DATIV-Remote Enhancement of Smart Aerosol Measurement System Using Raspberry Pi-Based Distributed Sensors.

Enclosed public spaces are hotspots for airborne disease transmission. To measure and maintain indoor air quality in terms of airborne transmission, an open source, low cost and distributed array of particulate matter sensors was developed and named Dynamic Aerosol Transport for Indoor Ventilation, or DATIV, system. This system can use multiple particulate matter sensors (PMSs) simultaneously and can be remotely controlled using a Raspberry Pi-based operating system. The data acquisition system can be easily operated using the GUI within any common browser installed on a remote device such as a PC or smartphone with a corresponding IP address. The software architecture and validation measurements are presented together with possible future developments.

Large-scale flow field and aerosol particle transport investigations in a classroom using 2D-Shake-The-Box Lagrangian Particle Tracking.

Infections with COVID-19 in enclosed public spaces, where virus-laden aerosol particles can accumulate over time, have significantly contributed to the rapid spread of the virus. It is therefore of great importance to understand the transport and dispersion process of aerosol particles in such spaces, especially against the background of future pandemics. In this work, we present a Lagrangian-Particle-Tracking experiment to assess the mixed convective flow in a classroom with different ventilation strategies. For this purpose, thermal plumes were created by heated dummies, and a collimated LED light-sheet with ∼0.4 m thickness was used for illumination of helium filled soap bubbles (HFSB) acting as passive tracer particles. In this way, the Lagrangian trajectories of the particles were recorded at two approximately 4.2 m × 2.8 m large fields using the novel 2D-Shake-The-Box-Method. As a result, time-resolved trajectories of over 300,000 simultaneously tracked HFSB have been reconstructed, so that both small-scale and large-scale properties of the flow are visualized quantitatively across the entire cross-section of the room. The trajectories show that the thermal plumes create lengthwise circulating vortices, which cannot be destroyed across the entire cross-section of the room by opening or tilting a window. Furthermore, the mixing in the room through the operation of an air purifier is higher compared to opening a window, which suggests that this strategy in combination with its air filtering capability is the most effective strategy to prevent infections.

Numerical investigation of atmospherelike flows in a spherical geometry.

Buoyancy-driven convection flows play a crucial role in global heat and momentum transport in atmosphere. Simplified planetary and stellar atmospheres can be described by a spherical gap geometry with special boundary conditions for the temperature. In the spherical gap, the dielectrophoretic effect is used to synthesize the radial gravity field. Lateral thermal boundary conditions are used to model solar radiation at the equator and at the poles. The temperature reaches a maximum value at the equator and becomes colder near the poles. In the case of a rotating gap, the influence of the Coriolis and centrifugal forces are taken into account. Different regimes of the two-dimensional steady basic flow are discussed in dependence on the Taylor number and Rayleigh number and for the radii ratio η=R_{in}/R_{out}, where R_{in},R_{out} are the radii of the inner and outer surfaces, respectively. Linear instability theory is used to study when the basic flow becomes unstable. The critical Rayleigh number at which the steady axisymmetric basic flow becomes time-dependently axisymmetric or three dimensional is found to be a function of the Taylor number. Furthermore, the critical azimuthal wave number m_{c}, which is responsible for the structure of the supercritical three-dimensional flow, and the critical frequency of the perturbation ω_{c} were found. The spatial location of the perturbation helps to understand the origin of the instability.

Influence of dielectrical heating on convective flow in a radial force field.

We present results of numerical and experimental investigations of thermal convection induced by internal heating in both a nonrotating and a rotating spherical gap filled with dielectric fluid. The inner and outer surfaces are maintained at constant temperatures T_{in} and T_{out}, respectively. A radial force field is produced due to the dielectrophoretic effect. The buoyancy force in the Navier-Stokes equation and the source term in the energy equation depend on the imposed oscillating electric field according to V_{rms}^{2}r^{-5} and V_{rms}^{2}r^{-4}, respectively, where V_{rms} is the root mean squared value of the voltage between spherical surfaces and r is the radial distance. Beginning with the nonrotating case, we perform linear instability analysis in the case of purely internal heating, i.e., both surfaces are maintained at the same temperature ΔT=T_{in}-T_{out}=0. Next, we consider a situation in which there is not only internal heating but also a temperature difference ΔT>0. While the spherical gap rotated, the occurring two-dimensional steady basic flow was calculated numerically. The stability of the basic flow was investigated by means of linear instability theory. The critical Rayleigh numbers and the critical azimuthal wave numbers are presented in dependence on the Taylor number. We calculate supercritical three-dimensional flows for comparison with experimentally obtained patterns in frames of the GeoFlow experiment on the International Space Station.

Influence of the temperature-dependent viscosity on convective flow in the radial force field.

The numerical investigation of convective flows in the radial force field caused by an oscillating electric field between spherical surfaces has been performed. A temperature difference (T_{1}>T_{2}) as well as a radial force field triggers a fluid flow similar to the Rayleigh-Bénard convection. The onset of convective flow has been studied by means of the linear stability analysis as a function of the radius ratio η=R_{1}/R_{2}. The influence of the temperature-dependent viscosity has been investigated in detail. We found that a varying viscosity contrast ß=ν(T_{2})/ν(T_{1}) between ß=1 (constant viscosity) and ß=50 decreases the critical Rayleigh number by a factor of 6. Additionally, we perform a bifurcation analysis based on numerical simulations which have been calculated using a modified pseudospectral code. Numerical results have been compared with the GeoFlow experiment which is located on the International Space Station (ISS). Nonturbulent three-dimensional structures are found in the numerically predicted parameter regime. Furthermore, we observed multiple stable solutions in both experiments and numerical simulations, respectively.

The CoLaPipe--the new Cottbus large pipe test facility at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg.

The CoLaPipe is a novel test facility at the Department of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg), set up to investigate fully developed pipe flow at high Reynolds numbers (Re(m) ⩽ 1.5 × 10(6)). The design of the CoLaPipe is closed-return with two available test sections providing a length-to-diameter ratio of L/D = 148 and L/D = 79. Within this work, we introduce the CoLaPipe and describe the various components in detail, i.e., the settling chamber, the inlet contraction, the blower, bends, and diffusers as well as the cooling system. A special feature is the numerically optimized contraction design. The applications of different measuring techniques such as hot-wire anemometry and static pressure measurements to quantitatively evaluate the mean flow characteristics and turbulence statistics are discussed as well. In addition, capabilities and limitations of available and new pipe flow facilities are presented and reconsidered based on their length-to-diameter ratio, the achieved Reynolds numbers, and the resulting spatial resolution. Here, the focus is on the facility design, the presentation of some basic characteristics, and its contribution to a reviewed list of specific questions still arising, e.g., scaling and structural behavior of turbulent pipe flow as well as the influence of the development length on turbulence investigations.