A comparison of winter pre-heating requirements for natural displacement and natural mixing ventilation

In winter, natural ventilation can be achieved either through mixing ventilation or upward displacement ventilation (P.F. Linden, The fluid mechanics of natural ventilation, Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 31 (1999) pp. 201-238). We show there is a significant energy saving possible by using mixing ventilation, in the case that the internal heat gains are significant, and illustrate these savings using an idealized model, which predicts that with internal heat gains of order 0.1 kW per person, mixing ventilation uses of a fraction of order 0.2-0.4 of the heat load of displacement ventilation assuming a well-insulated building. We then describe a strategy for such mixing natural ventilation in an atrium style building in which the rooms surrounding the atrium are able to vent directly to the exterior and also through the atrium to the exterior. The results are motivated by the desire to reduce the energy burden in large public buildings such as hospitals, schools or office buildings centred on atria. We illustrate a strategy for the natural mixing ventilation in order that the rooms surrounding the atrium receive both pre-heated but also sufficiently fresh air, while the central atrium zone remains warm. We test the principles with some laboratory experiments in which a model air chamber is ventilated using both mixing and displacement ventilation, and compare the energy loads in each case. We conclude with a discussion of the potential applications of the approach within the context of open plan atria type office buildings.

Reliable Validation Based on Optical Flow Visualization for CFD Simulations

A reliable validation based on the optical flow visualization for numerical simulations of complex flowfields is addressed in this paper. Several test cases, including two-dimensional, axisymmetric and three-dimensional flowfields, were presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the validation and gain credibility of numerical solutions of complex flowfields. In the validation, images of these flowfields were constructed from numerical results based on the principle of the optical flow visualization, and compared directly with experimental interferograms. Because both experimental and numerical results are of identical physical representation, the agreement between them can be evaluated effectively by examining flow structures as well as checking discrepancies in density. The study shows that the reliable validation can be achieved by using the direct comparison between numerical and experiment results without any loss of accuracy in either of them.

Curvature and wrinkling of premixed flame Kernels comparison between planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) and 3D direct numerical simulations (DNS)

A direct comparison between time resolved PLIF measurements of OH and two dimensional slices from a full three dimensional DNS data set of turbulent premixed flame kernels in lean methane/air mixture was presented. The local flame structure and the degree of flame wrinkling were examined in response to differing turbulence intensities and turbulent Reynolds numbers. Simulations were performed using the SEGA DNS code, which is based on the solution of the compressible Navier Stokes, species, and energy equations for a lean hydrocarbon mixture. For the OH PLIF measurements, a cluster of four Nd:YAG laser was fired sequentially at high repetition rates and used to pump a dye laser. The frequency doubled laser beam was formed into a sheet of 40 mm height using a cylindrical telescope. The combination of PLIF and DNS has been demonstrated as a powerful tool for flame analysis. This research will form the basis for the development of sub-grid-scale (SGS) models for LES of lean-premixed combustion systems such as gas turbines. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 30th International Symposium on Combustion (Chicago, IL 7/25-30/2004).

Comparison of constructions of irregular Gallager codes

The low-density parity check codes whose performance is closest to the Shannon limit are `Gallager codes' based on irregular graphs. We compare alternative methods for constructing these graphs and present two results. First, we find a `super-Poisson' construction which gives a small improvement in empirical performance over a random construction. Second, whereas Gallager codes normally take N2 time to encode, we investigate constructions of regular and irregular Gallager codes that allow more rapid encoding and have smaller memory requirements in the encoder. We find that these `fast encoding' Gallager codes have equally good performance.

Comparison Of Shear Banding In Bmgs Due To Thermal-Softening And Free Volume Creation

This paper reports a comparative study of shear banding in BMGs resulting from thermal softening and free volume creation. Firstly, the effects of thermal softening and free volume creation on shear instability are discussed. It is known that thermal softening governs thermal shear banding, hence it is essentially energy related. However, compound free volume creation is the key factor to the other instability, though void-induced softening seems to be the counterpart of thermal softening. So, the driving force for shear instability owing to free volume creation is very different from the thermally assisted one. In particular, long wave perturbations are always unstable owing to compound free volume creation. Therefore, the shear instability resulting from coupled compound free volume creation and thermal softening may start more like that due to free volume creation. Also, the compound free volume creation implies a specific and intrinsic characteristic growth time of shear instability. Finally, the mature shear band width is governed by the corresponding diffusions (thermal or void diffusion) within the band. As a rough guide, the dimensionless numbers: Thermal softening related number B, Deborah number (denoting the relation of instability growth rate owing to compound free volume and loading time) and Lewis number (denoting the competition of different diffusions) show us their relative importance of thermal softening and free volume creation in shear banding. All these results are of particular significance in understanding the mechanism of shear banding in bulk metallic glasses (BMGs).

Energy Principle And Nonlinear Electric-Mechanical Behavior Of Ferroelectric Ceramics

Many experimental observations have shown that a single domain in a ferroelectric material switches by progressive movement of domain walls, driven by a combination of electric field and stress. The mechanism of the domain switch involves the following steps: initially, the domain has a uniform spontaneous polarization; new domains with the reverse polarization direction nucleate, mainly at the surface, and grow though the crystal thickness; the new domain expands sideways as a new domain continues to form; finally, the domain switch coalesces to complete the polarization reversal. According to this mechanism, the volume fraction of the domain switching is introduced in the constitutive law of the ferroelectric material and used to study the nonlinear constitutive behavior of a ferroelectric body in this paper. The principle of stationary total potential energy is put forward in which the basic unknown quantities are the displacement u(i), electric displacement D-i and volume fraction rho(I) of the domain switching for the variant I. The mechanical field equation and a new domain switching criterion are obtained from the principle of stationary total potential energy. The domain switching criterion proposed in this paper is an expansion and development of the energy criterion established by Hwang et al. [ 1]. Based on the domain switching criterion, a set of linear algebraic equations for determining the volume fraction rho(I) of domain switching is obtained, in which the coefficients of the linear algebraic equations only contain the unknown strain and electric fields. If the volume fraction rho(I) of domain switching for each domain is prescribed, the unknown displacement and electric potential can be obtained based on the conventional finite element procedure. It is assumed that a domain switches if the reduction in potential energy exceeds a critical energy barrier. According to the experimental results, the energy barrier will strengthen when the volume fraction of the domain switching increases. The external mechanical and electric loads are increased step by step. The volume fraction rho(I) of domain switching for each element obtained from the last loading step is used as input to the constitutive equations. Then the strain and electric fields are calculated based on the conventional finite element procedure. The finite element analysis is carried out on the specimens subjected to uniaxial coupling stress and electric field. Numerical results and available experimental data are compared and discussed. The present theoretic prediction agrees reasonably with the experimental results.

Comparison Between Lurr And State Vector Analysis Before Strong Earthquakes In Southern California Since 1980

There are seven strong earthquakes with M >= 6.5 that occurred in southern California during the period from 1980 to 2005. In this paper, these earthquakes were studied by the LURR (Load/Unload Response Ratio) method and the State Vector method to detect if there are anomalies before them. The results show that LURR anomalies appeared before 6 earthquakes out of 7 and State Vector anomalies appeared before all 7 earthquakes. For the LURR method, the interval between maximum LURR value and the forthcoming earthquake is 1 to 19 months, and the dominant mean interval is about 10.7 months. For the State Vector method, the interval between the maximum modulus of increment State Vector and the forthcoming earthquake is from 3 to 27 months, but the dominant mean interval between the occurrence time of the maximum State Vector anomaly and the forthcoming earthquake is about 4.7 months. The results also show that the minimum valid space window scale for the LURR and the State Vector is a circle with a radius of 100 km and a square of 3 degrees 3 degrees, respectively. These results imply that the State Vector method is more effective for short-term earthquake prediction than the LURR method, however the LURR method is more effective for location prediction than the State Vector method.

Comparison Of The Quasi-Static Method And The Dynamic Method For Simulating Fracture Processes In Concrete

Concrete is heterogeneous and usually described as a three-phase material, where matrix, aggregate and interface are distinguished. To take this heterogeneity into consideration, the Generalized Beam (GB) lattice model is adopted. The GB lattice model is much more computationally efficient than the beam lattice model. Numerical procedures of both quasi-static method and dynamic method are developed to simulate fracture processes in uniaxial tensile tests conducted on a concrete panel. Cases of different loading rates are compared with the quasi-static case. It is found that the inertia effect due to load increasing becomes less important and can be ignored with the loading rate decreasing, but the inertia effect due to unstable crack propagation remains considerable no matter how low the loading rate is. Therefore, an unrealistic result will be obtained if a fracture process including unstable cracking is simulated by the quasi-static procedure.

Energy principle of ferroelectric ceramics and single domain mechanical model

Many physical experiments have shown that the domain switching in a ferroelectric material is a complicated evolution process of the domain wall with the variation of stress and electric field. According to this mechanism, the volume fraction of the domain switching is introduced in the constitutive law of ferroelectric ceramic and used to study the nonlinear constitutive behavior of ferroelectric body in this paper. The principle of stationary total energy is put forward in which the basic unknown quantities are the displacement u (i) , electric displacement D (i) and volume fraction rho (I) of the domain switching for the variant I. Mechanical field equation and a new domain switching criterion are obtained from the principle of stationary total energy. The domain switching criterion proposed in this paper is an expansion and development of the energy criterion. On the basis of the domain switching criterion, a set of linear algebraic equations for the volume fraction rho (I) of domain switching is obtained, in which the coefficients of the linear algebraic equations only contain the unknown strain and electric fields. Then a single domain mechanical model is proposed in this paper. The poled ferroelectric specimen is considered as a transversely isotropic single domain. By using the partial experimental results, the hardening relation between the driving force of domain switching and the volume fraction of domain switching can be calibrated. Then the electromechanical response can be calculated on the basis of the calibrated hardening relation. The results involve the electric butterfly shaped curves of axial strain versus axial electric field, the hysteresis loops of electric displacement versus electric filed and the evolution process of the domain switching in the ferroelectric specimens under uniaxial coupled stress and electric field loading. The present theoretic prediction agrees reasonably with the experimental results given by Lynch.