Influence of Inlet Shape on Twin Intake Duct Performance
Performance of twin intake ducts with different inlet shapes has been analyzed using a commercial CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code. The performance has been evaluated for incompressible flow at a fixed Reynolds number (1.4×105). The shapes studied are rectangular (Aspect ratio = 2), square, semicircular, elliptic-1, elliptic-2 (inverse-elliptic) and oval shape with all the other geometrical parameters remaining same. The performance of the twin intake ducts in terms of the static pressure recovery coefficient, total pressure loss coefficient and distortion coefficient, and the secondary motion at the merging plane and the downstream planes show that the inverse elliptic shape is the best followed by semi-circular inlet. The vectors plots of secondary motion at the merging plane and downstream have shown the presence of twin pairs of vortical motion possibly caused by the change in centerline curvature. The cross flow vector plots also show four distinct vortices after merger.