Liquid-liquid interfaces serve as ideal 2-D templates on which solid particles can self-assemble into various structures. These self-assembly processes are important in fabrication of micron-sized devices and emulsion formulation. At oil/water interfaces, these structures can range from close-packed aggregates to ordered lattices. By incorporating an ionic liquid (IL) at the interface, new self-assembly phenomena emerge. ILs are ionic compounds that are liquid at room temperature (essentially molten salts at ambient conditions) that have remarkable properties such as negligible volatility and high chemical stability and can be optimized for nearly any application. The nature of IL-fluid interfaces has not yet been studied in depth. Consequently, the corresponding self-assembly phenomena have not yet been explored. We demonstrate how the unique molecular nature of ILs allows for new self-assembly phenomena to take place at their interfaces. These phenomena include droplet bridging (the self-assembly of both particles and emulsion droplets), spontaneous particle transport through the liquid-liquid interface, and various gelation behaviors. In droplet bridging, self-assembled monolayers of particles effectively "glue" emulsion droplets to one another, allowing the droplets to self-assembly into large networks. With particle transport, it is experimentally demonstrated the ILs overcome the strong adhesive nature of the liquid-liquid interface and extract solid particles from the bulk phase without the aid of external forces. These phenomena are quantified and corresponding mechanisms are proposed. The experimental investigations are supported by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, which allow for a molecular view of the self-assembly process. In particular, we show that particle self-assembly depends primarily on the surface chemistry of the particles and the non-IL fluid at the interface. Free energy calculations show that the attractive forces between nanoparticles and the liquid-liquid interface are unusually long-ranged, due to capillary waves. Furthermore, IL cations can exhibit molecular ordering at the IL-oil interface, resulting in a slight residual charge at this interface. We also explore the transient IL-IL interface, revealing molecular interactions responsible for the unusually slow mixing dynamics between two ILs. This dissertation, therefore, contributes to both experimental and theoretical understanding of particle self-assembly at IL based interfaces.

Structural features of canonical wall-bounded turbulent flows are described using several techniques, including proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). The canonical wall-bounded turbulent flows of channels, pipes, and flat-plate boundary layers include physics important to a wide variety of practical fluid flows with a minimum of geometric complications. Yet, significant questions remain for their turbulent motions' form, organization to compose very long motions, and relationship to vortical structures. POD extracts highly energetic structures from flow fields and is one tool to further understand the turbulence physics. A variety of direct numerical simulations provide velocity fields suitable for detailed analysis. Since POD modes require significant interpretation, this study begins with wall-normal, one-dimensional POD for a set of turbulent channel flows. Important features of the modes and their scaling are interpreted in light of flow physics, also leading to a method of synthesizing one-dimensional POD modes. Properties of a pipe flow simulation are then studied via several methods. The presence of very long streamwise motions is assessed using a number of statistical quantities, including energy spectra, which are compared to experiments. Further properties of energy spectra, including their relation to fictitious forces associated with mean Reynolds stress, are considered in depth. After reviewing salient features of turbulent structures previously observed in relevant experiments, structures in the pipe flow are examined in greater detail. A variety of methods reveal organization patterns of structures in instantaneous fields and their associated vortical structures. Properties of POD modes for a boundary layer flow are considered. Finally, very wide modes that occur when computing POD modes in all three canonical flows are compared. The results demonstrate that POD extracts structures relevant to characterizing wall-bounded turbulent flows. However, significant care is necessary in interpreting POD results, for which modes can be categorized according to their self-similarity. Additional analysis techniques reveal the organization of smaller motions in characteristic patterns to compose very long motions in pipe flows. The very large scale motions are observed to contribute large fractions of turbulent kinetic energy and Reynolds stress. The associated vortical structures possess characteristics of hairpins, but are commonly distorted from pristine hairpin geometries.

The flow around a golf ball is studied using direct numerical simulation (DNS). An immersed boundary approach is adopted in which the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a fractional step method on a structured, staggered grid in cylindrical coordinates. The boundary conditions on the surface are imposed using momentum forcing in the vicinity of the boundary. The flow solver is parallelized using a domain decomposition strategy and message passing interface (MPI), and exhibits linear scaling on as many as 500 processors. A laminar flow case is presented to verify the formal accuracy of the method. The immersed boundary approach is validated by comparison with computations of the flow over a smooth sphere. Simulations are performed at Reynolds numbers of 2.5 × 104 and 1.1 × 105 based on the diameter of the ball and the freestream speed and using grids comprised of more than 1.14 × 109 points. Flow visualizations reveal the location of separation, as well as the delay of complete detachment. Predictions of the aerodynamic forces at both Reynolds numbers are in reasonable agreement with measurements. Energy spectra of the velocity quantify the dominant frequencies of the flow near separation and in the wake. Time-averaged statistics reveal characteristic physical patterns in the flow as well as local trends within dimples. A mechanism of drag reduction due to the dimples is confirmed, and metrics for dimple optimization are proposed.

Modern gas turbines operate at high mainstream gas temperatures and pressures, which requires high durability materials. A method of preventing these hot gases from leaking into the turbine cavities is essential for improved reliability and cost reduction. Utilizing bleed-off air from the compressor to cool internal components has been a common solution, but at the cost of decreasing turbine performance. The present work thoroughly describes the complex flow field between the mainstream gas and a single rotor-stator disk cavity, and mechanisms of mainstream gas ingestion. A combined approach of experimental measurement and numerical simulation are performed on the flow in a single-stage model gas turbine. Mainstream gas ingestion into the cavity is further reduced by utilizing two axially overlapping seal rings, one on the rotor disk and the other on the stator wall. Secondary purge air is injected into the rotor-stator cavity pre-swirled through the stator radially inboard of the two seal rings. Flow field predictions from the simulations are compared against experimental measurements of static pressure, velocity, and tracer gas concentration acquired in a nearly identical model configuration. Operational conditions were performed with a main airflow Reynolds number of 7.86e4 and a rotor disk speed of 3000rpm. Additionally the rotational Reynolds number was 8.74e5 with a purge air nondimensional flow rate cw=4806. The simulation models a 1/14 rotationally periodic sector of the turbine rig, consisting of four rotor blades and four stator vanes. Gambit was used to generate the three-dimensional unstructured grids ranging from 10 to 20 million cells. Effects of turbulence were modeled using the single-equation Spalart-Allmaras as well as the realizable k-epsilon models. Computations were performed using FLUENT for both a simplified steady-state and subsequent time-dependent formulation. Simulation results show larger scale structures across the entire sector angle inside the cavity and certain unsteady mainstream ingestion mechanisms are realized from the tracer gas. Simulated velocity distributions were scrutinized against Particle Image Velocimetry plots in the rotor-stator cavity and are in reasonable agreement with all of the measurements.