Friday, March 18, 2016

Laser Doppler Velocimetry @TROVA

The first measurements using Laser Doppler Velocimetry are currently being carried out @TROVA. These are the first-ever velocity measurements within a non-ideal compressible-fluid flows in the close proximity of the liquid-vapour saturation curve. The flow seeding required the design and construction of a the pressurised seeding apparatus shown in the picture.
Pressurised seeding system
Laser source and photodetector.
Note the (very cool!) laser safety goggles...


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Seminar by Dr. Emile Touber, Imperial College

Shocks, turbulence and interactions in non-ideal and dense gases
Dr. Emile Touber, Imperial College
Abstract: Dense gases are characterised by molecules featuring large numbers of active degrees of freedom (quantified by the Cv/R ratio). The isentropes in such gases have the distinct property of following rather closely the isotherms (the two become identical in the limit of Cv/R going to infinity). Near the liquid-vapour critical point, this makes the isentropes very shallow and possibly concave (in the pressure-specific volume diagram). Whilst shallow isentropes are desirable when designing expanders (i.e. a large specific-volume increase may be achieved for virtually no pressure drop), could such extreme compressibility effects modify turbulence in a profound manner? This talk will discuss two particularly interesting aspects: (i) shock-refraction properties (i.e. the way a shock can redistribute the energy of incoming perturbations), (ii) the energy transfers in homogeneous turbulence (i.e. particularly the work done by the unsteady pressure force). In both cases we will show that non-convex isentropes are extremely influential in letting both the shock and the turbulence redistribute any supply of turbulence kinetic energy in ways which are simply not observable in ideal gases.
March, the 17th, 2016 at 14:30 in Sala Consiglio Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Aerospaziali, Campus Bovisa La Masa, Via La Masa 34, 20156 Milano