scholarly journals Three-Dimensional Numerical Simulations and Antifouling Mechanism of Microorganisms on Microstructured Surfaces

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 319
Author(s):  
Hongyue Yang ◽  
Songling Wang ◽  
Chunxi Li ◽  
Hengfan Li

As marine biofouling seriously affects the development and utilization of oceans, the antifouling technology of microstructured surface has become a research hotspot due to its green and environmentally friendly advantages. In the present research, the motion models of microorganisms on the surfaces of five rectangular micropits, in co-current and counter-current flow direction, were established. Dynamic mesh technology was used to simulate the movements of microorganisms with different radii in the near-wall area, and the fluid kinematics and shear stress distributions in different-sized micropits were compared. Furthermore, moving microorganisms were included in the three-dimensional microstructure model to achieve the real situation of biofouling. Simulation results revealed that the vortex flow velocity in the micropits increased with the increase of the inlet flow velocity and the existence of the vortex flow effectively reduced the formation of conditioning layers in the micropits. In the downstream and countercurrent directions, the average shear stresses on the wall decreased with the increase of the micropit depth and width, and the shear stress on the inner wall of the Mp1 micropit (a patterned surface arranged with cubes of 2 µm × 2 µm × 2 µm) was found to be the largest. A low shear stress region with a low flow velocity was formed around microorganisms in the process of approaching the microstructured surface. The shear stress gradient of micro-ridge steps increased with the approach of microorganisms, indicating that microridge edges had a better effect on reducing microbial attachment.

2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 637-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong He ◽  
Nandini Duraiswamy ◽  
Andreas O. Frank ◽  
James E. Moore

Background: Restenosis after stent implantation varies with stent design. Alterations in secondary flow patterns and wall shear stress (WSS) can modulate intimal hyperplasia via their effects on platelet and inflammatory cell transport toward the wall, as well as direct effects on the endothelium. Method of Approach: Detailed flow characteristics were compared by estimating the WSS in the near-strut region of realistic stent designs using three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD), under pulsatile high and low flow conditions. The stent geometry employed was characterized by three geometric parameters (axial strut pitch, strut amplitude, and radius of curvature), and by the presence or lack of the longitudinal connector. Results: Stagnation regions were localized around stent struts. The regions of low WSS are larger distal to the strut. Under low flow conditions, the percentage restoration of mean axial WSS between struts was lower than that for the high flow by 10–12%. The largest mean transverse shear stresses were 30–50% of the largest mean axial shear stresses. The percentage restoration in WSS in the models without the longitudinal connector was as much as 11% larger than with the connector. The mean axial WSS restoration between the struts was larger for the stent model with larger interstrut spacing. Conclusion: The results indicate that stent design is crucial in determining the fluid mechanical environment in an artery. The sensitivity of flow characteristics to strut configuration could be partially responsible for the dependence of restenosis on stent design. From a fluid dynamics point of view, interstrut spacing should be larger in order to restore the disturbed flow; struts should be oriented to the flow direction in order to reduce the area of flow recirculation. Longitudinal connectors should be used only as necessary, and should be parallel to the axis. These results could guide future stent designs toward reducing restenosis.


2020 ◽  
Vol 244 ◽  
pp. 439-447
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Ponomarev ◽  
Aleksandr Yusupov

The object of the study is a section of the gas and gas condensate collection system, consisting of an angle throttle installed on a xmas tree and a well piping located after the angle throttle. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of the flow velocity and wall shear stress (WSS) on the carbon dioxide corrosion rate in the area of interest and to come up with substantiated recommendations for the rational operation of the angle throttle in order to reduce the corrosion intensity. In the course of solving this problem, a technique was developed and subsequently applied to assess the influence of various factors on the rate of carbon dioxide corrosion. The technique is based on a sequence of different modeling methods: modeling the phase states of the extracted product, three-dimensional (solid) modeling of the investigated section, hydrodynamic flow modeling of the extracted product using the finite volume method, etc. The developed technique has broad possibilities for visualization of the obtained results, which allow identifying the sections most susceptible to the effects of carbon dioxide corrosion. The article shows that the average flow velocity and its local values are not the factors by which it is possible to predict the occurrence of carbon dioxide corrosion in the pipeline section after the angle throttle. The paper proves that WSS has prevailing effect on the corrosion intensity in the section after the angle choke. The zones of corrosion localization predicted according to the technique are compared with the real picture of corrosion propagation on the inner surface of the pipe, as a result of which recommendations for the rational operation of the angle throttle are formed.


Environments ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Zhiming Han ◽  
Mitsuharu Terashima ◽  
Bing Liu ◽  
Hidenari Yasui

A modified spacer, which was constructed with arched filaments and zigzag filaments, was designed to improve vortex shedding and generate a directional change in flow patterns of membrane modules, especially in the vicinity of the feed spacer filament, which is most affected by fouling. A unit cell was investigated by using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for hydrodynamic simulation. The results of CFD simulations were carried out for the fluid flow in order to understand the effect of the modified spacer on vortices to the performance of arched filaments at different distances. From 2D velocity vectors and shear stress contour mixing, the flow pattern and dead zone flushing were depicted. The ratio of low shear stress area to the total area increased with the inlet velocity closed to 20%. The energy consumption with respect to flow direction for the arched filament was 80% lower than that in the zigzag filament. Compared with previous commercial spacers’ simulation, the friction factor was lower when the main flow was normal to the arched filament and the modified friction factor was close to the commercial spacers. The homogenization was realized through the flow pattern created by the modified spacer.


Author(s):  
Phani Ganesh Elapolu ◽  
Pradip Majumdar ◽  
Steven A. Lottes ◽  
Milivoje Kostic

One of the major concerns affecting the safety of bridges with foundation supports in river-beds is the scouring of river-bed material from bridge supports during floods. Scour is the engineering term for the erosion caused by water around bridge elements such as piers, monopiles, or abutments. Scour holes around a monopile can jeopardize the stability of the whole structure and will require deeper piling or local armoring of the river-bed. About 500,000 bridges in the National Bridge Registry are over waterways. Many of these are considered as vulnerable to scour, about five percent are classified as scour critical, and over the last 30 years bridge failures caused by foundation scour have averaged about one every two weeks. Therefore it is of great importance to predict the correct scour development for a given bridge and flood conditions. Apart from saving time and money, integrity of bridges are important in ensuring public safety. Recent advances in computing boundary motion in combination with mesh morphing to maintain mesh quality in computational fluid dynamic analysis can be applied to predict the scour hole development, analyze the local scour phenomenon, and predict the scour hole shape and size around a pier. The main objective of the present study was to develop and implement a three dimensional iterative procedure to predict the scour hole formation around a cylindrical pier using the mesh morphing capabilities in the STARCCM+ commercial CFD code. A computational methodology has been developed using Python and Java Macros and implemented using a Bash script on a LINUX high performance computer cluster. An implicit unsteady approach was used to obtain the bed shear stresses. The mesh was iteratively deformed towards the equilibrium scour position based on the excess shear stress above the critical shear stress (supercritical shear stress). The model solves the flow field using Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, and the standard k–ε turbulence model. The iterative process involves stretching (morphing) a meshed domain after every time step, away from the bottom where scouring flow parameters are supercritical, and remeshing the relevant computational domain after a certain number of time steps when the morphed mesh compromises the stability of further simulation. The simulation model was validated by comparing results with limited experimental data available in the literature.


Author(s):  
Leonie Rouleau ◽  
Monica Farcas ◽  
Jean-Claude Tardif ◽  
Rosaire Mongrain ◽  
Richard Leask

Endothelial cell (EC) dysfunction has been linked to atherosclerosis through their response to hemodynamic forces. Flow in stenotic vessels creates complex spatial gradients in wall shear stress. In vitro studies examining the effect of shear stress on endothelial cells have used unrealistic and simplified models, which cannot reproduce physiological conditions. The objective of this study was to expose endothelial cells to the complex shear shear pattern created by an asymmetric stenosis. Endothelial cells were grown and exposed for different times to physiological steady flow in straight dynamic controls and in idealized asymmetric stenosis models. Cells subjected to 1D flow aligned with flow direction and had a spindle-like shape when compared to static controls. Endothelial cell morphology was noticeable different in the regions with a spatial gradient in wall shear stress, being more randomly oriented and of cobblestone shape. This occurred despite the presence of an increased magnitude in shear stress. No other study to date has described this morphology in the presence of a positive wall shear stress gradient or gradient of significant shear magnitude. This technique provides a more realistic model to study endothelial cell response to spatial and temporal shear stress gradients that are present in vivo and is an important advancement towards a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in coronary artery disease.


2004 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhasish Dey

An experimental study on critical bed shear-stress for initial movement of non-cohesive sediment particles under a steady-uniform stream flow on a combined lateral (across the flow direction) and longitudinal (streamwise direction) sloping bed is presented. The aim of this paper is to ascertain that the critical bed shear-stress on a combined lateral and longitudinal sloping bed is adequately represented by the product of critical bed shear-stress ratios for lateral and longitudinal sloping beds. Experiments were carried out with closed-conduit flow, in two ducts having a semicircular invert section, with three sizes of sediments. In laboratory flumes, the uniform flow is a difficult – if not impossible – proposition for a steeply sloping channel, and is impossible to obtain in an adversely sloping channel. To avoid this problem, the experiments were conducted with a closed-conduit flow. The critical bed shear-stresses for experimental runs were estimated from side-wall correction. The experimental data agree satisfactorily with the results obtained from the proposed formula.


1985 ◽  
Vol 107 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Levesque ◽  
R. M. Nerem

Vascular endothelial cells appear to be aligned with the flow in the immediate vicinity of the arterial wall and have a shape which is more ellipsoidal in regions of high shear and more polygonal in regions of low shear stress. In order to study quantitatively the nature of this response, bovine aortic endothelial cells grown on Thermanox plastic coverslips were exposed to shear stress levels of 10, 30, and 85 dynes/cm2 for periods up to 24 hr using a parallel plate flow chamber. A computer-based analysis system was used to quantify the degree of cell elongation with respect to the change in cell angle of orientation and with time. The results show that (i) endothelial cells orient with the flow direction under the influence of shear stress, (ii) the time required for cell alignment with flow direction is somewhat longer than that required for cell elongation, (iii) there is a strong correlation between the degree of alignment and endothelial cell shape, and (iv) endothelial cells become more elongated when exposed to higher shear stresses.


2004 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 749-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H Willis ◽  
B G Krishnappan

Techniques available to practicing civil engineers for numerically modelling cohesive mud in rivers and estuaries are reviewed. Coupled models, treating water and sediment as a single process, remain research tools but are usually not three-dimensional. The decoupled approach, which separates water and sediment computations at each model time step, allows the three-dimensional representation of at least the bed and the use of well-proven, commercial, numerical, hydrodynamic models. Most hydrodynamic models compute sediment transport in suspension but may require modification of the dispersion coefficients to account for the presence of sediment. The sediment model deals with the sediment exchange between the water column and the bed using existing equations for erosion and deposition. Both equations relate the sediment exchange rates to the shear stress in the bottom boundary layer. In real rivers and estuaries, a depositional bed layer is associated with a period of low flow and shear, at slack tide for example, whereas in numerical models a layer is defined by the model time step. The sediment model keeps track of the uppermost layers at each model grid point, including consolidation and strengthening. Although numerical hydrodynamic models are based strongly on physics, sediment models are only numerical frameworks for interpolating and extrapolating full-scale field or laboratory measurements of "hydraulic sediment parameters," such as threshold shear stresses. Calibration and verification of models against measurement are therefore of prime importance.Key words: cohesive sediment, mathematical modelling, settling velocity, erosion, resuspension, deposition, fluid mud, bed layers.


2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Zeng ◽  
Thong-See Lee ◽  
Peng Yu ◽  
Partha Roy ◽  
Hong-Tong Low

Microchannel bioreactors have been used in many studies to manipulate and investigate the fluid microenvironment around cells. In this study, substrate concentrations and shear stresses at the base were computed from a three-dimensional numerical flow-model incorporating mass transport. Combined dimensionless parameters were developed from a simplified analysis. The numerical results of substrate concentration were well correlated by the combined parameters. The generalized results may find applications in design analysis of microchannel bioreactors. The mass transport and shear stress were related in a generalized result. Based on the generalized results and the condition of dynamic similarity, various means to isolate their respective effects on cells were considered.


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