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At least 127 records · Page 7

Investigation of theoretical scaling laws using large eddy simulations for airborne spreading of viral contagion from sneezing and coughing

Using a set of large eddy point-particle simulations, we explore the fluid dynamics of an ejected puff resulting from a cough/sneeze. The ejection contains over 61,000 potentially virus-laden droplets at an injection Reynolds number of about 46,000, comparable to an actual cough/ sneeze. We observe that global puff properties, such as centroid, puff volume, momentum, and buoyancy vary little across realizations. Other properties, such as maximum extent, shape, and edge velocity of the puff, may exhibit substantial variation. In many realizations, a portion of the puff splits off and advances along a random direction, while keeping airborne droplet nuclei afloat. This peeled-off portion provides a mechanism for virus-laden droplets to travel over large distances in a short amount of time. We also observe that the vast majority of droplets remain suspended within the puff after all liquid has evaporated. The main objectives of the study are to (i) evaluate assumptions of Balachandar’s et al. theory [Int. J. Multiphase Flow 132, 103439 (2020)], which include buoyancy effects, shape of the puff, and droplet evaporation rate, (ii) obtain values of closure parameters, which include location and time of the virtual origin, and puff entrainment and drag coefficients, and (iii) evaluate the accuracy of the theory in predicting the shape, size, and location of the puff, as well as droplet number density long after ejection. The theory adequately predicts global puff properties including size, velocity, and distance traveled, the largest size of droplets that exit the puff due to settling, and the droplet size distribution within the puff long after ejection.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Overset meshes for incompressible flows: On preserving accuracy of underlying discretizations

This study on overset meshes for incompressible-flow simulations is motivated by accurate prediction of wind farm aerodynamics involving large motions and deformations of components with complex geometry. Specifically, using first-order hyperbolic and elliptic equation proxies for the incompressible Navier-Stokes (NS) equations, we investigate the influence of information exchange between overset meshes on numerical performance where the underlying discretization is second-order accurate. The first aspect of information exchange surrounds interpolation of solution where we examine Lagrange and point-cloud-based interpolation for creating constraint equations between overset meshes. To maintain overall second-order accuracy, higher-order interpolation is required for elliptic problems, but linear interpolation is sufficient for hyperbolic problems in first-order form. Higher-order point-cloud-based interpolation provides a pathway to maintaining accuracy in unstructured meshes, but at higher complexity. The second aspect of information exchange focuses on comparing the approaches of overset single system (OSS) and overset Additive Schwarz (OAS) for coupling the linear systems of the overlapping meshes. While the former involves a single linear system, in the latter the discrete linear systems are solved separately, and solving the global system is accomplished through outer iterations and sequential information exchange in a Jacobi fashion. For the test cases studied, accuracy for hyperbolic problems is maintained by performing two outer iterations, whereas many outer iterations are required for elliptic systems. The order-of-accuracy studies explored here are critical for verifying the overset-mesh coupling algorithms used in engineering simulations. Accuracy of these simulations themselves is, however, quantified using engineering quantities of interest such as drag, power, etc. Consequently, we conclude with numerical experiments using NS equations for incompressible flows where we show that linear interpolation and few outer iterations are sufficient for achieving asymptotic convergence of engineering quantities of interest.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Openpronghorn

OpenPronghorn is a simulation tool specifically tailored for modeling thermal-hydraulic phenomena in advanced nuclear reactors. It is built on the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE), an open-source platform that facilitates the development of high-performance scientific computing applications. OpenPronghorn solves the Navier-Stokes equations, which describe the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy in fluid flows, using the finite volume numerical method. The code supports a wide range of fluid flow conditions that are applicable to nuclear reactors, including incompressible and weakly compressible flows, as well as single-phase and multiphase flows. It is capable of modeling diverse flow regimes, including laminar and turbulent flows, using various turbulence models such as the standard k-epsilon models, the v2f model, and the mixing length model. For multiphase flows, OpenPronghorn employs a mixture a Eulerian modeling approach with mixture, drift-flux, and full Eulerian models, and includes open-sourced interfacial transfer correlations for drag, exchange, and heat transfer coming from the scientific literature. OpenPronghorn's modular design allows it to handle multiscale simulations, ranging from detailed Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) simulations to coarse-mesh and lumped parameter models. This flexibility enables users to perform high-fidelity simulations of specific reactor components as well as system-level analyses of entire reactor circuits. The code can be coupled with other MOOSE-based tools using the MultiApp system, allowing for the transfer of coupling quantities such as mass flow rates, heat fluxes, and boundary conditions between different simulation scales. One of the main features of OpenPronghorn is the it includes built-in validation cases from the open-source scientific literature and supports the implementation of user-defined models and correlations through MOOSE's FunctorMaterial system. OpenPronghorn is designed to be computationally efficient, leveraging the SIMPLE projection method for large-scale problems, and can be run on high-performance computing systems to handle the extensive computational demands of detailed reactor simulations. Overall, OpenPronghorn is a versatile and robust tool that provides critical insights into the thermal-hydraulic behavior of advanced nuclear reactors, supporting the design, safety, and optimization of next-generation nuclear energy systems.

Retamales, Mauricio Eduardo Tano [Idaho National L↗

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent dispersion of evaporative aerosol clouds produced by an intense expiratory event

Airborne particles are a major route for transmission of COVID-19 and many other infectious diseases. When a person talks, sings, coughs, or sneezes, nasal and throat secretions are spewed into the air. After a short initial fragmentation stage, the expelled material is mostly composed of spherical particles of different sizes. While the dynamics of the largest droplets are dominated by gravitational effects, the smaller aerosol particles, mostly transported by means of hydrodynamic drag, form clouds that can remain afloat for long times. In subsaturated air environments, the dependence of pathogen-laden particle dispersion on their size is complicated due to evaporation of the aqueous fraction. Particle dynamics can significantly change when ambient conditions favor rapid evaporation rates that result in a transition from buoyancyto-drag dominated dispersion regimes. To investigate the effect of particle size and evaporation on pathogen-laden cloud evolution, a direct numerical simulation of a mild cough was coupled with an evaporative Lagrangian particle advection model. The results suggest that while the dispersion of cough particles in the tails of the size distribution are unlikely to be disrupted by evaporative effects, preferential aerosol diameters (30-40 μm) may exhibit significant increases in the residence time and horizontal range under typical ambient conditions. Using estimations of the viral concentration in the spewed fluid and the number of ejected particles in a typical respiratory event, we obtained a map of viral load per volume of air at the end of the cough and the number of virus copies per inhalation in the emitter vicinity.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Modelling of nanometer scale dust grains in tokamak

Dust poses a serious threat to tokamak operation and safety. It is important to study the behaviour of dust grains under tokamak's discharge conditions, which depends heavily on their size and charge. Existing simulations mainly address issues on dust grains with radii larger than 1 μm, in which case, the drift effect due to electromagnetic fields can be safely ignored. For nanometer scale dust grains, however, the drift effect becomes significant and a new model based on guiding-centre system needs to be established. In this work, the NDS has been done under BOUT++ framework. The simulation contains two parts. Part one, NDS evaluates the charging and ablation processes of the dust grains. In the second part, the guiding-centre orbits of dust particles are tracked in tokamak plasmas, whose parameters are obtained from BOUT++, a highly desirable C++ code package for performing parallel plasma fluid simulations with an arbitrary number of equations in 3D curvilinear coordinates. The orbit of nanodust dynamics is described by guiding centre equations for simplicity, and these equations are numerically solved by conventional fourth-order Runge Kutta method. Simulations provide results such as trajectories and evolutions of dust particles with different sizes and velocities for different tokamak geometries. Results show tungsten dust grains with a radius of a few nanometers launched from outer midplane will oscillate before totally ablated in C-Mod. The oscillation in this case is driven by the ion drag force. Larger Nanodust with a radius of 100 nm, on the contrary, cannot be completely constrained by the electromagnetic field. In conclusion, the high plasma temperature and density in the seperatrix region causes severe dust ablation, resulting in total ablation within several ms.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

A buoyancy–shear–drag-based turbulence model for Rayleigh–Taylor, reshocked Richtmyer–Meshkov, and Kelvin–Helmholtz mixing

A phenomenological turbulence model for Rayleigh–Taylor, reshocked Richtmyer–Meshkov, and Kelvin–Helmholtz instability-induced mixing is developed using a general buoyancy–shear–drag model. Analytic solutions to the simplified model equations corresponding to each instability are derived separately, which are then used to calibrate the model coefficients to predict specific values of the mixing layer growth parameters and exponents. The buoyancy-shear–drag equations for the bubble and spike mixing layer widths are then solved numerically, and a turbulent diffusivity (or viscosity) is constructed dimensionally as the product of the mixing layer width, h, and its time-derivative, dh/dt. Surrogate turbulent fields are then constructed by multiplying a presumed, approximate self-similar spatial profile by appropriate functions of h and dh/dt. Using several simplifying approximations, the turbulent diffusion equations satisfied by the mean mass fraction and mean shear velocity are solved analytically in a reference frame moving with the mean advection velocity, and it is shown that the mean fields evolve in space and time as expected. The explicit modeling and solution of turbulent transport equations (e.g., for the turbulent kinetic energy and its dissipation rate or a lengthscale) are not required. By using separate equations for the bubble and spike evolution, the model naturally captures the asymmetry induced by an increasing density contrast between the heavy and light fluids. The model also includes molecular dissipation and diffusion, and therefore, can describe transition to fully-developed turbulence if the initial turbulent diffusivity/viscosity is much smaller than the molecular diffusivity/viscosity. This model is applied to constant-acceleration Rayleigh–Taylor, impulsively reshocked Richtmyer–Meshkov, and variable-density Kelvin–Helmholtz mixing layers to demonstrate its utility. It is shown that the numerical solutions of the model calibrated using specific values of the instability growth parameters and exponents: (1) produces mixing layer widths in agreement with the expected self-similar growth power laws; (2) gives spatiotemporal profiles of turbulent fields that are expected and consistent with previous results; (3) predicts the expected power-law growths and decays of the spatially-integrated turbulent fields, and; (4) gives spatiotemporal profiles of the mean fields that are expected and consistent with previous results. This relatively simple model can be implemented numerically, and is expected to be useful for fundamental as well as astrophysical and inertial confinement fusion applications.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Effects of external magnetic fields on the multi-mode Rayleigh–Taylor instability

The magneto-Rayleigh–Taylor instability (mRTI) is a key process in inertial confinement fusion and is thought to be widespread in the interstellar medium, where it can concentrate plasma into discrete structures. We present resistive MHD simulations of the nonlinear evolution of multi-mode mRTI in both two and three dimensions, examining the effects of uniform external magnetic fields oriented either parallel or perpendicular to the initial interface. In both 2D and 3D, weak parallel fields enhance mixing-zone growth, whereas stronger fields suppress it. For perpendicular fields, growth is initially inhibited but becomes enhanced at later times. These behaviors arise from magnetic tension, which modifies flow anisotropy, buoyancy, drag, and vortex dynamics. The interplay of these mechanisms governs the distinct ways in which magnetic fields influence mRTI evolution.

Flow instabilities↗

The nonlinear behavior of generic tail fins for small wind turbines

This paper describes analysis and measurements of the yaw response of tail fins for small wind turbines. It is based on an extension of unsteady slender body theory (USBT) to cover non-slender fins and high angles of incidence, both of which make the theory nonlinear. We provide three main additions to the substantial literature on linearized USBT for tail fins. First, USBT is extended to high angles by modeling the nonlinear vortex dynamics. Second, the restriction to slender bodies is removed by modeling the chordwise load variation. Third, we consider the effect of time-varying wind speed. Further, the extended theory is compared to wind tunnel measurements of the yaw behavior of delta, elliptical, and rectangular tail fins without a rotor and nacelle. The fins were released from initial yaw angles of -40° and -80°; the latter is of sufficient magnitude to show the importance of the nonlinear yaw dynamics. Generally good agreement was found between the theory and measurements, and the theory was shown to be more accurate than a “polar” or quasi-steady model which uses only the lift and drag of a delta planform. Of the three planforms, the rectangular one showed the lowest accuracy in terms of frequency but the damping was accurately predicted. Overall, the results demonstrate the importance of nonlinearity in the response of a yawing tail fin, particularly for the higher aspect ratio fins at large yaw angles.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

TEAMER: Electrically Engaged Undulation (EEL) System

The Electrically Engaged UnduLation (EEL) system is a buoyancy-driven submersible device for powering oceanographic instruments. Physically, EEL is a slender body whose flexible spine is made up of energy units interconnected by uniaxial hinges. Each unit consists of a pair of piezoelectric elements that converts the bending stress into electrical current to a battery charging circuit. An outer plastic skin forms a seal against water and allows for flexibility at hinge locations. At the top is a bluff body with electronics that holds a ballast for buoyancy adjustment. The bluff body is also responsible for creating fluid instabilities in its wake. When gliding through the water (mode 2), the spine will flex in response to the alternating vortices that shed from the head. This "lock-in" phenomenon occurs when the frequency at which vortices shed resonates with the EEL natural frequency, during which the efficient gaits were found in species of sea snake, eels, and fish. For active propulsion, a single motor can be placed at the first segment and provide the oscillatory input for propulsion similar to a dolphin's kick. Such anguilliform swimming is both efficient and nearly silent compared to a spinning propeller. Ultimately, mimicking bio-locomotion provides a viable path to a drag-reduced, self-propelled energy harvesting system for ocean monitoring.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

Thermodynamic Analysis of Nano-Electrospray Induced Gas Jets

Nano-electrospray (nES) produces a plume of charged liquid droplets which have drag interactions with the surrounding gas after they are emitted from a source capillary. The resulting induced gas flow has often been considered unimportant, but we have demonstrated that a gas microjet of significant velocity up to 10s of m/s can be produced. In this work we present a thermodynamic framework that enables analysis of gas jet generation from electrosprays and introduce the important metrics for such analysis, effectiveness (a measure of momentum transfer from the electrosprayed aerosol to gas) and efficiency (a measure of energy conversion from electrical energy generating the electrospray to gas kinetic energy). This analytical framework is applicable to any two-phase flows consisting of discrete conservative-force-driven particles which exchange momentum with an inert, otherwise quiescent fluid medium to yield a co-flowing two-phase jet. Here, we apply this framework to sprays of water from nano-electrospray emitters to demonstrate that increasing the applied electrical potential difference, increasing liquid mass flowrate, and decreasing droplet size all can increase electrospray induced gas jet strength, but only the latter two do so while also increasing the momentum transfer effectiveness and energy conversion efficiency.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗

On the enhancement of boundary layer skin friction by turbulence: an angular momentum approach

Turbulence enhances the wall shear stress in boundary layers, significantly increasing the drag on streamlined bodies. Other flow features such as free stream pressure gradients and streamwise boundary layer growth also strongly influence the local skin friction. In this paper, an angular momentum integral (AMI) equation is introduced to quantify these effects by representing them as torques that alter the shape of the mean velocity profile. This approach uniquely isolates the skin friction of a Blasius boundary layer in a single term that depends only on the Reynolds number most relevant to the flow's engineering context, so that other torques are interpreted as augmentations relative to the laminar case having the same Reynolds number. The AMI equation for external flows shares this key property with the so-called FIK relation for internal flows (Fukagata et al. , Phys. Fluids , vol. 14, 2002, pp. L73–L76). Without a geometrically imposed boundary layer thickness, the length scale in the Reynolds number for the AMI equation may be chosen freely. After a brief demonstration using Falkner–Skan boundary layers, the AMI equation is applied as a diagnostic tool on four transitional and turbulent boundary layer direct numerical simulation datasets. Regions of negative wall-normal velocity are shown to play a key role in limiting the peak skin friction during the late stages of transition, and the relative strengths of terms in the AMI equation become independent of the transition mechanism a very short distance into the fully turbulent regime. The AMI equation establishes an intuitive, extensible framework for interpreting the impact of turbulence and flow control strategies on boundary layer skin friction.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Effect of the volume fraction gradient on the phase interaction force model for disperse two-phase flows

In this work, the effects of the particle volume fraction gradient on fluid-particle interactions are studied. The phase interaction force is decomposed into three terms. For the first term, namely the symmetrized force density, we present theoretical reasoning and numerical evidence to assume that it is independent of the particle volume fraction gradient. The second term is the particle volume fraction gradient times a newly introduced diffusion stress. The third term is the divergence of the particle-fluid-particle (PFP) stress. If this assumption of independence of the particle volume fraction gradient for the first term can be verified, to the first order of the ratio of the mean distance between particles to the macroscopic lengthscale, all three terms can be studied and modeled in flows with uniform particle distributions. Models thus obtained are applicable to statistically inhomogeneous flows, with the second and third terms accounting for statistical inhomogeneity. To verify this assumption, numerical simulations of flows passing fixed arrays of particles are performed. Both uniform and nonuniform particle volume fractions are studied and compared for disperse multiphase flows with the particle Reynolds numbers ranging from 1 to 100, and particle volume fraction ranging from 1% to 26% in statistically steady states. It is found that the symmetrized force (first) term can be well approximated by the drag force obtained from studies of uniform flows. The diffusion stress is positive along the flow direction and negative in the directions perpendicular to the flow. In the case of moving particles, this stress could potentially cause particle aggregation in the flow direction and dispersion in the directions perpendicular to the flow. Finally, the diffusion stress is only important when there is a volume fraction gradient, while the PFP stress can be important in inhomogeneous flows with either nonuniform particle concentrations or nonuniform average relative velocities between the phases.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Local wave-number model for inhomogeneous two-fluid mixing

We analyze the local wave-number (LWN) model, a two-point spectral closure model for turbulence, as applied to the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability, the flow induced by the relaxation of a statically-unstable density stratification. Model outcomes are validated against data from 3D simulations of the RT instability. In the first part of the study we consider the minimal model terms required to capture inhomogeneous mixing and show that this version, with suitable model coefficients, is sufficient to capture the evolution of important mean global quantities including mix-width, turbulent mass flux velocity, and Reynolds stress, if the start time is chosen such that the earliest transitions are avoided. However, this simple model does not permit the expected finite asymptote of the density-specific-volume covariance b. In the second part of the study, we investigate two forms for a source term for the evolution of the spectrum of density-specific-volume covariance for the LWN model. The first includes an empirically motivated calibration of the source to achieve the final asymptotic state of constant b. Here, the second form does not require calibration but, in conjunction with enhanced diffusion and drag captures the full evolution of all the dynamical quantities, namely, the mix-layer growth, turbulent mass-flux velocity, Reynolds stress, as well as the desired behavior of b.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

The dynamics of suspensions of prolate spheroidal particles—Effects of volume fraction

Here, the effect of volume fraction on the dynamics of a gravity driven suspension of prolate spheroidal solid particles in a fully periodic domain is examined by fully resolved numerical simulations, for relatively modest Reynolds numbers (around 20, depending on the volume fraction). Three systems are examined, for volume fractions of 2.2% (20 particles), 5.5% (50 particles), and 9.9% (90 particles). The results show a transition from flow at low volume fractions dominated by the hydrodynamic interactions between the particles and the fluid, although modified by collisions, to flow dominated by collisions at higher volume fractions. The distribution of the particles with respect to each other, as measured by the probability distribution of nearest distances, is nearly random at low volume fractions but at high volume fractions, there is more clustering than for a random distribution. At lower volume fractions most of the particles fall broadside on whereas at the highest volume fraction, their orientation is essentially random.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Hyporheic Exchange Driven by Submerged Rigid Vegetation: A Modeling Study

Flow-vegetation interaction affects fluid flow hydraulics and associated material transport in river corridors. Concomitant changes in pressure within the flow field due to the presence of vegetation may act as a driver for the formation of hyporheic flow across the sediment-water interface. This potentially important process, however, has yet to be studied. In order to investigate vegetation-induced hyporheic exchange, a series of numerical models of interlinked surface-subsurface flow modified by plant stems was conducted. Periodically staggered plant stem arrays on a flat sediment bed were considered within a coupled multiphysics computational fluid dynamics approach. Plants were idealized as rigid cylinders and arranged in different streamwise and spanwise spacing distances. Each vegetation array was then subjected to a broad range of flow Reynolds Numbers (Re). The results showed that hyporheic flow occurs in all conditions with the presence of vegetation. The vegetation-induced hyporheic flux is found to be a function of Re via a power law. The flux increases with interstem space until the space reaches the distance that rigid stems no longer affect the flow structures in the vicinity of each other. Larger intervegetation distances lead to a larger hyporheic zone. A direct comparison with bedforminduced hyporheic flow showed that vegetation can induce higher hyporheic flux through relatively shallower exchange zones. The results of all the simulations were synthesized into predictive models for hyporheic flux, bulk residence time and exchange depth based on drag coefficient, vegetation density, and Reynolds Number.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Layer pseudospin magnetism in a transition metal dichalcogenide double-moiré system

Spontaneous order of layer pseudospins in two-dimensional bilayers is common in quantum Hall systems, where it is responsible for hysteretic responses to gate fields in states with Ising order and giant drag voltages in states with XY (spontaneous interlayer phase coherence) order. In this article we predict that layer pseudospin order will also occur in double-moiré strongly correlated two-dimensional electron systems. Here, we comment on similarities and differences in the competition between the two types of order in quantum Hall and double-moiré systems, and relate our findings to previous work on Falicov-Kimball models of electronic ferroelectrics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Shock interacting with a random array of stationary particles underwater

Accurately predicting the force experienced by particles within a random bed during shock traversal is a challenging problem. In this paper, particle-resolved inviscid simulations of shock propagation over randomly distributed beds are performed, with the goal of quantifying the force on individual particles. Water was considered the continuum material, and then results were compared with previous research completed in air and the differences resulting from these different mediums were examined. Simulations were conducted for four different combinations of incident Mach number and bed volume fraction with the particles remaining stationary. Additionally, time-resolved streamwise and transverse force coefficients were calculated for each particle in the bed. It was observed that while the average force coefficient was similar to that of an isolated particle, the force on individual particles was substantially different. An important observation was that the inviscid drag force on some particles remained consistently positive, but others consistently negative even long after the passage of the shock. This persistent force on the particle was attributed to the potential flow fields that result from neighbors' specific locations upstream and downstream. Similar behavior was observed in the transverse force, with particles experiencing sustained force in the same lateral direction. These persistent forces are inviscid quasisteady contributions which with the viscous counterpart will play an essential role in the particle's long-term dispersion if allowed to move in response to the force.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

An infrasound source analysis of the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule hypersonic re-entry

The OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule's hypersonic re-entry into the atmosphere is a rare opportunity to test a variety of sonic boom source models since the projectile dimensions are well characterized. While the as-flown flight path is unknown, the predicted flight path enables a rough approximation of the source Mach number and location. Six infrasound microphones deployed in the boom carpet along the predicted flight path recorded impulsive signals from the OSIRIS-REx re-entry. Using a suite of atmosphere profiles and the geometric acoustics approximation, we estimate locations with uncertainty estimates along the flight path from which the signals were emitted. Acoustic overpressure and signal duration predictions from Whitham's far field theory, Carlson's simplified sonic boom prediction method, and a drag-dominated hypersonic model are analyzed with uncertainty estimates from the location estimate. While the Carlson simplified sonic boom prediction method could be accurate, our preference is for the drag-dominated source model. Using this source model with an inviscid Burgers's equation solver for propagation, we obtained an excellent match to the recorded data. In conclusion, these results will help better inform future sample return capsule re-entry observation campaigns as well as contribute to a better understanding of high altitude infrasonic sources.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗