the "matching" of points and dual points are derived from these theorems.

Both theorems can be regarded as a generalization of a theorem of de Bruijn and Erdös concerning ʎ= 1 designs. The second can also be considered as the converse to a special case of Dilworth's theorem on finite modular lattices.

These results are related to two conjectures due to G. -C. Rota. The "unimodality" conjecture states that the w(k)'s form a unimodal sequence. The "Sperner" conjecture states that a set of non-comparable elements in L has cardinality at most max/k {w(k)}. In this thesis, a counterexample to the Sperner conjecture is exhibited.