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Wear occurs at most solid surfaces that come in contact with other solid surfaces. While biological surfaces and tissues usually have the ability to repair minor wear damage, engineered self-healing materials only started to emerge recently. An example of a smart self-healing material is the material with imbedded microcapsules or microtubes, which rupture during crack propagation and release a healing agent that repairs the crack. Self-healing mechanisms are hierarchical in the sense that they involve interactions with different characteristic scale lengths. While traditional models of self-healing require equations with many degrees of freedom, taking into account the hierarchical organization allows us to reduce the number of equations to a few degrees of freedom. We discuss the conditions under which the self-healing occurs and provide a general theoretical framework and criteria for self-healing using the concept of multiscale organization of entropy and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The example of a self-healed Al alloy reinforced with microtubes filled with Sn60Pb40 solder is discussed as a case study.

A numerical study is made of the characteristics of turbulent submerged axisymmetric incompressible jets impinging on a flat plate and flowing into an axisymmetric cavity. The purpose of the study is to obtain a better understanding of the behavior of a fluid jet used to cut solid materials. In the computations a hybrid finite difference method is used to solve the full Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible submerged jet with the k ∼ ε turbulence model. All computed results are compared with experimental data reported in the literature. For the case of the jet impinging on a flat plate, the computations are made for nozzle-to-plate distances ranging from 2 to 40 nozzle diameters. For the jet flowing into an axisymmetric cavity, computations are made for cavity depths ranging from 0 to 60 nozzle diameters. The use of the k ∼ ε turbulence model results in good predictions of the velocity, pressure, and skin friction distributions. The near-wall models for the kinetic energy and turbulent shear stress give good predictions of the skin friction coefficients.

Wind energy is a well proven and cost-effective technology and expected to be a promising technology in which industry responds to the environmental targets—so becoming an important source of power generation in years to come. This paper focuses on the current status of wind energy and more advanced subjects needed to understand the current technology in the wind power engineering.

With the development of the advanced technology, the combustion temperature is raised for increased efficiencies. At the same time, the turbine and compressor pressure ratio and the mass flow rate rise; thus causing turbine and compressor blades turning and blade lengths increase. Moreover, the high efficiency requirements had made the turbine and compressor blade design difficult. A turbine airfoil has been custom designed for many years, but an optimization for the section design in a three-dimensional consideration is still a challenge. For a compressor blade design, standard section cannot meet the modern compressor requirements. Modern compressor design has not only needs a custom designed section according to flow situation, but also needs three-dimensional optimizations. Therefore, a good blade design process is critical to the turbines and compressors. A blade design of the turbomachines is one of the important steps for a good turbomachine design. A blade design process not only directly influences the overall machine efficiency but also dramatically impact the design time and cost. In this study, a blade design and optimization procedure was proposed for both turbine and compressor blade design. A compressor blade design was used as a test case. It was shown that the current design process had more advantages than conventional design methodology.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been extensively used in centrifugal compressor design. CFD provides further optimisation opportunities for the compressor design rather than designing the centrifugal compressor. The experience-based design process still plays an important role for new compressor developments. The wide variety of design subjects represents a very complex design world for centrifugal compressor designers. Therefore, some basic information for centrifugal design is still very important. The impeller is the key part of the centrifugal stage. Designing a highly efficiency impeller with a wide operation range can ensure overall stage design success. This paper provides some empirical information for designing industrial centrifugal compressors with a focus on the impeller. A ported shroud compressor basic design guideline is also discussed for improving the compressor range.

The local heat transfer coefficient distribution on a square heat source due to a normally impinging, axisymmetric, confined, and submerged liquid jet was computationally investigated. Numerical predictions were made for nozzle diameters of 3.18 and 6.35 mm at several nozzle-to-heat source spacings, with turbulent jet Reynolds numbers ranging from 8500 to 13,000. The commercial finite-volume code FLUENT was used to solve the thermal and flow fields using the standard high-Reynolds number k–ε turbulence model. The converged solution obtained from the code was refined using a post-processing program that incorporated several near-wall models. The role of four alternative turbulent Prandtl number functions on the predicted heat transfer coefficients was investigated. The predicted heat transfer coefficients were compared with previously obtained experimental measurements. The predicted stagnation and average heat transfer coefficients agree with experiments to within a maximum deviation of 16 and 20 percent, respectively. Reasons for the differences between the predicted and measured heat transfer coefficients are discussed.