Continuous spectrum growth and modal instability in swirling duct flow

We present results on the stability of compressible inviscid swirling flows in an annular duct. Such flows are present in aeroengines, for example in the by-pass duct, and there are also similar flows in many aeroacoustic or aeronautical applications. The linearised Euler equations have a ('critical layer') singularity associated with pure convection of the unsteady disturbance by the mean flow, and we focus our attention on this region of the spectrum. By considering the critical layer singularity, we identify the continuous spectrum of the problem and describe how it contributes to the unsteady field. We find a very generic family of instability modes near to the continuous spectrum, whose eigenvalue wavenumbers form an infinite set and accumulate to a point in the complex plane. We study this accumulation process asymptotically, and find conditions on the flow to support such instabilities. It is also found that the continuous spectrum can cause a new type of instability, leading to algebraic growth with an exponent determined by the mean flow, given in the analysis. The exponent of algebraic growth can be arbitrarily large. Numerical demonstrations of the continuous spectrum instability, and also the modal instabilities are presented.

Large eddy simulations for fan-OGV broadband noise prediction

The work in this paper forms part of a project on the use of large eddy simulation (LES) for broadband rotor-stator interaction noise prediction. Here we focus on LES of the flow field near a fan blade trailing edge. The first part of the paper aims to evaluate LES suitability for predicting the near-field velocity field for a blunt NACA-0012 airfoil at moderate Reynolds numbers (2× 10 5 and 4× 10 5). Preliminary computations of turbulent mean and root-mean-square velocities, as well as energy spectra at the trailing edge, are compared with those from a recent experiment.1 The second part of the paper describes preliminary progress on an LES calculation of the fan wakes on a fan rig. 2 The CFD code uses a mixed element unstructured mesh with a median dual control volume. A wall-adapting local eddy-viscosity sub-grid scale model is employed. A very small amount of numerical dissipation is added in the numerical scheme to keep the compressible solver stable. Further results for the fan turbulentmean and RMS velocity, and especially the aeroacoustics field will be presented at a later stage. Copyright © 2008 by Qinling LI, Nigel Peake & Mark Savill.

Generation and scattering of sound in vortical flow

We present solutions to scattering problems for unsteady disturbances to a mean swirling flow in an annular duct with a rigid 'splitter'. This situation has application to rotor-stator interaction noise in aeroengines, where the flow downstream of the fan is swirling and bifurcates into the by-pass duct and the engine core. We also consider the trailing edge extension of this problem. Inviscid mean flow in a cylindrical annulus is considered, with both axial and swirling (azimuthal) velocity components. The presence of vorticity in the mean flow couples the acoustic and vorticity modes of irrotational flow. Instead we have one combined spectrum of acoustic-vorticity waves in which the 'sonic' and 'nearly-convected' modes are fully coupled. In addition to the aeroacoustics application the results offer insight into the behaviour of these acoustic-vorticity waves, and the precise nature of the coupling between the two types of mode. Two regimes are discussed in which progress has been made, one for a specialised mean flow, uniform axial flow and rigid body swirl, and a second regime in which the frequency is assumed large, valid for any axisymmetric mean flow. The Wiener-Hopf technique is used to solve the scattering problems mathematically, and we present numerical evaluations of these solutions. Several new effects are seen to arise due to the mean vorticity, in particular the generation of sound at a trailing edge due to the scattering of a nearly convected disturbance, in contrast to the way a convected gust silently passes a trailing edge in uniform mean flow.

Low-temperature (≤600 °C) semi-insulating oxygen-doped silicon films by the PECVD technique for large-area power applications

This work describes the deposition, annealing and characterisation of semi-insulating oxygen-doped silicon films at temperatures compatible with polysilicon circuitry on glass. The semi-insulating layers are deposited by the plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition technique from silane (SiH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and helium (He) gas mixtures at a temperature of 350 °C. The as-deposited films are then furnace annealed at 600 °C which is the maximum process temperature. Raman analysis shows the as-deposited and annealed films to be completely amorphous. The most important deposition variable is the N2O SiH4 gas ratio. By varying the N2O SiH4 ratio the conductivity of the annealed films can be accurately controlled, for the first time, down to a minimum of ≈10-7Ω-1cm-1 where they exhibit a T -1 4 temperature dependence indicative of a hopping conduction mechanism. Helium dilution of the reactant gases is shown to improve both film uniformity and reproducibility. A model for the microstructure of these semi-insulating amorphous oxygen-doped silicon films is proposed to explain the observed physical and electrical properties. © 1995.

Low temperature (≤ 600°C) semi-insulating oxygen-doped silicon films by the PECVD technique for large area power applications

This work describes the annealing and characterisation of semi-insulating oxygen-doped silicon films deposited by the Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD) technique from silane (SiH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and helium (He) gas mixtures. The maximum process temperature is chosen to be compatible with large area polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) circuitry on glass. The most important deposition variable is shown to be the N2O SiH4 gas ratio. Helium dilution results in improved film uniformity and reproducibility. Raman analysis shows the 'as-deposited' and annealed films to be completely amorphous. A model for the microstructure of these Semi-Insulating Amorphous Oxygen-doped Silicon (SIAOS) films is proposed to explain the observed physical and electrical properties. © 1995.

A Lagrangian for von Karman Equations of Large Deflection Problem of Thin Circular Plate

By the semi-inverse method proposed by He, a Lagrangian is established for the large deflection problem of thin circular plate. Ritz method is used to obtain an approximate analytical solution of the problem. First order approximate solution is obtained, which is similar to those in open literature. By Mathematica a more accurate solution can be deduced.

The Hydrothermal Wave Of Large-Prandtl-Number Fluid In A Shallow Cavity

The hydrothermal wave was investigated numerically for large-Prandtl-number fluid (Pr = 105.6) in a shallow cavity with different heated sidewalls. The traveling wave appears and propagates in the direction opposite to the surface flow (upstream) in the case of zero gravity when the applied temperature difference grows and over the critical value. The phase relationships of the disturbed velocity, temperature and pressure demonstrate that the traveling wave is driven by the disturbed temperature, which is named hydrothermal wave. The hydrothermal wave is so weak that the oscillatory flow field and temperature distribution can hardly be observed in the liquid layer. The exciting mechanism of hydrothermal wave is analyzed and discussed in the present paper.

Receptivity To Free-Stream Disturbance Waves For Hypersonic Flow Over A Blunt Cone

A high-order shock-fitting finite difference scheme is studied and used to do direction numerical simulation (DNS) of hypersonic unsteady flow over a blunt cone with fast acoustic waves in the free stream, and the receptivity problem in the blunt cone hypersonic boundary layers is studied. The results show that the acoustic waves are the strongest disturbance in the blunt cone hypersonic boundary layers. The wave modes of disturbance in the blunt cone boundary layers are first, second, and third modes which are generated and propagated downstream along the wall. The results also show that as the frequency decreases, the amplitudes of wave modes of disturbance increase, but there is a critical value. When frequency is over the critial value, the amplitudes decrease. Because of the discontinuity of curvature along the blunt cone body, the maximum amplitudes as a function of frequencies are not monotone.

Large Scale Fabrication Of Periodical Bowl-Like Micropatterns Of Single Crystal Zno

Nanostructured ZnO materials are of great significance for their potential applications in photoelectronic devices, light-emitting displays, catalysis and gas sensors. In this paper, we report a new method to produce large area periodical bowl-like micropatterns of single crystal ZnO through aqueous-phase epitaxial growth on a ZnO single crystal substrate. A self-assembled monolayer of polystyrene microspheres was used as a template to confine the epitaxial growth of single crystal ZnO from the substrate, while the growth morphology was well controlled by citrate anions. Moreover, it was found that the self-assembled monolayer of colloidal spheres plays an important role in reduction of the defect density in the epitaxial ZnO layer. Though the mechanism is still open for further investigation, the present result indicates a new route to suppress the dislocations in the fabrication of single crystal ZnO film. A predicable application of this new method is for the fabrication of two-dimensional photonic crystal structures on light emitting diode surfaces.

Large Scale Numerical Simulations For Multi-Phase Fluid Dynamics With Moving Interfaces

This short communication presents our recent studies to implement numerical simulations for multi-phase flows on top-ranked supercomputer systems with distributed memory architecture. The numerical model is designed so as to make full use of the capacity of the hardware. Satisfactory scalability in terms of both the parallel speed-up rate and the size of the problem has been obtained on two high rank systems with massively parallel processors, the Earth Simulator (Earth simulator research center, Yokohama Kanagawa, Japan) and the TSUBAME (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan) supercomputers.