Affiliations 

  • 1 Mechanical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya, Malaysia. michael.goh@monash.edu
  • 2 Mechanical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya, Malaysia
  • 3 Mechanical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia, Subang Jaya, Malaysia. foo.ji.jinn@monash.edu
Sci Rep, 2021 03 29;11(1):7063.
PMID: 33782475 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-86418-5

Abstract

A net immersed in fractal-induced turbulence exhibit a transient time-varying deformation. The anisotropic, inhomogeneous square fractal grid (SFG) generated flow interacts with the flexible net to manifest as visible cross-sectional undulations. We hypothesize that the net's response may provide a surrogate in expressing local turbulent strength. This is analysed as root-mean-squared velocity fluctuations in the net, displaying intensity patterns dependent on the grid conformation and grid-net separation. The net's fluctuation strength is found to increase closer to the turbulator with higher thickness ratio while presenting stronger fluctuations compared to regular-square-grid (RSG) of equivalent blockage-ratio, σ. Our findings demonstrate a novel application where 3D-reconstruction of submerged nets is used to experimentally contrast the turbulence generated by RSG and multilength scale SFGs across the channel cross-section. The net's response shows the unique turbulence developed from SFGs can induce 9 × higher average excitation to a net when compared against RSG of similar σ.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.