Numerical Simulation of Particle Separation in An Oil-Sand Separator

The gathering systems of crude oil are greatly endangered by the fine sand and soil in oil. Up to now , how to separate sand from the viscid oil is still a technical problem for oil production home or abroad. Recently , Institute of Mechanics in Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new type of oil-sand separator , which has been applied successfully in oil field in situ. In this paper, the numerical method of vortex-stream function is used to predict the liquid-solid separating course and the efficiency for this oil-sand separator. Results show that the viscosity and particle diameter have much influence on the particle motion. The calculating separating efficiency is compared with that of experiment and indicates that this method can be used to model the complex two-phase flow in the separator.

Direct Numerical Simulation of Supersonic Turbulent Boundary Layer Flow

Direct numerical simulations of a spatially evolving supersonic flat-plate turbulent boundary layer flow with free Mach number M = 2.25 and Reynolds number Re = 365000/in are performed. The transition process from laminar to turbulent flow is obtained by solving the three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes, equations, using high-order accurate difference schemes. The obtained statistical results agree well with the experimental and theoretical data. From the numerical results it can be seen that the transition process under the considered conditions is the process which skips the Tolimien-Schlichting instability and the second instability through the instability of high gradient shear layer and becomes of laminar flow breakdown. This means that the transition process is a bypass-type transition process. The spanwise asymmetry of the disturbance locally upstream imposed is important to induce the bypass-type transition. Furthermore, with increasing the time disturbance frequency the transition will delay. When the time disturbance frequency is large enough, the transition will disappear.

Steady Current Induced Seabed Scour around a Vibrating Pipeline

Most of the existing researches either focus on vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) of a pipeline near a rigid boundary, or on seabed scour around a fixed pipeline. In this study, the coupling effects between pipeline vibration and sand scour are investigated experimentally. Experimental results indicate that there often exist two phases in the process of sand scouring around the pipeline with an initial embedment, i.e. Phase I: scour beneath pipe without VIV, and Phase II: scour with VIV of pipe. During Phase II, the amplitude of pipe vibration gets larger and its frequency gets smaller while the sand beneath the pipe is being scoured, and finally the pipe vibration and sand scour get into an equilibrium state. This indicates that sand scouring has an influence upon not only the amplitude of pipe vibration but also its frequency. Moreover, the equilibrium scour depth decreases with increasing initial gap-to-diameter ratio for both the fixed pipes and vibrating pipes. For a given value of initial gapto- diameter ratio (e0/D), the vibrating pipe may induce a deeper scour hole than the fixed pipe in the examined range of initial gap-to-diameter ratios (−0.25 < e0/D < 0.75).

DNS of Compressible Turbulent Boundary Layer Over a Blunt Wedge

Direct numerical simulation of spatially evolving compressible boundary layer over a blunt wedge is performed in this paper. The free-stream Mach number is 6 and the disturbance source produced by wall blowing and suction is located downstream of the sound-speed point. Statistics are studied and compared with the results in incompressible flat-plate boundary layer. The mean pressure gradient effects on the vortex structure are studied.

Statistics of dissipation and enstrophy induced by localized vortices

The ratios of enstrophy and dissipation moments induced by localized vorticity are inferred to be finite. It follows that the scaling exponents for locally averaged dissipation and enstrophy are equal. However, enstrophy and dissipation exponents measured over finite ranges of scales may be different. The cylindrical vortex profile that yields maximal moment ratios is determined. The moment ratios for cylindrical vortices are used to interpret differences in scale dependence of enstrophy and dissipation previously found in numerical simulations.

Control of Mean and Fluctuating Forces on a Circular Cylinder at High Reynolds Numbers

A narrow strip is used to control mean and fluctuating forces on a circular cylinder at Reynolds numbers from 2.0 x 10(4) to 1.0 x 10(5). The axes of the strip and cylinder are parallel. The control parameters are strip width ratio and strip position characterized by angle of attack and distance from the cylinder. Wind tunnel tests show that the vortex shedding from both sides of the cylinder can be suppressed, and mean drag and fluctuating lift on the cylinder can be reduced if the strip is installed in an effective zone downstream of the cylinder. A phenomenon of mono-side vortex shedding is found. The strip-induced local changes of velocity profiles in the near wake of the cylinder are measured, and the relation between base suction and peak value in the power spectrum of fluctuating lift is studied. The control mechanism is then discussed from different points of view.

High Aspect Ratio (L/D) Riser Viv Prediction Using Wake Oscillator Model

A two-dimensional (2-D) vortex-induced vibration (VIV) prediction model for high aspect ratio (LID) riser subjected to uniform and sheared flow is studied in this paper. The nonlinear structure equations are considered. The near wake dynamics describing the fluctuating nature of vortex shedding is modeled using classical van der Pol equation. A new approach was applied to calibrate the empirical parameters in the wake oscillator model. Compared the predicted results with the experimental data and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) results. Good agreements are observed. It can be concluded that the present model can be used as simple computational tool in predicting some aspects of VIV of long flexible structures. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Flow-Induced Vibrations Of A Cylinder With Two Degrees Of Freedom Near Rigid Plane Boundary

Based on similarity analyses, the flow-induced vibrations of a near-wall cylinder with 2 degrees of freedom are investigated experimentally by employing a hydroelastic apparatus in conjunction with a flume. The cylinder's vibration amplitude, vibration frequency and vortex shedding frequency were measured and analyzed. The effects of gap-to-diameter ratio (e,ID) upon the vibration responses are further investigated. The experimental results indicate that, when the reduced velocity (Vr) is small (e.g. Vr = 1.2 similar to 2.6), only streamwise vibration occurs, and its frequency is quite close to its natural frequency in still water. When increasing Vr (e.g. Vr > 3.4), both streamwise and transverse vibrations of the near-wall cylinder may occur. In the examined range of gap-to-diameter ratio (0.42 < e(0)/D < 2.68), 2 vibration stages (in terms of Vr) of streamwise vibrations usually exist: First Streamwise Vibration (FSV) and Second Streamwise Vibration (SSV). In the SSV stage, the vortex shedding frequency may either undergo a jump to that of the streamwise vibration, or stay consistent with that of the transverse vibration. The amplitudes of transverse vibration are usually much larger than those of streamwise vibration for the same value of e(0)/D. The maximum amplitudes of both streamwise and transverse vibration get larger with the increase of e(0)/D (0.42 < e(0)/D < 2.68).

An Approximate Method For Calculation Of Fluid Force And Response Of A Circular Cylinder At Lock-In

In this paper, equations calculating lift force of a rigid circular cyclinder at lock-in uniform flow are deduced in detail. Besides, equations calculating the lift force on a long flexible circular cyclinder at lock-in are deduced based on mode analysis of a multi-degree freedom system. The simplified forms of these equations are also given. Furthermore, an approximate method to predict the forces and response of rigid circular cyclinders and long flexible circular cyclinders at lock-in is introduced in the case of low mass-damping ratio. A method to eliminate one deficiency of these equations is introduced. Comparison with experimental results show the effectiveness of this approximate method.

Experimental Investigation Of Influence Of Interfacial Tension On Convection Of Two-Layer Immiscible Liquid

Benard-Marangoni convections of two-layer fluids heated from the bottom are investigated experimentally with a particle imagine velocimetry. The flows are visualized from the side, and various velocity fields near the onset of convection, such as three-layer vortex convective patterns, are observed when the depth ratio varies in a wide range. A new classification of the convective patterns is proposed with more detail than in previous studies. The analysis of the results indicates that the interface tension greatly influences the motion intensities of the bottom and top layers. The dimensionless wave number increases with the Bond number when the motion in the top layer is not more intense than that in the bottom layer, which agrees with the theoretical prediction.

Experimental Observation Of Electrical Instability Of Droplets On Dielectric Layer

Polydimethylsiloxane ( PDMS) has become the most widely used silicon-based organic polymer in bio-MEMS/NEMS devices. However, the inherent hydrophobic nature of PDMS hinders its wide applications in bio-MEMS/NEMS for efficient transport of liquids. Electrowetting is a useful tool to reduce the apparent contact angle of partially wetting conductive liquids and has been utilized widely in bio-MEMS/NEMS. Our experimental results show that the thin PDMS membranes exhibit good properties in electrowetting-on-dielectric. The electrical instability phenomenon of droplets was observed in our experiment. The sessile droplet lying on the PDMS membrane will lose its stability with the touch of the wire electrode to make the apparent contact angle change suddenly larger than 35 degrees. Contact mode can protect the dielectric layer from electrical breakdown effectively. Electrical breakdown process of dielectric layer was recorded by a high speed camera. It is found experimentally that a PDMS membrane of 4.8 mu m thick will not be destroyed due to the electric breakdown even at 800 V in the contact mode.

A Note On The Numerical Simulations Of Flow Past A Wavy Square-Section Cylinder

The flow past a square-section cylinder with a geometric disturbance is investigated by numerical simulations. The extra terms, due to the introduction of mapping transformation simulating the effect of disturbance into the transformed Navier-Stokes equations, are correctly derived, and the incorrect ones in the previous literature are pointed out and analyzed. Furthermore, the relationship between the vorticity, especially on the cylinder surface, and the disturbance is derived and explained theoretically. The computations are performed at two Reynolds numbers of 100 and 180 and three amplitudes of waviness of 0.006, 0.025 and 0.167 with another aim to explore the effects of different Reynolds numbers and disturbance on the vortex dynamics in the wake and forces on the body. Numerical results have shown that, at the mild waviness of 0.025, the Karman vortex shedding is suppressed completely for Re = 100, while the forced vortex dislocation is appeared in the near wake at the Reynolds number of 180. The drag reduction is up to 21.6% at Re = 100 and 25.7% at Re = 180 for the high waviness of 0.167 compared with the non-wavy cylinder. The lift and the Strouhal number varied with different Reynolds numbers and the wave steepness are also obtained.

VISUALIZATION RESULTS OF AXISYMMETRICAL WAKE FLOW WITH/WITHOUT ACOUSTIC EXCITATION

Visualization results demonstrate the evolution of Kelvin-Helmholtz unstable waves into vortex pairing in a separated shear layer of a blunf circular. The results with acoustic excitation are quite different from that without acoustic excitation, and the phenomenon with excitation in a separated shear layer follows the rule of Devil s staircase, which always occurs in a non-linear dynamical system of two coupling vibrators.

On separated shear layer of blunt circular cylinder

Separated shear layer of blunt circular cylinder has been experimentally investigated for the Reynolds numbers (based on the diameter) ranging from 2.8 x 10(3) to 1.0 x 10(5), with emphasis on evolution of separated shear layer, its structure and distribution of Reynolds shear stress and turbulence kinetic energy. The results demonstrate that laminar separated shear layer experiences 2 similar to 3 times vortex merging before it reattaches, and turbulence separated shear layer takes 5 similar to 6 times vortex merging. In addition, relationship between dimensionless initial frequencies of K-H instability and Reynolds numbers is identified, and reasons for the decay of turbulence kinetic energy and Reynolds shear stress in reattachment region are discussed.

MILU-CG method and the numerical study on the flow around a rotating circular cylinder

A hybrid finite difference method and vortex method (HDV), which is based on domain decomposition and proposed by the authors (1992), is improved by using a modified incomplete LU decomposition conjugate gradient method (MILU-CG), and a high order implicit difference algorithm. The flow around a rotating circular cylinder at Reynolds number R-e = 1000, 200 and the angular to rectilinear speed ratio alpha is an element of (0.5, 3.25) is studied numerically. The long-time full developed features about the variations of the vortex patterns in the wake, and drag, lift forces on the cylinder are given. The calculated streamline contours agreed well with the experimental visualized flow pictures. The existence of critical states and the vortex patterns at the states are given for the first time. The maximum lift to drag force ratio can be obtained nearby the critical states.