Mohamed Gad-el-Hak

The Fluid Mechanics of Microdevices—The Freeman Scholar Lecture

Manufacturing processes that can create extremely small machines have been developed in recent years. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) refer to devices that have characteristic length of less than 1 mm but more than 1 micron, that combine electrical and mechanical components and that are fabricated using integrated circuit batch-processing techniques. Electrostatic, magnetic, pneumatic and thermal actuators, motors, valves, gears, and tweezers of less than 100-μm size have been fabricated. These have been used as sensors for pressure, temperature, mass flow, velocity and sound, as actuators for linear and angular motion and as simple components for complex systems such as micro-heat-engines and micro-heat-pumps The technology is progressing at a rate that fa r exceeds that of our understanding of the unconventional physics involved in the operation as well as the manufacturing of those minute devices. The primary objective of this article is to critically review the status of our understanding of fluid flow phenomena particular to microdevices. In terms of applications, the paper emphasizes the use of MEMS as sensors and actuators for flow diagnosis and control.

Micro Flows: Fundamentals and Simulation

Basic Concepts and Technologies * Governing Equations and Slip Models * Shear-Driven and Separated Micro Flows * Pressure-Driven Micro Flows: Slip Flow Regime * Pressure-Driven Flows: Transition and Free- Molecular Regimes * Thermal Effects in Micro Scales * Prototype Applications of Gas Micro Flows * Electrokinetically-Driven Liquid Micro Flows * Numerical Methods for Continuous Simulation * Numerical Methods for Atomistic Simulation

Separation control : review

Under certain conditions, wall-bounded flows separate. To improve the performance of natural or man-made flow systems, it may be beneficial to delay or advance this detachment process. The present article reviews the status and outlook of separation control for both steady and unsteady flows. Both passive and active techniques to prevent or to provoke flow detachment are considered and suggestions are made for further research.

Modern Developments in Flow Control

This brief article reviews the important advances in the field of flow control that took place during the past few years. This broad area of research remains of great interest for its numerous potential benefits for both the military and civilian sectors. Spurred by the recent developments in chaos control, microfabrication and neural networks, reactive control of turbulent flows is now in the realm of the possible for future practical devices. Other less complex control schemes, passive as well as active, are more market ready and are also witnessing resurgence of interest. 115 refs., 4 figs.

On the growth of turbulent regions in laminar boundary layers

Turbulent spots evolving in a laminar boundary layer on a nominally zero pressure gradient flat plate are investigated. The plate is towed through an 18 m water channel, using a carriage that rides on a continuously replenished oil film giving a vibrationless tow. Turbulent spots are initiated using a solenoid valve that ejects a small amount of fluid through a minute hole on the working surface. A novel visualization technique that utilizes fluorescent dye excited by a sheet of laser light is employed. Some new aspects of the growth and entrainment of turbulent spots, especially with regard to lateral growth, are inferred from the present experiments. To supplement the information on lateral spreading, a surbulent wedge created by placing a roughness element in the laminar boundary layer is also studied both visually and with probe measurements. The present results show that, in addition to entrainment, another mechanism is needed to explain the lateral growth characteristics of a turbulent region in a laminar boundary layer. This mechanism, termed growth by destabilization , appears to be a result of the turbulence destabilizing the unstable laminar boundary layer in its vicinity. To further understand the growth mechanisms, the turbulence in the spot is modulated using drag-reducing additives and salinity stratification.

Reynolds Number Effects in Wall-Bounded Turbulent Flows

This paper reviews the state of the art of Reynolds number effects in wall-bounded shear-flow turbulence, with particular emphasis on the canonical zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer and two-dimensional channel flow problems. The Reynolds numbers encountered in many practical situations are typically orders of magnitude higher than those studied computationally or even experimentally. High-Reynolds number research facilities are expensive to build and operate and the few existing are heavily scheduled with mostly developmental work. For wind tunnels, additional complications due to compressibility effects are introduced at high speeds. Full computational simulation of high-Reynolds number flows is beyond the reach of current capabilities. Understanding of turbulence and modeling will continue to play vital roles in the computation of high-Reynolds number practical flows using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Since the existing knowledge base, accumulated mostly through physical as well as numerical experiments, is skewed towards the low Reynolds numbers, the key question in such high-Reynolds number modeling as well as in devising novel flow control strategies is: what are the Reynolds number effects on the mean and statistical turbulence quantities and on the organized motions? Since the mean flow review of Coles (1962), the coherent structures, in low-Reynolds number wall-bounded flows, have been reviewed several times. However, the Reynolds number effects on the higher-order statistical turbulence quantities and on the coherent structures have not been reviewed thus far, and there are some unresolved aspects of the effects on even the mean flow at very high Reynolds numbers. Furthermore, a considerable volume of experimental and full-simulation data have been accumulated since 1962. The present article aims at further assimilation of those data, pointing to obvious gaps in the present state of knowledge and highlighting the misunderstood as well as the ill-understood aspects of Reynolds number effects.

The discrete vortices from a delta wing

Introduction: The Classical View T HE flow over delta wings at an angle of attack is dominated by two large bound vortices that result from the flow separation at the leading edge. The classical view of these vortices is sketched in Fig. la and has been discussed by Hoerner and Borst among others. With a sharp leading edge at an angle of attack a, the flow is separated along the entire leading edge forming a strong shear layer. The shear layer is wrapped up in a spiral fashion, resulting in the large bound vortex as sketched. These vortices appear on the suction surface and increase in intensity downstream. The low pressure associated with the vortices produces an additional lift on the wing, often called nonlinear or vortex lift, which is particularly important at large angles of attack. As sketched in Fig. la, small secondary vortices also appear on the wing near the points of reattachment as a result of the strong lateral flow toward the leading edge.

Control of low-speed airfoil aerodynamics

Nomenclature CD = drag coefficient ( = 2D/pUlc) Cf = local skin-friction coefficient ( = 2rw/pUl) CL = lift coefficient ( = 2L/pU^c) Cq = suction coefficient ( = I vw I / UQ) c = airfoils chord D = drag force per unit span L = lift force per unit span P = instantaneous hydrostatic pressure PO = pressure outside boundary layer P = mean pressure R = walls radius of curvature /?6* = displacement thickness Reynolds number (= Uod*/v) RO = momentum thickness Reynolds number ( = U0de/v) Re = Reynolds number based on distance from leading edge (or chord) and freestream velocity T = instantaneous temperature T = mean temperature J7, = instantaneous velocity component Uj = mean velocity component U0 = velocity outside the boundary layer t/oo = freestream velocity HI = fluctuating velocity component u* = friction velocity ( = Vr^/p) vw = normal velocity of fluid injected or withdrawn through the wall X-, = Cartesian coordinates x = streamwise distance from leading edge y = normal distance from the wall y = normal distance in wall units ( = yu*/v) Z = spanwise coordinate a. = angle of attack 6 = boundary-layer thickness 60 = momentum thickness 6* = displacement thickness /x = dynamic coefficient of viscosity v = kinematic viscosity v/u * = viscous length scale (wall unit) p = density — p~uv = tangential Reynolds stress T.W = shear stress at the wall ( = pu *) [AJo = instantaneous spanwise vorticity at the wall _ [fijo = rnean spanwise vorticity at the wall (= — [dU/dy]Q)

MEMS APPLICATIONS IN TURBULENCE AND FLOW CONTROL

Manufacturing processes that can create extremely small machines have been developed in recent years. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) refer to devices that have characteristic length of less than 1 mm but more than 1 μm, that combine electrical and mechanical components and that are fabricated using integrated circuit batch-processing techniques. Electrostatic, magnetic, pneumatic and thermal actuators, motors, valves, gears and tweezers of less than 100 μm size have been fabricated. These have been used as sensors for pressure, temperature, mass flow, velocity and sound, as actuators for linear and angular motions, and as simple components for complex systems such as micro-heat-engines and micro-heat-pumps. In this paper, we focus on the microelectromechanical systems for the diagnosis and control of turbulent shear flows. We survey the status and outlook of microsensors and microactuators as used for those particular applications, and compare the minute devices to their larger cousins. Microsensors can resolve all relevant scales even in high-Reynolds-number turbulent flows. Arrays of microsensors and microactuators make it feasible, for the first time, to achieve effective reactive control targeted toward specific small-scale coherent structures in turbulent wall-bounded flows.

Flow Control: The Future

The subject of e ow control, particularly reactive e ow control, is broadly introduced, leaving some of the details to other papers in this special volume of the Journal of Aircraft . The ability to manipulate a e owe eld actively or passively to effect a desired change is of immense technological importance. In general, methods of control to achieve transition delay, separation postponement, lift enhancement, drag reduction, turbulence augmentation, and noise suppression are sought for both wall-bounded and free-shear e ows. An attempt is made to present a unie ed view of the means by which different methods of control achieve a variety of end results. The important advances in the e eld of e ow control that took place during the past few years are discussed. Spurred by the recent developments in chaos control, microfabrication and neural networks, reactive control of turbulent e ows is now in the realm of the possible for future practical devices. HEability to manipulate a e owe eld actively or passively to effect a desired change is of immense technological importance, and this undoubtedly accounts for the subject being more hotly pursuedbyscientistsandengineersthananyothertopicine uidmechanics.The potential benee ts of realizingefe cient e ow-controlsystems range from saving billions of dollars in annual fuel costs for land, air,and seavehiclesto achieving economically andenvironmentally more competitive industrial processes involving e uid e ows. Methodsofcontroltoeffecttransitiondelay,separationpostponement,lift enhancement, drag reduction, turbulence augmentation, and noise suppression are considered. Prandtl 1 pioneered the modern use of e ow control in his epoch-making presentation to the Third International Congress of Mathematicians held at Heidelberg, Germany. In just eight pages, Prandtl introduced the boundary-layer theory, explained the mechanics of steady separation, opened the way for understanding the motion of real e uids, and described several experiments in which the boundary layer was controlled. He used active control of the boundary layer to show the great ine uence such control can exert on the e owpattern. Specie cally, Prandtl used suction to delay boundary-layer separation from the surface of a cylinder. NotwithstandingPrandtl’ s 1 success,aircraftdesignersinthethree decades following his convincing demonstration were accepting lift anddragofairfoilsaspredestinedcharacteristicswithwhichnoman could or should tamper. 2 This predicament changed mostly due to the German research in boundary-layer control pursued vigorously shortly before and during World War II. In the two decades following the war, extensive research on laminar e ow control, where the boundary layer formed along the external surfaces of an aircraft is kept in the low-drag laminar state, was conducted in Europe and the UnitedStates,culminatinginthesuccessfule ighttestprogramofthe X‐21,wheresuctionwasusedtodelaytransitiononasweptwingup to a chord Reynolds number of 4 :7£10 7 . The oil crisis of the early 1970s brought renewed interest in novel methods of e ow control to reduce skin-friction drag even in turbulent boundary layers. In the 1990s, the need to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and to constructsupermaneuverablee ghterplanes,faster/quieterunderwater vehicles, and hypersonic transport aircraft, for example, the U.S. National Aerospace Plane, provides new challenges for researchers in the e eld of e ow control.