An Improved Coupled Level Set and Continuous Moment-of-Fluid Method for Simulating Multiphase Flows with Phase Change

An improved algorithm for computing multiphase flows is presented in which the multimaterial Moment-of-Fluid(MOF)algorithm for multiphase flows,initially described by Li et al.(2015),is enhanced addressing existing MOF difficulties in computing solutions to problems in which surface tension forces are crucial for understanding salient flow mechanisms.The Continuous MOF(CMOF)method is motivated in this article.The CMOF reconstruction method inherently removes the"checkerboard instability"that persists when using the MOF method on surface tension driven multiphase(multimaterial)flows.The CMOF reconstruction algorithm is accelerated by coupling the CMOF method to the level set method and coupling the CMOF method to a decision tree machine learning(ML)algorithm.Multiphase flow examples are shown in the two-dimensional(2D),three-dimensional(3D)axisymmetric"RZ",and 3D coordinate systems.Examples include two material and three material multiphase flows:bubble formation,the impingement of a liquid jet on a gas bubble in a cryogenic fuel tank,freezing,and liquid lens dynamics.

Localized temporal variation of Earth's inner-core boundary from high-quality waveform doublets

The topography of the inner core is crucial to understand its growth process and interaction with the geodynamo. With the accuracy of teleseismic waveform doublets in determining the travel-time shifts between PKPcd and PKPdf inner-core phases, we examined the temporal change of the inner-core boundary sampled by new earthquake doublets that occurred in the Western Pacific and those previously found from the South Sandwich Islands. The receiver stations are those within the distance range of 128°–142° from the hypocenters of the waveform doublets. Our results suggest that temporal changes in PKPcd-PKPdf differential times are very subtle except some isolated regions under central America and Africa. The observations may indicate localized topography of the inner core and/or the inner-core boundary as transient slurry in isolated regions.

A semi-analytical pressure and rate transient analysis model for inner boundary and propped fractures exhibiting dynamic behavior under long-term production conditions

The loss of hydrocarbon production caused by the dynamic behavior of the inner boundary and propped fractures under long-term production conditions has been widely reported in recent studies.However,the quantitative relationships for the variations of the inner boundary and propped fractures have not been determined and incorporated in the semi-analytical models for the pressure and rate transient analysis.This work focuses on describing the variations of the inner boundary and propped fractures and capturing the typical characteristics from the pressure transient curves.A generalized semi-analytical model was developed to characterize the dynamic behavior of the inner boundary and propped fractures under long-term production conditions.The pressure-dependent length shrinkage coefficients,which quantify the length changes of the inner zone and propped fractures,are modified and incorporated into this multi-zone semi-analytical model.With simultaneous numerical iterations and numerical inversions in Laplace and real-time space,the transient solutions to pressure and rate behavior are determined in just a few seconds.The dynamic behavior of the inner boundary and propped fractures on transient pressure curves is divided into five periods:fracture bilinear flow(FR1),dynamic PFs flow(FR2),inner-area linear flow(FR3),dynamic inner boundary flow(FR4),and outer-area dominated linear flow(FR5).The early hump during FR2 period and a positive upward shift during FR4period are captured on the log-log pressure transient curves,reflecting the dynamic behavior of the inner boundary and propped fractures during the long-term production period.The transient pressure behavior will exhibit greater positive upward trend and the flow rate will be lower with the shrinkage of the inner boundary.The pressure derivative curve will be upward earlier as the inner boundary shrinks more rapidly.The lower permeability caused by the closure of un-propped fractures in the inner zone results in greater upward in pressure derivative curves.If the permeability loss for the dynamic behavior of the inner boundary caused by the closure of un-propped fractures is neglected,the flow rate will be overestimated in the later production period.

A climatological northern boundary index for the East Asian summer monsoon and its interannual variability

A long-term perspective on the spatial variation of the northern boundary of the East Asian summer monsoon(EASM) and the related physical mechanisms is important for understanding past climate change in Asia and for predicting future changes. However, most of the meteorological definitions of the EASM northern boundary do not correspond well to the actual geographical environment, which is problematic for paleoclimatic research. Here, we use monthly CMAP and GPCP precipitation data to define a new EASM northern boundary index by using the concept of the global monsoon, which is readily applicable to paleoclimatic research. The results show that the distribution of the 2 mm day^(-1) precipitation isoline(i.e., 300 mm precipitation)has a good relationship with the spatial distribution of modern land cover types, the transitional climate zone and the potential natural vegetation types, in China. The locations of the precipitation isolines also correspond well to the locations of major shifts in wind direction. These results suggest that the 2 mm day^(-1) isoline has a clear physical significance since the climatic, ecological,and geographical boundary can be used as the northern boundary index of the EASM(which we call the climatological northern boundary index). The index depicts the northeast-southwest orientation of the climatological(1981-2010) EASM northern boundary, along the eastern part of the Qilian Mountains-southern foothills of the Helan Mountains-Daqing Mountains-western margin of the Greater Khingan Range, from west to east across Northwest and Northeast China. The interannual change of the EASM northern boundary from 1980 to 2015 covers the central part of Gansu, the northern part of Ningxia, the eastern part of Inner Mongolia and the northeastern region in China. It can extend northward to the border between China and Mongolia and retreat southward to Shangdong-central Henan. There is a 200-700 km fluctuation range of the interannual EASM northern boundaries around the locations of the climatological northern boundary. In addition, the spatial variation of the interannual EASM northern boundaries gradually increases from west to east, whereas the trend of north-south fluctuations maintains a roughly consistent location in different regions.