Thermal fatigue on pistons induced by shaped high power laser. Part II: Design of spatial intensity distribution via numerical simulation

In the laser induced thermal fatigue simulation test on pistons, the high power laser was transformed from the incident Gaussian beam into a concentric multi-circular pattern with specific intensity ratio. The spatial intensity distribution of the shaped beam, which determines the temperature field in the piston, must be designed before a diffractive optical element (DOE) can be manufactured. In this paper, a reverse method based on finite element model (FEM) was proposed to design the intensity distribution in order to simulate the thermal loadings on pistons. Temperature fields were obtained by solving a transient three-dimensional heat conduction equation with convective boundary conditions at the surfaces of the piston workpiece. The numerical model then was validated by approaching the computational results to the experimental data. During the process, some important parameters including laser absorptivity, convective heat transfer coefficient, thermal conductivity and Biot number were also validated. Then, optimization procedure was processed to find favorable spatial intensity distribution for the shaped beam, with the aid of the validated FEM. The analysis shows that the reverse method incorporated with numerical simulation can reduce design cycle and design expense efficiently. This method can serve as a kind of virtual experimental vehicle as well, which makes the thermal fatigue simulation test more controllable and predictable. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Direct Numerical Simulation Of Three-Dimensional Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is used to study flow characteristics after interaction of a planar shock with a spherical media interface in each side of which the density is different. This interfacial instability is known as the Richtmyer-Meshkov (R-M) instability. The compressible Navier-Stoke equations are discretized with group velocity control (GVC) modified fourth order accurate compact difference scheme. Three-dimensional numerical simulations are performed for R-M instability installed passing a shock through a spherical interface. Based on numerical results the characteristics of 3D R-M instability are analysed. The evaluation for distortion of the interface, the deformation of the incident shock wave and effects of refraction, reflection and diffraction are presented. The effects of the interfacial instability on produced vorticity and mixing is discussed.

Numerical simulation of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability

The compressible Navier-Stokes equations discretized with a fourth order accurate compact finite difference scheme with group velocity control are used to simulate the Richtmyer-Meshkov (R-M) instability problem produced by cylindrical shock-cylindrical material interface with shock Mach number Ms = 1.2 and density ratio 1:20 (interior density/outer density). Effect of shock refraction, reflection, interaction of the reflected shock with the material interface, and effect of initial perturbation modes on R-M instability are investigated numerically. It is noted that the shock refraction is a main physical mechanism of the initial phase changing of the material surface. The multiple interactions of the reflected shock from the origin with the interface and the R-M instability near the material interface are the reason for formation of the spike-bubble structures. Different viscosities lead to different spike-bubble structure characteristics. The vortex pairing phenomenon is found in the initial double mode simulation. The mode interaction is the main factor of small structures production near the interface.

Numerical simulation of drop Marangoni migration under microgravity

Thermocapillary motion of a drop in a uniform temperature gradient is investigated numerically. The three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes and energy equations are solved by the finite-element method. The front tracking technique is employed to describe the drop interface. To simplify the calculation, the drop shape is assumed to be a sphere. It has been verified that the assumption is reasonable under the microgravity environment. Some calculations have been performed to deal with the thermocapillary motion for the drops of different sizes. It has been verified that the calculated results are in good agreement with available experimental and numerical results. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A coupled model for multiphase fluid flow and sedimentation deformation in oil reservoir and its numerical simulation

A mathematical model for coupled multiphase fluid flow and sedimentation deformation is developed based on fluid-solid interaction mechanism. A finite difference-finite element numerical approach is presented. The results of an example show that the fluid-solid coupled effect has great influence on multiphase fluid flow and reservoir recovery performances, and the coupled model has practical significance for oilfield development.

Numerical simulation of coherent structure in two-dimensional compressible mixing layers

The coherent structure in two-dimensional mixing layers is simulated numerically with the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The Navier-Stokes equations are discretized with high-order accurate upwind compact schemes. The process of development of flow structure is presented: loss of stability, development of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, rolling up and pairing. The time and space development of the plane mixing layer and influence of the compressibility are investigated.

Numerical simulation of g-jitter effects on half floating zone convection under microgravity environment

The g-jitter effects on the thermocapillary convection in liquid bridge of floating half zone were studied by numerical simulation for unsteady and axi-symmetric model in the cylindrical coordinate system. The g-jitter field was given by a steady microgravity field in addition to an oscillatory low-gravity field, and the effects on the flow field, temperature distribution and free surface deformation were analyzed numerically.

Numerical simulation of axisymmetric unsteady incompressible flow by a vorticity-velocity method

A new numerical method for solving the axisymmetric unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations using vorticity-velocity variables and a staggered grid is presented. The solution is advanced in time with an explicit two-stage Runge-Kutta method. At each stage a vector Poisson equation for velocity is solved. Some important aspects of staggering of the variable location, divergence-free correction to the velocity held by means of a suitably chosen scalar potential and numerical treatment of the vorticity boundary condition are examined. The axisymmetric spherical Couette flow between two concentric differentially rotating spheres is computed as an initial value problem. Comparison of the computational results using a staggered grid with those using a non-staggered grid shows that the staggered grid is superior to the non-staggered grid. The computed scenario of the transition from zero-vortex to two-vortex flow at moderate Reynolds number agrees with that simulated using a pseudospectral method, thus validating the temporal accuracy of our method.