scholarly journals A body force model to assess the impact of a swimmer’s arm on propelled swimming resistance

Author(s):  
Joseph Banks ◽  
Alexander B Phillips ◽  
Dominic A Hudson ◽  
Stephen R Turnock

The dynamic forces acting on a swimmer’s body are notoriously difficult to measure experimentally, thus motivating many researchers to use computational fluid dynamics to assess the propulsion and resistance forces. To assess both the thrust generated and the self-propelled resistance, fully dynamic simulations are required, including the large range of body motions involved in swimming. This comes with a heavy computational cost and often limits the ability of the method to resolve detailed flow features associated with resistance force. This article applies a body force approach to propelled swimming simulations by combining an unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes simulation of the passive resistance with momentum source terms which accelerate the fluid in the location of the arm to represent the impact the arm has on the flow. Both passive and active towed swimming experiments were conducted and compared with the simulations. Despite observing a 24% variation in the pressure resistance associated with the arm entry, the arms had no significant effect on the mean propelled resistance of a swimmer. The passive resistance methodology agreed well with experimental data.

Author(s):  
Palak Saini ◽  
Jeff Defoe

Abstract Body force models enable inexpensive numerical simulations of turbomachinery. The approach replaces the blades with sources of momentum/energy. Such models capture a “smeared out” version of the blades’ effect on the flow, reducing computational cost. The body force model used in this paper has been widely used in aircraft engine applications. Its implementation for low speed, low solidity (few blades) turbomachines, such as automotive cooling fans, enables predictions of cooling flows and component temperatures without calibrated fan curves. Automotive cooling fans tend to have less than 10 blades, which is approximately 50% of blade counts for modern jet engine fans. The effect this has on the body force model predictions is unknown and the objective of this paper is to quantify how varying blade count affects the accuracy of the predictions for both uniform and non-uniform inflow. The key findings are that reductions in blade metal blockage combined with spanwise flow redistribution drives the body force model to more accurately predict work coefficient as the blade count decreases, and that reducing the number of blades is found to have negligible impacts on upstream influence and distortion transfer in non-uniform inflow until extremely low blade counts (such as 2) are applied.


Author(s):  
Quentin J. Minaker ◽  
Jeffrey J. Defoe

Modern aircraft engines must accommodate inflow distortions entering the engines as a consequence of modifying the size, shape, and placement of the engines and/or nacelle to increase propulsive efficiency and reduce aircraft weight and drag. It is important to be able to predict the interactions between the external flow and the fan early in the design process. This is challenging due to computational cost and limited access to detailed fan/engine geometry. In this, the first part of a two part paper, we present a design process that produces a fan gas path and body force model with performance representative of modern high bypass ratio turbofan engines. The target users are those with limited experience in turbomachinery design or limited access to fan geometry. We employ quasi-1D analysis and a series of simplifying assumptions to produce a gas path and the body force model inputs. Using a body force model of the fan enables steady computational fluid dynamics simulations to capture fan–distortion interaction. The approach is verified for the NASA Stage 67 transonic fan. An example of the design process is also included; the model generated is shown to meet the desired fan stagnation pressure ratio and thrust to within 1%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Hill ◽  
J. J. Defoe

Abstract This paper numerically explores the manner in which blade row inlet incidence variation scales with various distortion patterns and intensities. The objectives are to (1) identify the most appropriate parameter whose circumferential variation can be used to assess scaling relationships of a transonic compressor and (2) use this parameter to evaluate two types of non-uniform inflow patterns, vertically stratified total pressure distortions and radially stratified total enthalpy and total pressure distortions. A body force model of the blade rows is employed to reduce computational cost; the approach has been shown to capture distortion transfer and to be able to predict upstream flow redistribution with inlet distortion. Diffusion factor is shown to be an inadequate proxy for streamline loss generation in non-uniform flow, leading to the choice of incidence angle variations as the metric for which we assess scaling relationships. Posteriori scaling of circumferential flow angle variation based on the maximum incidence excursion for varying distortion intensity yields an accurate method for prediction of the impact for other distortion intensities; linear regression of the maximum variation in incidence around the annulus as a function of distortion intensity had R2 > 0.97 for all spanwise locations examined in both the rotor and stator for both vertically and radially stratified distortions. However, changes to far upstream distortion shape yield highly non-linear incidence variation scaling; the results suggest that the pitchwise gradients of far upstream total pressure govern the degree of linearity for incidence variation scaling.


Author(s):  
Xue-Qin Ji ◽  
Chen-Jun Yang ◽  
Xiao-Qian Dong

Abstract The pump-jet propulsor consists of a duct, a rotor and stators which are installed upstream of the rotor to provide pre-swirl flow or downstream of rotor to absorb the kinetic energy in the flow. The strong interactions between the three components and the vehicle are closely related to their design and exert great effect on noise and hydrodynamic performance. This paper attempts to develop an effective and efficient method for the optimal design of the duct and the pre-swirl stators under the influence of vehicle and rotor via viscous flow CFD simulations. In this paper, the two key parameters, attack angle of the duct and pitch angle of pre-swirl stators, are investigated. The numerical simulations are based on the solution of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations using a two-layer realizable k-ε model for turbulence closure. The computational domain is discretized into mixed unstructured cells. The software package STAR-CCM+ is used for both grid generations and flow simulations. The rotor is replaced by the body-force model which is proposed according to the load distribution of the rotor in pump-jet propulsor. Total thrust of body force balances the resistance of a fully-appended underwater vehicle and its propulsor in the self-propulsion simulations and torque is determined by assuming that the propulsive efficiency is 80%. To the end of the optimal design, the total resistance, as the main consideration, and detailed flow field, such as pressure distribution, are numerically investigated for varied attack angles of the duct and pitch angles of pre-swirl stator. It is shown that the two parameters have significant impact on the performance of the propulsor and the recommended design is given.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Palak Saini ◽  
Jeff Defoe

Abstract Body force models enable inexpensive numerical simulations of turbomachinery. The approach replaces the blades with sources of momentum/energy. Such models capture a “smeared out” version of the blades' effect on the flow, reducing computational cost. The body force model used in this paper has been widely used in aircraft engine applications. Its implementation for low speed, low solidity (few blades) turbomachines, such as automotive cooling fans, enables predictions of cooling flows and component temperatures without calibrated fan curves. Automotive cooling fans tend to have less than 10 blades, which is approximately 50% of blade counts for modern jet engine fans. The effect this has on the body force model predictions is unknown and the objective of this paper is to quantify how varying blade count affects the accuracy of the predictions for both uniform and non-uniform inflow. The key findings are that reductions in blade metal blockage combined with spanwise flow redistribution drives the body force model to more accurately predict work coefficient as the blade count decreases, and that reducing the number of blades is found to have negligible impacts on upstream influence and distortion transfer in non-uniform inflow until extremely low blade counts (such as 2) are applied.


Author(s):  
J. F. Gülich

Three-dimensional Navier—Stokes calculations are expected to be increasingly applied in the future for performance improvement of rotodynamic pumps. Frequently such an optimization process involves a preliminary design—based on one-dimensional methods and empirical data—which is subsequently optimized by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Employing an empirical database is not only necessary in order to provide a good starting point for the CFD analysis but also to ensure that the design has a good chance of fulfilling part load requirements, since recirculating flows at the impeller inlet and outlet are not easily handled by CFD programs. CFD calculations provide the specific work input to the fluid and information on losses and reveal the complex three-dimensional flow patterns. The designer is faced with the task of interpreting such data and drawing conclusions for the optimization of the impeller. It is the purpose of the present contribution to analyse and describe the impact of various geometric parameters and flow features on the velocity distribution in the impeller and their influence on performance and part load characteristics. Criteria are also provided to select the parameters for the preliminary design. Hydraulic impeller losses calculated by CFD programs may often be misleading if the non-uniformity of the flow distribution at the impeller outlet is ignored. Procedures to quantify such mixing losses in the diffuser or volute downstream of the impeller are discussed.


Author(s):  
Zhiyuan Liu ◽  
Qingjun Zhao ◽  
Xiaorong Xiang ◽  
Wei Zhao ◽  
Xiaoyong Zhou

The flow in centrifugal compressors is viscous and unsteady. Flow separation off the blades challenges the accuracy of simulations. A viscous body force model is expected to speed up numerical convergence and reduce the computational costs of unsteady simulations. In this paper, both stability and accuracy of the viscous body force model are investigated based on the case of a low-speed centrifugal compressor. First, two formulations of the viscous body forces are obtained from the expression of the viscous flux. Then, the numerical stability of two body force models is found to be related to drag coefficient and flow angle. For large negative drag coefficients, the viscous body forces would lead to divergences. Since unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations show that two formulas have considerable accuracy, stability is considered as the main factor for modeling. With the findings, a hybrid viscous body force method is proposed. To assess the applicability of the hybrid model, two test cases are compared against the results obtained by unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations. The first case is the capability evaluation of unsteady characteristics capture for low-speed centrifugal compressors. The simulation results show that the hybrid viscous body force model can capture main unsteady viscous characters, including wake vortexes and tip leakage flow. The other is the case in which the inlet total pressure is disturbed. It is found that fluctuations of pressure, temperature, and velocity predicted by the viscous body force method are close to unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes results. In addition, the time-accurate overall performance of the compressor with disturbance is also predicted satisfactorily. With the advantage in lowering computer resource requirement, the viscous body force model is a promising method for long length scale unsteady cases.


Author(s):  
Syamak Pazireh ◽  
Jeffrey J. Defoe

Body force models of fans and compressors are widely employed for predicting performance due to the reduction in computational cost associated with their use, particularly in nonuniform inflows. Such models are generally divided into a portion responsible for flow turning and another for loss generation. Recently, accurate, uncalibrated turning force models have been developed, but accurate loss generation models have typically required calibration against higher fidelity computations (especially when flow separation occurs). In this paper, a blade profile loss model is introduced which requires the trailing edge boundary layer momentum thicknesses. To estimate the momentum thickness for a given blade section, an artificial neural network is trained using over 400,000 combinations of blade section shape and flow conditions. A blade-to-blade flow field solver is used to generate the training data. The model obtained depends only on blade geometry information and the local flow conditions, making its implementation in a typical computational fluid dynamics framework straightforward. We show good agreement in the prediction of profile loss for 2D cascades both on and off design in the defined ranges for the neural network training.


Author(s):  
Salim El Bouzidi ◽  
Marwan Hassan ◽  
Lais L. Fernandes ◽  
Atef Mohany

Fluidelastic instability can have disastrous effects on the integrity of steam generators. Over the last five decades there has been a great deal of research done in an attempt to understand this phenomenon. These efforts have resulted in several theoretical models and design guidelines. The semi-analytical model of fluidelastic instability initially developed by Lever and Weaver is based on a single tube in a channel flow. The mechanism responsible for instability was found to be one of flow redistribution. While previous studies have been able to characterize the pressure and velocity within a tube bundle, the behaviour of the area of the channel has not yet been fully investigated. The current study aims to characterize the area of the channel surrounding the tube. Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations are cast in an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) form and are used to compute the flow conditions in a rigid tube bundle due to a single flexible tube vibrating in the transverse direction. The properties of the velocity field are used to determine the channel boundaries. Properties of the channel area such as area perturbation, mean area, and area phase are investigated for various reduced flow velocities. Dynamic simulations are conducted to determine the impact on the stability threshold for transverse fluid force cases using a mass damping parameter range of 10–200.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Hill ◽  
Jeffrey J. Defoe

Aeroengine fans and compressors increasingly operate subject to inlet distortion in the transonic flow regime. In this paper, innovations to low-order numerical modeling of fans and compressors via volumetric source terms (body forces) are presented. The approach builds upon past work to accommodate any axial fan/compressor geometry and ensures accurate work input and efficiency prediction across a range of flow coefficients. In particular, the efficiency drop-off near choke is captured. The model for a particular blade row is calibrated using data from single-passage bladed computations. Compared to full-wheel unsteady computations which include the fan/compressor blades, the source term model approach can reduce computational cost by at least two orders of magnitude through a combination of reducing grid resolution and, critically, eliminating the need for a time-resolved approach. The approach is applied to NASA stage 67. For uniform flow, at 90% corrected speed and peak-efficiency, the body force model is able to predict the total-to-total pressure rise coefficient of the stage to within 1.43% and the isentropic efficiency to within 0.03%. With a 120∘ sector of reduced inlet total pressure, distortion transfer through the machine is well-captured and the associated efficiency penalty predicted with less than 2.7% error.


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