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The technique of identifying Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCSs) has emerged as a powerful tool for studying incompressible flows. Yet, the discrepancies arising from incompressibility assumptions often compromise the accuracy of LCSs constructed using Lagrangian particle methods. In this study, we introduce a modified framework to compute Finite-Time Lyapunov Exponents (FTLEs), addressing the misalignment between the fully incompressible assumption of LCS theory and the inherent incompressibility loss in simulations of particle methods. We begin by examining the correlation between the minimum and maximum FTLEs. By incorporating the deformation gradient and Cauchy-Green strain tensor which account for the time-advancing errors of incompressibility based on continuum theory, we enhance the computational accuracy of FTLEs. Moreover, we introduce the modified FTLE algorithm to the incompressible particle-in-cell (PIC) method for resolving free surface flows and fluid-structure interaction problems. Finally, numerical examples including the Tayler-Green vortices, water sloshing with baffles, an eccentric box sinking in water, and three-dimensional shear-driven cavity problems with high Reynolds numbers are tested to validate the effectiveness of the modified FTLE algorithm and the improved LCSs. These results demonstrate that the proposed modification scheme adeptly counteracts the errors caused by incompressibility loss, enabling accurate computation of FTLEs and detection of LCSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the investigations on Lagrangian Coherent Structures (LCS) in complex flows have attracted increasing attention due to their ability to accurately describe flow field details. In this study, we propose a novel and accurate numerical technique based on the Lagrangian–Eulerian Stabilized Collocation Method (LESCM) for computing the Finite Time Lyapunov Exponents (FTLEs), which is essential for extracting LCSs in viscous incompressible flows. LESCM, previously employed for simulating fluid–structure interaction problems, was developed based on the Material Point Method (MPM). The hybrid Lagrangian–Eulerian​ description in LESCM enables explicit tracking of fluid flow trajectories throughout the simulation and direct evaluation of the FTLE field. Furthermore. The errors in FTLEs caused by the Particle Shifting Technique (PST) are completely avoided due to the Eulerian characteristic of LESCM as the deformation gradient is calculated based on fixed Eulerian nodes rather than fluid particles with unphysical shifting. Consequently, the novel technique based on LESCM surpasses the accuracy of pure Lagrangian particle methods and provides an accurate way of detecting complex LCSs in flow fields. Additionally, By harnessing the remarkable efficiency of LESCM, MATLAB can now handle up to 16 million particles with ease, eliminating the need for parallel computation techniques. Several numerical examples, such as 2D Taylor-Green​ vortices, flow passing a circular cylinder and a 3-dimensional shear driven cavity problem, have been tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of this novel approach under various conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A numerical model is developed to analyze underwater explosion of slender explosive and structure responses. • Slender explosive will generate a directional pressure field in the surrounding water. • The shape of explosive strongly influences shock wave dynamics in the near-field. • The direction effect of pressure and energy flux is significant. • The response of a plate subjected to near-field underwater explosion of a slender explosive is studied. The shape of a high-explosive is an important factor to consider in the near-field and contact explosion, but this has been rarely studied previously. In this paper, we first conduct experiments to study the directional effects of the underwater explosion shock wave of slender explosives. A numerical model based on the multi-material arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (MM–ALE) technique is then developed to study the influence of the explosive slender ratio on the generated shock waves. The numerical model is validated by experiment data. Then, tests are conducted with constant-mass cylindrical explosives with slender ratios ranging from 2.0 to 9.2. By comparing with the center-detonated spherical explosive, the peak pressure, pulse duration, impulse and energy flux of the underwater explosion of slender explosives are analyzed in detail. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the fluid-structure interaction algorithm is verified through the experimental data of a plate subjected to underwater contact explosion. Finally, the response of plates subjected to the underwater explosion of a slender explosive at different azimuths is studied. The interaction between the plate and the directional loads is analyzed. We conclude that the loads and structure responses of the near-field underwater explosion of slender explosives are different from those of spherical explosives. The analyses and results provide a reference for the near-field underwater explosion loads and structural response studies. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved coupling method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and element bending group (EBG) is developed for modeling the interaction of viscous flows with free surface and flexible structures with free and fixed ends. SPH and EBG are both particle methods which are appealing in modeling problems with free surfaces, moving interfaces and large deformations. SPH is used to model viscous fluid, while EBG is used to model flexible structure. Structure particles are also used as moving boundary for SPH, and the interaction of flexible structure with fluid is therefore modeled through the interaction of structure particles and fluid particles. A fixed-end treatment is introduced for flexible structures. A free surface treatment and a surface tension model are used for free surface flow. The improved SPH–EBG method is applied to simulate problems of dam break flow on flexible structures. The good agreement of presented numerical results with existing experimental and numerical results clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the SPH and EBG coupling approach in modeling fluid–flexible structure interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Semi-resolved CFD–DEM is extended to particulate flows with thermal convection. • Background fluid properties are corrected using kernel-based approximation. • Model A is adopted to address fluid-particle interaction with more force models. • Turbulence model is incorporated into the semi-resolved CFD–DEM. • The semi-resolved CFD–DEM provides better predictions and more details in modeling thermal particulate flows in fluidized bed. • Several phenomena observed in thermal fluidized bed are discussed. Particulate flows with heat transfer widely exist in industry including fluidized bed reactor and powder-based 3D printing, and are frequently modeled with CFD–DEM coupled approaches. Recently, we developed a semi-resolved CFD–DEM approach, which bridges the simulation gap between the resolved and unresolved CFD–DEM (Wang et al., 2019). The semi-resolved CFD–DEM is as efficient as the conventional unresolved CFD–DEM and as accurate as the resolved CFD–DEM, while it is validated for particulate flows with momentum exchange with Model B without heat exchange. In this paper, we further extend the semi-resolved CFD–DEM approach to model particulate flows with momentum exchange and thermal convection. Firstly, similar to background fluid velocity, background fluid temperature is corrected through kernel-based approximations on the neighboring fluid cells rather than simply taking values in the local cell containing the concerned particle. Secondly, Model A is adopted in the semi-resolved CFD–DEM, leading to more powerful capabilities in handling complicated flows. Force models like the Magnus force, virtual mass force are also included. Thirdly, turbulence model is incorporated into the semi-resolved CFD–DEM approach to address possible turbulence effects. Finally, the developed semi-resolved CFD–DEM is applied to modeling the complex particulate flows in fluidized bed. The obtained numerical results are compared with experimental data and results from other sources. It is demonstrated that the present semi-resolved CFD–DEM is effective in modeling particulate flows with thermal convection. Compared to the conventional unresolved CFD–DEM, this semi-resolved CFD–DEM can provide better predictions and more details on particle temperature distribution, mean temperature, solid/fluid fraction, velocity autocorrelation and vorticity field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a promising additive manufacturing (AM) technique that has been attracting more and more attention both in academia and industry. The complex physics inherent in SLM processes, such as fluid flow, heat transfer, and phase change, pose great challenges to the quality control of AM products and a profound understanding of the mechanism of SLM is, therefore, significant. The existing literature mainly focuses on experimental investigations or numerical simulations where the provided results are usually limited and not applicable to general cases. To tackle this problem, we present a dimensionless analysis on SLM in this paper. Firstly, a theoretical analysis through normalization of the energy equation of the SLM process is conducted. Secondly, four key dimensionless numbers are proposed to characterize the thermo-dynamical behaviors of SLM including welding parameter, melting and vaporization efficiency, and track size parameter. Thirdly, a set of commonly-used processing parameters are employed to estimate these dimensionless numbers that provides a qualitative understanding of their physical significances. Finally, the presented dimensionless numbers are employed to analyze the SLM process and to reveal that these dimensionless numbers are effective in describing and predicting the physics of SLM for continuous track forming, porosity evolution, and track size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We extend a third-order weighted vartiational rDG(P 1 P 2) to solve the incompressible flows on unstructured grids. • High-order DoFs are reconstructed by minimizing a weighted interfatial jump integration function using variational method. • This new rDG(P 1 P 2) method is able to achieve the designed optimal third order of accuracy. • The computational costs of this new rDG(P 1 P 2) method are significantly reduced compared to the standard DG(P 2) method. In this paper, a third-order reconstructed discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method based on a weighted variational minimization principle, which is denoted as P 1 P 2 (WVr) method, is presented for solving the incompressible flows on unstructured grids. In this method, the first-order degrees of freedom (DoFs) are obtained directly from the underlying second-order DG method, while the second-order DoFs are reconstructed through the weighted variational reconstruction. Specifically, we first introduce a weighted interfacial jump integration (WIJI) function which represents a measure of the jump between the reconstructed polynomial solutions from two neighboring cells. Then, we build the constitutive relations by minimizing this WIJI function using the variational method. A number of incompressible flow problems in both steady and unsteady forms are presented to assess the performance of the proposed P 1 P 2 (WVr) method. The numerical results demonstrate that the P 1 P 2 (WVr) method is able to achieve the designed optimal third-order accuracy at a significantly reduced computational costs. Moreover, when a suitable value of the weight parameter is chosen to be used, the P 1 P 2 (WVr) method outperforms the reconstructed DG methods based on either least-squares or Green-Gauss reconstruction for the simulations of incompressible flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypervelocity impact (HVI) on carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs) is associated with extreme impulse response of material as well as complex characteristics of the composites. It is a challenging task to predict the physical process of CFRP-HVI problems accurately. We apply a GPU-accelerated smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method which incorporates the composite material model and the decoupled finite particle method to simulate the CFRP-HVI processes. The presented SPH model is validated by simulating the processes of aluminum spheres impacting metallic plates. The simulation results agree well with available experimental and numerical results, and the GPU parallelization technique significantly improves the simulation efficiency (350 times faster than an equivalent serial SPH model). With such computational accuracy and efficiency, the model is extended to simulate CFRP laminate impact problems, and a particle convergence analysis is performed. It is shown that the model can obtain convergent results when modeling each CFRP layer with three SPH particles in the thickness direction and correspondingly using about twenty million particles in total. The simulation can be completed within several hours, and the dominant mechanisms of the CFRP-HVI can be captured quantitatively. To further investigate the protective performance of CFRP structures, HVI on a well-known shielding structure Whipple bumper is investigated numerically. The dynamic response of the structure is well reproduced, and the results show that the CFRP pressure wall is more effective than the metallic one. These simulation results demonstrate that the presented SPH model can model the CFRP-HVI problems accurately and efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a cutting-edge additive manufacturing (AM) technique, powder bed fusion (PBF) has gained much attention in both academic research and practical applications. Revealing the mechanisms of PBF in a simple and physically interpreting way is imperative but also challenging, as PBF is a multi-scale process with comprehensive material properties and process parameters. Dimensional groups can shed light on the underlying physics involved in PBF, while traditional dimensional analysis approaches are limited in extracting unique dimensionless groups and measuring their importance. In this work, we integrated dimensional analysis with the active subspace method (ASM), a data-driven dimension reduction method, and developed a novel data-driven dimensional analysis (DDDA) framework for predicting the melt pool morphology and porosity evolution in PBF. Different from the conventional dimensional analysis, DDDA can explore more potential dimensionless groups while measuring their relative importance. Hence we identified those dimensionless numbers of most significant importance and calibrated the scaling laws for predicting melt pool morphology and porosity evolution. Furthermore, the correlation between track size and porosity formation, as well as how single-track keyhole can contribute to the bulk porosity, is also presented. With its performance demonstrated through good agreement with experimental results, it is believed that this proposed DDDA framework will be a useful tool for transforming our knowledge in the evolution of melt pool morphology, keyhole defects and porosity. [Display omitted] • A novel data-driven dimensional analysis (DDDA) framework for powder bed fusion (PBF) process is established. • Active subspace method combined with dimensional analysis is introduced into PBF process for the first time. • Dimensionless groups and scaling laws for melt pool morphology and porosity evolution are found by the DDDA framework. • Mechanisms behind the porosity evolution for both single/multi-tracks are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weakly compressible SPH (WCSPH) method has been widely used for solving hydrodynamic problems, in which the fluid is assumed to be weakly compressible through limiting the density deviation to a small value. Despite its simplicity and robustness in implementation, the WCSPH method is generally hindered by its poor accuracy and spurious oscillations in the pressure field which may lead to numerical instability. In order to dampen the spurious oscillations without introducing excessive dissipation, a Roe-type approximate Riemann solver with a low-dissipation limiter was proposed and applied to the WCSPH method by Zhang et al. (2017). The present paper aims to extend this low-dissipation Riemann solver to the finite particle method (FPM), which can be referred to an enhanced or modified version of the conventional SPH method, for reducing spurious pressure oscillations and meanwhile achieving higher order of accuracy. Numerical results demonstrate that the Riemann solver based FPM is effective in modeling incompressible flows and it produces a more accurate flow field than the conventional WCSPH and Riemann solver based WCSPH methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we propose an efficient smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method for simulating laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). The multi-physics process of LPBF, including the heat transfer and phase change with complex boundaries, is accurately resolved by a novel heat source model and a modified continuous surface force based on a corrected surface delta function. Moreover, we also develop an efficient tensile instability control algorithm for preventing the pressure oscillations. The present method is implemented in a GPU-accelerated framework, and its performance is well demonstrated by simulating the LPBF processes with both single-layer and multi-layer powder beds (with the help of surface reconstruction). The numerical results are compared well with the experimental ones which clearly verify the ability of the present method in capturing the complex physical phenomenon of LPBF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel coupling approach of ES-FEM-SPH is developed for solving thermal-fluid-structure interaction (TFSI) problems. • The updated Lagrangian ES-FEM is developed for solving the coupled thermal elastic problems. • The SPH method, after integrating with particle shifting technique and kernel gradient correction, is robust and effective in modeling thermal fluid flows. • The ghost particle coupling algorithm is developed for treating fluid structure conjugate heat transfer. Thermal-fluid-structure interaction (TFSI) problems are significant in science and engineering, and usually pose great challenges for numerical simulations due to the coupled effects of thermal convection, fluid flow and structure deformation. In this paper, a novel coupling approach of smoothed finite element method (ES-FEM) with an improved smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) method is developed for TFSI problems. In the coupling approach, the edge based ES-FEM is used to model solid domain and the Lagrangian SPH is used to model fluid flow. In ES-FEM, the temperature and velocity gradient smoothing technique are applied over the edge-based smoothing domain for thermal structure coupling problems. In SPH, some state-of-art algorithms including kernel gradient correction (KGC) and particle shift technique (PST) are integrated to ensure computational accuracy for simulating thermal fluid flows. A ghost particle coupling algorithm is developed to handle fluid-structure interaction and fluid-structure conjugate heat transfer, and the kinematic condition, dynamics conditions and conservation of energy are satisfied. Four numerical examples are tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the present coupling approach of ES-FEM-SPH for TFSI problems. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Natural thermal convection induces fluid motion. • Particle shape-effects do play an important role in the particle and overall system dynamics. • Thermal heat exchange significantly affects the motion of the two-phase flow. • Multi-grid FEM-FBM is robust and potentially powerful tool for real particulate flow simulations. In particulate flows, particle-particle collisions play a very important role in determining the flow behavior of the fluid-particle two-phase systems. Thus, it is very important in the numerical simulations of particulate flows to treat the particle-particle interactions with a felicitous method. In this paper, a recently developed direct numerical simulation (DNS) technique, the Finite Element Fictitious Boundary Method (FEM-FBM), for thermal convective particulate flows is used for the simulations of dense particulate suspensions of elliptic shaped particles. The momentum and temperature flow fields are coupled with the aid of Boussinesq approximation. The thermal and momentum interactions between solid and fluid phases are handled by using the Fictitious boundary method (FBM). The continuity, momentum, and energy equations are solved on a fixed Eulerian mesh which is independent of flow features by using a multi-grid finite element scheme. A modified collision model is proposed that can handle not only the interactions between the circular particles but also effectively treat the collisions between the elliptic shaped particles. Firstly, we validate the newly developed collision model for isothermal circular particles together with a comparative study of "drafting, kissing and tumbling" (DKT) motion of both elliptic and circular shaped isothermal particles. Then we investigated the DKT motions of the hot and cold elliptic particles with energy exchange and studied the lateral behavior of the particles in numerous settings. Further, we studied the DKT motion of catalyst particles and investigate the particles behavior at different Grashof numbers. Numerical tests are performed to show that the present method is robust and provides an efficient approach for the simulations of particulate flows with a large number of elliptic particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Composites are considered as effective materials in absorbing the energy of blast and impact, and have been often used in complex loading environments. A numerical model is developed to analyze the response and damage of S-2 glass/SC-15 epoxy composite laminate subjected to combined loadings with blast and fragments. A composite progressive failure model is used to investigate the damage and the failure of the material. The proposed numerical model is validated by its comparison with the experimental data obtained from the literature. Three different types of loading combinations: (1) ammunition fragments impact loading, (2) bare blast loading, and (3) the combinations of blast and fragments loading, correspond to the scenarios of the near-field and the far-field explosions. Moreover, the response and the damage evaluation of the composite are analyzed here. It is concluded that the damage modes of the laminate are correlated to the type of the loading. Furthermore, the synergetic effects for the composite laminate subjected to the combined blast loading and the fragments impact are verified and evaluated. By comparing the energy absorption and the damage zone in the laminate, the synergetic effect is attributed to the conjunction of damage and the continuous pressure of the detonation products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a promising powder-based additive manufacturing technology, selective laser melting (SLM) has gained great popularity in recent years. However, experimental observation of the melting and solidification process is very challenging. This hinders the study of the physical mechanisms behind a variety of phenomena in SLM such as splashing and balling effects, and further poses challenges to the quality control of the products. Powder-scale computational models can reproduce the multi-physics process of SLM. In this study, we couple the Finite Volume Method (FVM) and Discrete Element Method to model the deposition of powder particles, and use the FVM to model the melting process, both with ambient air. In particular, a cutting-edge sharp surface capturing technique (iso-Advector) is incorporated into the Volume of Fluid Model to reconstruct the interface between different phases during the melting process. Iso-Advector is then used to capture and reconstruct the interface between molten material and ambient air, which is further used as a solid boundary for spreading the next powder layer. As such, 3D geometrical data is exchanged between these two stages repeatedly to reproduce the powder spreading-melting process of SLM incorporating different scan paths on multiple powder layers. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the powder-scale multi-physics modeling framework, typical scenarios with different fabrication parameters (Ti-6Al-4V powder) are simulated and compared with experimental observations available in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a direct numerical simulation (DNS) technique, the Finite Element Fictitious Boundary Method (FEM-FBM) for the simulation of fluid-solid two-phase flows with heat transfer. The heat transfer equation is introduced to study thermal convection in fluid-solid two-phase flows. The Boussinesq approximation is considered for the coupling of momentum and temperature flow fields. Multi-grid finite element solver is used to compute flow equations of mass, momentum, and energy on a fixed Eulerian mesh which is independent of time and the solid particles are allowed to move freely in the whole computational domain. Fictitious boundary method (FBM) is used to treat the particles inside the fluid, FBM takes account of the thermal and momentum interaction between the fluid and the particles. The accuracy and stability of presented method are validated by comparing our test cases results with the results reported in the available literature. Numerical tests are performed to show that this method is potentially powerful and provides an efficient approach to simulate complex thermal convective particulate flows with a large number of particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flow through arrays of micropillar embedded inside microfluidic chip systems is important for various microfluidic devices. It is critical to accurately predict the mass flow rate through pillar arrays based on the pillar design. This work presents a dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) model to simulate a problem of flow across periodic arrays of circular micropillar and investigates the permeability of two types of micropillar arrays. The flow fields including horizontal and vertical velocity fields, the number density field, and the streamline of the flow are analyzed. The predicted solid volumes by the presented DPD simulation of both types of arrays are quite close to the actual counterparts. These quantitative agreements show usefulness and effectiveness of the DPD model in simulating arrays of micropillar. By comparing two types of micropillar arrangement patterns, we find that the arrangement pattern of micropillar does not have significant influence on the permeability of the array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The semi-resolved CFD-DEM with a multi-smoothing distance scheme is further developed for the polydispersed particle system. • Grain-scale reconstruction by μCT images is employed to quantitatively characterize the heterogeneous porous media. • Particle-scale migration process and distribution characteristics of fine particles in porous media are examined. • The influences of powder properties and anisotropy effects on migration processes and heat transfer are studied. A comprehensive understanding of the migrating phenomena of microscale particles associated with fluid flows and heat exchange in porous media is essential for developing unconventional geo-resources. In this work, we further develop the kernel-based semi-resolved CFD-DEM and combine it with grain-scale reconstruction to numerically investigate particulate flows and associated heat transfer processes in porous media. To characterize wide grain size distributions and heterogeneity of rock skeleton, a 3D spherical-packed model is quantitatively assembled based on CT images of real rock. After a series of validations, it is found that the results from the improved semi-resolved CFD-DEM, including motion, heat transfer, and pressure drop behaviors of particulate systems, match better with experimental observations and analytical solutions than that obtained from the unresolved CFD-DEM. On this basis, the particle-scale migration and distribution characteristics of fine particles are further studied. It is found that the penetration distance, temperature, and energy distributions of particle systems rely on the variation of powder properties (i.e., concentration and size) and the effects of matrix anisotropy. In a higher powder concentration system, more deposited particles at the upper of the packed bed prevent the downward migration of powder particles and lower the quantity of heat exchange between the fine and matrix particles. In addition, this can also lead to a more pronounced jamming phenomenon and reduce the seepage capacity of the packed bed. As the powder diameter increases, the heat transfer capacity of fine particles increases and gradually dominates the temperature of particulate systems. The deposition patterns and temperature variation behaviors of fine particles along the migration direction caused by the anisotropy of the porous medium are also identified. Therefore, the developed computational framework can be a powerful tool to reproduce the dynamics of fine particles in heterogeneous porous materials and reveal the underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat transfer and flow structures for round jet impingement over rough surfaces have been investigated using the shear stress transport model (SST) with transition model. This model is first evaluated against the experimental data and other numerical results for the smooth surface with Reynolds number Re = 23,000 for the nozzle-plate spacing of 2. Based on the above evaluation, the effects of rough surfaces on the mean velocity, turbulence field, skin friction and heat transfer are investigated with equivalent sand grain roughness heights k s of 50, 100, 250 and 500 μm. Two trends of the effects of roughness on the velocity field are found. First, the mean velocity over rough surfaces becomes steeper than that over the smooth surface in very near the wall. However, for k s ≥ 250 μm, the velocity gradient in the axial direction does not increase with an increase of k s. Second, the decay of the mean velocity is found in the deceleration region, but minimal in the acceleration zone. In addition, it is observed that the increase of roughness height leads to the reduction of the wall shear stress in the stagnation region. On the contrary, downstream, large k s usually contributes to an augmentation of wall shear stress. For heat transfer, the enhancement of heat transfer due to roughness varies from 2.53% to 6.08% compared with the case of smooth surface. However, this enhancement is non-monotonic due to the change of the second peak of heat transfer which is believed to be the key factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Four integrated SPH models are presented and compared for simulating natural convection. • The most suitable SPH model for natural convection is provided. • Natural convection for R a = 10 9 and Pr = 0.71 is successfully modeled for the first time by using the SPH method. • Mechanisms of the natural convection in a square cavity at different Rayleigh numbers are discussed. This paper conducts the simulation of natural convection in a differentially heated square cavity at high Rayleigh numbers by using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. Due to the decrease of the accuracy and stability, it is challenging for the SPH method to simulate natural convection at high Rayleigh numbers, and there are few reported SPH literatures of natural convection at R a > 10 6 for air (Pr = 0.71). In this study, four integrated SPH models are presented to simulate the natural convection and their accuracy and stability are assessed. These four SPH models are associated with Kernel Gradient Correction (KGC) to improve approximation accuracy and Particle Shifting Technology (PST) to regularize particle distribution while they are different in treating density diffusion and calculating the pressure term. The numerical results show that SPH model_4 (KGC, PST, δ -SPH and asymmetric pressure approximation) is the most suitable for simulating the closed natural convection problems, especially at high Rayleigh numbers. Good agreements with reference solutions are obtained by SPH model_4 for the natural convection at 10 4 ≤ R a ≤ 10 8. Furthermore, the simulation of natural convection at R a = 10 9 is conducted by SPH model_4. The evolutions of thermal convection are described in detail. It is found that dynamics characteristic reveals that the dominant force is the pressure gradient, rather than the buoyancy force before the quasi-steady state. In addition, the chaotic motion at R a = 10 9 has significant influence to the heat transfer characteristic in the vertical boundary layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to understand the protective mechanism of helmet against shock wave, a head model under far-field blast is investigated experimentally and numerically. The distribution of overpressure on the surface of the head model are obtained and compared. The numerical simulations are carried out using the Multi-Material Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (MM-ALE) technique with suitable material models for a Kevlar helmet and soft pads. The differences in the distributions of overpressure on the head models with and without the protection of the helmet are analyzed. The interaction of shock waves around the head and the helmet is investigated. Our experimental observations and numerical results indicate that, if protected by a helmet in the case of a shock wave acting from the front, the peaks of overpressure on the head are reduced at the top area, but increased at the rear area. The numerical simulations also show that the enhancement of the overpressure at the rear is mainly due to the collision of the shock wave. The underwash phenomenon also occurs when the shock wave acts from the side or the rear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the propagation and transformation of the solitary wave is very important in coastal engineering. This paper presents a numerical investigation of the solitary wave breaking over a slope by using a finite particle method (FPM), which is an enhanced smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). We firstly conduct a comparative study on SPH and FPM in modelling solitary wave and it is demonstrated that FPM performs better than SPH qualitatively and quantitatively. A modified particle shifting technique (PST) is integrated into FPM to avoid possible ill corrective matrix due to extremely disordered particle distribution. We find that the artificial viscous coefficient can greatly influence the wave run-up and propose an empirical equation to quickly determine the optimal value of the artificial viscous coefficient used in the FPM simulations. The solitary wave breaking is then modelled for scenarios with relative wave heights and slopes, and three typical breaking types, including surging breaker (SU), plunging breaker (PL) and spilling breaker (SP), are analyzed. The result indicates that SP affects the pressure field more extensive than PL and SU. When the breaker type transits from SP to SU, the breaker tends to break at a narrower region close to the shoreline, the breaking depth decreases, the breaking index gradually turns into an unstable value, and the relative run-up height of breaking waves becomes larger. Although the wave celerity at breaking has no clear relationship with breaker types, the wave celerity at breaking increases with the increase of the relative wave height and slightly decreases with a steeper slope. • For simulations of the solitary wave breaking over slopes, FPM performs better than SPH in terms of stability and accuracy. • An empirical equation is proposed to decide the artificial viscous coefficient for simulating wave transformation by FPM. • The spilling breaker affects the pressure field more extensive than plunging breaker and surging breaker. • The wave celerity at breaking has no clear relationship with breaker types. • The wave dissipation turns into lower when wave breaking types change from spilling breaker to surging breaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]