The mixing properties of various orders of fluctuation correlations are investigated in the present paper for a rarefied gas free shear layer at hypersonic speed. The molecular kinetic theory and the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method are employed for the present calculations. The Reynolds average process is assumed in obtaining the correlation functions. The results show that flow field structure was very similar to that of continuum flow ones at high Reynolds numbers. The probability density functions (pdf) in velocity space f(u′),f(v′), and f(u′, v′) are also calculated to counter explain the distributions of the correlation functions in the mixing layer. From the calculated distributions of the fluctuation correlation functions, <u′v′>, <u′2v′>, and <v′2u′>, one can find that the distributions behave similar to the turbulent transport phenomena in that of a continuum flow one. The distributions of the fluctuation correlation functions, <u′, v′> is described via the joint probability density function, f(u′, v′). The behavior of the higher-order fluctuation correlation functions, <u′2v′>, <u′3> and <u′4 >, are also explained via the probability density function.

With rapidly increasing use of piezoelectric materials in high-temperature environment, it is becoming increasingly important for reliable design of piezoelectric devices to study thermo-electroelastic damage and fracture mechanism. As the first step, a thermo-piezoelectric damage constitutive model is presented from continuum damage mechanics and effective properties of a damaged material are connected with both damages and the initial coefficients according to the theorem of energy equivalence in this paper. Then the finite element equations for a thermo-electroelastic damage problem are given by use of the virtual work principle. Finally, as a numerical illustration example, damage fields around a crack-tip in a three-point bending PZT-5H beam subjected to different thermal loads are calculated and analyzed. It is shown from both the damage curves and contours that influence of environmental temperature on the mechanical damage distribution is great but slight on the electrical damage.

This paper was an attempt to investigate, through numerical simulation, the designs of DEP flow sorters when applied with different ratios of the electrodes to generate different electrical fields, and to explore the sorting capability of the flow sorters, defined as the degree of particle deflection, under different operation of parameters.

In order to obtain the maximal DEP negative particle deflection, which was believed as an indicator of greater sorting capability, we have investigated different non-uniform electrical fields produced by combinations of electrodes with different length of two poles, ranging from 1:2 up to 1:9. The finding of numerical simulation indicated that the length ratio 1:3 of the electrode poles produced the electrical fields that maximized the particle deflection.

Moreover, different parameters of applied voltage, flow rate, particle diameters, and distance between two electrical poles were designed to investigate their effects on particle deflection of flow sorters. The numerical simulation of the study showed that the DEP flow sorter was demonstrated as a linear system with respect to the applied voltage and particle diameter. In this study, we tried to operationally define flow rate as the time duration while the flow passed the electrical fields, and thus investigated how particle deflect with the different time given. We found that the particle deflected more when the flow was allowed with longer time to pass the electrical fields. The study also showed that the distance the particles deflect from the centerline is in inverse proportion to the square distance between the two electrical poles.

This paper presents the theoretical modal analysis for the use of PVDF sensor in structural modal testing via finite element analysis (FEA). A series of rectangular PVDF films are adhered on the surface of cantilever beam as sensors, while the point impact force is applied as the actuator for experimental modal analysis (EMA). Natural frequencies and mode shapes determined from both FEA and EMA are validated. In FEA, the beam structure is modeled by 3D solid elements, and the PVDF films are modeled by 3D coupled field piezoelectric elements. Both modal analysis and harmonic response analysis are performed to obtain the structural modal parameters and frequency response functions, respectively. Results show that both FEA and EMA results agree well. In particular, the PVDF sensor mode shapes, proportional to the slope difference between the two edges of PVDF film, are numerically and experimentally validated by FEA and EMA, respectively. Therefore, the simulation of PVDF films for vibration analysis in FEA can be verified and easily extended to other complex structures that may contain piezoelectric materials.

The paper investigates the stability of thin film flow from a liquid jet impinging on a circular concentric disk using a long-wave perturbation method to solve for the generalized nonlinear kinematic equations of free film interface. To begin with a normal mode approach is employed to obtain the linear stability solution for the film flow. In the linear stability solutions only subcritical region can be resolved. In other words, no solution of supercritical region can be obtained in linear domain. Furthermore, the role that the forces of gravitation and surface tension play in the flow is nothing but to stabilize the system. To further investigate the realistic impinging jet flow stability conditions, the weak nonlinear dynamics of a film flow is studied by using the method of multiple scales. Various subcritical nonlinear behaviors expressed in terms of absolute stability, conditional stability and explosive instability can be characterized by solving the Ginzburg-Landau equation. It is found that the jet flow will become relatively unstable for an increasing Reynolds number, a relative smaller distance from the center of the impinging jet on the disk and a smaller diameter of the exit jet. It is also concluded that the flow will always stay in a subcritical instability region if the characteristic diameter of the potential core at nozzle exit is less than 0.01mm for the numerical conditions given in this paper. In such a case when the amplitude of external flow disturbance is smaller than the threshold amplitude a stable jet flow can be ensured.

Equations governing large eddy simulations are usually closed by incorporating with the Smagorinsky-Lilly's turbulence model of eddy viscosity. The model contains a so-called filtering length and a Smagorinsky-Lilly “constant” that changes among different researchers. The variation range of the constant is wide and its value is usually determined in a sense of “guessing”. Since the constant is closely related to the magnitude of eddy viscosity, hence to our numerical solutions eventually, setting a more precise and determinate procedure for prescribing the constant seems to be worthy it. The constant, CSL, is first estimated in use of the properties of fluid flow within the inertia subrange. Then, along with a general derivation, the explicit closed-form expression for the constant is presented for steady uniform flows. It is found that, with the analogy between the filtering technique and Reynolds average, CSL may not necessarily be constant but proportional to the Manning n and water depth. Other than the determination of CSL, the vertical flow velocity profile in an infinitely long wide rectangular channel without spiral flow motion is obtained through the use of the Smagorinsky-Lilly's turbulence closure model. It is shown analytically that the velocity profile in unsteady open channel flow can be expressed as a function of an integration function Jn(z) that accounts for wind stress and inertia terms. With the velocity profile, effects of inertia terms, wind stress, and channel bed roughness on CSL are deeply explored in response to the dependence of CSL on Jn(z).

The oscillatory characteristics and dynamic structure of periodic flow in an oscillatory gas flow meter were studied experimentally and numerically. The flow oscillations were triggered by the Coanda effect and an universal correlation between Strouhal number and Reynolds number, Str = 1.09 × 10−3 for ReHD >800, was deduced based on spectral analysis of the pressure fluctuations in the flow channel. Numerical simulation indicated that the evolution of the flow patterns was classified into stages of induction and sustainable periodic oscillation. The transformation between the two stages was noticeably affected by the design of the feedback channels. The results further revealed that the development of the main vortex in the oscillating chamber and the small vortices at the entrance of the feedback channels concurrently modulate the mechanism of oscillation. The small vortices located at both entrances of the feedback channels play the role of a pair of modulating valves, which alternatively switch on and off the bypass flow through each feedback channel, thus reinforcing the periodic oscillation.

The α-function method is a family of second-order explicit methods with controlled numerical dissipation. Thus, it is very promising for the pseudodynamic testing of a system where high frequency responses are of no interest. This is because that favorable numerical dissipation can suppress the spurious growth of high frequency responses, which might arise from numerical and/or experimental errors during a test. Furthermore, the implementation of an explicit method for the pseudodynamic testing is much simpler than for an implicit method. The superiority of using this method in performing a pseudodynamic test was verified both analytically and experimentally. In fact, results of error propagation analysis reveal that the spurious growth of high frequency responses can be suppressed and less error propagation is identified when compared to the Newmark explicit method. Actual tests were conducted pseudodynamically to confirm all the analytical results. It is also illustrated that although the high frequency response is insignificant to the total response it may be significantly amplified and propagated and finally destroys the pseudodynamic test results.

This paper presents the Statistical Analysis of Passive Sonar Performance Prediction in Littoral Environments. Passive sonar performance and acoustic prediction mainly refer to the detection range. The inputs for estimating the sonar detection range include the Figure of Merit (FOM), Transmission Loss (TL), and Ambient Noise (NL) of the operation region. These inputs are directly related to the ocean environment; hence, the detection range is, too. A littoral environment is highly variable both in time and space. This paper proposes a methodology for analyzing the statistical properties of the detection range from measurements of ocean water column properties. It is found that the detection range of the southwestern region of Taiwan in the summer is 13.8km with 5.9km as the standard deviation and in the winter is 37.8km with 33.6km as the standard deviation.

Biot's poroelastic theory is employed to study stress wave propagation in an infinite slab of arbitrary thickness. The frequency equation is obtained each for pervious and impervious surfaces for a nondissipative medium. Appropriate numerical data is presented in the form of graphs and then results are discussed. Waves in a thin bar and in a semi-infinite slab are discussed as limiting cases.