scholarly journals CFD Analysis on the Effect of Radial Gap on Impeller-Diffuser Flow Interaction as well as on the Flow Characteristics of a Centrifugal Fan

2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Vasudeva Karanth ◽  
N. Yagnesh Sharma

The flow between the impeller exit and the diffuser entry (i.e., in the radial gap is generally considered to be complex). With the development of PIV and CFD tools such as moving mesh techniques, it is now possible to arrive at a prudent solution compatible with the physical nature of flow. In this work, numerical methodology involving moving mesh technique is used in predicting the real flow behavior, as exhibited when a target blade of the impeller is made to move past corresponding vane on the diffuser. Many research works have been undertaken using experimental and numerical methods on the impeller-diffuser interactive phenomenon. It is found from the literature that the effect of radial gap between impeller and diffuser on the interaction and on the performance of the fan has not been the focus of attention. Hence numerical analysis is undertaken in this work to explore and predict the flow behavior due to the radial gap. This has revealed the presence of an optimum radial gap which could provide better design characteristics or lower loss coefficient. It is found that there is a better energy conversion by the impeller and enhanced energy transformation by the diffuser, corresponding to optimum radial gap. The overall efficiency also found to increase for relatively larger gap.

Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Xudong An ◽  
Lin Jiang ◽  
Fatemeh Hassanipour

In many industrial applications, a permeable mesh (porous screen) is used to control the unsteady (most commonly vortex) flows. Vortex flows are known to display intriguing behavior while propagating through porous screens. This numerical study aims to investigate the effects of physical properties such as porosity, Reynolds number, inlet flow dimension, and distance to the screen on the flow behavior. The simulation model includes a piston-cylinder vortex ring generator and a permeable mesh constructed by evenly arranged rods. Two methods of user-defined function and moving mesh have been applied to model the vortex ring generation. The results show the formation, evolution, and characteristics of the vortical rings under various conditions. The results for vorticity contours and the kinetic energy dissipation indicate that the physical properties alter the flow behavior in various ways while propagating through the porous screens. The numerical model, cross-validated with the experimental results, provides a better understanding of the fluid–solid interactions of vortex flows and porous screens.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Huang ◽  
Ping Wang ◽  
Guochao Wang

Magnetorheological (MR) disk-type isolating dampers are the semi-active control devices that use MR fluids to produce controllable squeezing force. In this paper, the analytical endeavor into the fluid dynamic modeling of an MR isolating damper is reported. The velocity and pressure distribution of an MR fluid operating in an axisymmetric squeeze model are analytically solved using a biviscosity constitutive model. Analytical solutions for the flow behavior of MR fluid flowing through the parallel channel are obtained. The equation for the squeezing force is derived to provide the theoretical foundation for the design of the isolating damper. The result shows that with the increase of the applied magnetic field strength, the squeezing force is increased.


Mechanika ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-208
Author(s):  
Mustafa FEKHAR ◽  
Rachid SACI ◽  
Renée GATIGNOL

Thermal buoyancy, induced by injection or by differential heating of a tiny rod is explored to control breakdown in the core of a helical flow driven by the lid rotation of a cylinder. Three main parameters are required to characterize numerically the flow behavior; namely, the rotational Reynolds number Re, the cavity aspect ratio and the Richardson number Ri. Warm injection/rod, Ri > 0, is shown to prevent on-axis flow stagnation while breakdown enhancement is evidenced when Ri < 0. Results revealed that a bubble vortex evolves into a ring type structure which may remain robust, as observed in prior related experiments or, in contrast, disappear over a given range of parameters (Λh, Re, Ri > 0). Besides, the emergence of such a toroidal mode was not found to occur under thermal stratification induced by a differentially heated rod. Moreover, three state diagrams were established which provide detailed flow characteristics under the distinct and combined effects of buoyancy strength, viscous effects and cavity aspect ratio.


Author(s):  
Akshith Subramanian ◽  
Navid Goudarzi

Marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) energy resources with advantages such as predictability and less variability compared to other forms of renewable energies, have been drawing more interest in recent years. One important phase before commercialization of new MHK technologies is to conduct experimental testing and evaluate their performance in a real environment. In this work, a numerical computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is used to study the fluid flow behavior within a designed water flume for MHK energy technologies. The water flume design parameters were given by the team collaborators at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Colorado School of Mines. The results from this simulation showed the flow characteristics within the test-section of the proposed water flume design. These results can be used for the follow on phases of this research that includes testing scaled MHK prototypes at different flow rates as well as optimizing either the water flume design to obtain more realistic flow characteristics within the test section or the MHK devices to obtain higher performance metrics at lower cost.


Author(s):  
Wenfeng Xu ◽  
Peng Sun ◽  
Guogang Yang

Abstract Sector cascade experiments can not only be convenient to measure various aerodynamic parameters but also reveal the real flow characteristics in turbomachinery. However, the sector cascade is only a part of the whole annular cascade. The circumferential angle, the structure of the side guide plate (SGP) and the suction mode on the SGP have a great effect on the periodicity of the flow field. Therefore, the effect of structure on periodicity must be taken into consideration in order to obtain accurate data of the sector cascade experiment. In this paper, a compressor sector cascade composed of a row of adjustable guide vanes (AGVs) and a row of stators is designed. The effect of the circumferential angle, SGP structure and suction position on the periodicity is studied by numerical simulation. An optimal cascade scheme is selected for experimental research. The results show that a larger circumferential angle can weaken the effect of low-energy fluid near the SGP on the middle passages. However, given the limited experimental conditions, the circumferential angle is set at 110° which consists of 15 AGVs and 14 stators. What’s more, the SGP with the same bowed angle of AGV on both sides of the cascade can reduce the influence of the SGP on the adjacent passages and obtain a regular periodicity. The low-energy fluids still accumulate near the SGP. The suction near the stator suction side of the SGP can alleviate the blockage in the flow passage and further improve the periodicity of the cascade. Serious analysis of the experiment results have further identified that the suction near the stator suction side of SGP can make the aerodynamic parameters of the flow field uniform and lead to a good periodicity. At the same time, the feasibility of this design method is verified.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. Al-Hajeri ◽  
A. Aroussi ◽  
A. Witry

The present study numerically investigates two-dimensional laminar flow past three circular porous cylinders arranged in an in-line array. Six approaches to face velocity (Vi/Vf) ratios are used and particle trajectories are computed for a range of velocities and particle diameters. Furthermore, the flow past a solid cylinder, which had similar geometry characteristics to the porous cylinders used in this study, is compared with the flow around multiple porous cylinders. For the same range of Reynolds number (312–520), the flow behavior around the solid cylinder differs from the flow around the porous cylinders. The flow characteristics around solid cylinders are determined by the Reynolds number, whereas the flow characteristics around the porous cylinders are detrained by the Vi/Vf ratio. Stagnation areas are found behind each porous cylinder, and the size of these areas increases as the Vi/Vf velocity ratio increases. Furthermore, for the particle ranges used in power plants (<50 μm), the particles were uniformly distributed around the surface of the porous cylinders.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
The Hung Tran

The effect of a boattail angle on the structure of the wake of an axisymmetric model was investigated at low-speed condition. Four conical boattail models with angles of 0° (blunt-based body), 10°, 16°, and 22° were selected for this study. The Reynolds number based on the diameter of the model was around 1.97×104. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the velocity of the wake flow. The time-averaged flow characteristics including the length of recirculation of the afterbody, turbulent intensity, and Reynolds shear stress were analyzed and compared among those boattail models. The experimental results showed that the length of recirculation decreases with increasing boattail angle to 16°. At a boattail angle above 16°, the flow was fully separated near the shoulder and near-wake structure was highly changed. The turbulent intensity at a boattail angle of 22° showed a similar level to that in the case of the blunt-based body. Flow behavior on boattail surface should be accounted as an important parameter affecting the wake width and drag of the model. Power spectral density and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analyses showed that a Strouhal number of StD=0.2 dominated for the boattail model up to 16°. The fully separated flow was dominated by a Strouhal number of StD=0.03−0.06, which was firstly presented in this study.


2013 ◽  
Vol 561 ◽  
pp. 472-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Xing Du ◽  
Fa Hu Zhang ◽  
Dian Cai Geng ◽  
Ying Ge Li

Straight ducts capture some essential features of the motion of foam in porous media in petroleum industry. In this paper, Surface Evolver was employed to build the mathematical model to study the flow behavior of lamellas in the duct with different models. Numerical results show good agreement with experiments and some important features of lamella flow behavior in straight ducts are obtained. It is concluded that, the physical model with viscous force can adequately describe the flow characteristics of reality foam in the experiment. The actual pressure difference consists of the pressure difference caused by the curvature of the lamellas and the drag force on the boundary wall. Under the ideal condition of without drag force along the wall, the pressure drop for lamella flow in the duct is zero, and the shape and the velocity of the lamellas will maintain constant.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (03) ◽  
pp. 415-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najeeb S. Alharthy ◽  
Tadesse W. Teklu ◽  
Thanh N. Nguyen ◽  
Hossein Kazemi ◽  
Ramona M. Graves

Summary Understanding the mechanism of multicomponent mass transport in the nanopores of unconventional reservoirs, such as Eagle Ford, Niobrara, Woodford, and Bakken, is of great interest because it influences long-term economic development of such reservoirs. Thus, we began to examine the phase behavior and flow characteristics of multicomponent flow in primary production in nanoporous reservoirs. Besides primary recovery, our long-term objectives included enhanced oil production from such reservoirs. The first step was to evaluate the phase behavior in nanopores on the basis of pore-size distribution. This was motivated because the physical properties of hydrocarbon components are affected by wall proximity in nanopores as a result of van der Waals molecular interactions with the pore walls. For instance, critical pressure and temperature of hydrocarbon components shift to lower values as the nanopore walls become closer. In our research, we applied this kind of critical property shift to the hydrocarbon components of two Eagle Ford fluid samples. Then, we used the shifted phase characteristics in dual-porosity compositional modeling to determine the pore-to-pore flow characteristics, and, eventually, the flow behavior of hydrocarbons to the wells. In the simulation, we assigned three levels of phase behavior in the matrix and fracture pore spaces. In addition, the flow hierarchy included flow from matrix (nano-, meso-, and macropores) to macrofractures, from macrofractures to a hydraulic fracture (HF), and through the HF to the production well. From the simulation study, we determined why hydrocarbon fluids flow so effectively in ultralow-permeability shale reservoirs. The simulation also gave credence to the intuitive notion that favorable phase behavior (phase split) in the nanopores is one of the major reasons for production of commercial quantities of light oil and gas from shale reservoirs. It was determined that the implementation of confined-pore and midconfined-pore phase behavior lowers the bubblepoint pressure, and this, in turn, leads to a slightly higher oil recovery and lesser gas recovery. Also it was determined that the implementation of midconfined-pore and confined-pore phase-behavior shift reduces the retrograde liquid-condensation region, which in turn, leads to lower liquid yield while maintaining the same gas-production quantity. Finally, the important reason that we are able to produce shale reservoirs economically is “rubblizing” the reservoir matrix near HFs, which creates favorable permeability pathways to improve reservoir drainage. This is why multistage hydraulic fracturing is so critical for successful development of shale reservoirs.


Author(s):  
S. P. C. Belfroid ◽  
H. Pereboom ◽  
N. Gonzalez-Diez ◽  
A. Anantharaman

Abstract Multiphase flow induced vibrations are difficult to calculate. This is in part the prediction of the force frequency spectrum at a single bend, part the influence of bends on the multiphase flow behavior and therefore the prediction of the multiphase flow characteristics between bends. In this paper, the evolution of the forces between subsequent bends are discussed including the phase relations of the forces on the different bends. For annular flow, the forces between the different bends are incoherent and are more or less random. However, for stratified and especially slug flow, the forces remain coherent up to high frequencies. This means in a frequency response analysis of a piping structure, the transport velocity of the multiphase structures must be taken into account.


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