Application of Scale-Resolving Simulations and Hybrid Models for Contraction-Expansion Pipe Flows

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farzin Darihaki ◽  
Jun Zhang ◽  
Siamack A. Shirazi

Abstract Contractions and expansions are commonly found in various piping systems including flow control in the oil and gas industry. They impose complex flow characteristics such as flow recirculation, boundary layer separation and unsteady re-attachment. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using RANS simulations can offer general information about the time-averaged flow properties in expansion and contraction geometries including the pressure drop across the fitting. However, they generally fail to provide details of turbulent flow such as shedding of vortices and high turbulent intensities which are observed in experimental data at the expansion and contraction regions. Large Eddy Simulations (LES) can resolve a turbulence spectrum by filtering Navir-Stokes equations over the computational cells. In this study, LES is utilized to examine a sudden-contraction and expansion pipe flow. Furthermore, Stress-Blended Eddy Simulations (SBES) as a hybrid LES-RANS model is employed for comparison. All of these Scale-Resolving Simulations (SRS) are examined against the experimental data and compared to commonly used RANS simulations. Various flow parameters are examined at different locations for a 50.8 mm pipe which is suddenly reduced to a 25.4 mm pipe and then suddenly expands to the original size, and highlights of each model are presented. The details of the turbulent flow in these geometries are critical to many applications such as particle-laden flows and this investigation would provide insight into the appropriate flow modeling in the expansion and contraction geometries.

Author(s):  
Kaushik Das ◽  
Debashis Basu ◽  
Scott L. Painter ◽  
Lane D. Howard ◽  
Steven T. Green

This paper presents preliminary results of a computational study conducted to analyze the turbulent flow in the lower plenum of an advanced next generation gas-cooled reactor. The turbulence models used in the current simulations are the Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) model and the transient RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes) model. The current study is limited to flow in a row of confined cylinders designed to mimic a model of a prismatic gas-cooled reactor lower plenum design. The experimental configuration consists of a finite array of short graphite posts supporting the reactor core. Five cylinders, which represent vertical support posts in the lower plenum of an advanced reactor concept, are emplaced on the cross-stream centerline. In the current work, an idealized model was used to model a region of the lower plenum for a simplified set of conditions that enabled the flow to be treated as an isothermal, incompressible fluid with constant properties. The simulated results are compared with available experimental data, which were obtained using three-dimensional Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The two-equation realizable k-ε model is used as the baseline model for both the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes Equations (URANS) as well as the DES simulations. The flow unsteadiness accounts for the fluctuations due to unsteady vortex shedding. The DES simulations predicted the flow unsteadiness more accurately than the URANS simulations. The simulated time-averaged quantities were also compared with the experimental data. The RANS simulations and the DES simulations provide almost same predictions for the time averaged quantities. The predicted results show discrepancies with the experimental results.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hany Gamal ◽  
Salaheldin Elkatatny ◽  
Dhafer Al Shehri ◽  
Mohamed Bahgat

Abstract Oil and gas industry deals with fluid streams with different ions and concentrations that might cause scale precipitation. The scale precipitation, will thereafter, affect the fluid flow characteristics. Many problems will be raised by the scale deposition that affects the overall petroleum production. This paper aims to develop a non-corrosive acid system with high dissolution efficiency for field complex scales that have sulfates and sulfides minerals. The paper provided a series of lab analysis that covers the compositional analysis for the collected scale sample, and evaluating the developed acid system for compatible and stable properties, dissolution efficiency, and the corrosive impact. A field scale sample that has a composite chemical composition of paraffin, asphaltene, sulfides and sulfates compounds with different weight percentages by employing the diffraction of X-ray technology. Developing the new scale dissolver was achieved by specific compositional study for the organic acids to achieve high dissolution efficiency and low corrosive impact for the field treatment operations. The study results showed the successful scale removal for the developed dissolver at low temperature of 95 and 113 °F for surface treatment jobs. The dissolution efficiency recorded 62 and 71 % for 17 hours at the temperature levels respectively. The fluid showed a stable and compatible performance and has a pH of 12. The corrosion test was conducted without any scale inhibitors and the results showed the low corrosion effect by 0.0028 lbm/ft2. The obtained successful results will help to dissolve such complex field scales, maintain the well equipment, and maintain the petroleum production from scale issues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianqi Lai ◽  
Hua Li ◽  
Zhengyu Tian ◽  
Ye Zhang

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) plays an important role in the optimal design of aircraft and the analysis of complex flow mechanisms in the aerospace domain. The graphics processing unit (GPU) has a strong floating-point operation capability and a high memory bandwidth in data parallelism, which brings great opportunities for CFD. A cell-centred finite volume method is applied to solve three-dimensional compressible Navier–Stokes equations on structured meshes with an upwind AUSM+UP numerical scheme for space discretization, and four-stage Runge–Kutta method is used for time discretization. Compute unified device architecture (CUDA) is used as a parallel computing platform and programming model for GPUs, which reduces the complexity of programming. The main purpose of this paper is to design an extremely efficient multi-GPU parallel algorithm based on MPI+CUDA to study the hypersonic flow characteristics. Solutions of hypersonic flow over an aerospace plane model are provided at different Mach numbers. The agreement between numerical computations and experimental measurements is favourable. Acceleration performance of the parallel platform is studied with single GPU, two GPUs, and four GPUs. For single GPU implementation, the speedup reaches 63 for the coarser mesh and 78 for the finest mesh. GPUs are better suited for compute-intensive tasks than traditional CPUs. For multi-GPU parallelization, the speedup of four GPUs reaches 77 for the coarser mesh and 147 for the finest mesh; this is far greater than the acceleration achieved by single GPU and two GPUs. It is prospective to apply the multi-GPU parallel algorithm to hypersonic flow computations.


Author(s):  
Ahmed H. Kamel ◽  
Ali S. Shaqlaih ◽  
Arslan Rozyyev

The ongoing research for model choice and selection has generated a plethora of approaches. With such a wealth of methods, it can be difficult for a researcher to know what model selection approach is the proper way to proceed to select the appropriate model for prediction. The authors present an evaluation of various model selection criteria from decision-theoretic perspective using experimental data to define and recommend a criterion to select the best model. In this analysis, six of the most common selection criteria, nineteen friction factor correlations, and eight sets of experimental data are employed. The results show that while the use of the traditional correlation coefficient, R2 is inappropriate, root mean square error, RMSE can be used to rank models, but does not give much insight on their accuracy. Other criteria such as correlation ratio, mean absolute error, and standard deviation are also evaluated. The Akaike information criterion, AIC has shown its superiority to other selection criteria. The authors propose AIC as an alternative to use when fitting experimental data or evaluating existing correlations. Indeed, the AIC method is an information theory based, theoretically sound and stable. The paper presents a detailed discussion of the model selection criteria, their pros and cons, and how they can be utilized to allow proper comparison of different models for the best model to be inferred based on sound mathematical theory. In conclusion, model selection is an interesting problem and an innovative strategy to help alleviate similar challenges faced by the professionals in the oil and gas industry is introduced.


Author(s):  
George Papadopoulos

A dimensional analysis that is based on the scaling of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations is presented for correlating bulk flow characteristics arising from a variety of initial conditions. The analysis yields a functional relationship between the characteristic variable of the flow region and the Reynolds number for each of the two independent flow regimes. A linear relationship is realized for the laminar regime, while a nonlinear relationship is realized for the turbulent regime. Both relationships incorporate mass-flow profile characteristics to fully capture the effects of initial conditions on the variation of the characteristic variables. The union of these two independent relationships is formed utilizing the concept of flow intermittency to further expand into a generic scaling relationship that incorporates transitional flow effects to fully encompass solutions spanning the laminar to turbulent flow regimes. The results of the analysis are discussed within the context of several flow phenomena (e.g. pipe flow, jet flow & separated flow) resulting from various initial and boundary conditions.


Author(s):  
Peter Ma ◽  
Wei Qiu ◽  
Don Spencer

Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV) of marine risers poses a significant challenge as the offshore oil and gas industry moves into deep water. A time-domain analysis tool has been developed to predict the VIV of marine risers based on a forcing algorithm and by making full use of the available high Reynolds number experimental data. In the formulation, the hydrodynamic damping is not treated as a special case but simply an extension of the experimentally derived lift curves. The forcing algorithm was integrated into a mooring analysis program based on the global-coordinate based finite element method. At each time step, the added mass, lifting force and drag force coefficients and their corresponding loads are computed for each element. Validation studies have been carried out for a full-scale rigid riser segment and a model-scale flexible riser. The numerical results were compared with experimental data and solutions by other programs.


Author(s):  
Geanette Polanco ◽  
Mohamad Y. Mustafa ◽  
Yizhong Xu

Porous baffles are usually used for weather protection on onshore and offshore oil installations in order to provide a sheltered area for personnel to operate. Corrugated fences are more favourable than flat fences in large installations, due to their increased stiffness; however, the performance of those fences is expected to differ from flat fences due to changes in porosity and flow structure. In this work, the experimental and numerical studies of the influence of corrugated fence on the flow characteristics are presented. The tri-dimensional effect imposed by the angle of corrugation and the depth of the fence influences the windward and leeward flow characteristics with respect to the fence. Velocity coefficient is used as one important parameter for measuring the performance of porous fences. It was found that, under similar conditions, the total obstruction produced by the corrugated fence varies significantly from that of the flat fence. Hence, velocity reduction for a corrugated fence system is expected to be smaller. A complete description of the physics of the fluid mechanics around the fence is given. Furthermore, the behaviour of the stream lines close to the fences in both cases; corrugated and non-corrugated, were studied using CFD techniques. Through observation of local pressure distribution, it was possible to reveal how velocity variations were concentrated around the inclined sections of the corrugated fence. In performing the numerical simulations, a two dimensional approach was initially implemented to capture the flow behaviour in the vicinity of the inclined sections. Subsequently, a tri-dimensional simulation on a section of the fence was undertaken and compared with experimental data. The results of the simulations were in good agreement with experimental data obtained from wind tunnel tests.


Author(s):  
Tausif Jamal ◽  
D. Keith Walters

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) prediction of high Reynolds number flow over a 3D axisymmetric hill presents a unique set of challenges for turbulence models. The flow on the leeward side of the hill is characterized by the presence of complex vortical structures, unsteady wakes, and regions of boundary layer separation. As a result, traditional eddy-viscosity Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) models have been found to perform poorly. Recent studies have focused on the use of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and hybrid RANS-LES (HRL) methods to improve accuracy. In this study, the capability of a dynamic hybrid RANS-LES (DHRL) model to resolve the flow over a 3D axisymmetric hill is investigated and compared to numerical results using a traditional RANS model and a conventional hybrid RANS-LES model, and to experimental data. Results show that the RANS model fails to accurately predict the mean flow features in the wake region, which is in agreement with prior studies. The conventional HRL model provides better prediction of the flow characteristics but suffers from grid sensitivity and delayed transition to LES mode. The DHRL method provides the best agreement with experimental data overall and shows least sensitivity to grid resolution. Results also highlight the importance of using a low dissipation flux formulation for flow simulations in which a portion of the turbulence spectrum is resolved, including hybrid RANS-LES.


Author(s):  
Maxime Stuck ◽  
Alvaro Vidal ◽  
Pablo Torres ◽  
Hassan M. Nagib ◽  
Candace Wark ◽  
...  

The mean flow and turbulence statistics of the flow through a simplified urban environment, which is an active research area in order to improve the knowledge of turbulent flow in cities, is investigated. This is useful for civil engineering, pedestrian comfort and for health concerns caused by pollutant spreading. In this work, we provide analysis of the turbulence statistics obtained from well-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES). A detailed analysis of this database reveals the impact of the geometry of the urban array on the flow characteristics and provides for a good description of the turbulent features of the flow within a simplified urban environment. The most prominent features of this complex flow include coherent vortical structures such as the so-called arch vortex, the horseshoe vortex and the roof vortex. These structures of the flow have been identified by an analysis of the turbulence statistics. The influence of the geometry of the urban environment (and particularly the street width and the building height) on the overall flow behavior have also been studied. Finally, the well-resolved LES results were compared with the experimental database from Monnier et al. to discuss differences and similarities between the respective urban configurations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hany Gamal ◽  
Salaheldin Elkatatny ◽  
Saad Al-Afnan ◽  
Mohamed Bahgat

Abstract Oil and gas industry deals with fluid streams with different ions and concentrations that might cause scale precipitation. The scale precipitation, will thereafter, affect the fluid flow characteristics. Many problems will be raised by the scale deposition that affects the overall petroleum production. This paper aims to develop a non-corrosive acid system with high dissolution efficiency for field complex scales. The paper provided a series of lab analysis that covers the compositional analysis for the collected scale sample, and evaluating the developed acid system for compatible and stable properties, dissolution efficiency, and the corrosive impact. A field scale sample that has a composite chemical composition of calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, kaolinite, barium sulfate, magnetite, and halite with different weight percentages by employing the diffraction of X-ray technology. Developing the new scale dissolver was achieved by specific compositional study for the organic acids to achieve high dissolution efficiency and low corrosive impact for the field treatment operations. The study results showed the successful scale removal for the developed dissolver at 160 and 210 °F by dissolution efficiency 100 % for 5 hours. The fluid showed a stable and compatible performance with low rate of solids precipitation after the scale treatment (2.3 %). The developed dissolver has a pH of 9. The corrosion test was conducted without any scale inhibitors and the results showed the low corrosion effect by 0.0129 lbm/ft2. The obtained successful results will help to dissolve such complex field scales, maintain the well equipment, and maintain the petroleum production from scale issues.


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