scholarly journals Modeling of Partially Wetting Liquid Film Using an Enhanced Thin Film Model for Aero-Engine Bearing Chamber Applications

2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuldeep Singh ◽  
Medhat Sharabi ◽  
Richard Jefferson-Loveday ◽  
Stephen Ambrose ◽  
Carol Eastwick ◽  
...  

Abstract In the case of aero-engine, thin lubricating film servers dual purpose of lubrication and cooling. Prediction of dry patches or lubricant starved region in bearing or bearing chambers are required for safe operation of these components. In this work, thin liquid film flow is numerically investigated using the framework of the Eulerian thin film model (ETFM) for conditions, which exhibit partial wetting phenomenon. This model includes a parameter that requires adjustment to account for the dynamic contact angle. Two different experimental data sets have been used for comparisons against simulations, which cover a wide range of operating conditions including varying the flowrate, inclination angle, contact angle, and liquid–gas surface tension coefficient. A new expression for the model parameter has been proposed and calibrated based on the simulated cases. This is employed to predict film thickness on a bearing chamber which is subjected to a complex multiphase flow. From this study, it is observed that the proposed approach shows good quantitative comparisons of the film thickness of flow down an inclined plate and for the representative bearing chamber. A comparison of model predictions with and without wetting and drying capabilities is also presented on the bearing chamber for shaft speed in the range of 2500 RPM to 10,000 RPM and flowrate in the range of 0.5 liter per minute (LPM) to 2.5 LPM.

Author(s):  
K. Singh ◽  
M. Sharabi ◽  
R. Jefferson-Loveday ◽  
S. Ambrose ◽  
C. Eastwick ◽  
...  

Abstract In the case of aero-engine, thin lubricating film servers dual purpose of lubrication and cooling. Prediction of dry patches or lubricant starved region in bearing or bearing chambers are required for safe operation of these components. In the present work thin liquid film flow is numerically investigated using the framework of the Eulerian thin film model (ETFM) for conditions which exhibit partial wetting phenomenon. This model includes a parameter that requires adjustment to account for the dynamic contact angle. Two different experimental data sets have been used for comparisons against simulations, which cover a wide range of operating conditions including varying the flow rate, inclination angle, contact angle, and liquid-gas surface tension coefficient. A new expression for the model parameter has been proposed and calibrated based on the simulated cases. This is employed to predict film thickness on a bearing chamber which is subjected to a complex multiphase flow. From this study, it is observed that the proposed approach shows good quantitative comparisons of the film thickness of flow down an inclined plate and for the representative bearing chamber. A comparison of model predictions with and without wetting and drying capabilities is also presented on the bearing chamber for shaft speed in the range of 2,500 RPM to 10,000 RPM and flow rate in the range of 0.5 liter per minute (LPM) to 2.5 LPM.


Author(s):  
Kuldeep Singh ◽  
Medhat Sharabi ◽  
Stephen Ambrose ◽  
Carol Eastwick ◽  
Richard Jefferson-Loveday ◽  
...  

Abstract In the present work, a wetting and drying model is coupled with Eulerian Thin-Film model (ETFM) to analyze the wetting and drying behavior inside the bearing chamber. In the enhanced model, an additional source term is included to account for the contact angle effect. These models were coupled with volume-of-fluid (VOF) such that the core region is resolved by VOF and region close to the chamber walls, where a thin film is expected is resolved by either ETFM or enhanced ETFM model. Numerical studies are conducted for a shaft speed of 5,000 rpm, lubricant and air flow rates of 100 1/hr and 10 g/s respectively, at a scavenging ratio of 4. In the case of enhanced ETFM model lubricant to surface contact angle was varied from 10° to 45°. The performance of enhanced ETFM model is evaluated to capture drying and wetting behavior on a flat plate and found to be satisfactory. Film thickness prediction of enhanced ETFM model is found to be comparable with the VOF predictions reported in the literature. The effect of contact angle on the spreading of oil and film thickness is found to be small for the investigated conditions on an aero-engine bearing chamber.


Author(s):  
Kuldeep Singh ◽  
Medhat Sharabi ◽  
Stephen Ambrose ◽  
Carol Eastwick ◽  
Richard Jefferson-Loveday

Abstract In the present work, a coupled volume-of-fluid (VOF) model with Eulerian thin-film model (ETFM) approach is used to predict the film thickness in an aero-engine bearing chamber. Numerical studies are conducted for a wide range of shaft speeds with lubricant and air flow rates of 100 1/hr and 10 g/s respectively, at a scavenge ratio of 4 on a simplified bearing chamber test rig. Air-flow analysis inside the bearing chamber is also assessed. Primary and secondary airflow predictions are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. The coupled ETFM+VOF approach is found to be sensitive enough to capture the qualitative trend of oil film formation and distribution over the chamber wall. Oil collection near the sump at a low shaft speed and a rotating oil film at a higher shaft speed are well captured.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huacheng Zhang ◽  
Tutomo Hisano ◽  
Shoji Mori ◽  
Hiroyuki Yoshida

Abstract Annular gas-liquid two-phase flows, such as the flows attached to the fuel rods of boiling water reactors (BWR), are a prevalent occurrence in industrial processes. At the gas-liquid interface of such flows, disturbance waves with diverse velocity and amplitude commonly arise. Since the thin liquid film between two successive disturbance waves leads to the dryout on the heating surface and limits the performance of the BWRs, complete knowledge of the disturbance waves is of great importance for the characterized properties of disturbance waves. The properties of disturbance waves have been studied by numerous researchers through extensive experimental and analytical approaches. However, most of the experimental data and analyses available in the literature are limited to the near atmospheric condition. In consideration of the properties of liquids and gases under atmospheric pressure which are distinct from those under BWR operating conditions (7 MPa, 285 °C), we employed the HFC134a gas and liquid ethanol whose properties at relatively low pressure and temperature (0.7 MPa, 40 °C) are similar to those of steam and water under BWR operating conditions as working fluids in a tubular test section having an inside diameter 5.0mm. Meanwhile, the liquid film thickness is measured by conductance probes. In this study, we report the liquid film thickness characteristics in a two-phase HFC134a gas-liquid ethanol flow. A simple model of the height of a disturbance wave was also proposed.


Soft Matter ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (44) ◽  
pp. 9105-9114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xurui Zhang ◽  
Plamen Tchoukov ◽  
Rogerio Manica ◽  
Louxiang Wang ◽  
Qingxia Liu ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Wei Qu ◽  
Jianchao Feng ◽  
Tongze Ma

Thin liquid film profile is important for heat transfer in microscale space. The asymptotic analytical solutions for thin liquid film profile in a capillary tube are obtained by the perturbation method. The variation of the film thickness, the contact angle of the vapor-liquid interface and its axial curvature depend on the effects of the disjoinng pressure and the capillary pressure. The thin liquid film profile will change significantly near the interline region. The obtained solutions are convenient and applicable for problems of thin liquid film in a capillary tube.


Author(s):  
C. Wang ◽  
H. P. Morvan ◽  
S. Hibberd ◽  
K. A. Cliffe ◽  
A. Anderson ◽  
...  

A thin film model developed for calculating the oil film flow in aero-engine bearing chamber is described. The performance of the model, which has been implemented in the commercial computational fluid dynamics software product: ANSYS Fluent, is benchmarked by comparing the computational results obtained from a Nottingham UTC in-house code and a development version of Fluent. Both codes are used to solve thin film flow in a test case configuration and based on the same finite area method. With identified constraints, the two implementations agree well.


2011 ◽  
Vol 705 ◽  
pp. 213-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew L. Hazel ◽  
Matthias Heil ◽  
Sarah L. Waters ◽  
James M. Oliver

AbstractWe consider axially uniform, two-phase flow through a rigid curved tube in which a fluid (air) core is surrounded by a film of a second, immiscible fluid (water): a simplified model for flow in a conducting airway of the lung. Jensen (1997) showed that, in the absence of a core flow, surface tension drives the system towards a configuration in which the film thickness tends to zero on the inner wall of the bend. In the present work, we demonstrate that the presence of a core flow, driven by a steady axial pressure gradient, allows the existence of steady states in which the film thickness remains finite, a consequence of the fact that the tangential stresses at the interface, imposed by secondary flows in the core, can oppose the surface-tension-driven flow. For sufficiently strong surface tension, the steady configurations are symmetric about the plane containing the tube’s centreline, but as the surface tension decreases the symmetry is lost through a pitchfork bifurcation, which is closely followed by a limit point on the symmetric solution branch. This solution structure is found both in simulations of the Navier–Stokes equations and a thin-film model appropriate for weakly curved tubes. Analysis of the thin-film model reveals that the bifurcation structure arises from a perturbation of the translational degeneracy of the interface location in a straight tube.


Author(s):  
I. Krˇupka ◽  
M. Hartl ◽  
M. Lisˇka

A combination of thin film colorimetric interferometry and phase shifting interferometry has been used to study the effect of slide-to-roll ratio on the micro-elastohydrodynamic action and asperity-contact mechanism on the real asperity scale. The phase shifting interferometry was used to measure in-situ initial undeformed rough surface profiles and thin film colorimetric interferometry provided accurate information about micro-EHD film thickness behaviour over a wide range of operating conditions. Lubricant film thickness distribution within mixed EHD contact has been found to change significantly as a function of a slide-roll ratio. A high resolution color camera has enabled a closer look at film thickness changes in the vicinity of surface irregularities that helped to describe these processes in detail. Obtained results indicate the presence of either a boundary film less than 1 nm thick or some solid-like contact in front of roughness features for positive slide to roll ratios. No such a local film thickness reduction has been found for negative slide-to-roll ratio conditions.


2001 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed S. El-Genk ◽  
Hamed H. Saber

The breakup of an evaporating, thin liquid film falling down a vertical, uniformly heated wall is of interest in many applications. Analytical expressions are developed for predicting the thickness of an evaporating liquid film and the corresponding wetting rate at breakup, which are in good agreement with experimental data for water. These expressions, derived from minimizing the total energy of a stable liquid rivulet forming immediately following the film breakup, required solving for the rivulet profile and the two-dimensional velocity field in the rivulet. The total energy of the rivulet is the sum of the kinetics energy of the liquid, the surface energies at the liquid-vapor and the solid-liquid interfaces, and those due to evaporation and the thermocapillary force along the liquid-vapor interface. The liquid film thickness at breakup is a function of Marangoni number, vapor Reynolds number, liquid and vapor properties, equilibrium contact angle of the liquid with underlying wall material, and the wall thermal conductance <3×104 W/m2K. For a wall conductance <3×104 W/m2K, the film thickness at breakup, when the wall is heated uniformly at its inner surface, is higher than when the wall is heated at its outer surface, but both are identical when the wall conductance ⩾3×104 W/m2K. The contribution of the equilibrium contact angle diminishes, but the thickness of the liquid film at breakup increases, as the wall heat flux increases.


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