Mechanical Engineering - Research Publications

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    A Theoretical Review of Rotating Detonation Engines
    J. Shaw, I ; A.C. Kildare, J ; J. Evans, M ; Chinnici, A ; A.M. Sparks, C ; N.H. Rubaiyat, S ; C. Chin, R ; R. Medwell, P (IntechOpen, 2021-01-14)
    Rotating detonation engines are a novel device for generating thrust from combustion, in a highly efficient, yet mechanically simple form. This chapter presents a detailed literature review of rotating detonation engines. Particular focus is placed on the theoretical aspects and the fundamental operating principles of these engines. The review covers both experimental and computational studies, in order to identify gaps in current understanding. This will allow the identification of future work that is required to further develop rotating detonation engines.
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    Transitional turbulent flow in a stenosed coronary artery with a physiological pulsatile flow
    Freidoonimehr, N ; Arjomandi, M ; Sedaghatizadeh, N ; Chin, R ; Zander, A (Wiley, 2020-07)
    The turbulence in the blood flow, caused by plaque deposition on the arterial wall, increases by the combined effect of the complex plaque geometries and the pulsatile blood flow. The correlation between the plaque geometry, the pulsatile inlet flow and the induced turbulence in a constricted artery is investigated in this study. Pressure drop, flow velocity and wall shear stress are determined for stenosed coronary artery models with three different degrees of asymmetric stenosis and for different heart working conditions. A Computational Fluid Dynamics model, validated against experimental data published in the literature, was developed to simulate the blood pulsatile flow inside a stenosed coronary artery model. The transitional flow behaviour was quantified by investigation of the changes in the turbulence kinetic energy. It was shown that the separation starts from the side of the asymmetric stenosis and spreads to its opposite side further downstream. The results suggest that there is a high risk of the formation of a secondary stenosis at a downstream distance equal to 10 times of the artery diameter at the side and bottom regions of the first stenosis due to the existence of the recirculation zones and low shear stresses. Finally, a stenosed patient‐specific coronary artery model was employed to illustrate the applicability of the obtained results for real geometry models. The results of this study provide a good prediction of pressure drop and blood flow rate, which can be applied in the investigation of the heart muscle workout and the required heart power.
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    Backflow events under the effect of secondary flow of Prandtl's first kind
    Chin, RC ; Vinuesa, R ; Orlu, R ; Cardesa, J ; Noorani, A ; Chong, MS ; Schlatter, P (American Physical Society, 2020-07-30)
    A study of the backflow events in the flow through a toroidal pipe at friction Reynolds number Reτ ≈ 650 is performed and compared with the results in a straight turbulent pipe flow at Reτ ≈ 500. The statistics and topological properties of the backflow events are analysed and discussed. Conditionally averaged flow fields in the vicinity of the backflow event are obtained, and the results for the torus show a similar streamwise wall-shear stress topology which varies considerably for the azimuthal wall-shear stress when compared to the pipe flow. In the region around the backflow events, critical points are observed. The comparison between the toroidal pipe and its straight counterpart also shows fewer backflow events and critical points in the torus. This is attributed to the secondary flow of Prandtl's first kind present in the toroidal pipe, which is responsible for the convection of momentum from the inner to the outer bend through the core of the pipe, and back from outer bend to the inner bend along the azimuthal direction. These results indicate that backflow events and critical points are genuine features of wall-bounded turbulence, and are not artefacts of specific boundary or inflow conditions in simulations and/or measurement uncertainties in experiments.