Exploration of playa surface crusts in Qehan Lake, China through field investigation and wind tunnel experiments

Globally,many lakes are drying up,leaving exposed lakebeds where wind erosion releases dust and sand rich in salt and harmful heavy metals into the atmosphere.Therefore,understanding the characteristics and spatial distribution of playa surface crusts is important to recognize the manifestation of salt dust storms.The objective of this study was to explore the playa surface crust types as well as their spatial distribution and evolution of Qehan Lake in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,China to understand the salt dust release potential of different types of playa surface crusts.Various crust characteristics were investigated by field sampling in Qehan Lake,and playa surface crusts were further divided into five types:vegetated areas,salt crusts,clay flats,curly crusts,and margins.It should be noted that curly crusts were distributed in clay flats and covered only a small area in Qehan Lake.The spatial distribution characteristics of playa surface crust types were obtained by supervised classification of remote sensing images,and the salt dust release potential of crusts was explored by the wind tunnel experiments.The field investigation of Qehan Lake revealed that playa surface crust types had a circum-lake band distribution from the inside to the outside of this lake,which were successively vegetated areas,clay flats,salt crusts,and margins.The spatial distribution patterns of playa surface crust types were mainly controlled by the hydrodynamics of the playa,soil texture,and groundwater.There was a significant negative correlation between crust thickness and electrical conductivity.The results of the wind tunnel experiments showed that the initial threshold of friction wind velocity for the salt dust release was higher in clay flats(0.7–0.8 m/s)than in salt crusts(0.5–0.6 m/s).Moreover,the particle leap impact processes occurring under natural conditions may reduce this threshold value.Salinity was the main factor controlling the difference in the initial threshold of friction wind velocity for the salt dust release of clay flats and salt crusts.This study provides a scientific reference for understanding how salt dust is released from a lakebed,which may be used for ecological restoration of dry salt lakes.

Effects of different poses and wind speeds on flow field of dish solar concentrator based on virtual wind tunnel experiment with constant wind

In order to improve structure performance of the dish solar concentrator,a three-dimensional model of dish solar concentrator was established based on the high-precision numerical algorithms.And a virtual wind tunnel experiment with constant wind is adopted to investigate the pressure distribution of the reflective surface,velocity distribution of the fluid domain for the dish solar concentrator in different poses and wind speeds distribution.Some results about wind pressure distribution before and after dish solar concentrator surface and wind load velocity distribution in the entire fluid domain had been obtained.In particular,it is necessary to point out that the stiffness at the center of the dish solar concentrator should be relatively raised.The results can provide a theoretical basis for the improvement of solar concentrator dish structure as well as the failure analysis of dish solar concentrator in engineering practice.

Wind Tunnel Experimental Investigation on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of the Multifin Rockets and Missiles

The transonic-supersonic wind tunnel experiment on the aerodynamics of the rockets and missiles that have four, six, eight flat or wrap-around fins is introduced. The experimental results show, while M∞〈2.0, with the increase of the fins＇number, the derivative of lift coefficient is increasing, the pressure center is shifting backwards, and the longitudinal static stability is augmenting. On the contrary, while the Mach number exceeds a certain supersonic value, the aerodynamic effectiveness of the eight-fin missiles would be lower than that of the six-fin missiles. For the low speed short-range missiles, by adopting six, eight or ten flat fins configuration, the lift effectiveness can be greatly increased, the pressure center can be shifted backwards, the static and dynamic stability can be obviously enhanced. For the high speed long-range large rockets and missiles launched from multi-tube launcher, the configuration adopting more than six fins can not be useful for increasing the stability but would make the rolling rate instable during the flight.

Evaluation of a Micro-scale Wind Model's Performance over Realistic Building Clusters Using Wind Tunnel Experiments

The simulation performance over complex building clusters of a wind simulation model（Wind Information Field Fast Analysis model, WIFFA） in a micro-scale air pollutant dispersion model system（Urban Microscale Air Pollution dispersion Simulation model, UMAPS） is evaluated using various wind tunnel experimental data including the CEDVAL（Compilation of Experimental Data for Validation of Micro-Scale Dispersion Models） wind tunnel experiment data and the NJU-FZ experiment data（Nanjing University-Fang Zhuang neighborhood wind tunnel experiment data）. The results show that the wind model can reproduce the vortexes triggered by urban buildings well, and the flow patterns in urban street canyons and building clusters can also be represented. Due to the complex shapes of buildings and their distributions, the simulation deviations/discrepancies from the measurements are usually caused by the simplification of the building shapes and the determination of the key zone sizes. The computational efficiencies of different cases are also discussed in this paper. The model has a high computational efficiency compared to traditional numerical models that solve the Navier–Stokes equations, and can produce very high-resolution（1–5 m） wind fields of a complex neighborhood scale urban building canopy（～ 1 km ×1km） in less than 3 min when run on a personal computer.

Evolution of crescent-shaped sand dune under the influence of injected sand flux:scaling law and wind tunnel experiment

This paper studies the evolution of crescent-shaped dune under the influence of injected flux. A scaling law and a wind tunnel experiment are carried out for comparison. The experiment incorporates a novel image processing algorithm to recover the evolutionary process. The theoretical and experimental results agree well in the middle stage of dune evolution, but deviate from each other in the initial and final stages, suggesting that the crescent-shaped dune evolution is intrinsically scale-variant and that the crescent shape breaks down under unsaturated condition.

Wind tunnel experiments on natural snow drift

Previous wind tunnel experiments on snow drift usually used artificial snow as a substitute of natural snow, which can not fully reflect the motion characteristics of snow drift in natural environments. In this paper we conducted a series of experiments in wind tunnel to investigate the motion of natural snow (fresh snow and old snow), which was collected out-door without destroying the surface structure. The results indicated that the threshold velocity of fresh snow is less than that of old snow, and that the mass flux rates of the two kinds of snow exponentially decrease with height whereas the snow transport rate increases exponentially with wind velocity. Based on the PIV measuring of the velocities of snow particles over two kinds of terrains (flat ground and roadbed), we found that the particle velocity obeys a Gaussian distribution for flat ground, top surface and leeward slope of the roadbed. However, for the windward slope of roadbed the particle velocity distribution displays poor correlation with a Gaussian function due to the acceleration of snow particles when saltating across the slop. Statistical analysis showed that impacting and liftoff velocities of snow particles also obey Gaussian distributions.

Wind Tunnel Experiments and Numerical Study on Performance Characteristics of an H-type Vertical Axis Wind Turbine in the Spanwise Direction

The aerodynamic forces and vortex characteristics of an H-type Vertical Axis Wind Turbine(VAWT)become complicated because of dynamic stall,particularly in the three-dimensional impact on the blade spanwise direction.This study focused on the evaluation of the aerodynamic performance and vortex characteristics of an H-type VAWT in the spanwise direction by numerical simulations and wind tunnel experiments.Pressure acting on the blade surface was obtained from multiport pressure measurement devices by wind tunnel.Meanwhile,the vortex field around different blade sections was investigated through numerical simulations.The stall behavior was analysed by comparing the results of numerical simulations and experiments.As a result,the tangential force of single blade was mainly contributed at the chordwise position of x/c≤0.4 c and the power of single blade was mainly contributed at the azimuthal angle range of 60°≤θ≤150°in the blade section position region of 0≤z/(H/2)≤0.7.At the section position of z/(H/2)=0.5,the initial flow separation was found at the suction side and progressed forward to the leading edge.With the increase of the tip speed ratios,the decreasing position of the averaged local power coefficient of each section was closer to the middle section of z/(H/2)=0,and the attenuation speed became faster.The power coefficient reductions at the blade section position of z/(H/2)=0.9 were 38.29%,46.78%and 56.42%when the tip speed ratios were 1.38,2.19 and 2.58,respectively.The results of this study provided a better understanding of the development of the performance characteristics and vortex characteristics of H-type VAWT.

Wind-tunnel experimental studies of the spatial snow distribution over grass and bush surfaces

The snow is one of the most important water resources in grassland in northern and western China, while the wind blowing snow due to the strong wind there is a common phenomenon, which can lead to heavy disasters to harm the local animal husbandry and transportation. A reasonable arrangement of the snow protection forests is one of the most economical and effective methods to prevent the wind blowing snow, and a great number of investigations were carried out for its wind block effects. However, the deposition patterns of the snowfall and the blowing snow in the forests are still largely unknown. In this study, the wind tunnel experiments are performed to investigate the influences of the vegetation (grass and bush) on the wind speed profiles and the spatial distribution of the accumulated snow, by using the bran as the snow substitute. The snow blocking abilities of two bush models are analyzed to show the effects of different coverages. The results show that the grass and the bush have different effects on the wind speed profiles, and the snow-blocking abilities of the vegetation and the resulting spatial distribution are determined by the amount of the snowfall, the wind speed, and the height and the coverage of the vegetation. For the engineering design, if the snow is required on the windward side of the vegetation or in the vegetation, the densely arranged forest belts are needed, if the snow is required to accumulate on the leeward side of the vegetation, the sparse forest belts can be used. This work would be helpful as a reference to the reasonable arrangement of the snow-protection forests in pastoral areas.

Evolution of downsized crescent-shaped dune in wind tunnel experiment

The migration of a downsized crescent-shaped dune was investigated in a wind tunnel experiment.Quantified upwind influx and vertical oscillation of the sand bed were introduced to modulate the saturation level of the sand flux above the dune surface to affect dune evolution.The evolution was recorded by top-view photography and then abstracted as the evolution of self-defined characteristic quantities using a digital image processing algorithm.The results showed that,in contrast to the case for spanwise quantities,the evolution of streamwise quantities corresponds to a linear increase in the modulation magnitude more positively and in a monotonic and convergent manner.In contrast with quantities on the windward face,the changes in quantities with respect to the horns were nonmonotonic with time and almost uncorrelated with the variation in modulation strength,which reveals the distinctiveness of leeside evolution.

INTERFERENCE OF SIDE STRUT WITH THE NATURAL CAVITATING FLOWS AROUND A SUBMERGED VEHICLE IN WATER TUNNEL EXPERIMENTS

To apply the measurements of model experiment in water tunnel to the actual sailing condition, it is necessary to know accurately the strut effect and its rule. In the present work, the corresponding interferences of one-side strut and two-side strut on the natural cavitating flows around a submerged vehicle in water tunnel were investigated numerically, using the homogeneous equilibrium two-phase model coupled with a natural cavitation model. The numerical simulation results show that the strut types have distinct effects on the hydrodynamic properties. For the same given upstream velocity and downstream pressure, the existence of the strut leads to an increment of natural cavitation number, reduces the low-pressure region and depresses the pressure on the vehicle surface near the sides of strut. In the case of given cavitaiton number, the influences of the two-side strut on the drag and lift coefficients are both enhanced along with the increment of attack angle, however the influence of the one-side strut gradually gets stronger on the drag coefficient but weaker on the lift coefficient contrarily. In addition, based on the present numerical results, a correction method by introducing the sigmoidal logistic function is proposed to eliminate the interference from the foil-shaped strut.

Turbulent flows over real heterogeneous urban surfaces:Wind tunnel experiments and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations

Wind tunnel experiment and steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)approaches are used to examine the urban boundary layer(UBL)development above Kowloon Peninsula,Hong Kong Special Administrative Region(HKSAR).The detailed urban morphology is resolved by computational fluid dynamics(CFD)and is fabricated by 3D-printing(reduced scale)for wind tunnel experiments.Different from the majority existing results based on idealized,homogeneous urban geometries,it was found that the wind and turbulence in the UBL over downtown Kowloon are characterized by the wake behind several high-rise buildings.In particular,local maxima of turbulence kinetic energy(TKE)and shear stress are found at the roof level of those high-rise buildings.In the downstream region where the flows are already adjusted to the urban surfaces,the urban roughness sublayer(URSL)can be further divided into two layers based on the structures of the mixing length/m,effective drag Dx and dispersive stress.In the lower URSL(z<100 m),lm is rather uniform,and the Reynolds stress and dispersive stress are comparable.In the upper URSL(100 m z s 300 m),on the contrary,lm is peaked at the mid-height and the magnitude of dispersive stress is smaller than that of the Reynolds stress(<30%).The effective drag Dx is negligible in the upper URSL.

Experimental investigation of dynamic stall flow control using a microsecond-pulsed plasma actuator

To alleviate the performance deterioration caused by dynamic stall of a wind turbine airfoil,the flow control by a microsecond-pulsed dielectric barrier discharge(MP-DBD) actuator on the dynamic stall of a periodically pitching NACA0012 airfoil was investigated experimentally.Unsteady pressure measurements with high temporal accuracy were employed in this study,and the unsteady characteristics of the boundary layer were investigated by wavelet packet analysis and the moving root mean square method based on the acquired pressure.The experimental Mach number was 0.2,and the chord-based Reynolds number was 870 000.The dimensionless actuation frequencies F+ were chosen to be 0.5,1,2,and 3,respectively.For the light dynamic regime,the MP-DBD plasma actuator plays the role of suppressing flow separation from the trial edge and accelerating the flow reattachment due to the high-momentum freestream flow being entrained into the boundary layer.Meanwhile,actuation effects were promoted with the increasing dimensionless actuation frequency F+.The control effects of the deep dynamic stall were to delay the onset and reduce the strength of the dynamic stall vortex due to the accumulating vorticity near the leading edge being removed by the induced coherent vortex structures.The laminar fluctuation and Kelvin-Helmholtz(K-H) instabilities of transition and relaminarization were also mitigated by the MP-DBD actuation,and the alleviated K-H rolls led to the delay of the transition onset and earlier laminar reattachment,which improved the hysteresis effect of the dynamic stall.For the controlled cases of F+=2,and F+=3,the laminar fluctuation was replaced by relatively low frequency band disturbances corresponding to the harmonic responses of the MP-DBD actuation frequency.

Experimental Investigation on Element Immersing Process of Immersed Tube Tunnel

Bridges and tunnels are good solutions to transportation problems in large cities separated by large rivers. In bridge construction great success has been achieved in China, but large-sized immersed tube tunnel construction is still new. Element immersing is an important process of immersed tube tunnel construction. The accuracy of tunnel element positioning directly determines the quality of tunnel construction. In order to study the behavior of elements during its lowering to the sea bed, the experiments carried out in the State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University. In consideration of the construction experience abroad and by reference to published papers on the Oresund tunnel in Norway-Sweden and Tokyo Bay tunnel in Japan, an element model to an appropriate scale is developed. A concise description of the model experiment wave environments is carried out, and the feasibility of two immersing strategies is studied.

大直径盾构隧道施工期渗漏分析及控制研究

盾构隧道防水设计指标余量较大但隧道施工期渗漏频发,为了提升隧道防水质量,依托某大直径盾构隧道工程,通过数值计算及室内试验开展管片接头防水能力研究,分析影响密封垫防水的主要因素,梳理施工期隧道渗漏规律及渗漏原因,提出施工期隧道渗漏控制措施及建议,结果表明:张开量对密封垫防水能力影响较大,随着张开量增加密封垫防水能力急剧降低,错位量对密封垫防水能力影响相对较小,错位量增加时密封垫有效防水路径减小,但未错位部分密封垫仍能维持一定的应力水平,保持一定的防水能力;角部渗漏是管片接头渗漏的主要方式,由于拼装间隙,密封垫粘贴等因素影响,拼装过程中密封垫易出现堆积,造成角部密封垫难以压缩到位,压缩量不足防水能力降低出现渗漏;现场测量管片拼缝张开错位量满足设计要求,但接头仍可能出现渗漏,主要原因是管片拼装过程密封垫受力复杂多变,无法像实验室设计工况一样理想压缩,加上接缝测量位置难以反应密封垫实际压缩状态,导致管片拼装时密封垫拼装质量控制难度大,而拼装后密封垫的压缩状态决定了隧道接头的防水能力,因而盾构施工过程中,应从防水设计优化、防水材料施工,管片拼装、壁后注浆等全过程控制,提升隧道防水能力。

Experimental and numerical investigation of the influence of roughness and turbulence on LUT airfoil performance

Vertical-axis wind turbines(VAWTs)have been widely used in urban environments,which contain dust and experience strong turbulence.However,airfoils for VAWTs in urban environments have received considerably less research attention than those for horizontal-axis wind turbines(HAWTs).In this study,the sensitivity of a new VAWT airfoil developed at the Lanzhou University of Technology(LUT)to roughness was investigated via a wind tunnel experiment.The results show that the LUT airfoil is less sensitive to roughness at a roughness height of<0.35 mm.Moreover,the drag bucket of the LUT airfoil decreases with increasing roughness height.Furthermore,the loads on the LUT airfoil during dynamic stall were studied at different turbulence intensities using a numerical method at a tip-speed ratio of 2.Before the stall,the turbulence intensity did not considerably affect the normal or tangential force coefficients of the LUT airfoil.However,after the stall,the normal force coefficient varied obviously at low turbulence intensity.Moreover,as the turbulence intensity increased,the normal and tangential force coefficients decreased rapidly,particularly in the downwind region of the VAWT.

Experimental Study on Effect of A New Vortex Control Baffler and Its Influencing Factor

The horseshoe vortex generated around the sail-body junction of submarine has an important influence on the non-uniformity of submarine wake at propeller disc. The flow characteristics in the horseshoe vortex generated area are analyzed, and a new method of vortex control baffler is presented. The influence of vortex control baffler on the flow field around submarine main body with sail is numerically simulated. The wind tunnel experiment on submarine model is carried out, and it is proved that the vortex control baffler can weaken the hoi-seshoe vortex and decrease the non-uniformity of the wake at propeller disc. It is shown from the experiment results that the effect of vortex control baffler depends on its installation position; with a proper installation position, the non-uniform coefficient of submarine wake would be declined by about 50%; the Reynolds number of submarine model has an influence on the effect of vortex control baffler too, and the higher the Reynolds number is, the better the effect of the vortex control baffler is.

THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON DYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF GUYED MASTS UNDER WIND LOAD

A frequency-domain algorithm is presented for the dynamic analysis of guyed masts. By introducing a four-degrees-of-freedom model of a suspended cable, guyed masts are simpli?ed as an equivalent cable-beam model. Then, based on the discrete random vibration theory, recurrence formulas for the statistical moments of the wind-induced behavior of guyed masts are developed with the wind load treated as ?ltered white noise excitation. The dynamic analysis of a two-level guyed mast has been illustrated. Finally, results from a wind-tunnel experiment of guyed mast are used to testify the theory developed in this paper.

Wind tunnel test on the effect of metal net fences on sand flux in a Gobi Desert, China

The Lanzhou-Xinjiang High-speed Railway runs through an expansive windy area in a Gobi Desert, and sand-blocking fences were built to protect the railway from destruction by wind-blown sand. However, the shielding effect of the sand-blocking fence is below the expectation. In this study, effects of metal net fences with porosities of 0.5 and 0.7 were tested in a wind tunnel to determine the effectiveness of the employed two kinds of fences in reducing wind velocity and restraining wind-blown sand. Specifically, the horizontal wind velocities and sediment flux densities above the gravel surface were measured under different free-stream wind velocities for the following conditions： no fence at all, single fence with a porosity of 0.5, single fence with a porosity of 0.7, double fences with a porosity of 0.5, and double fences with a porosity of 0.7. Experimental results showed that the horizontal wind velocity was more significantly decreased by the fence with a porosity of 0.5, especially for the double fences. The horizontal wind velocity decreased approximately 65% at a distance of 3.25 m（i.e., 13 H, where H denotes the fence height） downwind the double fences, and no reverse flow or vortex was observed on the leeward side. The sediment flux density decreased exponentially with height above the gravel surface downwind in all tested fences. The reduction percentage of total sediment flux density was higher for the fence with a porosity of 0.5 than for the fence with a porosity of 0.7, especially for the double fences. Furthermore, the decreasing percentage of total sediment flux density decreased with increasing free-stream wind velocity. The results suggest that compared with metal net fence with a porosity of 0.7, the metal net fence with a porosity of 0.5 is more effective for controlling wind-blown sand in the expansive windy area where the Lanzhou-Xinjiang High-speed Railway runs through.

Rolling Control Characteristic Experimental Investigation of a Canard Missile with Free-Spinning Tail

To study the rolling control characteristics of a canard-controlled missile, a series of wind tunnel experiment is conducted. The experimental method, the structure features of wind tunnel model and the experimental results are introduced in this paper. The experimental data show that the canard is an inefficient rolling control device for canard-controlled missile with fixed tail fins; but for the free-spinning tail fin configuration, the canard can conduct rolling control of the missile, and even have higher controlling efficiency under larger canard deflection angle.

Fetch effect on the developmental process of aeolian sand transport in a wind tunnel

As the sand mass flux increases from zero at the leading edge of a saltating surface to the equilibrium mass flux at the critical fetch length,the wind flow is modified and then the relative contribution of aerodynamic and bombardment entrainment is changed.In the end the velocity,trajectory and mass flux profile will vary simultaneously.But how the transportation of different sand size groups varies with fetch distance is still unclear.Wind tunnel experiments were conducted to investigate the fetch effect on mass flux and its distribution with height of the total sand and each size group in transportation.The mass flux was measured at six fetch length locations(0.5,1.2,1.9,2.6,3.4 and 4.1 m)and at three free-stream wind velocities(8.8,12.2 and 14.5 m/s).The results reveal that the total mass flux and the mass flux of each size group with height can be expressed by q=aexp(–bh),where q is the sand mass flux at height h,and a and b are regression coefficients.The coefficient b represents the relative decay rate.Both the relative decay rates of total mass flux and each size group are independent of fetch length after a quick decay over a short fetch.This is much shorter than that of mass flux.The equilibrium of the relative decay rate cannot be regarded as an equilibrium mass flux profile for aeolian sand transport.The mass fluxes of 176.0,209.3 and 148.0μm size groups increase more quickly than that of other size groups,which indicates strong size-selection of grains exists along the fetch length.The maximal size group in mass flux(176.0μm)is smaller than the maximal size group of the bed grains(209.3μm).The relative contribution of each size group to the total mass flux is not monotonically decreasing with grain size due to the lift-off of some small grains being reduced due to the protection by large grains.The results indicate that there are complex interactions among different size groups in the developmental process of aeolian sand transport and more attention should be focused on the fetch effect because it has different influences on the total mass flux,the mass flux profile and its relative decay rate.