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In this study, a rotational flow device (rotational blade) is developed and installed in the upstream of the particle inlet with the aim of improving the efficiency and capacity of pneumatic conveying. Firstly, this study analyzed the energy-saving effect of rotational flow based on the pressure drop and power consumption. The results shown that the optimal velocity can be reduced by a maximum of 18.7 % and the power consumption coefficient can be reduced by a maximum of 9.8 %. Furthermore, the distributions of particle concentration, velocity and pulsation velocity are analyzed by using electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) system. It is found that the particle velocity and velocity pulsation intensity for rotational flow are higher, and they have the ability to enhance particle suspension. Then, the power spectrum of the particle pulsation velocity shown that the rotational flow exhibited higher peak value at lower frequencies, indicating the particles are not easily deposited at pipe bottom. Finally, the auto-correlation of particle pulsation velocity indicated that the particle motion is more stable and has a longer period at low particle concentrations. The skewness factor and probability density function of particle pulsation velocity indicated that the use of rotational blades makes the particle pulsation velocity to deviate from the Gaussian distribution.

To minimize energy consumption in transportation, a dune model is developed and installed in elbow with varying radii of curvature in the horizontal-vertical pneumatic conveying system in this study. The experimental study focuses on the effect of dune model in elbow with different radius of curvature on the pneumatic conveying system in terms of pressure drop, additional pressure drop coefficient, and the power loss coefficient. Furthermore, the particle concentration and velocity distribution are measures by using the electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and the high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) technology. Finally, the particle pulsation velocity is analyzed to reveal the particle motion mechanism of vertical pipe with dune model by using the fourier transform and wavelet transform. The results indicate that the minimum gas conveying velocity is reduced by installing the dune model, with a maximum reduction rate of 10.36 %, and the maximum reduction rate of power loss coefficient decreased is 11.56 %. At the same time, the particle concentration near the outside and inside wall of the pipe with dune is lower and higher than of without dune, and the particle axial velocities with dune are larger than the case of no dune, and the particle axial pulsation intensity with dune are larger than the case of no dune. Otherwise, the peak value of power spectrum of with dune is lower than that of no dune model in the low frequency region, and the wavelet fluctuation energy of low frequency has a great influence on the axial velocity of particles near the inside wall of pipe for the case of dune model.

Three-Dimensional (3D) swirling flow structures, generated by a counter-rotating dual-stage swirler in a confined chamber with a confinement ratio of 1.53, were experimentally investigated at Re = 2.3 × 105using Tomographic Particle Image Velocimetry (Tomo-PIV) and planar Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Based on the analysis of the 3D time-averaged swirling flow structures and 3D Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) of the Tomo-PIV data, typical coherent flow structures, including the Corner Recirculation Zone (CRZ), Central Recirculation Zone (CTRZ), and Lip Recirculation Zone (LRZ), were extracted. The counter-rotating dual-stage swirler with a Venturi flare generates the independence process of vortex breakdown from the main stage and pilot stage, leading to the formation of an LRZ and a smaller CTRZ near the nozzle outlet. The confinement squeezes the CRZ to the corner and causes a reverse rotation flow to limit the shape of the CTRZ. A large-scale flow structure caused by the main stage features an explosive breakup, flapping, and Precessing Vortex Core (PVC). The explosive breakup mode dominates the swirling flow structures owing to the expansion and construction of the main jet, whereas the flapping mode is related to the wake perturbation. Confinement limits the expansion of PVC and causes it to contract after the impacting area.

A passive flow control method is applied to a vehicle external door mirror by introducing flow from a slot drilling from the front surface to four slots around the rear surface. The wake flow fields behind the door mirror and slotted door mirror are experimentally investigated via particle image velocimetry measurements at a Reynolds number of 12,736. The time-averaged flow fields suggest that the reverse-flow region of the slotted door mirror is reduced and pushed downstream; correspondingly, the turbulent kinetic energy of the slotted door mirror is reduced, implying the suppression of unsteadiness and a reduction in the drag force acting on the door mirror. As a result of the jet flow, the wake flow of the slotted door mirror exhibits a weaker spatial correlation and a smaller length scale, indicating the suppression of large-scale vortex shedding and the enhancement of small-scale flow motion by the slots. The jet flows from the left and right slots of the slotted door mirror prevent the upper and lower shear layers from interacting with each other, which promotes symmetric vortex shedding in the near-wake region. The power spectral density and modal energy distributions suggest that the strength of the primary vortex shedding is reduced by the slotted door mirror. The spatial patterns of the first two proper orthogonal decomposition modes suggest that the jet flow distorts the dominant large-scale structure, reducing the strength of the flow oscillation behind the slotted door mirror. The spatial distributions of modes 3 and 4 suggest that the symmetric vortex shedding is enhanced by the jet flow from the slotted door mirror.

•Application research works of wavelet transform on the fluid mechanics are reviewed.•Theories of continuous and discrete wavelet transforms are introduced.•Applications of wavelet analysis on the data of hot-wire, 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) and 3D tomographic PIV are described.•Complex flow structures of various scales are analyzed by multi-dimensional wavelet transform.•Wavelet transform has become a powerful tool to analyze multi-dimensional turbulence flows.

This paper proposes vehicle door mirrors with a tip shape and ditch to reduce the aerodynamic drag. The mean drag coefficients Cdof various mirror models were first measured using load cells within a 103–105Reynolds number range in a wind tunnel. The Cdof controlled mirrors with different ditch widths remained constant at approximately 0.75 and was lower than that of conventional mirrors. Using a large eddy simulation (LES), the 3D flow structures around modified and conventional mirrors were numerically analyzed at a Reynolds number of 2.8 × 105. Based on a three-dimensional orthogonal wavelet multi-resolution technique, the instantaneous three-dimensional vorticity and velocity were decomposed into three wavelet levels or scales: large scale with a 62 mm central scale, intermediate scale with a 29 mm central scale, and small scale with a 16 mm central scale. This indicated that the length of the region of the vorticity iso-surfaces in an improved door mirror model as the tip ditch decreases. Because the tip ditch produced the more streamwise vortices, the large-scale spanwise vortices were suppressed. The streamwise vortices and spanwise vortices of the small- and intermediate-scale structures increased, which is mainly caused by the ditch in the tip.