Fluid Mechanics Laboratory

D. B. Hoult, J. A. Fay, and L. J. Forney, Theory of Plume Rise Compared with Field Observations Fluid Mechanics Laboratory Publication No. 68-2, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engiaeeriag, Cambridge, Mass., 1968. 

Moreau V (1984) internal report T-84-2, Fluid mechanics laboratory, EPFL, Lausanne... 

Engine Exhaust Gas, Fluid Mechanics Laboratory Report 72-2, Univ. of Michigan, 1972. 

The Reconversion to an Environmental Program of Research, Education and Public Service, December 1970, and J. A. Fay, J. C. Keck, and R. F. Probstein to H. W. Johnson and J. B. Wiesner, memorandum, 8 December 1971, box 9, folder Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Records, 1942-1992 (AC259), MIT Instimte Archives and Special Collections [hereafter cited as MIT ME Records]. 

Physiological Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004, U.S.A. 

Nerem, R.M., Physiological Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston TX 77004, USA Neufeld, H., The Heart Center and the Division of Cardiology, The Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel... 

Sunagawa, K., Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore MD 23205, USA Weber, K.T., Cardiovascular Research Institute, Department of Medicine, Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago ILL 60616, USA Welkowitz, W., Department of Electrical Engineering, Rutgers State University, P.O. Box 909, Piscataway NJ 08854, USA Wiesner, T.F., Physiological Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston TX 77004, USA Williamson, J.S., Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia PA 19104, USA... 

KAPL s in-house test program for the reactor and plant areas was being performed in two facilities the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory and Experimental Engineering. These facilities, and the work performed prior to project termination, are summarized below. 

Reference 1 -7 documents the wor1< effort performed by KAPL s Fluids Mechanics Laboratory in support of Project Prometheus. Initial testing was focused in two areas 1) understanding the ability to properly scale high temperature gas reactor systems with low temperature and pressure water and air test loops and 2) measurement techniques for obtaining accurate flow field data in a gas system using laser based systems These efforts were necessary since most of the NR program s experience was with pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and the ability to hydraulically test scaled PWR reactor mockups vrith water is welt understood. 

Plans were underway to construct a new water and air test loop in addition to KAPL s Fluids Mechanics Laboratory that would be largely dedicated to the Space Power Program. These loops would provide the necessary flow capacity to match gas reactor Reynolds number and ensure dedicated testing could occur without impacting other programs. A concept design for the new test, facility was completed prior to termination of the project and details are provided in Reference 13-1. 

KAPL Letter SPP-SPPS-0029, KAPL Space Power Program Fluid Mechanics Laboratory Test Program Closeout Report," November 15, 2005... 

The NACE Landrum Wheel velocity test, originally TM0270-72, is typical of several mechanical-action immersion test methods to evaluate the effects of corrosion. Unfortunately, these laboratory simulation techniques did not consider the fluid mechanics of the environment or metal interface, and service experience very seldom supports the test... 

Flat flames can be made to impinge onto surfaces. Such strained flames can be used for a variety of purposes. On the one hand, these flames can be used in the laboratory to study the effects of strain on flame structure, and thus improve understanding of the fluid-mechanical effects encountered in turbulent flows. It may also be interesting to discover how a cool surface (e.g., an engine or furnace wall) affects flame structure. Even though the stagnation-flow situation is two-dimensional in the sense that there are two velocity components, the problem can be reduced to a one-dimensional model by similarity, as addressed in the book. 

A review including fluid mechanical considerations and useful applications among other aspects of dust explosions [7], and a collection of abstracts covering 20 years to 1977 [8] have been published. In a comparative study of laboratory methods available... 

Photographic methods. The camera is one of the most valuable tools in a fluid mechanics research laboratory. In studying the motion of water, for example, a series of small spheres consisting of a mixture of benzene and carbon tetrachloride adjusted to the same specific gravity as the water can be introduced into the flow through suitable nozzles. When illuminated from the direction of the camera, these spheres will stand out in a picture. If successive exposures are taken on the same film, the velocities and the accelerations of the particles can be determined. 

The relative ease or difficulty of incineration has been estimated on the basis of the heat of combustion, thermal decomposition kinetics, susceptibility to radical attack, autoignition temperature, correlations of other properties, and destruction efficiency measurements made in laboratory combustion tests. Laboratory studies have indicated that no single ranking procedure is appropriate for all incinerator conditions. In fact, a compound that can be incinerated easily in one system may be the most difficult to remove from another incinerator due to differences in the complex coupling of chemistry and fluid mechanics between the two systems. 

Fluid Mechanics Research Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering Florida A M University and Florida State University Tallahassee, FL 32310... 

For initially nonpremixed reactants, two limiting cases may be visualized, namely, the limit in which the chemistry is rapid compared with the fluid mechanics and the limit in which it is slow. In the slow-chemistry limit, extensive turbulent mixing may occur prior to chemical reaction, and situations approaching those in well-stirred reactors (see Section 4.1) may develop. There are particular slow-chemistry problems for which the previously identified moment methods and age methods are well suited. These methods are not appropriate for fast-chemistry problems. The primary combustion reactions in ordinary turbulent diffusion flames encountered in the laboratory and in industry appear to lie closer to the fast-chemistry limit. Methods for analyzing turbulent diffusion flames with fast chemistry have been developed recently [15], [20], [27]. These methods, which involve approximations of probability-density functions using moments, will be discussed in this section. 

Broadly speaking, there are three main processes to be modeled in the computation of emission in these flows (1) fluid mechanics (2) chemistry and (3) radiation. The rarefied fluid mechanics should be accurately simulated since both continuum and DSMC methods have been applied and cross checked for consistency. For radiation, the NEQAIR code has been improved and calibrated extensively through comparison with the BSUV data (from both flights 1 and 2) and through comparison with laboratory data. Nevertheless, there remains some uncertainty in the model, particularly as the degree of nonequilibrium increases at high altitude. The degree of uncertainty of the radiation model is estimated to be at least a factor of 2. 

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