Hydrodynamic characteristics and particle tracking of 90° lateral intakes at an inclined river slope

Lateral intakes are common in rivers.The pump effciency and sediment deposition are determined by the local hydrodynamic characteristics and mainstream division width.The hydraulic characteristics of lateral withdrawal from inclined river slopes at different intake elevations should be investigated.Meanwhile,the division width exhibits significant vertical non-uniformity at an inclined river slope,which should be clarified.Hence,a three-dimensional(3-D)hydrodynamic and particle-tracking model was developed with the Open Source Field Operation and Manipulation(Open FOAM),and the model was validated with physical model tests for 90°lateral withdrawal from an inclined side bank.The flow fields,withdrawal sources,and division widths were investigated with different intake bottom elevations,withdrawal discharges,and main channel velocities.This study showed that under inclined side bank conditions,water entered the intake at an oblique angle,causing significant 3-D spiral flows in the intake rather than two-dimensional closed recirculation.A lower withdrawal discharge,a lower bottom elevation of the intake,or a higher main channel velocity could further strengthen this phenomenon.The average division width and turbulent kinetic energy were smaller under inclined side bank conditions than under vertical bank conditions.With a low intake bottom elevation,a low withdrawal discharge,or a high main channel velocity,the sources of lateral withdrawal were in similar ranges near the local inclined bank in the vertical direction.Under inclined slope conditions,sediment deposition near the intake entrance could be reduced,compared to that under vertical slope conditions.The results provide hydrodynamic and sediment references for engineering designs for natural rivers with inclined terrains.

Determination of liquid viscosity based on dual-frequency-bandparticle tracking

An optical-tweezers-based dual-frequency-band particle tracking system was designed and fabricated for liquid viscositydetection. On the basis of the liquid viscosity dependent model of the particle’s restricted Brownian motion with theFax´en correction taken into account, the liquid viscosity and optical trap stiffness were determined by fitting the theoreticalprediction with the measured power spectral densities of the particle’s displacement and velocity that were derived from thedual-frequency-band particle tracking data. When the SiO2 beads were employed as probe particles in the measurements ofdifferent kinds of liquids, the measurement results exhibit a good agreement with the reported results, as well as a detectionuncertainty better than 4.6%. This kind of noninvasive economical technique can be applied in diverse environments forboth in situ and ex situ viscosity detection of liquids.

Numerical Modelling of Sediment Particle Transportation on a Navigation Inlet Using the Particle Tracking Model (PTM)

This paper investigates particle transportation using a numerical model application approach to understand the final fate of suspended sediment particle masses due to a dredging operation in a navigational harbor inlet using PTM (Particle Tracking Model). The investigation applied PTM and simulated particle transportation at a navigational harbor called St Jerome Creek Inlet in Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Maryland District, designed jetties for the inlet, which, when constructed, would minimize dredging requirements from once in a two-year period to once in a ten-year period. In the meantime, due to the frequent dredging requirements of the inlet, there exists a need to understand the fate of the suspended sediments from the dredging operations to assess the environmental impact on the aquatic environment and the coastal community. This study used PTM to simulate the transportation of sediments in a 30-day period during a dredging operation. Ten sediment source locations were selected as possible sites from which dredged materials could be introduced into the flow system. The model output was analyzed to draw conclusions. Results showed that most suspended sediment particle masses moved from their initial site locations and settled along the shoreline, whilst the sediments that found their way out of the inlet system towards the ocean migrated southward and settled approximately 6 miles at the tip of the mainland. The objective of the study is to track sediment particles from a dredging operation. This would be significant in tracking possible contaminants in an aquatic environment for future environmental management decisions.

Dynamic tracking and mobility analysis of single GLUT4 storage vesicle in live 3T3-L1 cells

Glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) is responsible for insulin-stimulated glucose transporting into the insulin-sensitive fat and muscle cells. The dynamics of GLUT4 storage vesicles (GSVs) remains to be explored and it is unclear how GSVs are arranged based on their mobility. We examined this issue in 3T3-L1 cells via investigating the three-dimensional mobility of single GSV labeled with EGFP-fused GLUT4. A thin layer of cytosol right adjacent to the plasma membrane was illuminated and successively imaged at 5 Hz under a total internal reflection fluorescence microscope with a penetration depth of 136 nm. Employing single particle tracking, the three-dimensional subpixel displacement of single GSV was tracked at a spatial precision of 22 nm. Both the mean square displacement and the diffusion coefficient were calculated for each vesicle. Tracking results revealed that vesicles moved as if restricted within a cage that has a mean radius of 160 nm, suggesting the presence of some intracellular tethering matrix. By constructing the histogram of the diffusion coefficients of GSVs, we observed a smooth distribution instead of the existence of distinct groups. The result indicates that GSVs are dynamically retained in a continuous and wide range of mobility rather than into separate classes.

A novel particle tracking velocimetry method for complex granular flow field

Particle tracking velocimetry(PTV)is one of the most commonly applied granular flow velocity measurement methods.However,traditional PTV methods may have issues such as high mismatching rates and a narrow measurement range when measuring granular flows with large bulk density and high-speed contrast.In this study,a novel PTV method is introduced to solve these problems using an optical flow matching algorithm with two further processing steps.The first step involves displacement correction,which is used to solve the mismatching problem in the case of high stacking density.The other step is trajectory splicing,which is used to solve the problem of a measurement range reduction in the case of high-speed contrast The hopper flow experimental results demonstrate superior performance of this proposed method in controlling the number of mismatched particles and better measuring efficiency in comparison with the traditional PTV method.

A Parallel Boundary Element Formulation for Tracking Multiple Particle Trajectories in Stoke’s Flow for Microfluidic Applications

A new formulation for tracking multiple particles in slow viscous flow for microfluidic applications is presented.The method employs the manipulation of the boundary element matrices so that finally a system of equations is obtained relating the rigid body velocities of the particle to the forces applied on the particle.The formulation is specially designed for particle trajectory tracking and involves successive matrix multiplications for which SMP(Symmetric multiprocessing)parallelisation is applied.It is observed that present formulation offers an efficient numerical model to be used for particle tracking and can easily be extended for multiphysics simulations in which several physics involved.

In situ nanobubble sizing by visualization particle tracking and image-based dynamic light scattering

A novel method combining visualization particle tracking with image-based dynamic light scattering was developed to achieve the in situ and real-time size measurement of nanobubbles(NBs).First,the in situ size distribution of NBs was visualized by dark-field microscopy.Then,real-time size during the preparation was measured using image-based dynamic light scattering,and the longitudinal size distribution of NBs in the sample cell was obtained in a steady state.Results show that this strategy can provide a detailed and accurate size of bubbles in the whole sample compared with the commercial ZetaSizer Nano equipment.Therefore,the developed method is a real-time and simple technology with excellent accuracy,providing new insights into the accurate measurement of the size distribution of NBs or nanoparticles in solution.

Particle path tracking method in two- and three-dimensional continuously rotating detonation engines

The particle path tracking method is proposed and used in two-dimensional（2D） and three-dimensional（3D） numerical simulations of continuously rotating detonation engines（CRDEs）. This method is used to analyze the combustion and expansion processes of the fresh particles, and the thermodynamic cycle process of CRDE. In a 3D CRDE flow field, as the radius of the annulus increases, the no-injection area proportion increases, the non-detonation proportion decreases, and the detonation height decreases. The flow field parameters on the 3D mid annulus are different from in the 2D flow field under the same chamber size. The non-detonation proportion in the 3D flow field is less than in the 2D flow field. In the 2D and 3D CRDE, the paths of the flow particles have only a small fluctuation in the circumferential direction. The numerical thermodynamic cycle processes are qualitatively consistent with the three ideal cycle models, and they are right in between the ideal F–J cycle and ideal ZND cycle. The net mechanical work and thermal efficiency are slightly smaller in the 2D simulation than in the 3D simulation. In the 3D CRDE, as the radius of the annulus increases, the net mechanical work is almost constant, and the thermal efficiency increases. The numerical thermal efficiencies are larger than F–J cycle, and much smaller than ZND cycle.

Particle Filter Object Tracking Algorithm Based on Sparse Representation and Nonlinear Resampling

Object tracking with abrupt motion is an important research topic and has attracted wide attention.To obtain accurate tracking results,an improved particle filter tracking algorithm based on sparse representation and nonlinear resampling is proposed in this paper. First,the sparse representation is used to compute particle weights by considering the fact that the weights are sparse when the object moves abruptly,so the potential object region can be predicted more precisely. Then,a nonlinear resampling process is proposed by utilizing the nonlinear sorting strategy,which can solve the problem of particle diversity impoverishment caused by traditional resampling methods. Experimental results based on videos containing objects with various abrupt motions have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Kernel density estimation and marginalized-particle based probability hypothesis density filter for multi-target tracking

In order to improve the performance of the probability hypothesis density(PHD) algorithm based particle filter(PF) in terms of number estimation and states extraction of multiple targets, a new probability hypothesis density filter algorithm based on marginalized particle and kernel density estimation is proposed, which utilizes the idea of marginalized particle filter to enhance the estimating performance of the PHD. The state variables are decomposed into linear and non-linear parts. The particle filter is adopted to predict and estimate the nonlinear states of multi-target after dimensionality reduction, while the Kalman filter is applied to estimate the linear parts under linear Gaussian condition. Embedding the information of the linear states into the estimated nonlinear states helps to reduce the estimating variance and improve the accuracy of target number estimation. The meanshift kernel density estimation, being of the inherent nature of searching peak value via an adaptive gradient ascent iteration, is introduced to cluster particles and extract target states, which is independent of the target number and can converge to the local peak position of the PHD distribution while avoiding the errors due to the inaccuracy in modeling and parameters estimation. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm can obtain higher tracking accuracy when using fewer sampling particles and is of lower computational complexity compared with the PF-PHD.

Features of the motion of gel particles in a three-phase bubble column under foaming and non-foaming conditions

Features of the motion of gel particles in a three-phase bubble column with non-foaming and foaming gas–liquid systems,determined by using experiments of radioactive particle tracking(RPT),have been compared.The tracer used is a gel particle which resembles typical immobilized biocatalyst.The tracer trajectory is analyzed to extract relevant information for design purposes.The solid velocity field,turbulence parameters,dispersion coefficients,mixing times and flow transitions are determined and compared.The presence of foam significantly affects many quantified parameters,especially within the heterogeneous flow regime.The hydrodynamic stresses are reduced in the presence of foam,especially close to the disengagement.The dispersion coefficients also decrease,and the solid mixing time is only slightly affected by the presence of foam.Gas holdup,inferred both from RPT experiments and from gamma ray scanning,is higher for foaming systems and leads to a shift in the transition gas velocity towards higher values.

Determination of diffusion coefficient by image-based fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and single particle tracking system implemented in a single platform

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching(FRAP)and single particle tracking(SPT)techni-ques determine the diffusion coefficient from average diffusive motion of high-concentration molecules and from trajectories of low-concentration single molecules,respectively.Lateral dif-fusion coefficients measured by FRAP and SPT techniques for the same biomolecule on cell membrane have exhibited inconsistent values across laboratories and platforms with larger dif-fusion coefficient determined by FRAP,but the sources of the inconsistency have not been investigated thoroughly.Here,we designed an image-based FRAP-SPT system and made a direct comparison between FRAP and SPT for diffusion coefficient of submicron particles with known theoretical values derived from Stokes-Einstein equation in aqueous solution.The combined iFRAP-SPT technique allowed us to measure the diffusion coefficient of the same fluorescent particle by utilizing both techniques in a single platform and to scrutinize inherent errors and artifacts of FRAP.Our results reveal that diffusion coefficient overestimated by FRAP is caused by inaccurate estimation of the bleaching spot size and can be corrected by simple image analysis.Our iFRAP-SPT technique can be potentially used for not only cellular membrane dynamics but also for quantitative analysis of the spatiotemporal distribution of the solutes in small scale analytical devices.

Numerical simulation of particle tracks in the cold gas dynamic spraying process

In this study,the distribution behavior of the particle flow field in cold gas dynamic spraying （CGDS） was simulated through the Computational fluid dynamics （CFD） method. Traces of the particles with different diameters in the gas flow field were analyzed, and effects of fiat and sphere substrates on the particle tracks were also compared .Simulation results indicate that different escaping directions of particles flow with the two substrates. These investigations. gave instructions on how to design the powder recovery and dusting machines in a CGDS system.

A simulation study for a cost-effective PET-like detector system intended to track particles in granular assemblies

Since many industrial applications rely on the processing of densely packed and moving granular ma-terial,obtaining bulk internal information on the particle movement inside the reactors is of great importance.Such information can be delivered by Positron Emission Particle Tracking(PEPT).By marking pellets with a positron-emitting radioisotope,the position of these tracer particles can be determined via the time-of-flight differences of the emitted gamma-ray pairs.The current paper proposes a PET-like detector system based on cost-effective organic plastic scintillators instead of the more common but expensive inorganic scintillators.This system is currently under construction and was tested for its resolution and efficiency in this simulation study.Using Monte Carlo simulations and the software toolkit Geant4,three different geometries(an empty glass box,a generic grate system,and a cubic box of 1 m3 completely filled with pellets)were investigated,leading to a spatial resolution in the millimeter range and an efficiency,defined as the ratio of reconstructed decay locations to simulated decays,of 2.7%,1.4%,and 0.3%.

Numerical Simulation of Water Exchange Characteristics of the Jiaozhou Bay Based on A Three-Dimensional Lagrangian Model

Based on theory of three-dimensional hydrodynamics, an Euler-Lagrangian particle model is established to study the transport and water exchange capability in the Jiaozhou Bay. The three-dimensional hydrodynamic model, driven by tide and wind, is used to study the effects of wetting and drying of estuarine intertidal flats by the dry-wet grid technology based on the Estuarine, Coastal and Ocean Model （ECOM）. The particle model includes the advection and the diffusion processes, of which the advection process is simulated with a certain method, and the diffusion process is simulated with the random walk method. The effect of the intertidal zone, the turbulent diffusion and the timescales of the water exchange are also discussed. The results show that a moving boundary model can simulate the transport process of the particle in the intertidal zone, where the particles are transported for a longer distance than that of the stationary result. Simulations with and without the turbulent random walk show that the effect of turbulent diffusion is very effective at spreading particles throughout the estuary and speeding up the particle movement. The spatial distribution of residence time is given to quantify the water exchange capability that has very important ramifications to water quality. The effect of wind on the water exchange is also examined and the southeasterly wind in summer tends to block the water exchange near the northeast coast, while the northerly wind in winter speeds up the transport process. These results indicate that the Lagrangian particle model is applicable and has a large potential to help understanding the water exchange capability in estuaries, which can also be useful to simulate the transport process of contaminant.

Impact of stress on solute transport in a fracture network: A comparison study

This paper compares numerical modeling of the effect of stress on solute transport （advection and matrix diffusion） in fractured rocks in which fracture apertures are correlated with fracture lengths. It is mainly motivated by the performance and safety assessments of underground radioactive waste repositories. Five research teams used different approaches to model stress/deformation, flow and transport pro- cesses, based on either discrete fracture network or equivalent continuum models. The simulation results derived by various teams generally demonstrated that rock stresses could significantly influence solute transport processes through stress-induced changes in fracture apertures and associated changes in per- meability. Reasonably good agreement was achieved regarding advection and matrix diffusion given the same fracture network, while some observed discrepancies could be explained by different mechanical or transport modeling approaches.

Impact of normal stress-induced closure on laboratory-scale solute transport in a natural rock fracture

The impact of normal stress-induced closure on fluid flow and solute transport in a single rock fracture is demonstrated in this study.The fracture is created from a measured surface of a granite rock sample.The Bandis model is used to calculate the fracture closure due to normal stress,and the fluid flow is simulated by solving the Reynold equation.The Lagrangian particle tracking method is applied to modeling the advective transport in the fracture.The results show that the normal stress significantly affects fluid flow and solute transport in rock fractures.It causes fracture closure and creates asperity contact areas,which significantly reduces the effective hydraulic aperture and enhances flow channeling.Consequently,the reduced aperture and enhanced channeling affect travel time distributions.In particular,the enhanced channeling results in enhanced first arriving and tailing behaviors for solute transport.The fracture normal stiffness correlates linearly with the 5th and 95th percentiles of the normalized travel time.The finding from this study may help to better understand the stress-dependent solute transport processes in natural rock fractures.

Surface water exchanges in the Luzon Strait as inferred from Lagrangian coherent structures

This study presents a Lagrangian view of upper water exchanges across the Luzon Strait based on the finite-time Lyapunov exponents(FTLE)fields computed from the surface geostrophic current.The Lagrangian coherent structures(LCSs)extracted from the FTLE fields well identify the typical flow patterns and eddy activities around the Luzon Strait.In addition,they reveal the intricate transport paths and fluid domains,which are validated by the tracks of satellite-tracked surface drifters and cannot be visually recognized in the velocity maps.The FTLE fields indicate that there are mainly four types of transport patterns near the Luzon Strait;among them,the Kuroshio northward-flowing"leaping"pattern and the clockwise rotating"looping"pattern occur more frequently than the"leaking"pattern of the direct Kuroshio branch into the SCS and the"outflowing"pattern from the SCS to the Pacific.The eddy shedding events of the Kuroshio at the Luzon Strait are further analyzed,and the importance of considering LCSs in estimating transport by eddies is highlighted.The anticyclonic eddy(ACE)shedding cases reveal that ACEs mainly originate from the looping paths of Kuroshio and thus could effectively trap the Kuroshio water before eddy detachments.LCSs provide useful information to predict the positions of the upstream waters that finally enter the ACEs.In contrast,LCS snapshots indicate that during the formation of cyclonic eddies(CEs),most CEs are not connected with the pathways of Kuroshio water.Hence,the contribution of CEs to the surface water exchanges from the Pacific into the SCS is tiny.

Rotational dynamics of bottom-heavy rods in turbulence from experiments and numerical simulations

We successfully perform the three-dimensional tracking in a turbulent fluid flow of small axisymmetrical particles that are neutrally-buoyant and bottom-heavy,i.e.,they have a non-homogeneous mass distribu-tion along their symmetry axis.We experimentally show how a tiny mass inhomogeneity can affect the particle orientation along the preferred vertical direction and modify its tumbling rate.The experiment is complemented by a series of simulations based on realistic Navier-Stokes turbulence and on a point-like particle model that is capable to explore the full range of parameter space characterized by the gravi-tational torque stability number and by the particle aspect ratio.We propose a theoretical perturbative prediction valid in the high bottom-heaviness regime that agrees well with the observed preferential ori-entation and tumbling rate of the particles.We also show that the heavy-tail shape of the probability distribution function of the tumbling rate is weakly affected by the bottom-heaviness of the particles.

Numerical simulation of magnetic drug targeting with Eulerian-Lagrangian model and effect of viscosity modification due to diabetics

The targeted drug delivery and targeted drug therapy transport a drug directly to the center of the disease under various conditions and thereby treat it deliber- ately without effects on the body. This paper studies the magnetic drug targeting （MDT） technique by particle tracking in the presence of magnetic field in bifurcation vessels of a healthy person and a diabetes patient. The Lagrangian particle tracking is performed to estimate particle behavior under effects of imposed magnetic field gradients along the bifurcation. The results show that the magnetic field increases the volume fraction of particle in the target region, and the efficiency of MDT on a patient with the diabetes disease is better than a healthy person. Also, for the higher magnetic numbers, the flow in the upper branch is strongly affected by the magnetic field.