Claudia NicolaiUniversity of Southampton · Faculty of Engineering and the Environment
Claudia Nicolai
PhD
About
10
Publications
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41
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Claudia Nicolai currently works as Senior Research engineer at Dyson within the filtration team. Previously Research Fellow in Experimental Fluid-Mechanics at the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton.
Specialities: -Experimental fluid mechanics -Multiphase turbulent flows -Drag reduction with superhydrophobic surfaces -Turbulent wakes -Turbulent boundary layer -Turbulent mixing - Porous media - Filtration
Publications
Publications (10)
Simultaneous particle image velocimetry-planar laserinduced fluorescence (PIV-PLIF) measurements are conducted of the flow around and downstream of patches of tall cylinders with various solidity φ ≡ N<sub>c</sub>(d/D)<sup>2</sup>, where N<sub>c</sub> is the number of cylinders in a patch, d and D are the diameters of the cylinder and the patch, re...
We conduct a well-controlled model experiment for a wide variety of canopy flows. Examples of these include engineering flows such as wind flow, dispersion of scalars through and over urban areas, and the convective heat transfer in many heat exchangers, as well as natural canopies such as flows through terrestrial or aquatic vegetation. We aim to...
We examine the characteristics of mean flow and scalar concentration characteristics of a turbulent boundary layer flow impinging on a cluster of tall obstacles (which can also be interpreted as a porous obstruction). The cluster is created with a group of cylinders of diameter $d$ and height $h$ arranged in a circular patch of diameter $D$.The sol...
The properties of the wake generated by a porous body fully immersed in a turbulent boundary layer are experimentally assessed. The body consists of an array of cylinders, with diameter d, covering a circular patch of diameter D. For fixed d and D, by increasing the number of cylinders, Nc, within the patch, the wake properties are systematically t...
This study aims to describe how a passive scalar, released from a point source at the wall, spreads in the presence of a complex rough patch. Experiments are performed to help understand how pollutants released from the terrain into the atmosphere behave in the presence of patches of urban canopy. The present work explores the dispersion over a ran...
We present an experimental investigation on the dispersion of a passive scalar, released from a point source at the wall in a turbulent boundary layer naturally developing in a water tunnel. Simultaneous measurements of concentration and velocity fields are carried out by combining two planar techniques: quantitative planar laser-induced fluorescen...
The proposed work aims at clarifying the interaction between a porous body and an impinging turbulent flow, focusing on the velocity deficit induced behind the body. To this purpose the porous body is idealized as a circular array of cylinders deeply immersed in a turbulent boundary layer (TBL), and characterized by a vertical and horizontal finite...
The properties of the transport of heavy inertial particles in a uniformly sheared turbulent flow have been investigated by combining experimental and numerical data at particle Stokes number St ≈ 0.3 ÷ 0.5 respectively. As in isotropic turbulence, particles are observed to avoid zones of intense enstrophy and to cluster in strain-dominated regions...
We report on a novel experiment aimed at investigating the effects induced by a large-scale velocity gradient on the turbulent transport of small heavy particles. To this purpose, a homogeneous shear flow at Reλ = 540 and shear parameter S* = 4.5 is set-up and laden with glass spheres whose size d is comparable with the Kolmogorov lengthscale η of...
The characteristics of inertial particles distribution in a uniformly sheared turbulent flow are investigated, with the aim of quantifying the effects associated with the large-scale anisotropy induced by the mean velocity gradient. The focus of the analysis is on clustering aspects, and in particular on the dependence of the radial distribution fu...
Projects
Projects (3)
Assessment of the scalar fluxes u’c’ and v’c’, together with the momentum fluxes, which are critical parameters for dispersion models applied to weather modelling, pollution transport, and industrial mixing processes.
A cluster of flexible obstacles under the influence of a turbulent boundary layer is widely encountered in environmental and industrial fluid mechanics: atmospheric boundary layers over patches of forest and cities or wind farms, river and sea flows over vegetated beds, currents impinging offshore structures and tidal turbines, flows through heat exchangers and hull barnacles.
This project aims to clarify the role of the cluster morphology and flexibility by means of an extensive experimental investigation targeted to:
- force prediction, crucial to evaluate the effective power harvested and to provide the basis for a safer structural design and for preventing damages;
-behaviour of flow and obstacles together with wake structure, salient for the transport of heat and mass in ecologically-relevant phenomena
