Fluids, Volume 6, Issue 9 (September 2021) – 36 articles

Slender-body approximations have been successfully used to explain many phenomena in low-Reynolds number fluid mechanics. These approximations typically use a line of singularity solutions to represent flow. These singularities can be difficult to implement numerically because they diverge at their origin. Hence, people have regularized these singularities to overcome this issue. This regularization blurs the force over a small blob and thereby removing divergent behaviour. However, it is unclear how best to regularize the singularities to minimize errors. In this paper, we investigate if a line of regularized Stokeslets can describe the flow around a slender body. This is achieved by comparing the asymptotic behaviour of the flow from the line of regularized Stokeslets with the results from slender-body theory. We find that the flow far from the body can be captured if the regularization parameter is proportional to the radius of the slender body. This is consistent with what is assumed in numerical simulations and provides a choice for the proportionality constant. However, more stringent requirements must be placed on the regularization blob to capture the near field flow outside a slender body. This inability to replicate the local behaviour indicates that many regularizations cannot satisfy the no-slip boundary conditions on the body’s surface to leading order, with one of the most commonly used blobs showing an angular dependency of velocity along any cross section. This problem can be overcome with compactly supported blobs, and we construct one such example blob, which can be effectively used to simulate the flow around a slender body. Full article

In this work, we contribute to the development of numerical algorithms for the direct simulation of three-dimensional incompressible multiphase flows in the presence of multiple fluids and solids. The volume of fluid method is used for interface tracking, and the Brinkman penalization method is used to treat solids; the latter is assumed to be perfectly superhydrophobic or perfectly superhydrophilic, to have an arbitrary shape, and to move with a prescribed velocity. The proposed algorithm is implemented in the open-source software Basilisk and is validated on a number of test cases, such as the Stokes flow between a periodic array of cylinders, vortex decay problem, and multiphase flow around moving solids. Full article

Coordinate-transformed analysis of turbulence transport is developed, which leads to a symmetric set of gradient expressions for the Reynolds stress tensor components. In this perspective, the turbulence structure in wall-bounded flows is seen to arise from an interaction of a small number of intuitive dynamical terms: transport, pressure and viscous. Main features of the turbulent flow can be theoretically prescribed in this way and reconstructed for channel and boundary layer flows, with and without pressure gradients, as validated in comparison with available direct numerical simulation data. A succinct picture of turbulence structure and its origins emerges, reflective of the basic physics of momentum and energy balance if placed in a specific moving coordinate frame. An iterative algorithm produces an approximate solution for the mean velocity, and its implications toward computability of turbulent flows is discussed. Full article

In this paper, an artificial neural network (ANN)-based reduced order model (ROM) is developed for the hydrodynamics forces on an airfoil immersed in the flow field at different angles of attack. The proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) of the flow field data is employed to obtain pressure modes and the temporal coefficients. These temporal pressure coefficients are used to train the ANN using data from three different angles of attack. The trained network then takes the value of angle of attack (AOA) and past POD coefficients as an input and predicts the future temporal coefficients. We also decompose the surface pressure modes into lift and drag components. These surface pressure modes are then employed to calculate the pressure component of lift $C_L^p$ and drag $C_D^p$ coefficients. The train model is then tested on the in-sample data and out-of-sample data. The results show good agreement with the true numerical data, thus validating the neural network based model. Full article

This article represents the second part of a review by De Stefano and Vasilyev (2021) on wavelet-based adaptive methods for modeling and simulation of turbulent flows. Unlike the hierarchical adaptive eddy-capturing approach, described in the first part and devoted to high-fidelity modeling of incompressible flows, this companion paper focuses on the adaptive eddy-resolving framework for compressible flows in complex geometries, which also includes model-form adaptation from low to high fidelity models. A hierarchy of wavelet-based eddy-resolving methods of different fidelity has been developed for different speed regimes, various boundary conditions, and Reynolds numbers. Solutions of various fidelity are achieved using a range of modeling approaches from unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulation to delayed detached eddy simulation, wall-modeled and wall-resolved large eddy simulations. These novel methodologies open the door to construct a hierarchical approach for simulation of compressible flows covering the whole range of possibilities, from only resolving the average or dominant frequency, to capturing the intermittency of turbulence eddies, and to directly simulating the full turbulence spectrum. The generalized hierarchical wavelet-based adaptive eddy-resolving approach, once fully integrated into a single inherently interconnected simulation, results in being a very competitive and predictive tool for complicated flows in industrial design and analysis with high efficiency and accuracy. Full article

The coupled Delft3D-object model has been developed to predict the mobility and burial of objects on sandy seafloors. The Delft3D model is used to predict seabed environmental factors such as currents, waves (peak wave period, significant wave height, wave direction), water level, sediment transport, and seabed change, which are taken as the forcing term to the object model consisting of three components: (a) physical parameters such as diameter, length, mass, and rolling moment; (b) dynamics of the rolling cylinder around its major axis; (c) an empirical sediment scour model with re-exposure parameterization. The model is compared with the observational data collected from a field experiment from 21 April to 13 May 2013 off the coast of Panama City, Florida. The experimental data contain both object mobility using sector scanning sonars and maintenance divers as well as simultaneous environmental time series data of the boundary layer hydrodynamics and sediment transport conditions. Comparison between modeled and observed data clearly shows the model’s capabilities and limitations. Full article

Scaling of turbulent wall-bounded flows is revealed in the gradient structures, for each of the Reynolds stress components. Within the “dissipation” structure, an asymmetrical order exists, which we can deploy to unify the scaling and transport dynamics within and across these flows. There are subtle differences in the outer boundary conditions between channel and flat-plate boundary-layer flows, which modify the turbulence structure far from the wall. The self-similarity exhibited in the gradient space and corresponding transport dynamics establish capabilities and encompassing knowledge of wall-bounded turbulent flows. Full article

The objective of the present work is to propose an extended analytical wall function that is capable of predicting the bypass transition from laminar to turbulent flow. The algebraic $\gamma$ transition model, the $k-\omega$ turbulence model and the analytical wall function are integrated together in this work to detect the transition onset and start the transition process. The present analytical wall function is validated with the experimental data, the Blasius solution and the law of the wall. With this analytical wall function, the transition onset in the skin friction coefficient is detected and the growth rate of transition is properly generated. The predicted mean velocity profiles are found to be in good agreement with the Blasius solution in the laminar flow, the experimental data in the transition zone and the law of the wall in the fully turbulent flow. Full article

Drilling fluids play an important role in the construction of oil and gas wells. Furthermore, drilling of oil and gas wells at offshore fields is an even more complex task that requires application of specialized drilling muds, which are non-Newtonian and complex fluids. With regard to fluid properties, it is necessary to manage the equivalent circulation density because its high values can lead to fracture in the formation, loss of circulation and wellbore instability. Thus, rheology of the used drilling mud has a significant impact on the equivalent circulation density. The aim of the present research is to develop compositions of drilling muds with a low solids load based on salts of formate acid and improve their rheological parameters for wells with a narrow drilling fluid density range. Partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide of different molecular weights was proposed as a replacement for hydrolized polyacrylamide. The experiment was conducted on a Fann rotary viscometer. The article presents experimentally obtained data of indicators such as plastic viscosity, yield point, nonlinearity index and consistency coefficient. Experimental data were analyzed by the method of approximation. Analysis is performed in order to determine the most suitable rheological model, which describes the investigated fluids’ flow with the least error. Full article

Lattice Boltzmann (LB) methods are usually developed on cubic lattices that discretize the configuration space using uniform grids. For efficient computations of anisotropic and inhomogeneous flows, it would be beneficial to develop LB algorithms involving the collision-and-stream steps based on orthorhombic cuboid lattices. We present a new 3D central moment LB scheme based on a cuboid D3Q27 lattice. This scheme involves two free parameters representing the ratios of the characteristic particle speeds along the two directions with respect to those in the remaining direction, and these parameters are referred to as the grid aspect ratios. Unlike the existing LB schemes for cuboid lattices, which are based on orthogonalized raw moments, we construct the collision step based on the relaxation of central moments and avoid the orthogonalization of moment basis, which leads to a more robust formulation. Moreover, prior cuboid LB algorithms prescribe the mappings between the distribution functions and raw moments before and after collision by using a moment basis designed to separate the trace of the second order moments (related to bulk viscosity) from its other components (related to shear viscosity), which lead to cumbersome relations for the transformations. By contrast, in our approach, the bulk and shear viscosity effects associated with the viscous stress tensor are naturally segregated only within the collision step and not for such mappings, while the grid aspect ratios are introduced via simpler pre- and post-collision diagonal scaling matrices in the above mappings. These lead to a compact approach, which can be interpreted based on special matrices. It also results in a modular 3D LB scheme on the cuboid lattice, which allows the existing cubic lattice implementations to be readily extended to those based on the more general cuboid lattices. To maintain the isotropy of the viscous stress tensor of the 3D Navier–Stokes equations using the cuboid lattice, corrections for eliminating the truncation errors resulting from the grid anisotropy as well as those from the aliasing effects are derived using a Chapman–Enskog analysis. Such local corrections, which involve the diagonal components of the velocity gradient tensor and are parameterized by two grid aspect ratios, augment the second order moment equilibria in the collision step. We present a numerical study validating the accuracy of our approach for various benchmark problems at different grid aspect ratios. In addition, we show that our 3D cuboid central moment LB method is numerically more robust than its corresponding raw moment formulation. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the 3D cuboid central moment LB scheme for the simulations of anisotropic and inhomogeneous flows and show significant savings in memory storage and computational cost when used in lieu of that based on the cubic lattice. Full article

In a high viscosity, polymeric fluid initially at rest, the release of elastic energy produces vorticity in the form of coherent motions (vortex rings). Such behavior may enhance mixing in the low Reynolds number flows encountered in microfluidic applications. In this work, we develop a theory for such flows by linearizing the governing equations of motion. The linear theory predicts that when elastic energy is released in a symmetric manner, a wave of vorticity is produced with two distinct periods of wave motion: (1) a period of wave expansion and growth extending over a transition time scale, followed by (2) a period of wave translation and viscous decay. The vortex wave speeds are predicted to be proportional to the square root of the initial fluid tension, and the fluid tension itself scales as the viscosity. Besides verifying the predictions of the linearized theory, numerical solutions of the equations of motion for the velocity field, obtained using a pseudo-spectral method, show that the flow is composed of right- and left-traveling columnar vortex pairs, called vortex waves for short. Wave speeds obtained from the numerical simulations are within 1.5% of those from the linear theory when the assumption of linearity holds. Vortex waves are found to decay on a time scale of the order of the vortex size divided by the solution viscosity, in reasonable agreement with the analytical solution of the linearized model for damped vortex waves. When the viscoelastic fluid is governed by a nonlinear spring model, as represented by the Peterlin function, wave speeds are found to be larger than the predictions of the linear theory for small polymer extension lengths. Full article

The low energy excitation states in frustrated magnetic structures can generate quasiparticles that behave as if they were magnetic charges. These excited states produce, in the so-called spin-ice materials, two different peaks of specific heat at temperatures less than 1.5 K. In this paper, we consider that the first structure is caused by the formation of fluid of magnetic dipoles configured by the dumbbell model with a boson nature in consonance with that described by Witten for mesons. The second structure, wider than the first one, corresponds to a plasma state that comes from the breaking of a great number of dipoles, which provokes the appearance of free magnetic charges, which constitute a cool magnetic plasma fluid. In this paper, we determine thermodynamic analytical functions: the thermo-potential and internal energy and their respective derivative physical magnitudes: entropy, and magnetic specific heat. We obtain results in a good concordance with the experimental data, which allow us to explain the phase transitions occurred in these spin-ice materials at very low temperatures. Full article

Fires are complex multi-physics problems that span wide spatial scale ranges. Capturing this complexity in computationally affordable numerical simulations for process studies and “outer-loop” techniques (e.g., optimization and uncertainty quantification) is a fundamental challenge in reacting flow research. Further complications arise for propagating fires where a priori knowledge of the fire spread rate and direction is typically not available. In such cases, static mesh refinement at all possible fire locations is a computationally inefficient approach to bridging the wide range of spatial scales relevant to fire behavior. In the present study, we address this challenge by incorporating adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) in fireFoam, an OpenFOAM solver for simulations of complex fire phenomena involving pyrolyzing solid surfaces. The AMR functionality in the extended solver, called fireDyMFoam, is load balanced, models gas, solid, and liquid phases, and allows us to dynamically track regions of interest, thus avoiding inefficient over-resolution of areas far from a propagating flame. We demonstrate the AMR capability and computational efficiency for fire spread on vertical panels, showing that the AMR solver reproduces results obtained using much larger statically refined meshes, but at a substantially reduced computational cost. We then leverage AMR in an optimization framework for fire suppression based on the open-source Dakota toolkit, which is made more computationally tractable through the use of fireDyMFoam, minimizing a cost function that balances water use and solid-phase mass loss. The extension of fireFoam developed here thus enables the use of higher fidelity simulations in optimization problems for the suppression of fire spread in both built and natural environments. Full article

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited monogenic disease characterized by distorted red blood cells that causes vaso-occlusion and vasculopathy. Presently, electrophoresis of haemoglobin and genotyping are used as routine tests for diagnosis of the SCD. These techniques require specialized laboratories and are expensive. The low-cost microfluidics-based diagnostic tool holds a great attention for screening of red blood cell (RBC) deformability. In the present study, lubrication theory has been applied in order to develop a biomechanical model of microcirculation with altered rheological properties of sickle blood in the capillary, which is smaller in size compared to the cell diameter, to explain the multifactorial nature and pathogenesis of vaso-occlusion in SCD. The governing equations have been solved analytically for realistic boundary conditions and simulated using MATLAB. We found that the axial velocity of the cell decreases with a decrease in deformability and compliance. The height of the lubricating film predicts deformation of the cell with respect to local pressure in the microcirculation. Leak back and drag force depend non-linearly on the deformed cell radius with varying viscosity of the plasma and Reynolds number. The modelling predictions of this study is in coherence with experimental results. The analyzed parameters provide unique insights with novel possibilities to design a microfluidics-based effective therapeutic intervention for SCD. Full article

Against the background of current and future global challenges, such as climate change, process engineering requires increasingly specific solutions adapted to the respective problem or application, especially in gas–liquid contact apparatuses. One possibility to adjust the conditions in this kind of apparatuses is an intelligent and customized structuring, which leads to consistent fluid properties and flow characteristics within the reactor. In the course of this, the interfacial area for mass transfer, as well as residence times, have to be adjusted and optimized specifically for the respective application. In order to better understand and advance the research on intelligent customized additively manufactured lattice structures (AMLS), the phase distributions and local gas holdups that are essential for mass transfer are investigated for different structures and flow conditions. For the first time a tomographic measurement technique is used, the Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography (ECVT), and validated with the volume expansion method and a fiber optical needle probe (A2PS-B-POP) for an air-water system for different modes of operation (with or without co-current liquid flow in empty or packed state). The ECVT proved to be particularly useful for both in the empty tube and the packed state and provided new insights into the phase distributions occurring within structured packings, which would have led to significantly underestimated results based on the visual reference measurements, especially for a densely packed additively manufactured lattice structure (5 mm cubic on the tip). Particularly for the modified structures, which were supposed to show local targeted differences, the ECVT was able to resolve the changes locally. The additional use of a pump for co-current flow operation resulted in slightly higher fluctuations within the ECVT data, although local events could still be resolved sufficiently. The final comparison of the empty tube at rest data with a fiber optical needle probe showed that the results were in good agreement and that the local deviations were due to general differences in the respective measurement techniques. Full article

In the present study, the diffraction and the radiation problems of water waves by a surface-piercing porous cylindrical body are considered. The idea conceived is based on the capability of porous structures to dissipate the wave energy and to minimize the environmental impact, developing wave attenuation and protection. In the context of linear wave theory, a three-dimensional solution based on the eigenfunction expansion method is developed for the determination of the velocity potential of the flow field around the cylindrical body. Numerical results are presented and discussed concerning the wave elevation and the hydrodynamic forces on the examined body for various values of porosity coefficients. The results revealed that porosity plays a key role in reducing/controlling the wave loads on the structure and the wave run-up, hence porous barriers can be set up to protect a marine structure against wave attack. Full article

Recently, the trend towards sustainable energy production and pollution control has motivated the increased consumption of ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) or bio-fuels. Such fuels have relatively low surface tension with water and therefore, the separation of water from fuel has become a challenging problem. The separation process relies on using porous structures for the collection and removal of water droplets. Hence, understanding the interaction between water droplets and the separators is vital. The simplest geometry of a separator is the wire mesh screen, which is used in many modern water–diesel separators. Thus, it is considered here for systematic study. In this work, pore-scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed using OpenFOAM^® (an open-source C++ toolbox for fluid dynamics simulations) coupled with a new accurate scheme for the computation of the surface tension force. First, two validation test cases were performed and compared to experimental observations in corresponding bubble-point tests. Second, in order to describe the interaction between water droplets and wire mesh screens, the simulations were performed with different parameters: mean diesel velocity, open area ratio, fiber radii, Young–Laplace contact angle, and the droplet radius. New correlations were obtained which describe the average reduction of open surface area (clogging), the pressure drop, and retention criteria. Full article

The present work explores the impact of rotation on the dynamics of a thin liquid layer deposited on a spheroid (bi-axial ellipsoid) rotating around its vertical axis. An evolution equation based on the lubrication approximation was derived, which takes into account the combined effects of the non-uniform curvature, capillarity, gravity, and rotation. This approximate model was solved numerically, and the results were compared favorably with solutions of the full Navier–Stokes equations. A key advantage of the lubrication approximation is the solution time, which was shown to be at least one order of magnitude shorter than for the full Navier–Stokes equations, revealing the prospect of controlling film dynamics for coating applications. The thin film dynamics were investigated for a wide range of geometric, kinematic, and material parameters. The model showed that, in contrast to the purely gravity-driven case, in which the fluid drains downwards and accumulates at the south pole, rotation leads to a migration of the maximum film thickness towards the equator, where the centrifugal force is the strongest. Full article

The dynamics of a three-phase gas–liquid–liquid multiphase system is examined by direct numerical simulations. The system consists of a continuous liquid phase, buoyant gas bubbles, and smaller heavy drops that fall relative to the continuous liquid. The computational domain is fully periodic, and a force equal to the weight of the mixture is added to keep it in place. The governing parameters are selected so that the terminal Reynolds numbers of the bubbles and the drops are moderate; while the effect of bubble deformability is examined by changing its surface tension, the surface tension for the drops is sufficiently high so they do not deform. One bubble in a “unit cell” and eight freely interacting bubbles are examined. The dependency of the slip velocities, the velocity fluctuations, and the distribution of the dispersed phases on the volume fraction of each phase are examined. It is found that while the distribution of drops around a single bubble in a “unit cell” is uneven and depends on its deformability, the distribution of drops around freely interacting bubbles is relatively uniform for the parameters examined in this study. Full article

A numerical study of conjugate thermogravitational convection in a closed cavity with a local heater of square or triangular shape placed on a heat-conducting substrate using the double distribution function of the lattice Boltzmann method has been carried out. The side walls of the research area are maintained at a constant minimum temperature. The influence of the geometric shape of the heating element, the Rayleigh number, and the material of the heat-removing substrate on the thermohydrodynamic parameters has been studied. As a result of the research, the joint effect of these mentioned parameters on the efficiency of heat removal from the heater surface has been established. It has been found that a rise of the bottom wall thermal conductivity causes an increase in the average Nusselt number at the heater surface. Full article

In this paper, we study the intersection (interaction) between several steady shocks traveling in the same direction. The interaction between overtaking shocks may be regular or irregular. In the case of regular reflection, the intersection of overtaking shocks leads to the formation of a resulting shock, contact discontinuity, and some reflected discontinuities. The type of discontinuity depends on the parameters of incoming shocks. At the irregular reflection, a Mach shock forms between incoming overtaking shocks. Reflected discontinuities come from the points of intersection of the Mach stem with the incoming shocks. We also consider the possible types of shockwave configurations that form both at regular and irregular interactions of several overtaking shocks. The regions of existence of overtaking shock waves with different types of reflected shock and the intensity of reflected shocks are defined. The results obtained in the study can potentially be useful for designing supersonic intakes and advanced jet engines. Full article

Fluid structure interaction (FSI) is a complex phenomenon that in several applications cannot be neglected. Given its complexity and multi-disciplinarity the solution of FSI problems is difficult and time consuming, requiring not only the solution of the structural and fluid domains, but also the use of expensive numerical methods to couple the two physics and to properly update the numerical grid. Advanced mesh morphing can be used to embed into the fluid grid the vector fields resulting from structural calculations. The main advantage is that such embedding and the related computational costs occur only at initialization of the computation. A proper combination of embedded vector fields can be used to tackle steady and transient FSI problems by structural modes superposition, for the case of linear structures, or to impose a full non-linear displacement time history. Radial basis functions interpolation, a powerful and precise meshless tool, is used in this work to combine the vector fields and propagate their effect to the full fluid domain of interest. A review of industrial high fidelity FSI problems tackled by means of the proposed method and RBF is given for steady, transient, and non-linear transient FSI problems. Full article

The Mach stem height is an important parameter in the Mach reflection of steady supersonic flow. Various experimental, numerical, and theoretical works have been conducted to study this parameter in the past. However, much of the established work focuses around a single set of trailing edge heights. Here, we perform a study to show the dependence of Mach stem height on the trailing edge height for a wider range of geometry. Through numerical simulation for a set of trailing edge heights, we found that the normalized Mach stem height is almost linear with respect to the normalized wedge trailing edge height. The parameter used for normalization can be either the inlet height or the length of the lower wedge surface. The observation of this linear trend is justified through a simplified analysis, which leads to an expression of the Mach stem height that linearly depends on the trailing edge height. The present study extends our knowledge about how the geometry affects the Mach stem height, and provides a basis for future work to elaborate analytical models for Mach stem height. Full article

Emulsion gels are an alternative to developing food products and adding bioactive compounds; however, different stabilizers have been employed considering natural ingredients. In this work, stabilization of emulsion gels with blends of carboxymethylcellulose and kernel mango starch was performed with the addition of mango peel extracts, evaluating their physical, rheological and microstructural properties. Phenolic extract from mango peels (yields = 11.35 ± 2.05% w/w), with 294.60 ± 0.03 mg GAE/100 g of extract and 436.77 ± 5.30 µMol Trolox/g of the extract, was obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction (1:10 peel: Ethanol w/v, 200 W, 30 min), containing pyrogallol, melezitose, succinic acid, γ-tocopherol, campesterol, stigmasterol, lupeol, vitamin A and vitamin E. In addition, mango kernel starch (yields = 59.51 ± 1.35% w/w) with 27.28 ± 0.05% of amylose was obtained, being the by-product of mango (Mangiferaindica var fachir) an alternative to producing natural food ingredients. After that, stable emulsions gels were prepared to stabilize with carboxy methylcellulose–kernel mango starch blends and mango peel extracts. These results provide an ingredient as an alternative to the development of gelled systems. They offer an alternative to elaborating a new multifunctional food system with bioactive properties with potential application as a fat replacement or delivery system in the food industry. Full article

The present study aims to probe the role of an influential factor heretofore scarcely considered in earlier studies in the field of thermovibrational convection, that is, the specific time-varying shape of the forcing used to produce fluid motion under the effect of an imposed temperature gradient. Towards this end, two different temporal profiles of acceleration are considered: a classical (sinusoidal) and a pulse (square) wave. Their effects are analyzed in conjunction with the ability of a specific category of fluids to accumulate and release elastic energy, i.e., that of Chilcott–Rallison finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE-CR) liquids. Through solution of the related governing equations in time-dependent, three-dimensional, and nonlinear form for a representative set of parameters (generalized Prandtl number $P{r}_g=8$, normalized frequency $\Omega =25$, solvent-to-total viscosity ratio $\xi =0.5$, elasticity number $\vartheta =0.1$, and vibrational Rayleigh number $R{a}_{\omega }=4000$), it is shown that while the system responds to a sinusoidal acceleration in a way that is reminiscent of modulated Rayleigh–Bénard (RB) convection in a Newtonian fluid (i.e., producing a superlattice), with a pulse wave acceleration, the flow displays a peculiar breaking-roll mode of convection that is in between classical (un-modulated) RB in viscoelastic fluids and purely thermovibrational flows. Besides these differences, these cases share important properties, namely, a temporal subharmonic response and the tendency to produce spatially standing waves. Full article

Based on the numerical and experimental visualization methods, the flow patterns around a uniformly moving plate located at an arbitrary angle of attack are studied. The study is based on the fundamental equations of continuity, momentum and stratifying substance transport for the cases of strong and weak stratified fluids, as well as potential and actually homogeneous ones. The visualization technique and computation codes were compiled bearing in mind conditions of internal waves, vortices, upstream, and downstream wakes registration, as well as the resolution of ligaments in the form of thin interfaces in schlieren flow images. The analysis was carried out in a unified mathematical formulation for a wide range of plate motion parameters, including slow diffusion-induced flows and fast transient vortex flows. The patterns of formation and subsequent evolution of the basic structural components, such as upstream disturbances, downstream wake, internal waves, vortices, and ligaments, are described both at start of motion and subsequent uniform movement of the plate. Calculations of forces acting on the obstacle in the flow were carried out to study effects of variations in fluid properties, flow conditions and plate parameters on the dynamic characteristics of the obstacle. The numerical and experimental results on the flow patterns around a plate are in a good agreement with each other for different flow regimes. Full article

One of the main routes to ensure that biomolecules or bioactive agents remain active as they are incorporated into products with applications in different industries is by their encapsulation. Liposomes are attractive platforms for encapsulation due to their ease of synthesis and manipulation and the potential to fuse with cell membranes when they are intended for drug delivery applications. We propose encapsulating our recently developed cell-penetrating nanobioconjugates based on magnetite interfaced with translocating proteins and peptides with the purpose of potentiating their cell internalization capabilities even further. To prepare the encapsulates (also known as magnetoliposomes (MLPs)), we introduced a low-cost microfluidic device equipped with a serpentine microchannel to favor the interaction between the liposomes and the nanobioconjugates. The encapsulation performance of the device, operated either passively or in the presence of ultrasound, was evaluated both in silico and experimentally. The in silico analysis was implemented through multiphysics simulations with the software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5^® (COMSOL Inc., Stockholm, Sweden) via both a Eulerian model and a transport of diluted species model. The encapsulation efficiency was determined experimentally, aided by spectrofluorimetry. Encapsulation efficiencies obtained experimentally and in silico approached 80% for the highest flow rate ratios (FRRs). Compared with the passive mixer, the in silico results of the device under acoustic waves led to higher discrepancies with respect to those obtained experimentally. This was attributed to the complexity of the process in such a situation. The obtained MLPs demonstrated successful encapsulation of the nanobioconjugates by both methods with a 36% reduction in size for the ones obtained in the presence of ultrasound. These findings suggest that the proposed serpentine micromixers are well suited to produce MLPs very efficiently and with homogeneous key physichochemical properties. Full article

Coherent wave groups are not only characterized by the intrinsic shape of the wave packet, but also by the underlying phase evolution during the propagation. Exact deterministic formulations of hydrodynamic or electromagnetic coherent wave groups can be obtained by solving the nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE). When considering the NLSE, there are two asymptotically equivalent formulations, which can be used to describe the wave dynamics: the time- or space-like NLSE. These differences have been theoretically elaborated upon in the 2016 work of Chabchoub and Grimshaw. In this paper, we address fundamental characteristic differences beyond the shape of wave envelope, which arise in the phase evolution. We use the Peregrine breather as a referenced wave envelope model, whose dynamics is created and tracked in a wave flume using two boundary conditions, namely as defined by the time- and space-like NLSE. It is shown that whichever of the two boundary conditions is used, the corresponding local shape of wave localization is very close and almost identical during the evolution; however, the respective local phase evolution is different. The phase dynamics follows the prediction from the respective NLSE framework adopted in each case. Full article

The implementation of floating structures has increased with the construction of new sluices for flood control, and the hydrodynamic moment of a floating structure affects the safety and operation of that structure. Based on basic hydrodynamic theory, theoretical analysis and 121 physical model tests were conducted to study the relationships between the hydrodynamic moment and the influencing factors of floating structures, namely, the shape parameter, hydraulic conditions, and draft depth. Stepwise regression fitting based on the least squares method was performed to obtain a mathematical expression of the hydrodynamic moment, and the experimental results show that hydrodynamic factors significantly influence the hydrodynamic moment of such structures. The results predicted by the mathematical expression agree with the experimental results, and thus, the proposed expression can be used to comprehensively analyze and study the safety of a floating structure under the action of flow in finite water. Full article

The purpose of this article was to present the solution for the critical Taylor number in the case of the motion between rotating coaxial cylinders based on the theory of stochastic equations of continuum laws and the equivalence of measures between random and deterministic motions. Analytical solutions are currently of special value, as the solutions obtained by modern numerical methods require verification. At present, in the scientific literature, there are no mathematical relationships connecting the critical Taylor number with the parameters of the initial disturbances in the flow. The result of the solution shows a satisfactory correspondence of the obtained analytical dependence for the critical Taylor number to the experimental data. Full article