Showing papers on "Buoyancy published in 2004"

Simulation of buoyancy driven bubbly flow: Established simplifications and open questions

Abstract: An assessment is given of the present state of modeling and simulation of buoyancy driven gas-liquid bubble flow based on the two-fluid approach. Main points of discussion comprise the admissible model simplifications in order to obtain a more easily solvable model together with the question of which physical effects are of prime importance and which reliable correlations can be recommended or are still missing. It is shown that, for most practical cases, the two-fluid model can be simplified to a formulation which allows for the application of efficient solution strategies for single-phase flow. From the different interaction forces between gas and liquid, pressure and drag force are most important, whereas no sound experimental basis is available for (lateral) lift forces. So far, lift forces have primarily been used empirically to adjust the gas distribution to the experimental observation. The main open question concerns the prope! r modeling of turbulence in gas-liquid bubble flow since it affects both the mixture viscosity and the bubble dispersion. © 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 50: 24–45, 2004

Subduction Factory 3: An Excel worksheet and macro for calculating the densities, seismic wave speeds, and H2O contents of minerals and rocks at pressure and temperature

Abstract: [1] An Excel macro to calculate mineral and rock physical properties at elevated pressure and temperature is presented. The workbook includes an expandable database of physical parameters for 52 rock-forming minerals stable at high pressures and temperatures. For these minerals the elastic moduli, densities, seismic velocities, and H2O contents are calculated at any specified P and T conditions, using basic thermodynamic relationships and third-order finite strain theory. The mineral modes of suites of rocks are also specifiable, so that their predicted aggregate properties can be calculated using standard solid mixing theories. A suite of sample rock modes taken from the literature provides a useful starting point. The results of these calculations can be applied to a wide variety of geophysical questions including estimating the alteration of the oceanic crust and mantle; predicting the seismic velocities of lower-crustal xenoliths; estimating the effects of changes in mineralogy, pressure and temperature on buoyancy; and assessing the H2O content and mineralogy of subducted lithosphere from seismic observations.

Swimming gaits, passive drag and buoyancy of diving sperm whales Physeter macrocephalus.

Abstract: SUMMARY Drag and buoyancy are two primary external forces acting on diving marine mammals. The strength of these forces modulates the energetic cost of movement and may influence swimming style (gait). Here we use a high-resolution digital tag to record depth, 3-D orientation, and sounds heard and produced by 23 deep-diving sperm whales in the Ligurian Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Periods of active thrusting versus gliding were identified through analysis of oscillations measured by a 3-axis accelerometer. Accelerations during 382 ascent glides of five whales (which made two or more steep ascents and for which we obtained a measurement of length) were strongly affected by depth and speed at Reynold9s numbers of 1.4–2.8×107. The accelerations fit a model of drag, air buoyancy and tissue buoyancy forces with an r2 of 99.1–99.8% for each whale. The model provided estimates (mean ± s.d.) of the drag coefficient (0.00306±0.00015), air carried from the surface (26.4±3.9 l kg-3 mass), and tissue density (1030±0.8 kg m-3) of these five animals. The model predicts strong positive buoyancy forces in the top 100 m of the water column, decreasing to near neutral buoyancy at 250–850 m. Mean descent speeds (1.45±0.19 m s-1) were slower than ascent speeds (1.63±0.22 m s-1), even though sperm whales stroked steadily (glides 5.3±6.3%) throughout descents and employed predominantly stroke-and-glide swimming (glides 37.7±16.4%) during ascents. Whales glided more during portions of dives when buoyancy aided their movement, and whales that glided more during ascent glided less during descent (and vice versa), supporting the hypothesis that buoyancy influences behavioural swimming decisions. One whale rested at∼ 10 m depth for more than 10 min without fluking, regulating its buoyancy by releasing air bubbles.

The effects of hydraulic resistance on dam-break and other shallow inertial flows

Abstract: The effects of resistive forces on unsteady shallow flows over rigid horizontal boundaries are investigated theoretically. The dynamics of this type of motion are driven by the streamwise gradient of the hydrostatic pressure, which balances the inertia of the fluid and the basal resistance. Drag forces are often negligible provided the fluid is sufficiently deep. However, close to the front of some flows where the depth of the moving layer becomes small, it is possible for drag to substantially influence the motion. Here we consider three aspects of unsteady shallow flows. First we consider a regime in which the drag, inertia and buoyancy (pressure gradient) are formally of the same magnitude throughout the entire current and we construct a new class of similarity solutions for the motion. This reveals the range of solution types possible, which includes those with continuous profiles, those with discontinuous profiles and weak shocks and those which are continuous but have critical points of transition at which the gradients may be discontinuous. Next we analyse one-dimensional dam-break flow and calculate how drag slows the motion. There is always a region close to the front in which drag forces are not negligible. We employ matched asymptotic expansions to combine the flow at the front with the flow in the bulk of the domain and derive theoretical predictions that are compared to laboratory measurements of dam-break flows. Finally we investigate a modified form of dam-break flow in which the vertical profile of the horizontal velocity field is no longer assumed to be uniform. It is found that in the absence of drag it is no longer possible to find a kinematically consistent front of the fluid motion. However the inclusion of drag forces within the region close to the front resolves this difficulty. We calculate velocity and depth profiles within the drag-affected region, and obtain the leading-order expression for the rate at which the fluid propagates when the magnitude of the drag force is modelled using Chae#169;zy, Newtonian and power-law fluid closures; this compares well with experimental data and provide new insights into dam-break flows.

Large-Eddy Simulation: How Large is Large Enough?

Abstract: The length scale evolution of various quantities in a clear convective boundary layer (CBL), a stratocumulustopped boundary layer, and three radiatively cooled (‘‘smoke cloud’’) convective boundary layers are studied by means of large-eddy simulations on a large horizontal domain (25.6 3 25.6 km2). In the CBL the virtual potential temperature and the vertical velocity fields are dominated by horizontal scales on the order of the boundary layer depth. In contrast, the potential temperature and the specific humidity fields become gradually dominated by mesoscale fluctuations. However, at the mesoscales their effects on the virtual potential temperature fluctuations nearly compensate. It is found that mesoscale fluctuations are negligibly small only for conserved variables that have an entrainment to surface flux ratio close to 20.25, which is about the flux ratio for the buoyancy. In the CBL the moisture and potential temperature flux ratios can have values that significantly deviate from this number. The geometry of the buoyancy flux was manipulated by cooling the clear convective boundary layer from the top, in addition to a positive buoyancy flux at the surface. For these radiatively cooled cases it is found that both the vertical velocity as well as the virtual potential temperature spectra tend to broaden. The role of the buoyancy flux in their respective prognostic variance equations is discussed. It is argued that in the upper part of the clear CBL, where the mean vertical stratification is stable, vertical velocity variance and virtual potential temperature variance cannot be produced simultaneously. For the stratocumulus case, in which latent heat release effects in the cloud layer play an important role in its dynamics, the field of any quantity, except for the vertical velocity, becomes dominated by mesoscale fluctuations. In general, the location of the spectral peak of any quantity becoming constrained by the domain size should be avoided. The answer to the question of how large the LES horizontal domain size should be in order to include mesoscale fluctuations will, on the one hand, depend on the type of convection to be simulated and the kind of physical question one aims to address, and, on the other hand, the time duration of the simulation. Only if one aims to study the dynamics of a dry CBL that excludes moisture, a rather small domain size suffices. In case one aims to examine either the spatial evolution of the fields of any arbitrary conserved scalar in the CBL, or any quantity in stratocumulus clouds except for the vertical velocity, a larger domain size that allows the development of mesoscale fluctuations will be necessary.

Convective Entrainment into a Shear-Free, Linearly Stratified Atmosphere: Bulk Models Reevaluated through Large Eddy Simulations

Abstract: Relationships between parameters of convective entrainment into a shear-free, linearly stratified atmosphere predicted by the zero-order jump and general-structure bulk models of entrainment are reexamined using data from large eddy simulations (LESs). Relevant data from other numerical simulations, water tank experiments, and atmospheric measurements are also incorporated in the analysis. Simulations have been performed for 10 values of the buoyancy gradient in the free atmosphere covering a typical atmospheric stability range. The entrainment parameters derived from LES and relationships between them are found to be sensitive to the model framework employed for their interpretation. Methods of determining bulk model entrainment parameters from the LES output are proposed and discussed. Within the range of investigated free-atmosphere stratifications, the LES predictions of the inversion height and buoyancy increment across the inversion are found to be close to the analytical solutions for the equilibrium entrainment regime, which is realized when the rate of time change of the CBL-mean turbulence kinetic energy and the energy drain from the CBL top are both negligibly small. The zero-order model entrainment ratio of about 0.2 for this regime is generally supported by the LES data. However, the zero-order parameterization of the entrainment layer thickness is found insufficient. A set of relationships between the general-structure entrainment parameters for typical atmospheric stability conditions is retrieved from the LES. Dimensionless constants in these relationships are estimated from the LES and laboratory data. Power-law approximations for relationships between the entrainment parameters in the zero-order jump and general-structure bulk models are evaluated based on the conducted LES. In the regime of equilibrium entrainment, the stratification parameter of the entrainment layer, which is the ratio of the buoyancy gradient in the free atmosphere to the overall buoyancy gradient across the entrainment layer, appears to be a constant of about 1.2.

On the evolution and stability of a protoplanetary disk dust layer

Abstract: In this manuscript we perform detailed analytical and numerical studies of the physical processes that result from the interaction between the dust and gas components of a protostellar accretion disk. We consider the most favorable condition for dust sedimentation in a laminar gaseous background and look at the conditions that precede the onset of gravitational and shear instability. We adopt a two-fluid formalism to examine two issues of particular interest: (1) the slow sedimentation of a laminar dust layer, for which we are able to extract self-similar solutions, and (2) the rapid growth of perturbations to that slowly settling shear flow, for which we present a linear stability analysis. We also include two fundamental physical processes that have been ignored in previous work: the specificities of the two-fluid equations compared to the single-fluid approximation, and the potentially destabilizing effect of radiative cooling by the reduction of the buoyancy of fluid motions. From these results we are able to compare the conditions for onset of gravitational and shearing instabilities for various dust-to-gas surface density ratios and nebular structures. We confirm previous findings that during the dust sedimentation, the shearing instability occurs prior to the gravitational instability unless the disk is grossly enriched up to a level where the surface density of grains is comparable to that of the gas. Finally, we discuss the implications of these results with respect to theories of planetesimal formation and observations of protoplanetary disks.

The Importance of Nonlinear Cross-Shelf Momentum Flux during Wind-Driven Coastal Upwelling

Abstract: A simple theory is proposed for steady, two-dimensional, wind-driven coastal upwelling that relates the dynamics and the structure of the cross-shelf circulation to the stratification, bathymetry, and wind stress. The new element is an estimate of the nonlinear cross-shelf momentum flux divergence due to the wind-driven cross-shelf circulation acting on the vertically sheared geostrophic alongshelf flow. The theory predicts that the magnitude of the cross-shelf momentum flux divergence relative to the wind stress depends on the Burger number S = αN/f, where α is the bottom slope, N is the buoyancy frequency, and f is the Coriolis parameter. For S ≪ 1 (weak stratification), the cross-shelf momentum flux divergence is small, the bottom stress balances the wind stress, and the onshore return flow is primarily in the bottom boundary layer. For S ≈ 1 or larger (strong stratification), the cross-shelf momentum flux divergence balances the wind stress, the bottom stress is small, and the onshore return ...

Effect of aiding and opposing buoyancy on the heat and fluid flow across a square cylinder at re = 100

Abstract: The effect of buoyancy on the flow structure and heat transfer characteristics of an isolated square cylinder in upward cross flow is investigated numerically for Re = 100 and a Prandtl number of 0.7. The influence of buoyancy on the recirculation length, drag and lift coefficients, Strouhal number, and time-averaged Nusselt number on the cylinder, and on each of its surfaces, is investigated. The degeneration of the Karman vortex street, previously observed experimentally for the circular cylinder, is also found for the more bluff square cylinder at a critical Richardson number of 0.15. Heat transfer characteristics of the heated/cooled cylinder are studied as a function of Richardson number.

Convectively driven polymerase chain reaction thermal cycler.

Abstract: We have fabricated a low-cost disposable polymerase chain reaction thermal chamber that uses buoyancy forces to move the sample solution between the different temperatures necessary for amplification. Three-dimensional, unsteady finite element modeling and a simpler 1-D steady-state model are used together with digital particle image velocimetry data to characterize the flow within the device. Biological samples have been amplified using this novel thermal chamber. Time for amplification is less than 30 min. More importantly, an analysis of the energy consumption shows significant improvements over current technology.

Time-dependent flows in an emptying filling box

Abstract: We examine the transient buoyancy-driven flow in a ventilated filling box that is subject to a continuous supply of buoyancy. A rectangular box is considered and the buoyancy input is represented as a turbulent plume, or as multiple non-interacting plumes, rising from the floor. Openings in the base and top of the box link the interior environment with a quiescent exterior environment of constant and uniform density. A theoretical model is developed to predict, as functions of time, the density stratification and the volume flow rate through the openings leading to the steady state. Comparisons are made with the results of small-scale analogue laboratory experiments in which saline solutions and fresh water are used to create density differences. Two characteristic timescales are identified: the filling box time ( is determined for both line and point-source plumes, and the sensitivity of the developing flow to the distribution of buoyancy input assessed.

Vibration-induced granular segregation: a phenomenon driven by three mechanisms.

Abstract: The segregation of large spheres in a granular bed under vertical vibrations is studied. In our experiments, we systematically measure rise times as a function of density, diameter, and depth, for two different sinusoidal excitations. The measurements reveal that, at low frequencies, inertia and convection are the only mechanisms behind segregation. Inertia (convection) dominates when the relative density is greater (less) than one. At high frequencies, where convection is suppressed, fluidization of the granular bed causes either buoyancy or sinkage and segregation occurs.

Fluid flow in compressive tectonic settings: Implications for midcrustal seismic reflectors and downward fluid migration

Abstract: [1] Beneath the brittle-ductile transition of the Earth's crust, the dilational deformation necessary to create fluid pathways requires fluid pressure that is near to rock confining pressure. Although the deformation may be brittle, it is rate limited by the ductile compaction process necessary to maintain elevated fluid pressure; thus the direction of fluid expulsion is dictated by the mean stress gradient. The paradox posed by the conditions required to maintain high fluid pressure simultaneously with lower crustal rock strength can be explained by a model whereby fluids are localized within self-propagating hydraulic domains. Such domains would behave as weak inclusions imbedded within adjacent fluid-poor rocks. Because the mean stress gradient in a weak inclusion depends on its orientation with respect to far-field stress, the direction of fluid flow in such domains is sensitive to tectonic forcing. In compressional tectonic settings, this model implies that fluid flow may be directed downward to a depth of tectonically induced neutral buoyancy. In combination with dynamic propagation of the brittle-ductile transition, this phenomenon provides a mechanism by which upper crustal fluids may be swept into the lower crust. The depth of neutral buoyancy would also act as a barrier to upward fluid flow within vertically oriented structural features that are normally the most favorable means of accommodating fluid expulsion. Elementary analysis based on the seismogenic zone depth and experimental rheological constraints indicates that tectonically induced buoyancy would cause fluids to accumulate in an approximately kilometer thick horizon 2–4 km below the brittle-ductile transition, an explanation for anomalous midcrustal seismic reflectivity.

Coalescing axisymmetric turbulent plumes

Abstract: The coalescence of two co-flowing axisymmetric turbulent plumes and the resulting single plume flow is modelled and compared to experiments. The point of coalescence is defined as the location at which only a single peak appears in the horizontal buoyancy profile, and a prediction is made for its height. The model takes into account the drawing together of the two plumes due to their respective entrainment fields. Experiments showed that the model tends to overestimate the coalescence height, though this discrepancy may be partly explained by the sensitivity of the prediction to the entrainment coefficient. A model is then developed to describe the resulting single plume and predict its virtual origin. This prediction and subsequent predictions of flow rate above the merge height compare very well with experimental results.

Vibration-Induced Granular Segregation: A Phenomenon Driven by Three Mechanisms

Abstract: The segregation of large spheres in a granular bed under vertical vibrations is studied. In our experiments, we systematically measure rise times as a function of density, diameter, and depth, for two different sinusoidal excitations. The measurements reveal that, at low frequencies, inertia and convection are the only mechanisms behind segregation. Inertia (convection) dominates when the relative density is greater (less) than one. At high frequencies, where convection is suppressed, fluidization of the granular bed causes either buoyancy or sinkage and segregation occurs.

Domes on Europa: The Role of Thermally Induced Compositional Diapirism

Abstract: The surface of Europa is peppered by topographic domes, interpreted as sites of intrusion and extrusion. Diapirism is consistent with dome morphology, but thermal buoyancy alone cannot produce sufficient driving pressures to create the observed dome elevations. Instead, we suggest that diapirs may initiate by thermal convection that induces compositional segregation within Europa's ice shell. This double-diffusive convection scenario allows sufficient buoyancy for icy plumes to create the observed surface topography, if the ice shell has a very small effective elastic thickness (approximately 0.1 to 0.5 km) and contains low-eutectic-point impurities at the percent level. Thermal buoyancy, compositional buoyancy and double-diffusive convection are discussed.

Buoyancy-controlled eruption of magmas at Mt Etna

Abstract: Buoyancy controls the ability of magma to rise, its ascent rate and the style of the eruptions. Geophysical, geological and petrological data have been integrated to evaluate the buoyancy of magmas at Mt Etna. The density difference between host rocks and magmas is mainly related to the amount of H2O dissolved in the magma and to the bubble-liquid separation processes. In the depth interval 22–2 km b.s.l. highly hydrated (H2O ∼ 3%) basaltic magmas or mixtures of bubbles + liquid have positive buoyancy and rise rapidly. Conversely, bubble-depleted liquids, with an intermediate H2O content (∼ 1.5%), having neutral buoyancy, will spread out and form magmatic reservoirs at different depths until cooling/crystallization further modify composition and density. These different processes account for the magma compositions, location of magmatic reservoirs as determined by geophysical methods, and the complex eruptive cycles (slow effusions, fire fountains and Plinian eruptions) that have been observed in the history of the volcano.

Density Stratification Effects in Sand-Bed Rivers

Abstract: In this paper the effects of density stratification in sand-bed rivers are studied by the application of a model of vertical velocity and concentration profiles, coupled through the use of a turbulence closure that retains the buoyancy terms. By making the governing equations dimensionless, it is revealed that the slope is the additional dimensionless parameter introduced by inclusion of the buoyancy terms. The primary new finding is that in general density stratification effects tend to be greater in large, low-slope rivers than in their smaller, steeper brethren. Under high flow conditions the total suspended load and size distribution of suspended sediment can be significantly affected by density stratification, and should be accounted for in any general theory of suspended transport.

Linear stability analysis of immiscible two-phase flow in porous media with capillary dispersion and density variation

Abstract: Linear stability analysis of immiscible displacements is carried out for both viscously and gravitationally unstable two-phase flows in porous media with very large adverse viscosity ratios. Capillary dispersion is the proper dissipative mechanism in this case which sets both the preferred length scale and the band width of the spectrum of unstable length scales. The growth rate, the most dangerous and the cutoff wavenumbers, all scale linearly with the capillary number. We show that the instability is governed by fluid properties across the shock rather than those across the full Buckley–Leverett profile. The shock total mobility ratio provides a sufficient condition for the onset of instability; however, it is not an appropriate criterion for predicting the magnitude of the growth rate, particularly for large viscosity ratios. The details of the relative permeability functions are observed to have a significant influence on the stability characteristics. For neutrally buoyant flows the maximum growth rate scales linearly with the viscosity ratio while the most dangerous and the cutoff wavenumbers scale with the square root of the viscosity ratio. In the case of displacements with density contrast, the maximum growth rate scales with the square of the unstable gravity number while the most dangerous and the cutoff wavenumbers scale with an exponent of 1.2, for all viscosity ratios. A marginal stability curve is computed for stable and unstable regions in the parameter space of the viscosity ratio and the gravity number. It is found that flows with unstable viscosity contrasts are more readily stabilized with buoyancy as compared to the viscous stabilization of gravitationally unstable flows.

Evaluating Formulations of Stable Boundary Layer Height

Abstract: Stable boundary layer height h is determined from eddy correlation measurements of the vertical profiles of the buoyancy flux and turbulence energy from a tower over grassland in autumn, a tower over rangeland with variable snow cover during winter, and aircraft data in the stable marine boundary layer generated by warm air advection over a cool ocean surface in summer. A well-defined h within the tower layer at the grass site (lowest 50 m) and the snow site (lowest 30 m) was definable only about 20% of the time. In the remaining stable periods, the buoyancy flux and turbulence energy either (a) remained constant with height, indicating a deep boundary layer, (b) increased with height, or (c) varied erratically with height. Approximately one-half of the tower profiles did not fit the traditional concepts of a boundary layer. The well-defined cases of h are compared with various formulations for the equilibrium depth of the stably stratified boundary layer based on the Richardson number or surface...

Is buoyancy a relative quantity

Abstract: Basic concepts of buoyancy are reviewed and considered first in light of simple parcel theory and then in a more complete form. It is shown that parcel theory is generally developed in terms of the density (temperature) difference between an ascending parcel and an ‘‘environment’’ surrounding that parcel. That is, buoyancy is often understood as a relative quantity that apparently depends on the choice of a base-state environmental profile. However, parcel theory is most appropriately understood as a probe of the static stability of a sounding to finite vertical displacements of hypothetical parcels within the sounding rather than as a useful model of deep convection. The thermal buoyancy force, as measured by the temperature difference between a parcel and the base state, and vertical perturbation pressure gradient force together must remain independent of the base state. The vertical perturbation pressure gradient force can be decomposed to include a term due to thermal buoyancy and another due to the properties of motion in the flow. Some thought experiments are presented to illustrate the ambiguous relevance of the base state. It is concluded that buoyancy is not a relative quantity in that it cannot be dependent on the choice of an essentially arbitrary reference state. Buoyancy is the static part of an unbalanced vertical pressure gradient force and, as such, is determined locally, not relative to some arbitrary base state outside of a parcel. This has direct application to the diagnosis of buoyancy from numerical simulations—done properly, such a diagnosis must include not only the thermal buoyancy term but also the perturbation pressure gradient force due to buoyancy.

Whole layer convection in a heterogeneous planetary mantle

Abstract: [1] Geochemical observations demonstrate that Earth's mantle is heterogeneous, but the sizes, forms, and characteristics of its reservoirs are not constrained. Using laboratory experiments, we have systematically studied a simple nonhomogeneous system, where two layers of miscible fluids with different densities, depths, and viscosities are subjected to a destabilizing temperature contrast. When the buoyancy number B (i.e., the ratio of the stabilizing chemical density anomaly to the destabilizing thermal density anomaly) is lower than 0.3–0.5, the whole layer regime develops, with a deformed interface and convective patterns over the whole tank depth. The system systematically evolves toward one-fluid Rayleigh-Benard convection because of stirring. However, the two isolated fluids can persist for very long time compared to the characteristic timescale of thermal convection and give rise to numerous transient behaviors. Of particular interest for planetary mantles are the pulsatory dynamics, where the interface between the two layers deforms in large domes moving up and down quasiperiodically: According to the scaling laws derived from the experiments, such a mechanism could indeed provide a simple and single physical explanation for the superswells observed at present on Earth and more generally for the long-term episodicity in planetary interiors observed in geological records.

Buoyancy driven miscible front dynamics in tilted tubes

Abstract: The velocity Vf of the fronts of light and heavy fluids in a tilted tube, interpenetrating many diameters, is studied as a function of the fluid viscosity μ, Atwood number At⪡1 and tilt angle θ from vertical. Three flow regimes are observed: starting from vertical, Vf first increases with θ, reaches a plateau and then decreases again. In the first regime, Vf is controlled by segregation and mixing effects, respectively, increasing and decreasing with θ. On the plateau, Vf is independent of the fluid viscosity and proportional to (Atgd)1∕2, indicating a balance between inertia and buoyancy. In the third regime close to horizontal, the fluids separate into two parallel countercurrents controlled by viscosity. The variations of Vf with θ, At, and μ in the second and third regimes and the crossover from one to the other are described by scaling laws based on characteristic viscous and inertial velocities.

Physical balances in subseafloor hydrothermal convection cells

Abstract: [1] We use a simplified model of convection in a porous medium to investigate the balances of mass and energy within a subseafloor hydrothermal convection cell. These balances control the steady state structure of the system and allow scalings for the height, permeability, and residence time of the “reaction zone” at the base of the cell to be calculated. The scalings are presented as functions of (1) the temperature TD of the heat source driving the convection and (2) the total power output ΦU. The model is then used to illustrate how the nonlinear thermodynamic properties of water may impose the observed upper limit of ∼400°C on vent temperatures. The properties of water at hydrothermal conditions are contrasted with those of a hypothetical “Boussinesq fluid” for which temperature variations in fluid properties are either linearized or ignored. At hydrothermal pressures, water transports a maximum amount of energy by buoyancy-driven advection at ∼400°C. This maximum is a consequence of the nonlinear thermodynamic properties of water and does not arise for a simple Boussinesq fluid. Inspired by the “Malkus hypothesis” and by recent work on dissipative systems, we speculate that convection cells in porous media attain a steady state in which the upwelling temperature TU maximizes the total power output of the cell. If true, this principle would explain our observation (in previous numerical simulations) that water in hydrothermal convection cells upwells at TU ∼ 400°C when driven by a heat source above ∼500°C.

Three-dimensional simulation of transient GMA weld pool with free surface

Abstract: A 3-D transient numerical model was developed for simulation of gas metal arc (GMA) weld pools with free surface and droplet impact effects. This effort predicted a moving GMA weld pool by considering not only the heat transfer and fluid flow driven by surface tension gradient, electromagnetic force, buoyancy, and arc pressure, but also detailed information about droplet flow effects on a weld pool, its solidification, and weld bead shape. Due to its unique capacity in simulation of free surface, this model can be applied to various welded joints. In the present study, the model was used to simulate both bead-on-plate and T-joints with different welding positions. The simulated weld bead geometries were in good agreement with experimental measurements.

Buoyancy measurements and vertical distribution of eggs of sardine ( Sardina pilchardus ) and anchovy ( Engraulis encrasicolus )

Abstract: Measurements were made of the density and settling velocity of eggs of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) and anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), using a density-gradient column. These results were related to observed vertical distributions of eggs obtained from stratified vertical distribution sampling in the Bay of Biscay. Eggs of both species had slightly positive buoyancy in local seawater throughout most of their development until near hatching, when there was a marked increase in density and they became negatively buoyant. The settling velocity of anchovy eggs, which are shaped as prolate ellipsoids, was close to predictions for spherical particles of equivalent volume. An improved model was developed for prediction of the settling velocity of sardine eggs, which are spherical with a relatively large perivitelline volume; this incorporated permeability of the chorion and adjustment of the density of the perivitelline fluid to ambient seawater. Eggs of both species were located mostly in the top 20 m of the water column, in increasing abundance towards the surface. A sub-surface peak of egg abundance was sometimes observed at the pycnocline, particularly where this was pronounced and associated with a low-salinity surface layer. There was a progressive deepening of the depth distributions for successive stages of egg development. Results from this study can be applied for improved plankton sampling of sardine and anchovy eggs and in modelling studies of their vertical distribution.