scholarly journals Numerical Analysis of a Flow over Spheres Embedded on a Flat Wall

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 277
Author(s):  
Ewa Szymanek ◽  
Artur Tyliszczak

This paper presents the results of numerical simulations of flow in a periodic channel with the walls covered in the central part by spherical elements that have the same overall surface areas but different radii. Two distributions of the sphere are considered, with the subsequent rows placed one after another or shifted. The computations are performed using the high-order code, whereas the solid elements are modelled with the help of the immersed boundary method. For selected cases, the results are validated by comparison with the solutions obtained using the ANSYS Fluent code on a very dense body-fitted mesh. It was found that the increase in the sphere diameter slows down the flow, which is attributed to the larger blockage of the channel cross-section caused by larger spheres and the occurrence of intense mixing (recirculation) between the spheres. The velocity profiles in the vicinity of the sphere are largely dependent on sphere diameter and rise when it increases. It was found that the distribution of the spheres plays an important role only when the spheres are large. In the part of the channel far from the sphere, the velocity profiles are significantly influenced by the sphere diameter but seem to be independent of the sphere distributions.

Meccanica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Banerjee ◽  
M. E. Rosti ◽  
T. Kumar ◽  
L. Brandt ◽  
A. Russom

AbstractWe report a unique tuneable analogue trend in particle focusing in the laminar and weak viscoelastic regime of elasto-inertial flows. We observe experimentally that particles in circular cross-section microchannels can be tuned to any focusing bandwidths that lie between the “Segre-Silberberg annulus” and the centre of a circular microcapillary. We use direct numerical simulations to investigate this phenomenon and to understand how minute amounts of elasticity affect the focussing of particles at increasing flow rates. An Immersed Boundary Method is used to account for the presence of the particles and a FENE-P model is used to simulate the presence of polymers in a Non-Newtonian fluid. The numerical simulations study the dynamics and stability of finite size particles and are further used to analyse the particle behaviour at Reynolds numbers higher than what is allowed by the experimental setup. In particular, we are able to report the entire migration trajectories of the particles as they reach their final focussing positions and extend our predictions to other geometries such as the square cross section. We believe complex effects originate due to a combination of inertia and elasticity in the weakly viscoelastic regime, where neither inertia nor elasticity are able to mask each other’s effect completely, leading to a number of intermediate focusing positions. The present study provides a fundamental new understanding of particle focusing in weakly elastic and strongly inertial flows, whose findings can be exploited for potentially multiple microfluidics-based biological sorting applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 5597
Author(s):  
Hussein A. Z. AL-bonsrulah ◽  
Mohammed J. Alshukri ◽  
Ammar I. Alsabery ◽  
Ishak Hashim

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM-FC) aggregation pressure causes extensive strains in cell segments. The compression of each segment takes place through the cell modeling method. In addition, a very heterogeneous compressive load is produced because of the recurrent channel rib design of the dipole plates, so that while high strains are provided below the rib, the domain continues in its initial uncompressed case under the ducts approximate to it. This leads to significant spatial variations in thermal and electrical connections and contact resistances (both in rib–GDL and membrane–GDL interfaces). Variations in heat, charge, and mass transfer rates within the GDL can affect the performance of the fuel cell (FC) and its lifetime. In this paper, two scenarios are considered to verify the performance and lifetime of the PEM-FC using different innovative channel geometries. The first scenario is conducted by adopting a constant channel height (H = 1 mm) for all the differently shaped channels studied. In contrast, the second scenario is conducted by taking a constant channel cross-sectional area (A = 1 mm2) for all the studied channels. Therefore, a computational fluid dynamics model (CFD) for a PEM fuel cell is formed through the assembly of FC to simulate the pressure variations inside it. The simulation results showed that a triangular cross-section channel provided the uniformity of the pressure distribution, with lower deformations and lower mechanical stresses. The analysis helped gain insights into the physical mechanisms that lead to the FC’s durability and identify important parameters under different conditions. The model shows that it can assume the intracellular pressure configuration toward durability and appearance containing limited experimental data. The results also proved that the better cell voltage occurs in the case of the rectangular channel cross-section, and therefore, higher power from the FC, although its durability is much lower compared to the durability of the triangular channel. The results also showed that the rectangular channel cross-section gave higher cell voltages, and therefore, higher power (0.63 W) from the fuel cell, although its durability is much lower compared to the durability of the triangular channel. Therefore, the triangular channel gives better performance compared to other innovative channels.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document