Description:
Dynamic Responses of Supercritical Fluids: Experimental Investigations on Non-Linear Effects Across the Widom Region and Near-Critical Phase Transitions provides comprehensive information on the experimental techniques that can be used to measure the dynamic responses of near-to supercritical fluids, along with an overview of the related physical phenomena involved. This book is ideal for applied physicists, engineers, and graduate and doctoral students in chemical engineering, process engineering, and aerospace engineering.
At the transition from liquid or gaseous fluid states into the supercritical regime, the macroscopic fluid response functions experience maxima, which results in a non-linear coupling between small perturbations in pressure and temperature and compressible flow dynamics. By applying laser-induced thermal acoustics, also known as laser-induced (transient) grating spectroscopy, the fluid response to an acoustic, pressure, and thermal perturbation can be investigated. Specifically, speed of sound, thermal diffusivities, and acoustic damping rates, are measured. And, by applying thermodynamic model, the latter are used to determine volume viscosities at near- to supercritical fluid states. Finally, by applying polarized Mie scattering, insights on the type of phase transitions can be inferred together with quantitative data on the average size, and droplet size distribution can be obtained.Brief description: Grazia Lamanna is currently a Senior Lecturer in aerospace thermodynamics and fluid dynamics at the University of Stuttgart in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering and Geodesy. She received her M.Sc. degrees from the University of Napoli "Federico II" in 1994 (Summa cum Laude) and holds a Ph.D. degree in applied physics (2000) from the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands. She was a research fellow at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University of Groningen (NL) in 1995. Her current research focuses on understanding the complex interplay between fluid dynamic and non-equilibrium thermodynamic processes in high-pressure fluids. She studies the fundamentals of these processes (e.g., non-equilibrium phase transitions, mixing, relaxation processes) that are relevant for applications in propulsion (liquid rocket and internal combustion engines) and in energy conversion systems (e.g., supercritical CO2 power plants). Specifically, she develops advanced diagnostic methods to investigate: 1) fluid injection at supercritical and transcritical conditions; 2) non-equilibrium condensation and evaporation processes at high-pressure; 3) the damping of density/temperature fluctuations by relaxation processes in the supercritical region to obtain information on the dynamic response of supercritical fluids. These investigations are important to formulate improved closure relations for the modelling of transport processes in fluid dynamic applications.