Numerical prediction of thrombosis risk in left atrium under atrial fibrillation.

The remodeling of the left atrial morphology and function caused by atrial fibrillation (AF) can exacerbate thrombosis in the left atrium (LA) even spike up the risk of stroke within AF patients. This study explored the effect of the AF on hemodynamic and thrombosis in LA. We reconstructed the patient-specific anatomical shape of the LA and considered the non-Newtonian property of the blood. The thrombus model was applied in the LA models to simulate thrombosis. Our results indicate that AF can aggravate thrombosis which mainly occurs in the left atrial appendage (LAA). Thrombosis first forms on the LAA wall then expands toward the internal LAA. The proposed computational model also shows the potential application of numerical analyses to help assess the risk of thrombosis in AF patients.

Assessment of winter air pollution episodes using long-range transport modeling in Hangzhou, China, during World Internet Conference, 2015.

A winter air pollution episode was observed in Hangzhou, South China, during the Second World Internet Conference, 2015. To study the pollution characteristics and underlying causes, the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry model was used to simulate the spatial and temporal evolution of the pollution episode from December 8 to 19, 2015. In addition to scenario simulations, analysis of the atmospheric trajectory and synoptic weather conditions were also performed. The results demonstrated that control measures implemented during the week preceding the conference reduced the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution level to some extent, with a decline in the total PM2.5 concentration in Hangzhou of 15% (7%-25% daily). Pollutant long-range transport, which occurred due to a southward intrusion of strong cold air driven by the Siberia High, led to severe pollution in Hangzhou on December 15, 2015, accounting for 85% of the PM2.5 concentration. This study provides new insights into the challenge of winter pollution prevention in Hangzhou. For adequate pollution prevention, more regional collaborations should be fostered when creating policies for northern China.

Experiment and mechanism investigation on advanced reburning for NO(x) reduction: influence of CO and temperature.

Pulverized coal reburning, ammonia injection and advanced reburning in a pilot scale drop tube furnace were investigated. Premix of petroleum gas, air and NH3 were burned in a porous gas burner to generate the needed flue gas. Four kinds of pulverized coal were fed as reburning fuel at constant rate of 1g/min. The coal reburning process parameters including 15% approximately 25% reburn heat input, temperature range from 1100 degrees C to 1400 degrees C and also the carbon in fly ash, coal fineness, reburn zone stoichiometric ratio, etc. were investigated. On the condition of 25% reburn heat input, maximum of 47% NO reduction with Yanzhou coal was obtained by pure coal reburning. Optimal temperature for reburning is about 1300 degrees C and fuel-rich stoichiometric ratio is essential; coal fineness can slightly enhance the reburning ability. The temperature window for ammonia injection is about 700 degrees C approximately 1100 degrees C. CO can improve the NH3 ability at lower temperature. During advanced reburning, 72.9% NO reduction was measured. To achieve more than 70% NO reduction, Selective Non-catalytic NO(x) Reduction (SNCR) should need NH3/NO stoichiometric ratio larger than 5, while advanced reburning only uses common dose of ammonia as in conventional SNCR technology. Mechanism study shows the oxidization of CO can improve the decomposition of H2O, which will rich the radical pools igniting the whole reactions at lower temperatures.

Large eddy simulation of the gas-particle turbulent wake flow.

To find out the detailed characteristics of the coherent structures and associated particle dispersion in free shear flow, large eddy simulation method was adopted to investigate a two-dimensional particle-laden wake flow. The well-known Sub-grid Scale mode introduced by Smagorinsky was employed to simulate the gas flow field and Lagrangian approach was used to trace the particles. The results showed that the typical large-scale vortex structures exhibit a stable counter rotating arrangement of opposite sign, and alternately form from the near wall region, shed and move towards the downstream positions of the wake with the development of the flow. For particle dispersion, the Stokes number of particles is a key parameter. At the Stokes numbers of 1.4 and 3.8 the particles concentrate highly in the outer boundary regions. While the particles congregate densely in the vortex core regions at the Stokes number of 0.15, and the particles at Stokes number of 15 assemble in the vortex braid regions and the rib regions between the adjoining vortex structures.

Large eddy simulation of a particle-laden turbulent plane jet.

Gas-solid two-phase turbulent plane jet is applied to many natural situations and in engineering systems. To predict the particle dispersion in the gas jet is of great importance in industrial applications and in the designing of engineering systems. A large eddy simulation of the two-phase plane jet was conducted to investigate the particle dispersion patterns. The particles with Stokes numbers equal to 0.0028, 0.3, 2.5, 28 (corresponding to particle diameter 1 microm, 10 microm, 30 microm, 100 microm, respectively) in Re = 11 300 gas flow were studied. The simulation results of gas phase motion agreed well with previous experimental results. And the simulation results of the solid particles motion showed that particles with different Stokes number have different spatial dispersion; and that particles with intermediate Stokes number have the largest dispersion ratio.