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The main object of current study is investigation of instability threshold of flow in a gradual expansion from symmetric to asymmetric situations. The expansion ratio is 1:3 and expansion angles are 30, 45, 60 and 90 degree. Discretization of governing equations is performed using finite volume method based on PISO algorithm on a staggered mesh. The CFD code is validated based on the results of sudden expansion reported in previous works. Here, the effects of expansion angle and Reynolds number on flow instability in transition from symmetric situation to two and three asymmetric vortices are investigated and the first and second critical Reynolds numbers are obtained. The bifurcation diagrams of vortices and velocity profile in centerline are plotted for each case and the effects of instability on flow field are discussed based on them. Unlike the previous studies which have been focused on the planar flow in sudden expansions, the flow instability in gradual expansions with different expansion angles is investigated which is the main innovation of current study.

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Water-storage capacity of reservoir reduces mainly due to sediment laden. Turbidity current has an important role on sediment transfer in reservoir. It is necessary to study sediment interaction and flow in order to predict mechanism of turbidity current. In this paper effects of changes in entrance hydraulic condition of turbidity current on head velocity, layer-average thickness, layer-average velocity, body velocity and turbulent structure have investigated experimentally. The front velocity of the head of turbidity current was determined by video recording and body velocity and turbulence parameters measured by Vecterino. When the initial Froude number decreases the maximum velocity increases in body and head. Positive shear Reynolds stress near bed indicates that major contributor in this region is sweep or ejection while major contributor near interface is inward interaction or outward interaction. Entrainment is dominated at interface. The investigation shows that head velocity depends on inlet Froude number and inlet Reynolds number. Variation of head velocity along channel is exponential. The maximum reduction of head velocity takes place at  whereas variation of head velocity at  is negligible. Driving forces at  are inertial force and gravity force. Driving force decreases after hydraulic jump and only gravity force remains as driving force. Therefore head velocity is constant at . Head velocity increases when inlet Reynolds number increases. Body velocity increases when inlet Froude number decreases, as gravity force increases when inlet Froude number decreases. Effects of inlet Froude as number on body velocity is negligible at the end of channel. Negative value of body velocity at the interface of turbidity current and ambient fluid indicates entrainment phenomenon at this region. When inlet Froude number decreases, vertical component of velocity increases too,then maximum velocity approaches to the bed. Elevation of maximum velocity increases along the channel due to sedimentation of particles and decreases of vertical component of velocity. Body velocity decreases along the channel due to decrease of inertial force. Vertical Reynolds stress decreases when inlet Froude number decreases. Because of increase in particle turbulence dissipates and therefore vertical Reynolds stress decreases. Oscillation of vertical Reynolds stress is due to turbulence at this region. The maximum of vertical Reynolds stress tacks place near bed and interface of turbidity current and ambient fluid and minimum of vertical Reynolds stress tacks place near maximum velocity elevation. Shear Reynolds stress have two maximum values. One is near the bed and the other one is near the interface of turbidity current and ambient fluid. Maximum Reynolds shear stress is positive near bed and negative near interface. Minimum of Reynolds shear stress take place near maximum velocity elevation.

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River bank erosion causes damages to agricultural land, adjacent establishments and widening of river dimensions. Mass failure process of bank erosion is a factor to transport bulk of sediments followed by deposition in downstreams of a river system, which could be an important problem in river management. This research is to investigate internal erosion under different bank and floodplain slopes, By this means, a number of experiments were carried out in a model designed to simulate internal river bank erosion in the laboratory. In these experiments, the scour hole length, resulted from internal erosion and seepage discharge were measured under different hydraulic gradients. Results showed that bank slope plays an effective role in scour hole length and calculated Reynolds number in porous medium. As it was observed that the scour hole length and hydraulic gradient decrease with an increase in the bank slope and porous medium Reynolds number decreases with reduction in the hydraulic gradient.

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This study focuses on transition of laminar to turbulent flow around a symmetrical airfoil at a low Reynolds number in free flow and flow near the ground at different angles of attack. Finite volume method is adopted to solve the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equation. Flow around the symmetrical airfoil SD8020 at a low Reynolds number (4000) at 5 and 8 degree angle attack has been simulated in free stream and near the groundnumerically. Current numerical result is compared with other’s experiment and numerical result in free flow at low Reynolds number and flow in ground effect that good agreement has been obtained in aerodynamic coefficient prediction. SIMPLEC method is used for pressure and velocity coupling and flow equations discrete with Quick method. Transition-SST model is used for modeling turbulence of flow. Result shows that the current numerical method can detect adverse pressure gradient, laminar separation bubble and transition of laminar flow to turbulent. According to the result, in ground effect location of laminar separation bubble, length of bubble and location of transition is moved to leading edge and pressure distribution is effected by location of laminar separation bubble.

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Due to the diversity and width applications of polymeric fluids in various industries the investigation of viscoelastic fluids is noted by many researchers. In this study, non-creep flow of viscoelastic fluid has investigated inside planar channel with gradual expansion for the expansion ratio of 1:3. The laminar and incompressible flow of viscoelastic fluid has been simulated numerically using finite volume method and PISO algorithm. The nonlinear PTT rheological model has been applied to study effect of elasticity property on the length of vortices in polymeric fluid flow. The investigation of symmetric and asymmetric vortices length in a wide range of Reynolds and Weissenberg numbers is the main purpose of present study. The three angles of 30, 45 and 60 degrees have been considered for influence of the expansion angles on the length of vortices. The study of polymeric fluids flow through the planar channel with gradual changes in cross section (with expansion angles less than 90 degrees) is the innovation of this research. Also the critical values of first and second for Reynolds and Weissenberg numbers have been expressed in various expansion angles and furthermore length of second and third vortices has been presented as a function of Reynolds and Weissenberg numbers. The length of symmetric vortices decreases with increment of elastic property at all expansion angles for values of Weissenberg numbers less than one. Whereas the growth of expansion angle leads to increase in the length of symmetric and asymmetric vortices for low Reynolds and Weissenberg numbers.

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This article investigates experimental study of the flow field on a blunt airfoil. For this purpose, PIV technique based on instantaneous flow structures is used in order to view and two dimensional investigation of flow field around unmodified and blunt airfoil and at different times. This study is performed on flows at very low Reynolds number(Reynolds number lower than 4500). This flow regime is very similar to dominant condition on micro air vehicles (MAVs). In order to validate the method used in this study, flow field around cylinder is considered and in continue, instantaneous and mean velocities fields, streamlines and mean vortices field around unmodified and blunt airfoils are obtained. The results show that there are prominent differences on the structure of wake around airfoils and sizes of separation region for blunt and simple airfoils. Meanwhile separation of the flow for both blunt and simple airfoils at this very low Reynolds number, is occurred at angle of attack 5 (at low angle of attack). Also generation of vortex at wake region and their position and circulation at different times, are discussed.

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Rivers have been always the main source of water for human kind and the basic element of population development. Study of the interaction between flow structure and bedforms is one way to understand the behavior of the rivers. Moreover,vegetation in natural rivers increases roughness of the main channel and flood plains which affects the geometry of channels, flow structure, bed resistance and consequently the pattern of sediment transport. Considering the role of bedforms on sediment transport, turbulence production and flow resistance, investigations on details of flow-bedforms interaction, vegetated banks and flow structure seem to be essential. In this study, the influence of straight crested gravel bedforms and vegetation of the banks of channels on flow turbulent characteristics are investigated based on model experimentation. For this purpose, seven fixed artificial 2-D straight crested bedforms were built inside a rectangular flume of 8 m long, 0.4 m wide and 0.6 m deep. The graded gravel particles used to create the bedforms had an average diameter of d50 = 10 mm. Johnson grasses with a diameter of 2.8 mm were used to simulate vegetation cover on the flume side-walls. Since, the fully developed flow was just observed after the fifth dune, experimental measurements were performed over the fifth and sixth dunes. Overall, three runs were performed over the dunes with a wave length, height, angle of repose and flow depth of 0.96 m, 0.04 m, 28 degrees and 0.28 m, respectively. In the first case 17 velocity profiles and in the second and the third cases 21 velocity profiles were measured. All the tests were performed with a constant discharge of 0.024 m3/s. The instantaneous three-dimensional velocity components were measured using a down-looking Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter ADV. Velocities were recorded for each point with a sampling rate of 200 Hz and the sampling volume of 5 mm. The sampling duration was at least 120 seconds. Overall, about 45400000 velocity data were collected, filtered by WinADV software. Results indicated no negative velocities for both cases of with and without vegetation cover. For no vegetation case, the least value of velocity was zero at a small region on the lee side of the dune. Whereas, for the case of vegetating the side-walls, the zero value of velocity was located at the dune's trough. Negative vertical velocity value in both cases of with and without vegetation along a dune confirmed that separation is not dominant for the case of straight crested dunes compared to the corresponding sharp-crested bedforms. The Reynolds stresses increase for the case of vegetating the side-walls compared to the case of without vegetation cover. This is in part due to the increase of flow resistance, while the side-walls are vegetated. Rivers have been always the main source of water for human kind and the basic element of population development. Study of the interaction between flow structure and bedforms is one way to understand the behavior of the rivers. Moreover,vegetation in natural rivers increases roughness of the main channel and flood plains which affects the geometry of channels, flow structure, bed resistance and consequently the pattern of sediment transport. Considering the role of bedforms on sediment transport, turbulence production and flow resistance, investigations on details of flow-bedforms interaction, vegetated banks and flow structure seem to be essential.

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In this work steady flow of fluid in shell and coiled tube heat exchangers has been simulated then analyzed. Effect of pitch, coil’s diameter, tube’s diameter, shell’s diameter, coil’s height, shell’s height and Reynolds number on the friction factor of coil side has been investigated using numerical method. Forty cases have been analyzed in numerical work. The working fluid of both sides is water which its viscosity and thermal conductivity were assumed to be dependent on temperature. The standard K-έ model was used for turbulence. Results indicate the diameter of the coil is the most effective geometrical parameter on the friction factor of the coil side so that by remaining other parameters constant, if the coil’s diameter increases 60%, the friction factor will decrease 30.6%. Also by remaining other parameters constant if the tube’s diameter is doubled the friction factor of the coil side will increase 16.5%, if the shell’s diameter is doubled the friction factor of the coil side will increase 11.7% while the effect of other geometrical parameters on the friction factor of the coil side is much less than the effect of coil’s diameter, tube’s diameter and shell’s height. Also a correlation has been proposed for prediction of the friction factor of the coil side that contains the effect of all defined geometrical parameters in addition to Reynolds number. This correlation is applicable for wide range of Reynolds number (2700< Re< 38000) and has been compared with the correlations proposed in previous works.

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Motion and deformation of the drop falling in an immiscible fluid has become a benchmark problem in fluid mechanics and has a wide range of application in petroleum, medicine processing, metals extraction, power plant and heat exchanger. In this paper, an exact analytical solution of a falling viscous drop at low Reynolds number is investigated. Analytical solution for both internal and external flows is obtained using the perturbation method. The Reynolds numbers and capillary are considered as the perturbation parameters. Drop’s shape remains spherical for sufficient small ones. The falling drop’s shape at Newtonian phase, deforms from its spherical shape as its volume increases. Inertial forces, surface tension, normal components stresses have the most influence on the falling drop’s shape. Drop’s deformation is due to the forces at the interfaces acting between two fluids. By volume increase of the falling drop, normal components stresses overcome to the surface tension and cause a dimple at the bottom drops in addition to the inertial force enhancement. For small non-dimensional parameters (Reynolds number and capillary) drop’s deformation is exactly similar to a sphere and then by increase in Reynolds number and capillary, the drop’s shape alters and cause a dimple at the bottom drops. Analytical solution show suitable agreement in terminal velocity and drop shape estimation with experimental results.

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The growing and diverse applications of low Reynolds number operating vehicles impose the need for their accurate study. Optimization is an important part of computational science that can improve the performance and increase the efficiency of the initial geometry. most of the research studies on aerodynamic optimization were focused on high Reynolds number airfoils. But for aerodynamic devices that have small dimensions, like MAVs, usually the flow speed is low and thus the unsteady effects caused by boundary layer separation cannot be neglected. In this article, oscillating airfoil with pitching motion in turbulent and low Reynolds flow has been optimized with the continuous adjoint method. Drag to lift ratio was chosen to be the objective function and free form deformation parameters is adopted for the surface geometry perturbations. Since aerodynamic optimization generally consists of two parts, first solving the flow equation and then computing the gradient of the objective function, in this article in order to evaluate the accuracy of the optimization process both has been validated. The results show that the adjoint equation converges well and with specifying the suitable constraints, the designed shape approaches to the most optimized level without the loss of performance.

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In this paper, steady motion of non-Newtonian falling drop through a Newtonian fluid at low Reynolds number is investigated analytically. Here, the Upper Convected Maxwell model (UCM) is used for drop phase and Newtonian model is considered for external fluid. During the past few decades, studies relating to non-Newtonian instabilities especially those involving free surfaces are amongst the most striking. These types of studies can be used to optimize design processes in, for example, the petroleum and medicine related processes, metal extraction, and paint and power-plant related fields. Analytical solution is obtained using the perturbation method. Reynolds and Deborah numbers are used to linearize the equations governing the problem in analytical method. Deborah number indicates the elastic effect of drop. The drag force increases by the growth of the elastic effect of non-Newtonian Drop’s. The non-Newtonian drop loses its shape and exchanges to an oblate form. Increment in Deborah number enhances the dimple at the bottom of the drop and results in an increment in its drag force and as a consequence its terminal velocity decreases. A hole is created at the rear of the drop due to the presence of inertia force and focus of normal component of stress at the rear of the drop. The novelty of this study is to consider the convection (non-linear) term of the momentum equations which was neglected in the previous studies due to the creeping flow.

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Using proper dimensionless coefficients that are insensitive to various operating conditions is a crucial issue during the utilization of a yawmeter probe. These dimensionless coefficients produce the deviation angle of flow, stagnation and static pressures. In the current study, these coefficients are analyzed using SPM analytical and experimental methods. A comparison of experimental and analytical results shows that SPM analytical method predicts the flow deviation coefficients satisfactorily at the operational angle range of three-hole probe. This method also calculates the stagnation pressure coefficient precisely at the deviation angle range of ±10 degrees. The experimental results show that due to the assumption of constant speed on the probe, the analytical method cannot calculate the static pressure accurately. Experimental observations also demonstrate that velocity is increased and pressure is decreased over the probe. This is due to the suction region at the downstream of probe. Unlike analytical results, experimental observations depict that at zero degrees, the flow static pressure is equal to the average of pressure at the left and the right side of probe. Due to sensitivity of dimensionless coefficients of flow static pressure to variation of Reynolds number, various values are reported at different kinds of literature for these coefficients. These coefficients change with Reynolds number variations and their accuracies are decreased. In the current study, a new proper dimensionless coefficient is introduced which represents minimum sensitivity to Reynolds number.

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One of the methods to improve the performance of the vortex flowmeter, especially for low flowrate, is to use a dual bluff model that increases the vortex shedding frequency. In this experimental research work, the vortex shedding from a dual cylindrical bluff model of semicircular cross-section, at different l d  ratios, where d  is the diameter and l  is the distance between the two semicircular cylinders in series is measured and investigated using a wind tunnel and hot-wire anemometer. Results show that the Strouhal number for dual bluff body depends on the Reynolds number and l d . In the range of 0/8≤ l d <2 , the Strouhal number has changes and jumps compared to the Reynolds number. Therefore, it is not suitable for vortex flowmeter application. also show that the velocity frequency spectrum, it can be determined that the highest value of the turbulent intensity is related to the oscillating velocity with the vortex shedding frequency, and therefore, to investigate the strength of vortex shedding frequency, the turbulent intensity was investigated, that the value of turbulent intensity depends on Reynolds number and l d . Considering the standard deviation of the repeatability of the Strouhal number reading and also the strength of the vortex shedding frequency (investigation of the turbulent intensity), for 0< l d <0/8  and 2≤ l d ≤3 , a dual cylindrical bluff model of semicircular cross-section, placed in series, is suitable for vortex flowmeter application