Numerical Prediction of Turbulent Flow in Rotating Cavities

1988 ◽  
Vol 110 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Morse

Predictions of the isothermal, incompressible flow in the cavity formed between two corotating plane disks and a peripheral shroud have been obtained using an elliptic calculation procedure and a low turbulence Reynolds number k–ε model for the estimation of turbulent transport. Both radial inflow and outflow are investigated for a wide range of flow conditions involving rotational Reynolds numbers up to ∼106. Although predictive accuracy is generally good, the computed flow in the Ekman layers for radial outflow often displays a retarded spreading rate and a tendency to laminarize under conditions that are known from experiment to produce turbulent flow.

1989 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Morse

A low turbulence Reynolds number k-ϵ model has been used in conjunction with an elliptic flow calculation procedure to obtain finite-difference solutions for radial outflow in the cavity formed between two plane corotating discs and an outer peripheral shroud. Air enters the cavity axially through a central hole in one of the discs and is assumed to leave via a uniform sink layer adjacent to the shroud. The main emphasis of the paper is the extension of the solution procedure to cover high rotational speeds, with rotational Reynolds numbers up to 107. As a necessary prerequisite to this exercise, the turbulence model is validated by its good predictive accuracy of existing experimental data up to a maximum rotational Reynolds number of 1.1 × 106.


1995 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Gan ◽  
M. Kilic ◽  
J. M. Owen

The paper describes a combined experimental and computational study of laminar and turbulent flow between contrarotating disks. Laminar computations produce Batchelor-type flow: Radial outflow occurs in boundary layers on the disks and inflow is confined to a thin shear layer in the midplane; between the boundary layers and the shear layer, two contrarotating cores of fluid are formed. Turbulent computations (using a low-Reynolds-number k–ε turbulence model) and LDA measurements provide no evidence for Batchelor-type flow, even for rotational Reynolds numbers as low as 2.2 × 104. While separate boundary layers are formed on the disks, radial inflow occurs in a single interior core that extends between the two boundary layers; in the core, rotational effects are weak. Although the flow in the core was always found to be turbulent, the flow in the boundary layers could remain laminar for rotational Reynolds numbers up to 1.2 × 105. For the case of a superposed outflow, there is a source region in which the radial component of velocity is everywhere positive; radially outward of this region, the flow is similar to that described above. Although the turbulence model exhibited premature transition from laminar to turbulent flow in the boundary layers, agreement between the computed and measured radial and tangential components of velocity was mainly good over a wide range of nondimensional flow rates and rotational Reynolds numbers.


1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Morse

A low turbulence Reynolds number k-ε model has been used in conjunction with an elliptic flow calculation procedure to obtain finite-difference solutions for radial outflow in the cavity formed between two plane corotating disks and an outer peripheral shroud. Air enters the cavity axially through a central hole in one of the disks and is assumed to leave via a uniform sink layer adjacent to the shroud. The main emphasis of the paper is the extension of the solution procedure to cover high rotational speeds, with rotational Reynolds numbers up to 107. As a necessary prerequisite to this exercise, the turbulence model is validated by its good predictive accuracy of existing experimental data up to a maximum rotational Reynolds number of 1.1 × 106.


Author(s):  
Xiaopeng Gan ◽  
Muhsin Kilic ◽  
J. Michael Owen

The paper describes a combined experimental and computational study of laminar and turbulent flow between contra-rotating discs. Laminar computations produce Batchelor-type flow: radial outflow occurs in boundary layers on the discs and inflow is confined to a thin shear layer in the mid-plane; between the boundary layers and the shear layer, two contra-rotating cores of fluid are formed. Turbulent computations (using a low-Reynolds-number k-ε turbulence model) and LDA measurements provide no evidence for Batchelor-type flow, even for rotational Reynolds numbers as low as 2.2 × 104. Whilst separate boundary layers are formed on the discs, radial inflow occurs in a single interior core that extends between the two boundary layers; in the core, rotational effects are weak. Although the flow in the core was always found to be turbulent, the flow in the boundary layers could remain laminar for rotational Reynolds numbers up to 1.2 × 105. For the case of a superposed outflow, there is a source region in which the radial component of velocity is everywhere positive; radially outward of this region, the flow is similar to that described above. Although the turbulence model exhibited premature transition from laminar to turbulent flow in the boundary layers, agreement between the computed and measured radial and tangential components of velocity was mainly good over a wide range of nondimensional flow rates and rotational Reynolds numbers.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrique Stel ◽  
Rigoberto E. M. Morales ◽  
Admilson T. Franco ◽  
Silvio L. M. Junqueira ◽  
Raul H. Erthal ◽  
...  

This article describes a numerical and experimental investigation of turbulent flow in pipes with periodic “d-type” corrugations. Four geometric configurations of d-type corrugated surfaces with different groove heights and lengths are evaluated, and calculations for Reynolds numbers ranging from 5000 to 100,000 are performed. The numerical analysis is carried out using computational fluid dynamics, and two turbulence models are considered: the two-equation, low-Reynolds-number Chen–Kim k-ε turbulence model, for which several flow properties such as friction factor, Reynolds stress, and turbulence kinetic energy are computed, and the algebraic LVEL model, used only to compute the friction factors and a velocity magnitude profile for comparison. An experimental loop is designed to perform pressure-drop measurements of turbulent water flow in corrugated pipes for the different geometric configurations. Pressure-drop values are correlated with the friction factor to validate the numerical results. These show that, in general, the magnitudes of all the flow quantities analyzed increase near the corrugated wall and that this increase tends to be more significant for higher Reynolds numbers as well as for larger grooves. According to previous studies, these results may be related to enhanced momentum transfer between the groove and core flow as the Reynolds number and groove length increase. Numerical friction factors for both the Chen–Kim k-ε and LVEL turbulence models show good agreement with the experimental measurements.


Author(s):  
Marion Mack ◽  
Roland Brachmanski ◽  
Reinhard Niehuis

The performance of the low pressure turbine (LPT) can vary appreciably, because this component operates under a wide range of Reynolds numbers. At higher Reynolds numbers, mid and aft loaded profiles have the advantage that transition of suction side boundary layer happens further downstream than at front loaded profiles, resulting in lower profile loss. At lower Reynolds numbers, aft loading of the blade can mean that if a suction side separation exists, it may remain open up to the trailing edge. This is especially the case when blade lift is increased via increased pitch to chord ratio. There is a trend in research towards exploring the effect of coupling boundary layer control with highly loaded turbine blades, in order to maximize performance over the full relevant Reynolds number range. In an earlier work, pulsed blowing with fluidic oscillators was shown to be effective in reducing the extent of the separated flow region and to significantly decrease the profile losses caused by separation over a wide range of Reynolds numbers. These experiments were carried out in the High-Speed Cascade Wind Tunnel of the German Federal Armed Forces University Munich, Germany, which allows to capture the effects of pulsed blowing at engine relevant conditions. The assumed control mechanism was the triggering of boundary layer transition by excitation of the Tollmien-Schlichting waves. The current work aims to gain further insight into the effects of pulsed blowing. It investigates the effect of a highly efficient configuration of pulsed blowing at a frequency of 9.5 kHz on the boundary layer at a Reynolds number of 70000 and exit Mach number of 0.6. The boundary layer profiles were measured at five positions between peak Mach number and the trailing edge with hot wire anemometry and pneumatic probes. Experiments were conducted with and without actuation under steady as well as periodically unsteady inflow conditions. The results show the development of the boundary layer and its interaction with incoming wakes. It is shown that pulsed blowing accelerates transition over the separation bubble and drastically reduces the boundary layer thickness.


Author(s):  
Carlos Marchi ◽  
Cosmo D. Santiago ◽  
Carlos Alberto Rezende de Carvalho Junior

Abstract The incompressible steady-state fluid flow inside a lid-driven square cavity was simulated using the mass conservation and Navier-Stokes equations. This system of equations is solved for Reynolds numbers of up to 10,000 to the accuracy of the computational machine round-off error. The computational model used was the second-order accurate finite volume method. A stable solution is obtained using the iterative multigrid methodology with 8192 × 8192 volumes, while degree-10 interpolation and Richardson extrapolation were used to reduce the discretization error. The solution vector comprised five entries of velocities, pressure, and location. For comparison purposes, 65 different variables of interest were chosen, such as velocity profile, its extremum values and location, extremum values and location of the stream function. The discretization error for each variable of interest was estimated using two types of estimators and their apparent order of accuracy. The variations of the 11 selected variables are shown across 38 Reynolds number values between 0.0001 and 10,000. In this study, we provide a more accurate determination of the Reynolds number value at which the upper secondary vortex appears. The results of this study were compared with those of several other studies in the literature. The current solution methodology was observed to produce the most accurate solution till date for a wide range of Reynolds numbers.


1978 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. H. Alvi ◽  
K. Sridharan ◽  
N. S. Lakshmana Rao

Loss characteristics of sharp-edged orifices, quadrant-edged orifices for varying edge radii, and nozzles are studied for Reynolds numbers less than 10,000 for β ratios from 0.2 to 0.8. The results may be reliably extrapolated to higher Reynolds numbers. Presentation of losses as a percentage of meter pressure differential shows that the flow can be identified into fully laminar regime, critical Reynolds number regime, relaminarization regime, and turbulent flow regime. An integrated picture of variation of parameters such as discharge coefficient, loss coefficient, settling length, pressure recovery length, and center line velocity confirms this classification.


1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hidesada Kanda

Abstract A conceptual model was constructed for the problem of determining in circular pipes the conditions under which the transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs, so that it becomes possible to calculate the minimum critical Reynolds number. Up until now this problem has been investigated by stability theory with disturbances at the pipe inlet. However, the minimum critical Reynolds number has not yet been obtained theoretically. Hence, the author took up the problem directly from many previous experimental investigations and found that (i) plots of the transition length versus the Reynolds number show that the transition occurs in the entrance region under the condition of a natural disturbance, and (ii) plots of the critical Reynolds number versus the ratio of bellmouth diameter to the pipe diamter show that with larger shapes of bellmouths, laminar flow will persist to higher Reynolds numbers. The problem is thus defined clearly as: Under the condition of an ordinary disturbance, the transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs in the entrance region of a straight circular pipe, then the Reynolds number takes a minimum value of about 2000.


1996 ◽  
Vol 118 (2) ◽  
pp. 408-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kilic ◽  
X. Gan ◽  
J. M. Owen

This paper describes a combined computational and experimental study of the turbulent flow between two contrarotating disks for −1 ≤ Γ ≤ 0 and Reφ ≈ 1.2 × 106, where Γ is the ratio of the speed of the slower disk to that of the faster one and Reφ is the rotational Reynolds number. The computations were conducted using an axisymmetric elliptic multigrid solver and a low-Reynolds-number k–ε turbulence model. Velocity measurements were made using LDA at nondimensional radius ratios of 0.6 ≤ x ≤ 0.85. For Γ = 0, the rotor–stator case, Batchelor-type flow occurs: There is radial outflow and inflow in boundary layers on the rotor and stator, respectively, between which is an inviscid rotating core of fluid where the radial component of velocity is zero and there is an axial flow from stator to rotor. For Γ = −1, antisymmetric contrarotating disks, Stewartson-type flow occurs with radial outflow in boundary layers on both disks and inflow in the viscid nonrotating core. At intermediate values of Γ, two cells separated by a streamline that stagnates on the slower disk are formed: Batchelor-type flow and Stewartson-type flow occur radially outward and inward, respectively, of the stagnation streamline. Agreement between the computed and measured velocities is mainly very good, and no evidence was found of nonaxisymmetric or unsteady flow.


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