The disease atherosclerosis causes stenosis inside the patient's arteries, which often eventually turns lethal. Our goal is to detect a stenosis in a non-invasive manner, preferably in an early stage. To that end, we study whether and how laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) can be deployed. We start out by using computational fluid dynamics on a patient-specific stenosed carotid artery to reveal the flow profile in the region surrounding the stenosis, which compares well with particle image velocimetry experiments. We then use our own fully interferometric dynamic light scattering routines to simulate the process of LSCI of the carotid artery. Our approach offers an advantage over the established Monte Carlo techniques because they cannot incorporate dynamics. From the simulated speckle images, we extract a speckle contrast time series at different sites inside the artery, of which we then compute the frequency spectrum. We observe an increase in speckle boiling in sites where the flow profile is more complex, e.g., containing regions of backflow. In the region surrounding the stenosis, the measured speckle contrast is considerably lower due to the higher local velocity, and the frequency signature becomes notably different with prominent higher-order frequency modes that were absent in the other sites. Although future work is still required to make our new approach more quantitative and more applicable in practice, we have provided a first insight into how a stenosis might be detected in vivo using LSCI.

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We study how the speckle contrast depends on scatterer velocity, with the goal of further developing laser speckle imaging as a quantitative measurement technique. To that end, we perform interferometric computer simulations on a dilute plug flow. The results of our numerical experiment, that we compare with known analytical expressions to confirm their veracity, match well at low velocities with the Gaussian expression. Finally, we address the issue of how velocity depends on speckle decorrelation time, and show that the speckle size is most likely the relevant connecting length scale.

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In the present study, we propose the use of a light, inert carrier gas to support deposition uniformity and rate in continuous physical vapor deposition, in which closely spaced slots or nozzles are required to achieve a sufficiently high deposition rate. Interaction shocks between the emerging rarefied plumes cause undesired nonuniformities in the deposited coating. The present work evaluates the effect of adding a carrier gas on the interaction shock. We study the interaction between two sonic plumes consisting of a binary mixture, i.e., silver as coating material and helium as a light inert carrier gas, by direct simulation Monte Carlo. While the inlet Mach and Knudsen numbers were kept constant, the fraction of carrier gas was varied to single out the effect of species separation. The influence of rarefaction on species separation was also studied. Species separation produces a high carrier-gas fraction in the periphery and an accumulation of the heavier species in the jet core. The resulting change in the speed of sound alters the local expansion characteristics and, thus, shifts the shock location and weakens the shock. These phenomena intensify with the degree of rarefaction. It is shown that adding a light carrier gas increases deposition rate may enhance uniformity and reduce stray deposition.

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The absorptivity of a material is a major uncertainty in numerical simulations of laser welding and additive manufacturing, and its value is often calibrated through trial-and-error exercises. This adversely affects the capability of numerical simulations when predicting the process behaviour and can eventually hinder the exploitation of fully digitised manufacturing processes, which is a goal of “industry 4.0”. In the present work, an enhanced absorption model that takes into account the effects of laser characteristics, incident angle, surface temperature, and material composition is utilised to predict internal heat and fluid flow in laser melting of stainless steel 316L. Employing such an absorption model is physically more realistic than assuming a constant absorptivity and can reduce the costs associated with calibrating an appropriate value. High-fidelity three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed using both variable and constant absorptivity models and the predictions compared with experimental data. The results of the present work unravel the crucial effect of absorptivity on the physics of internal flow in laser material processing. The difference between melt-pool shapes obtained using fibre and CO2 laser sources is explained, and factors affecting the local energy absorption are discussed.@en

One of the challenges for development, qualification and optimisation of arc welding processes lies in characterising the complex melt-pool behaviour which exhibits highly non-linear responses to variations of process parameters. The present work presents a computational model to describe the melt-pool behaviour in root-pass gas metal arc welding (GMAW). Three-dimensional numerical simulations have been performed using an enhanced physics-based computational model to unravel the effect of groove shape on complex unsteady heat and fluid flow in GMAW. The influence of surface deformations on the magnitude and distribution of the heat input and the forces applied to the molten material were taken into account. Utilising this model, the complex thermal and fluid flow fields in melt pools were visualised and described for different groove shapes. Additionally, experiments were performed to validate the numerical predictions and the robustness of the present computational model is demonstrated. The model can be used to explore the physical effects of governing fluid flow and melt-pool stability during gas metal arc root welding. @en

Development, optimisation and qualification of welding and additive manufacturing procedures to date have largely been undertaken on an experimental trial and error basis, which imposes significant costs. Numerical simulations are acknowledged as a promising alternative to experiments, and can improve the understanding of the complex process behaviour. In the present work, we propose a simulation-based approach to study and characterise molten metal melt pool oscillatory behaviour during arc welding. We implement a high-fidelity three-dimensional model based on the finite-volume method that takes into account the effects of surface deformation on arc power-density and force distributions. These factors are often neglected in numerical simulations of welding and additive manufacturing. Utilising this model, we predict complex molten metal flow in melt pools and associated melt-pool surface oscillations during both steady-current and pulsed-current gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). An analysis based on a wavelet transform was performed to extract the time-frequency content of the displacement signals obtained from numerical simulations. Our results confirm that the frequency of oscillations for a fully penetrated melt pool is lower than that of a partially penetrated melt pool with an abrupt change from partial to full penetration. We find that during transition from partial to full penetration state, two dominant frequencies coexist in the time-frequency spectrum. The results demonstrate that melt-pool oscillations profoundly depend on melt-pool shape and convection in the melt pool, which in turn is influenced by process parameters and material properties. The present numerical simulations reveal the unsteady evolution of melt pool oscillatory behaviour that are not predictable from published theoretical analyses. Additionally, using the proposed simulation-based approach, the need of triggering the melt-pool oscillations is expendable since even small surface displacements are detectable, which are not sensible to the current measurement devices employed in experiments.
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The initial thickness and radius of the film that forms upon close contact of two foam bubbles are known to influence the thinning dynamics and lifetime of the film. Various scalings of lifetime tr, with initial radius Rfilm and thickness ho, have been proposed in literature. In this paper, we present a hydrodynamic thin-film model that includes both surface tension, van der Waals forces, and drainage and that clarifies the various proposed scalings of lifetime. Our model equations were solved numerically for a range of Rfilm and ho as direct input parameters. Films with a large radius are found to thin locally at a dimple, while films with a small radius thin across the entire film. The observed dynamics and lifetime were interpreted by developing a simplified model that describes the early stage dimpled drainage and the late stage van der Waals thinning, using known similarity solutions. For large radii films, our simulations confirm earlier theoretical work on semi-infinite films that predicts tr∼Rfilm0h05/7. For small radii films, our numerical simulations show the opposite trend with lifetime being solely dependent on Rfilm, in fair agreement with the simplified model that predicts tr∼Rfilm10/7h00.

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In recent years, Physical Vapor Deposition has been advanced to a continuous process which makes it amenable for in-line, high-quality and energy-efficient galvanization. To achieve the high and uniform mass flow required for in-line production, a Vapor Distribution Box is used, in which the zinc is evaporated. The zinc fills the Vapor Distribution Box at a relatively high pressure and leaves into the coating chamber via nozzles. A reliable modeling approach that can be used in the design and optimization of Vapor Distribution Boxes is as yet not available in the literature. The present paper analyses which phenomena play a major role and therefore have to be included in a simulation model of continuous Physical Vapor Deposition processes, and identifies process parameters which have a significant impact on deposition rate and uniformity. To this end, a model for the flow and heat transfer is developed based on the numerical solution of the compressible Navier–Stokes-Fourier equations in combination with the Launder and Sharma low-Reynolds k-∊ turbulence model, using the open-source CFD-library OpenFOAM. To account for the vapor mass flow to be limited by both evaporation and sonic choking, a novel inlet boundary condition is proposed based on the Hertz-Knudsen condition. Results from the CFD model are compared to those of analytical models based on isentropic flow, the influence of various modeling parameters is evaluated against experiments, and sensitivity of the process to various process parameters studied. The proposed numerical model predicts mass flow rates with a much better accuracy than analytical models previously proposed in the literature. The latter overpredict the mass flow rate by a factor of 2.1–2.5, whereas the proposed numerical model overpredicts only by a factor of 1.3. Next to the novel Hertz-Knudsen boundary condition, the inclusion of viscous effects is found to be crucial to achieve this improvement, since viscous effects – especially in the boundary layer inside the nozzles – severely reduce the mass flow. The numerical model is shown to be only weakly sensitive to uncertainties in the evaporation coefficients and metal vapor viscosity. For the device studied, the mass flow discharge efficiency was found to be relatively low (≈40%). To increase this efficiency, viscous losses in the nozzle boundary layers have to be reduced, for instance by employing shorter or a bigger radius nozzles (possibly impairing nozzle-to-nozzle uniformity) or by employing a higher melt temperature and vapor pressure.

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The interaction between rarefied vapor plumes can cause shocks and consequently distinct peaks in mass flux which produce undesirable non-uniformities. To evaluate the impact of shock formation, we study pairs of interacting planar plumes, varying the degree of rarefaction and general geometric parameters, namely, the nozzle-separation-distance and the mutual plume inclination. To consider the extremes of rarefaction, we give the analytic solution for free molecular flow and simulate the inviscid continuum solution using an approximate Riemann solver. In the transitional flow regime, direct simulation Monte Carlo is applied. To detect the shock location, we make use of the Method of Characteristics. We conclude that, although the rarefied flow regime physically lies in between the free molecular and the inviscid continuum flow regimes, the peak value of mass flux in the transitional flow regime exceeds both the one of free molecular flows and the one of inviscid continuum flows (the latter by Rarefied flow exhibits a broader, but weaker secondary expansion after the shock than continuum flow. For planar jet interaction, the occurrence of the shock is rather insensitive to nozzle separation distance. Despite the intuitive expectation that inclining the plumes away from each other would lead to shock reduction and thus give a more uniform mass flux, the opposite is the case: Inclining the plumes toward each other leads to a stronger shock, but also to a stronger expansion, thus producing a more uniform mass flux with less stray mass fluxes.

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Molten metal melt pools are characterised by highly non-linear responses, which are very sensitive to imposed boundary conditions. Temporal and spatial variations in the energy flux distribution are often neglected in numerical simulations of melt pool behaviour. Additionally, thermo-physical properties of materials are commonly changed to achieve agreement between predicted melt-pool shape and experimental post-solidification macrograph. Focusing on laser spot melting in conduction mode, we investigated the influence of dynamically adjusted energy flux distribution and changing thermo-physical material properties on melt pool oscillatory behaviour using both deformable and non-deformable assumptions for the gas-metal interface. Our results demonstrate that adjusting the absorbed energy flux affects the oscillatory fluid flow behaviour in the melt pool and consequently the predicted melt-pool shape and size. We also show that changing the thermo-physical material properties artificially or using a non-deformable surface assumption lead to significant differences in melt pool oscillatory behaviour compared to the cases in which these assumptions are not made.

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Internal flow behaviour and melt-pool surface oscillations during arc welding are complex and not yet fully understood. In the present work, high-fidelity numerical simulations are employed to describe the effects of welding position, sulphur concentration (60-300 ppm) and travel speed (1.25-5 mms-1) on molten metal flow dynamics in fully-penetrated melt-pools. A wavelet transform is implemented to obtain time-resolved frequency spectra of the oscillation signals, which overcomes the shortcomings of the Fourier transform in rendering time resolution of the frequency spectra. Comparing the results of the present numerical calculations with available analytical and experimental datasets, the robustness of the proposed approach in predicting melt-pool oscillations is demonstrated. The results reveal that changes in the surface morphology of the pool resulting from a change in welding position alter the spatial distribution of arc forces and power-density applied to the molten material, and in turn affect flow patterns in the pool. Under similar welding conditions, changing the sulphur concentration affects the Marangoni flow pattern, and increasing the travel speed decreases the size of the pool and increases the offset between top and bottom melt-pool surfaces, affecting the flow structures (vortex formation) on the surface. Variations in the internal flow pattern affect the evolution of melt-pool shape and its surface oscillations.

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We investigate natural convection driven by a horizontal temperature gradient and a vertical concentration gradient in fluid-filled enclosures with obstructions inside it. Within the domain, nine adiabatic and impermeable cylinders are placed, occupying 30% of the domain volume. The Boussinesq approximation is used to account for density variations within the fluid and the flow is fully resolved. The solutal Rayleigh number has been fixed at Ra_C=10⁶ and the Prandtl number at Pr=5.4. The Lewis number has been varied in the range of 1 ≤ Le ≤ 100 and the buoyancy ratio in the range of 0.1 ≤ |N| ≤ 10. The rate of heat and mass transfer are compared to those found in single-scalar natural convection, i.e solely thermal or concentration driven convection. Besides, the obtained heat and mass transfer rate in the cylinder-packed enclosure have been compared to those found in a fluid-only domain. We observe that the addition of a destabilizing concentration gradient to a side-heated enclosure results in heat transfer enhancement, which decreases with Lewis number and thermal Rayleigh number. Similarly, the temperature gradient increases the mass transfer, especially at high Lewis numbers and lower concentration buoyancy force over its thermal counterpart. Although the presence of the cylindrical obstacles reduced the flow velocity, the mass transfer was enhanced at lower buoyancy ratio.

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We numerically investigate natural convection in a bottom-heated top-cooled cavity, fully and partially filled with adiabatic spheres (with diameter-to-cavity-size ratio d/L=0.2) arranged in a Simple Cubic Packing (SCP) configuration. We study the influence of packing height and location of porous media. We carry out the simulations using water as the working fluid with Prandtl number, Pr=5.4 at Rayleigh number Ra=1.16×10⁵, 1.16 × 10⁶ and 2.31 × 10⁷. The applicability and suitability of Darcy-Forchheimer assumption to predict the global heat transfer is analysed by comparing it with the pore-structure resolved simulations. We found that the heat transfer in pore-structure resolved simulations is comparable to that in fluid-only cavities at high Rayleigh numbers, irrespective of the number of layers of packing and its location. Discrepancies in heat transfer between the Darcy-Forchheimer and the fully resolved simulations are observed when the porous medium is close to the isothermal wall and at high Ra, while it vanishes when the porous medium is away from the isothermal bottom wall.

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This paper reports on an experimental study of mixed convection flow and heat transfer in a vented, differentially side-heated cubical cavity filled with a porous medium consisting of relatively large solid low-conductivity spheres. Rayleigh numbers and Reynolds numbers are varied over the ranges 6 × 106 < Ra < 7 × 107 and 240 < Re < 4250, respectively, for a fixed Prandtl number of Pr = 6.75, thus covering more than three decades in Richardson numbers Ri = Ra/(Re2 Pr). Heat transfer measurements were combined with measurements of the velocity field (using particle image velocimetry) and the temperature field (using liquid crystal thermography) to better understand the dependence of the Nusselt number, Nu, on the Richardson number. We observed three different flow and heat transfer regimes depending on the Richardson number. For Ri < 10, the flow structure and the Nusselt number scaling are similar to those for the pure forced convection, i.e., the Nusselt number scales as Nu ~ Re0.61 independent of Rayleigh number. For Ri > 40, natural convection dominates the flow in the vicinity of the heating wall. The Nusselt number becomes less sensitive to the Reynolds number and is mainly determined by the Rayleigh number. In the intermediate regime for 10 < Ri < 40, the upward directed natural convection flow at the heating wall competes with the downward directed forced flow leading to a minimum effective Nusselt number. A Nusselt number correlation is derived that is valid in the range 0.1 < Ri < 100 covering all three regimes.@en

We report numerical simulations of natural convection and conjugate heat transfer in a differentially heated cubical cavity packed with relatively large hydrogel beads (d/L=0.2) in a Simple Cubic Packing configuration. We study the influence of a spatially non-uniform, sinusoidally varying, wall temperature on the local flow and heat transfer, for a solid-to-fluid conductivity ratio of 1, a fluid Prandtl number of 5.4, and fluid Rayleigh numbers between 10⁵ and 10⁷. We present local and overall flow and heat transfer results for both sphere packed and water-only filled cavities, when subjected to variations of the wall temperature at various combinations of the amplitude and characteristic phase angle of the imposed wall temperature variations. It is found that imposing a sinusoidal spatial variation in the wall temperature may significantly alter the local flow and heat transfer, and consequently the overall heat transfer. At identical average temperature difference, applying a spatial variation in wall temperature at well-chosen phase angle can lead to significant heat transfer enhancement when compared to applying uniform wall temperatures. However, this is achieved at the cost of increased entropy generation.

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We report numerical simulations of assisting and opposing mixed convection in a side-heated, side-cooled cavity packed with relatively large solid spheres. The mixed convection is generated by imposing a movement on the isothermal vertical walls, either in or opposite to the direction of natural convection flow. For a fluid Prandtl number of 5.4 and fluid Rayleigh numbers of 10⁶ and 10⁷, we varied the modified Richardson number from 0.025 to 500. As in fluids-only mixed convection, we find that the mutual interaction between forced and natural convection, leading to a relative heat transfer enhancement in assisting - and a relative heat transfer suppression in opposing - mixed convection, is most prominent at a Richardson number of approximately one, when the Richardson number is modified with the Darcy number Da and the Forchheimer coefficient C_f = 0.1 as Ri_m = Ri × Da^0.5/C_f. We focus on local flow and heat transfer variations in order to explain differences in local and average heat transfer between a coarse grained and fine grained (Darcy-type) porous medium, at equal porosity and permeability. We found that the ratio between the thermal boundary layer thickness at the isothermal walls and the average pore size plays an important role in the effect that the grain and pore size have on the heat transfer. When this ratio is relatively large, the thermal boundary layer is locally disturbed by the solid objects and these objects cause local velocities and flow recirculation perpendicular to the walls, resulting in significant differences in the wall-averaged heat transfer. The local nature of the interactions between flow and solid objects cannot be captured by a volume averaged approach, such as a Darcy model.

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Self-limiting gas-surface reactions lead to reaction fronts that penetrate nanoporous materials with a finite speed. We present a closed form theoretical model, validated against molecular simulations, that shows the influence of the fractal scaling law on the time needed to fully penetrate fractal agglomerates of nanoparticles. For very large agglomerate sizes, this penetration time scales with the number of particles N in the agglomerate as [Fourmula presented]. The penetration time for agglomerates with fractal dimensions D_f<3 may therefore be orders of magnitude smaller than for non-fractal porous materials.

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We report numerical simulations of fluid natural convection with conjugate heat transfer in a bottom-heated, top-cooled cubical cavity packed with relatively large (d/L=0.2) solid spheres in a Body Centred Tetragonal (BCT) configuration. We study largely varying solid-to-fluid thermal conductivity ratios between 0.3 and 198, for a fluid Prandtl number of 5.4 and fluid Rayleigh numbers between 1.16 × 10 ⁶ and 1.16 × 10 ⁸ and compare global heat transfer results from our present simulations to our previously published experimental results. The interplay between convection suppression due to the solid packing, and conductive heat transfer in the packing leads to three different regimes, each with a distinct impact of the solid packing on the flow and heat transfer. At low Rayleigh numbers ≈ 10 ⁶ , all packings suppress convective flow. Compared to fluid only Rayleigh–Bénard convection, heat transfer is therefore reduced in low conductivity packings, whereas for high conductivity packings it is increased due to significant conductive heat transfer. At intermediate Rayleigh numbers ≈ 10 ⁷ , low conductivity packings no longer suppress convection, whereas flow is still suppressed in high conductivity packings due to the thermal stratification imposed on the fluid by the solid. Consequently, heat transfer is lower compared to fluid only Rayleigh–Bénard convection, even in high conductivity packings. With a further increase of Rayleigh number ≳ 10 ⁸ , convection starts to be the dominant heat transfer mechanism in all packings, and convective heat transfer is close to that for fluid only Rayleigh–Bénard convection. The contribution of solid conduction in high conductivity packings causes the overall heat transfer to be above that for Rayleigh–Bénard convectin.

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The high degree of uncertainty and conflicting literature data on the value of the permeability coefficient (also known as the mushy zone constant), which aims to dampen fluid velocities in the mushy zone and suppress them in solid regions, is a critical drawback when using the fixed-grid enthalpy-porosity technique for modelling non-isothermal phase-change processes. In the present study, the sensitivity of numerical predictions to the value of this coefficient was scrutinised. Using finite-volume based numerical simulations of isothermal and non-isothermal melting and solidification problems, the causes of increased sensitivity were identified. It was found that depending on the mushy-zone thickness and the velocity field, the solid–liquid interface morphology and the rate of phase-change are sensitive to the permeability coefficient. It is demonstrated that numerical predictions of an isothermal phase-change problem are independent of the permeability coefficient for sufficiently fine meshes. It is also shown that sensitivity to the choice of permeability coefficient can be assessed by means of an appropriately defined Péclet number.
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