Performance of supersonic model combustors with staged injections of supercritical aviation kerosene

Supersonic model combustors using two-stage injections of supercritical kerosene were experimentally investigated in both Mach 2.5 and 3.0 model combustors with stagnation temperatures of approximately 1,750 K. Supercritical kerosene of approximately 760 K was prepared and injected in the overall equivalence ratio range of 0.5-1.46. Two pairs of integrated injector/flameholder cavity modules in tandem were used to facilitate fuel-air mixing and stable combustion. For single-stage fuel injection at an upstream location, it was found that the boundary layer separation could propagate into the isolator with increasing fuel equivalence ratio due to excessive local heat release, which in turns changed the entry airflow conditions. Moving the fuel injection to a further downstream location could alleviate the problem, while it would result in a decrease in combustion efficiency due to shorter fuel residence time. With two-stage fuel injections the overall combustor performance was shown to be improved and kerosene injections at fuel rich conditions could be reached without the upstream propagation of the boundary layer separation into the isolator. Furthermore, effects of the entry Mach number and pilot hydrogen on combustion performance were also studied.

Study of turbulent heat transfer of aviation kerosene flows in a curved pipe at supercritical pressure

The now and heat transfer characteristics of China No. 3 aviation kerosene in a heated curved tube under supercritical pressure are numerically investigated by a finite volume method. A two-layer turbulence model, consisting of the RNG k-epsilon two-equation model and the Wolfstein one-equation model, is used for the simulation of turbulence. A 10-species kerosene surrogate model and the NIST Supertrapp software are applied to obtain the thermophysical and transport properties of the kerosene at various temperature under a supercritical pressure of 4 MPa. The large variation of thermophysical properties of the kerosene at the supercritical pressure make the flow and heat transfer more complicated, especially under the effects of buoyancy and centrifugal force. The centrifugal force enhances the heat transfer, but also increases the friction factors. The rise of the velocity caused by the variation of the density does not enhance the effects of the centrifugal force when the curvature ratios are less than 0.05. On the contrary, the variation of the density increases the effects of the buoyancy. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quasi-3D Cytoskeletal Dynamics of Osteocytes under Fluid Flow

Osteocytes respond to dynamic fluid shear loading by activating various biochemical pathways, mediating a dynamic process of bone formation and resorption. Whole-cell deformation and regional deformation of the cytoskeleton may be able to directly regulate this process. Attempts to image cellular deformation by conventional microscopy techniques have been hindered by low temporal or spatial resolution. In this study, we developed a quasi-three-dimensional microscopy technique that enabled us to simultaneously visualize an osteocyte's traditional bottom-view profile and a side-view profile at high temporal resolution. Quantitative analysis of the plasma membrane and either the intracellular actin or microtubule (MT) cytoskeletal networks provided characterization of their deformations over time. Although no volumetric dilatation of the whole cell was observed under flow, both the actin and MT networks experienced primarily tensile strains in all measured strain components. Regional heterogeneity in the strain field of normal strains was observed in the actin networks, especially in the leading edge to flow, but not in the MT networks. In contrast, side-view shear strains exhibited similar subcellular distribution patterns in both networks. Disruption of MT networks caused actin normal strains to decrease, whereas actin disruption had little effect on the MT network strains, highlighting the networks' mechanical interactions in osteocytes.

Non-modal instabilities of two-dimensional disturbances in plane Couette flow of a power-law fluid

Instabilities of fluid flows have traditionally been investigated by normal mode analysis, i.e. by linearizing the equations of flow and testing for unstable eigenvalues of the linearized problem. However, the results of eigenvalue analysis agree poorly in many cases with experiments, especially for shear flows. In this paper we study the instabilities of two-dimensional Couette flow of a polymeric fluid in the framework of non-modal stability theory rather than normal mode analysis. A power-law model is used to describe the polymeric liquid. We focus on the response to external excitations and initial conditions by examining the pseudospectra structures and the transient energy growths. For both Newtonian and non-Newtonian flows, the results show that there can be a rather large transient growth even though the linear operator of Couette flow has no unstable eigenvalue. The effects of non-Newtonian viscosity on the transient behaviors are examined in this study. The results show that the "shear-thinning/shear-thickening" effect increases/decreases the amplitude of responses to external excitations and initial conditions. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermal effects on Rayleigh-Marangoni-Benard instability in a system of superposed fluid and porous layers

Thermal effects of the heat transfer at free surface (represented by Biot number) on the Rayleigh-Marangoni-Benard instability in a system of liquid-porous layers with top free surface are investigated numerically. The results indicate that this thermal effect can evidently lead to the mode transition of convection, which is overlooked in previous works. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Design of slow extraction system for therapy synchrotron

Based on the optimized design of the lattice for therapy synchrotron and considering the requirement of radiation therapy, the third order resonant extraction is adopted. Using the momentum-amplitude selection method, the extraction system is designed and optimized. An extraction efficiency of more than 97% and a momentum spread less than 0.11% are obtained.