Low-cost Solutions for Velocimetry in Rotating and Opaque Fluid Experiments using Ultrasonic Time of Flight.

Many common techniques for flow measurement, such as Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) or Ultrasonic Doppler Velocimetry (UDV), rely on the presence of reflectors in the fluid. These methods fail to operate when e.g centrifugal or gravitational acceleration leads to a rarefaction of scatterers in the fluid, as for instance in rapidly rotating experiments. In this article we present two low-cost implementations for flow measurement based on the transit time (or Time of Flight) of acoustic waves, that do not require the presence of scatterers in the fluid. We compare our two implementations against UDV in a well controlled experiment with a simple oscillating flow and show we can achieve measurements in the sub-centimeter per second velocity range with an accuracy of ∼ 5 - 10 % . We also perform measurements in a rotating experiment with a complex flow structure from which we extract the mean zonal flow, which is in good agreement with theoretical predictions.

Fluid Dynamics Experiments for Planetary Interiors.

Understanding fluid flows in planetary cores and subsurface oceans, as well as their signatures in available observational data (gravity, magnetism, rotation, etc.), is a tremendous interdisciplinary challenge. In particular, it requires understanding the fundamental fluid dynamics involving turbulence and rotation at typical scales well beyond our day-to-day experience. To do so, laboratory experiments are fully complementary to numerical simulations, especially in systematically exploring extreme flow regimes for long duration. In this review article, we present some illustrative examples where experimental approaches, complemented by theoretical and numerical studies, have been key for a better understanding of planetary interior flows driven by some type of mechanical forcing. We successively address the dynamics of flows driven by precession, by libration, by differential rotation, and by boundary topography.

A Pulsatile Flow System to Engineer Aneurysm and Atherosclerosis Mimetic Extracellular Matrix.

Alterations of blood flow patterns strongly correlate with arterial wall diseases such as atherosclerosis and aneurysm. Here, a simple, pumpless, close-loop, easy-to-replicate, and miniaturized flow device is introduced to concurrently expose 3D engineered vascular smooth muscle tissues to high-velocity pulsatile flow versus low-velocity disturbed flow conditions. Two flow regimes are distinguished, one that promotes elastin and impairs collagen I assembly, while the other impairs elastin and promotes collagen assembly. This latter extracellular matrix (ECM) composition shares characteristics with aneurysmal or atherosclerotic tissue phenotypes, thus recapitulating crucial hallmarks of flow-induced tissue morphogenesis in vessel walls. It is shown that the mRNA levels of ECM of collagens and elastin are not affected by the differential flow conditions. Instead, the differential gene expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and their inhibitors (TIMPs) is flow-dependent, and thus drives the alterations in ECM composition. In further support, treatment with doxycycline, an MMP inhibitor and a clinically used drug to treat vascular diseases, halts the effect of low-velocity flow on the ECM remodeling. This illustrates how the platform can be exploited for drug efficacy studies by providing crucial mechanistic insights into how different therapeutic interventions may affect tissue growth and ECM assembly.

Boundary layer control of rotating convection systems.

Turbulent rotating convection controls many observed features of stars and planets, such as magnetic fields, atmospheric jets and emitted heat flux patterns. It has long been argued that the influence of rotation on turbulent convection dynamics is governed by the ratio of the relevant global-scale forces: the Coriolis force and the buoyancy force. Here, however, we present results from laboratory and numerical experiments which exhibit transitions between rotationally dominated and non-rotating behaviour that are not determined by this global force balance. Instead, the transition is controlled by the relative thicknesses of the thermal (non-rotating) and Ekman (rotating) boundary layers. We formulate a predictive description of the transition between the two regimes on the basis of the competition between these two boundary layers. This transition scaling theory unifies the disparate results of an extensive array of previous experiments, and is broadly applicable to natural convection systems.