Experimental Validation of Improving Aircraft Rolling Power Using Piezoelectric Actuators

Piezoelectric actuators are mounted on both sides of a rectangular wing model. Possibility of the improvement of aircraft rolling power is investigated. All experiment projects, including designing the wind tunnel model, checking the material constants, measuring the natural frequencies and checking the effects of actuators, guarantee the correctness and precision of the finite element model. The wind tunnel experiment results show that the calculations coincide with the experiments. The feasibility of fictitious control surface is validated.

Experimental Study on Flow and Sediment Movement in Cavity Circulations

This paper reports a flume experiment of flow and sediment movement in a cavity. The flow velocity, sediment concentration and the mechanism of hydraulic sorting in the circulation flow are discussed. The quantity and patterns of sediment deposition in the circulation area are studied as well.

Experimental Study on Thermocapillary Convection

In the present paper, the experimental studies on thermocapillary convection are reviewed. The author's interest is mainly focused on the onset of oscillatory thermocapillary convection, the features of oscillatory flow pattern, and the critical Marangoni number related with temperature and free surface oscillation. The coordinated measurement in a microgravity environment of a drop shaft is also addressed.

Experimental study on pore pressure in rock-soil slope during reservoir water level fluctuation

A test system was developed for measuring the pore pressure in porous media, and a new model was devised for the pore pressure testing in both saturated and unsaturated rock-soil. Laboratory experiments were carried out to determine the pore pressure during water level fluctuation. The variations of transient pore pressure vs. time at different locations of the simulated rock-soil system were acquired and processed, and meanwhile the deformation and failure of the model are observed. The experiment results show that whether the porous media are saturated or not, the transient pore pressure is mainly dependent on the water level fluctuation, and coupled with the variation of the stress field.

Experimental investigation on the chaotic phenomena in the wake of a natural thermal convection flow

Chaotic phenomena in the wake of thermal convection flow fields above a heating flat plate were investigated experimentally. A newly developed electron beam fluorescence technique (EBF) was used to simultaneously measure density fluctuation at 7 points in a cross section above the plate. Correlation dimensions, intermittence coefficients, Fourier spectrum have been obtained for different Grashof numbers. Spatial distribution of correlation dimensions are presented. The experimental result shows that there is a certain relationship between the density fluctuation and the Gr number. And time-spacial characteristic of chaos evolution is also given.

Experimental Study on the Transition Process to the Oscillatory Thermocapillary Convections in a Floating Half Zone

The transition process of the thermocapillary convection from a steady and axisymmetric mode to the oscillatory mode in a liquid bridge with a fixed aspect ratio and varied volume ratio was studied experimentally. To ensure the surface tension to play an important role in the ground-based experiment, the geometrical configuration of the liquid bridge was so designed that the associated dynamic Bond number Bd ≈ 1. The velocity fields were measured by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique to effectively distinguish the different flow modes during the transition period in the experiments. Our experiments showed that as the temperature difference increased the slender and fat bridges presented quite different features on the evolution in their flow feature: for the former the thermocapillary convection transformed from a steady and axisymmetric pattern directly into an oscillatory one; but for the latter a transition flow status, characterized by an axial asymmetric steady convection, appeared before reaching the oscillatory mode. Experimental observations agree with the results of numerical simulations and it is obvious that the volume of liquid bridge is a sensitive geometric parameter. In addition, at the initial stage of the oscillation, for the former a rotating oscillatory convection with azimuthal wave number m = 1 was observed while for the latter a pulsating oscillatory pattern with azimuthal wave number m = 2 emerged, and then with further increase of the temperature difference, the pulsating oscillatory convection with azimuthal wave number m = 2 evolved into a rotating oscillatory pattern with azimuthal wave number m = 2.

Predictions for Partial-Dislocation-Mediated Processes in Nanocrystalline Ni by Generalized Planar Fault Energy Curves: An Experimental Evaluation

Generalized planar fault energy (GPFE) curves have been used to predict partial-dislocation-mediated processes in nanocrystalline materials, but their validity has not been evaluated experimentally. We report experimental observations of a large quantity of both stacking faults and twins in nc Ni deformed at relatively low stresses in a tensile test. The experimental findings indicate that the GPFE curves can reasonably explain the formation of stacking faults, but they alone were not able to adequately predict the propensity of deformation twinning.

Experimental Study on Vortex-Induced Vibrations of Submarine Pipeline Near Seabed Boundary in Ocean Currents

Unlike most previous studies on vortex- induced vibrations of a cylinder far from a boundary, this paper focuses On the influences of close proximity of a submarine pipeline to a rigid seabed boundary upon the dynamic responses of the pipeline in ocean currents. The effects of gap-to-diameter ratio and those of the stability parameter on the amplitude and frequency responses of a pipeline are investigated experimentally with a novel hydro-elastic facility. A comparison is made between the present experimental results Of the amplitude and frequency responses for the pipes with seabed boundary effects and those for wall-free cylinders given by Govardhan and Williamson (2000) and Anand ( 1985). The comparison shows that the close proximity of a pipeline to seabed has much influence on the vortex- induced vibrations of the pipeline. Both the width of the lock-in ranges in terms of V, and the dimensionless amplitude ratio A(max)/D become larger with the decrease of the gap-to-diameter ratio e/D. Moreover, the vibration of the pipeline becomes easier to occur and its amplitude response becomes more intensive with the decrease of the stability parameter, while the pipeline frequency responses are affected slightly by the stability parameter.

Experimental Study on the Thermal Argon Plasma Generation and Jet Length Change Characteristics at Atmospheric Pressure

The generation, jet length and flow-regime change characteristics of argon plasma issuing into ambient air have been experimentally examined. Different torch structures have been used in the tests. Laminar plasma jets can be generated within a rather wide range of working-gas flow rates, and an unsteady transitional flow state exists between the laminar and turbulent flow regimes. The high-temperature region length of the laminar plasma jet can be over an order longer than that of the turbulent plasma jet and increases with increasing argon flow rate or arc current, while the jet length of the turbulent plasma is less influenced by the generating parameters. The flow field of the plasma jet has very high radial gradients of plasma parameters, and a Reynolds number alone calculated in the ordinary manner may not adequately serve as a criterion for transition. The laminar plasma jet can have a higher velocity than that of an unsteady or turbulent jet. The long laminar plasma jet has good stiffness to withstand the impact of laterally injected cold gas and particulate matter. It could be used as a rather ideal object for fundamental studies and be applied to novel materials processing due to its attractive stable and adjustable properties.

An Experimental Study of Kerosene Combustion in a Supersonic Model Combustor Using Effervescent Atomization

Investigation of kerosene combustion in a Mach 2.5 flow was carried out using a model supersonic combustor with cross-section area of 51 mm × 70 mm and different integrated fuel injector/flameholder cavity modules. Experiments with pure liquid atomization and with effervescent atomization were characterized and compared. Direct photography, Schlieren imaging, and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging of OH radical were utilized to examine the cavity characteristics and spray structure. Schlieren images illustrate the effectiveness of gas barbotage in facilitating atomization and the importance of secondary atomization when kerosene sprays interacting with a supersonic crossflow. OH PLIF images further substantiate our previous finding that there exists a local high-temperature radical pool within the cavity flameholder, and this radical pool plays a crucial role in promoting kerosene combustion in a supersonic combustor. Under the same operation conditions, comparison of the measured static pressure distributions along the combustor also shows that effervescent atomization generally leads to better combustion performance than the use of pure liquid atomization. Furthermore, the present results demonstrate that the cavity characteristics can be different in non-reacting and reacting supersonic flows. As such, the conventional definition of cavity characteristics based on non-reacting flows needs to be revised.

Experimental Study on Fluctuation Characteristics of Laminar/Turbulent Plasma Jets

应用电压传感器、光电倍增管及水冷皮托管，对产生射入空气中的纯氩层流和湍流等离子体射流的弧电压波动、发生器出口处的射流光强波动以及沿射流轴线的滞止压力波动进行了测量。结果显示层流等离子体射流各参数的波动幅度远小于湍流射流的对应值；弧电压的波动幅度随气流量的变化明显，但随电流的变化很小；弧电压的波动幅度与其平均值之比随电流增加呈下降的趋势。

Experimental study on two-phase gas-liquid flow patterns at normal and reduced gravity conditions

Experimental studies have been performed for horizontal two-phase air-water flows at normal and reduced gravity conditions in a square cross-section channel. The experiments at reduced gravity are conducted on board the Russian IL-76 reduced gravity airplane. Four flow patterns, namely bubble, slug, slug-annular transition and annular flows, are observed depending on the liquid and gas superficial velocities at both conditions. Semi-theoretical Weber number model is developed to include the shape influence on the slug-annular transition. It is shown that its prediction is in reasonable agreement with the experimental slug-annular transition under both conditions. For the case of two-phase gas-liquid flow with large value of the Froude number, the drift-flux model can predict well the observed boundary between bubble and slug flows.

Experimental Investigation and Numerical Simulation on the Effect of Fissure Water Pressure in Vertical Sliding Surface

This paper studies the effect of fissure water pressure in different fractures on the critical angle of landslide by laboratory investigation and numerical simulation in order to understand the mechanisms of fissure water pressure on landslide stability. Laboratory observations show that the effect of fissure water pressure on the critical angle of landslide is little when the distance between water-holding fracture and slope toe is three times greater than the depth of fissure water. These experimental results are also simulated by a three-dimensional face-to-face contact discrete element method. This method has included the fissure water pressure and can accurately calculate the critical angle of jointed slope when fissure water pressure in vertical sliding surface exists. Numerical results are in good agreement with experimental observations. It is revealed that the location of water-holding structural surface is important to landslide stability. The ratio of the distance between water-holding fissure and slope toe to the depth of fissure water is a key parameter to justify the effect of fissure water pressure on the critical angle of landslide.

Experimental Study on Benard-Marangoni Convection by PIV and TCL

An experimental investigation of Benard-Marangoni convection has been performed in double immiscible liquid layers of rectangular configuration. The two kinds of liquid are 10cst silicon oil and FC-70 respectively. The velocity fields in the vertical cross-section are obtained by PIV. Flow patterns and/or temperature distributions on the horizontal interface are displayed by using thermal color liquid crystal (TLC), and the velocity distributions on the interface were also obtained with the help of the serial particle image of TCL. The evolution processes of convection are observed in the differential thickness ratio of two liquid layers, and the convection styles are discussed.