3D Viscous Inverse Design of Turbomachinery Using One-Equation Turbulence Model

Author(s):  
Jinguang Yang ◽  
Yan Liu ◽  
Xiaofang Wang ◽  
Hu Wu

Inverse method is a very efficient method in turbomachinery aerodynamic design. It takes blade aerodynamic loading as input, and the blade shape and the flow field are computed when calculation converged. However most current inverse methods model turbulent eddy viscosity by Baldwin-Lomax (BL) model or similar approximation, which does not involve local wall distance as a model parameter. Most one- and two-equation turbulence models are not that case, and local wall distance is needed in turbulent work variable(s) transport equation formulation. The usual wall distance computing procedure is the so called “exhaustive search method”, which is a time-consuming process. When a flow solver running in analysis mode, the wall distance calculation is not a problem, it can be computed once and stored for subsequent use. But for design mode, this computation intensive process becomes a big challenge. For an inverse design run, the blade shape is updated periodically for about 400 times, if wall distances is re-computed for each blade shape update, the time cost is very appreciable. That is the reason that prohibits the application of higher order (one- and two-equation, compared to BL model) turbulence models in inverse method. In this paper, a novel wall distance calculation method is proposed. The new method transforms the distance searching problem into a length optimization problem, and the steepest descent method is used to find the minimal length from a target point to a wall face. Numerical experiments show that the method can reduce the computing time to approximately 1/10 of the exhaustive search method. Based on this, together with an enhanced blade update method and Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model, a 3D viscous redesign of an axial fan rotor is conducted. Final results demonstrate the effectivity of the proposed method.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Geuens ◽  
Tom Verstraete

Abstract Design methodologies for axial compressor airfoils have undergone significant changes over the past decades. While inverse design methods have played a significant historical role, today they are mostly replaced by direct methods. Inverse methods do impose either the desired pressure or velocity distribution and search for the corresponding blade profile, in contrast to direct methods which modify directly the blade shape to reduce losses. Inverse methods therefore require the designer to know pressure or velocity profiles which provide low losses, and are as such mostly effective only in the hands of an experienced designer. Inverse methods, however, pose some advantages: through setting velocity profiles which feature good off-design performance, the computational cost for the design of profiles can be significantly reduced compared to direct methods, which require to simulate multiple operating points. Additionally, inverse methods offer a way to adapt blades for experimental testing if the wind tunnel imposes restrictions on e.g. Mach number, allowing for similar boundary layer conditions. Finally, inverse methods can be used to deduce the blade geometry from measured or published velocity distributions. Within this article, we aim to verify the use of inverse methods by applying more recent optimisation techniques to the inverse problem. Specifically, we test the performance of an inverse method that uses a gradient based technique to solve the inverse problem. The merits of the inverse method are investigated for different use cases. It is found that conventional, direct design methods are preferred for design improvement, although more expensive. The inverse method is, however, well-suited for adapting existing profiles to altered operating conditions, and for reproducing the blade shape based on published data.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 6319
Author(s):  
Sung-Woong Choi ◽  
Hyoung-Seock Seo ◽  
Han-Sang Kim

In the present study, the flow characteristics of butterfly valves with different sizes DN 80 (nominal diameter: 76.2 mm), DN 262 (nominal diameter: 254 mm), DN 400 (nominal diameter: 406 mm) were numerically investigated under different valve opening percentages. Representative two-equation turbulence models of two-equation k-epsilon model of Launder and Sharma, two-equation k-omega model of Wilcox, and two-equation k-omega SST model of Menter were selected. Flow characteristics of butterfly valves were examined to determine turbulence model effects. It was determined that increasing turbulence effect could cause many discrepancies between turbulence models, especially in areas with large pressure drop and velocity increase. In addition, sensitivity analysis of flow properties was conducted to determine the effect of constants used in each turbulence model. It was observed that the most sensitive flow properties were turbulence dissipation rate (Epsilon) for the k-epsilon turbulence model and turbulence specific dissipation rate (Omega) for the k-omega turbulence model.


Author(s):  
Ahmed M Nagib Elmekawy ◽  
Hassan A Hassan Saeed ◽  
Sadek Z Kassab

Three-dimensional CFD simulations are carried out to study the increase of power generated from Savonius vertical axis wind turbines by modifying the blade shape and blade angel of twist. Twisting angle of the classical blade are varied and several proposed novel blade shapes are introduced to enhance the performance of the wind turbine. CFD simulations have been performed using sliding mesh technique of ANSYS software. Four turbulence models; realizable k -[Formula: see text], standard k - [Formula: see text], SST transition and SST k -[Formula: see text] are utilized in the simulations. The blade twisting angle has been modified for the proposed dimensions and wind speed. The introduced novel blade increased the power generated compared to the classical shapes. The two proposed novel blades achieved better power coefficients. One of the proposed models achieved an increase of 31% and the other one achieved 32.2% when compared to the classical rotor shape. The optimum twist angel for the two proposed models achieved 5.66% and 5.69% when compared with zero angle of twist.


Author(s):  
Karsten Tawackolian ◽  
Martin Kriegel

AbstractThis study looks to find a suitable turbulence model for calculating pressure losses of ventilation components. In building ventilation, the most relevant Reynolds number range is between 3×104 and 6×105, depending on the duct dimensions and airflow rates. Pressure loss coefficients can increase considerably for some components at Reynolds numbers below 2×105. An initial survey of popular turbulence models was conducted for a selected test case of a bend with such a strong Reynolds number dependence. Most of the turbulence models failed in reproducing this dependence and predicted curve progressions that were too flat and only applicable for higher Reynolds numbers. Viscous effects near walls played an important role in the present simulations. In turbulence modelling, near-wall damping functions are used to account for this influence. A model that implements near-wall modelling is the lag elliptic blending k-ε model. This model gave reasonable predictions for pressure loss coefficients at lower Reynolds numbers. Another example is the low Reynolds number k-ε turbulence model of Wilcox (LRN). The modification uses damping functions and was initially developed for simulating profiles such as aircraft wings. It has not been widely used for internal flows such as air duct flows. Based on selected reference cases, the three closure coefficients of the LRN model were adapted in this work to simulate ventilation components. Improved predictions were obtained with new coefficients (LRNM model). This underlined that low Reynolds number effects are relevant in ventilation ductworks and give first insights for suitable turbulence models for this application. Both the lag elliptic blending model and the modified LRNM model predicted the pressure losses relatively well for the test case where the other tested models failed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruichao Zhu ◽  
Tianshuo Qiu ◽  
Jiafu Wang ◽  
Sai Sui ◽  
Chenglong Hao ◽  
...  

AbstractMetasurfaces have provided unprecedented freedom for manipulating electromagnetic waves. In metasurface design, massive meta-atoms have to be optimized to produce the desired phase profiles, which is time-consuming and sometimes prohibitive. In this paper, we propose a fast accurate inverse method of designing functional metasurfaces based on transfer learning, which can generate metasurface patterns monolithically from input phase profiles for specific functions. A transfer learning network based on GoogLeNet-Inception-V3 can predict the phases of 28×8 meta-atoms with an accuracy of around 90%. This method is validated via functional metasurface design using the trained network. Metasurface patterns are generated monolithically for achieving two typical functionals, 2D focusing and abnormal reflection. Both simulation and experiment verify the high design accuracy. This method provides an inverse design paradigm for fast functional metasurface design, and can be readily used to establish a meta-atom library with full phase span.


2020 ◽  
Vol 220 ◽  
pp. 115425
Author(s):  
Ghazi Bellakhal ◽  
Fathia Chaibina ◽  
Jamel Chahed

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1036-1047
Author(s):  
Alexandre Hoffmann ◽  
Valérie Perrier ◽  
Sergei Grudinin

This paper presents a novel fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based exhaustive search method extended to off-grid translational and rotational degrees of freedom. The method combines the advantages of the FFT-based exhaustive search, which samples all the conformations of a system under study on a grid, with a local optimization technique that guarantees to find the nearest optimal off-grid conformation. The method is demonstrated on a fitting problem and can be readily applied to a docking problem. The algorithm first samples a scoring function on a six-dimensional grid of sizeN6using the FFT. This operation has an asymptotic complexity ofO(N6logN). Then, the method performs the off-grid search using a local quadratic approximation of the cost function and the trust-region optimization algorithm. The computation of the quadratic approximation is also accelerated by FFT at the same additional asymptotic cost ofO(N6logN). The method is demonstrated by fitting atomic protein models into several simulated and experimental maps from cryo-electron microscopy. The method is available at https://team.inria.fr/nano-d/software/offgridfit.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Ferreira Corrêa Barbosa ◽  
Daniel da Silva Tonon ◽  
Luiz Henrique Lindquist Whitacker ◽  
Jesuino Takachi Tomita ◽  
Cleverson Bringhenti

Abstract The aim of this work is an evaluation of different turbulence models applied in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques in the turbomachinery area, in this case, in an axial turbine stage used in turbopump (TP) application. The tip clearance region was considered in this study because it has a high influence in turbomachinery performance. In this region, due to its geometry and the relative movement between the rotor row and casing, there are losses associated with vortices and secondary flow making the flowfield even more turbulent and complex. Moreover, the flow that leaks in the tip region does not participate in the energy transfer between the fluid and rotor blades, degradating the machine efficiency and performance. In this work, the usual flat tip rotor blade geometry was considered. The modeling of turbulent flow based on Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations predicts the variation of turbine operational characteristics that is sufficient for the present turbomachine and flow analysis. Therefore, the appropriate choice of the turbulence model for the study of a given flow is essential to obtain adequate results using numerical approximations. This comparison become important due to the fact that there is no general turbulence model for all engineering applications that has fluid and flow. The turbomachine considered in the present work, is the first stage of the hydraulic axial turbine used in the Low Pressure Oxidizer Turbopump (LPOTP) of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME), considering the 3.0% tip clearance configuration relative to rotor blade height. The turbulence models evaluated in this work were the SST (Shear Stress Transport), the k-ε Standard and the k-ε RNG. The computational domain was discretized in several control volumes based on unstructured mesh. All the simulations were performed using the commercial software developed by ANSYS, CFX v15.0 (ANSYS). All numerical settings and how the boundary conditions were imposed at different surfaces are explained in the work. The boundary conditions settings follow the same rule used in the test facility and needs some attention during the simulations to vary the Blade-Jet-Speed ratio parameter adequately. The results from numerical simulations, were synthesized and compared with the experimental data published by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in which the turbine efficiency and its jet velocity parameter are analyzed for each turbulence model result. The work fluid considered in this work was water, the same fluid used in the NASA test facility.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seok-Ki Choi ◽  
Seong-O Kim ◽  
Hoon-Ki Choi

A numerical study for the evaluation of heat transfer correlations for sodium flows in a heat exchanger of a fast breeder nuclear reactor is performed. Three different types of flows such as parallel flow, cross flow, and two inclined flows are considered. Calculations are performed for these three typical flows in a heat exchanger changing turbulence models. The tested turbulence models are the shear stress transport (SST) model and the SSG-Reynolds stress turbulence model by Speziale, Sarkar, and Gaski (1991, “Modelling the Pressure-Strain Correlation of Turbulence: An Invariant Dynamical System Approach,” J. Fluid Mech., 227, pp. 245–272). The computational model for parallel flow is a flow past tubes inside a circular cylinder and those for the cross flow and inclined flows are flows past the perpendicular and inclined tube banks enclosed by a rectangular duct. The computational results show that the SST model produces the most reliable results that can distinguish the best heat transfer correlation from other correlations for the three different flows. It was also shown that the SSG-RSTM high-Reynolds number turbulence model does not deal with the low-Prandtl number effect properly when the Peclet number is small. According to the present calculations for a parallel flow, all the old correlations do not match with the present numerical solutions and a new correlation is proposed. The correlations by Dwyer (1966, “Recent Developments in Liquid-Metal Heat Transfer,” At. Energy Rev., 4, pp. 3–92) for a cross flow and its modified correlation that takes into account of flow inclination for inclined flows work best and are accurate enough to be used for the design of the heat exchanger.


Volume 4 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Branislav Basara ◽  
Ales Alajbegovic ◽  
Decan Beader

The paper presents calculations of flow in a mixing vessel stirred by a six-blade Rushton impeller. Mathematical model used in computations is based on the ensemble averaged conservation equations. An efficient finite-volume method based on unstructured grids with rotating sliding parts composed of arbitrary polyhedral elements is used together with various turbulence models. Besides the standard k-ε model which served as a reference, k-ε-v2 model (Durbin, 1995) and the recently proposed hybrid EVM/RSM turbulence model (Basara & Jakirlic, 2003) were used in the calculations. The main aim of the paper is to investigate if more advanced turbulence models are needed for this type of CFD applications. The results are compared with the available experimental data.


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