An experimental investigation of the flow field around a single Taylor bubble rising in a vertical pipe filled with stagnant water is presented. The Reynolds number of the flow based on the Taylor bubble rise velocity and the pipe diameter is 4350. The velocity field around the bubble was determined by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The mean velocity fields in front of the bubble, in the liquid film, and in the wake region were calculated by ensemble-averaging the instantaneous velocity fields measured around 100 different bubbles. Ensemble-averaged velocities become negligible at 0.5D from the bubble nose and at $12 D from the bubble tail. However, notable instantaneous velocity fluctuations were found to exist up to 50D from the Taylor bubble tail. These residual vortices may influence the shape and the propagation velocity of the trailing bubble even at large separation distances. Ó

[1] Large-eddy simulation (LES) of turbulence in plant canopies has traditionally been validated using bulk statistical quantities such as mean velocity and variance profiles. However, turbulent exchanges between a plant canopy and the atmosphere are dominated by large-scale coherent structures, and therefore LES must also be validated using statistical tools that are sensitive to details of coherent structures. In this study, LES and measurements using particle image velocimetry (PIV) are compared near the top of the canopy by means of a quadrant-hole analysis of turbulent kinetic energy, vorticity, and dissipation rate. The LES resolves coarse features of individual corn plants and uses the Lagrangian scale-dependent dynamic subgrid model. At the measurement location, there is good agreement between the LES predictions and the field data in terms of most conditionally sampled quantities, confirming the applicability of LES for fundamental studies of vegetation-air interactions and coherent structures. The simulation results confirm that sweeps (the fourth-quadrant events) contribute the largest fraction of turbulent kinetic energy, vorticity, and dissipation rate inside the plant canopy. The magnitudes of the vorticity and dissipation rate at the top of the canopy are highest in the first quadrant (rare events of outward interactions).

The translational velocities of elongated bubbles in continuous slug flow were measured for various flow rates, pipe inclinations and pipe diameters. Measurements were carried out by cross-correlating the output signals of consecutive optical fiber probes and by image processing technique. In addition, the velocities of single elongated bubbles in a stagnant and in a flowing liquid were measured by the same techniques. For all cases the measured velocities were compared to appropriate correlations. The measured velocities of single elongated bubbles were in all cases predicted quite well by the correlations while the velocities in continuous slug flow, for certain cases, were considerably underpredicted. This discrepancy is ascribed to the influence of the dispersed bubbles in the liquid slug region. A simplified model is proposed to calculate the translational velocity in continuous slug flow. The results of the model compare well with the measured translational velocities of elongated bubbles in continuous slug flow.

Turbulent flow in a corn canopy is simulated using large-eddy simulation (LES) with a Lagrangian dynamic Smagorinsky model. A new numerical representation of plant canopies is presented that resolves approximately the local structure of plants and takes into account their spatial arrangement. As a validation, computational results are compared with experimental data from recent field particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements and two previous experimental campaigns. Numerical simulation using the traditional modelling method to represent the canopy (field-scale approach) is also conducted as a comparison to the plant-scale approach. The combination of temporal PIV data, LES and spatial PIV data allows us to couple a wide range of relevant turbulence scales. There is good agreement between experimental data and numerical predictions using the plant-scale approach in terms of various turbulence statistics. Within the canopy, the plant-scale approach also allows the capture of more details than the field-scale approach, including instantaneous gusts that penetrate deep inside the canopy.

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Quadrant-hole (Q-H) analysis is applied to PIV data acquired just within and above a mature corn canopy. The Reynolds shear stresses, transverse components of vorticity, as well as turbulence production and cascading part of dissipation rates are conditionally sampled in each quadrant, based on stress and vorticity magnitudes. The stresses are representative of large-scale events, while the vorticity is dominated by small-scale shear. Dissipation rates (cascading energy fluxes) are evaluated by fitting −5/3 slope lines to the conditionally sampled and averaged spatial energy spectra, while the Reynolds stresses, vorticity, and production rates are calculated directly from the spatial distributions of two velocity components. The results demonstrate that sweep (quadrant 4) and ejection (quadrant 2) events are the dominant contributors to the Reynolds shear stress, consistent with previous observations. The analysis also shows a strong correlation between magnitudes of dissipation rate and vorticity. The dissipation rates and vorticity magnitudes are higher in quadrants 1 and 4, that is, when the horizontal component of the fluctuating velocity is positive, peaking in quadrant 1. Both are weakly correlated with the Reynolds stresses except for rare quadrant 1 events. However, the more frequently occurring quadrant 4 events are the largest contributors to the dissipation rate. The production rate inherently increases with increasing stress magnitude, but lacks correlation with vorticity. Quadrants 2 and 4 contribute the most to production. However, the contribution of quadrant 1 events to negative production should not be ignored above canopy. The results show a strong disconnection between small-scale- and large-scale-dominated phenomena.

The motion of a heavy tethered sphere and its wake were measured in a closed loop water channel using a time resolved, high-speed particle image velocimetry technique in a horizontal plane. Measurements were performed for nondimensional reduced velocities ranging from 2.8 to 31.1 that include three bifurcation regions. In order to analyze the vortex shedding characteristics, the directional swirling strength parameter was computed in addition to the vorticity as the former enables vortex identification. In the first bifurcation region, the sphere remained stationary and the wake was characterized by a train of hairpin vortices exhibiting symmetry in the vertical plane similar to visualization results obtained for stationary spheres. The second bifurcation region was characterized by large amplitude periodic oscillations transverse to the flow. Phase-averaged results for the swirling strength showed that although the shedding mechanism was identical for several reduced velocities, the phase at which vortices were shed increased with V R . Spatiotemporal swirling strength characteristics revealed counter-rotating vortex pairs in the far wake of the sphere. In addition to primary vortex pairs, secondary weaker vortical structures were also observed. In the third bifurcation region, nonstationary vortex shedding was characterized by high frequencies associated with shear layer instabilities causing pinch-off of small scale vortices. In addition, large scale undulations of the wake associated with the sphere motion were observed.