A Study of Turbulent Flows in Pipe Bends

Author(s):  
W N Al-Rafai ◽  
Y D Tridimas ◽  
N H Woolley

An experimental and numerical study of turbulent air flow in circular section pipe bends was carried out in order to determine the influence of bend curvature on the flow. Two bends were used, with inside diameters of 43 mm and curvature ratios of 1:13.95 and 1:6.98. The corresponding Dean numbers were 9138 and 12919. The Reynolds number for both cases was 34132. Measurements of mean streamwise and r.m.s. velocities were made using laser Doppler anemometry. Numerical modelling was based on the commercial computer package ‘PHOENICS’, employing a k-ɛ turbulence model, standard wall functions and a three-dimensional elliptic solution procedure. The results showed that the secondary flow as more prevalent in the smaller bend. In view of certain simplifying assumptions in the theoretical model, encouraging agreement between experimental results and numerical predictions was obtained.

Author(s):  
H Fu ◽  
M J Tindal ◽  
A P Watkins ◽  
M Yianneskis

This paper presents a numerical study of the flows in an internal combustion engine inlet manifold. The three-dimensional turbulent flows through a single branched manifold were simulated using the κ-ɛ model of turbulence. The flow structure was characterized in detail and the effects of the flow split ratio and inlet flowrate were investigated. Detailed measurements were performed to validate the numerical predictions, using laser Doppler anemometry. Good agreement was obtained between the predicted and the measured mean velocities. The predicted levels of turbulence energy are in qualitative agreement with the measurements.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 1079
Author(s):  
Lena Mahl ◽  
Patrick Heneka ◽  
Martin Henning ◽  
Roman B. Weichert

The efficiency of a fishway is determined by the ability of immigrating fish to follow its attraction flow (i.e., its jet) to locate and enter the fishway entrance. The hydraulic characteristics of fishway entrance jets can be simplified using findings from widely investigated surface jets produced by shaped nozzles. However, the effect of the different boundary conditions of fishway entrance jets (characterized by vertical entrance slots) compared to nozzle jets must be considered. We investigate the downstream propagation of attraction jets from the vertical slot of a fishway entrance into a quiescent tailrace, considering the following boundary conditions not considered for nozzle jets: (1) slot geometry, (2) turbulence characteristics of the approach flow to the slot, and (3) presence of a lateral wall downstream of the slot. We quantify the effect of these boundary conditions using three-dimensional hydrodynamic-numeric flow simulations with DES and RANS turbulence models and a volume-of-fluid method (VoF) to simulate the free water surface. In addition, we compare jet propagation with existing analytical methods for describing jet propagations from nozzles. We show that a turbulent and inhomogeneous approach flow towards a vertical slot reduces the propagation length of the slot jet in the tailrace due to increased lateral spreading compared to that of a jet produced by a shaped nozzle. An additional lateral wall in the tailrace reduces lateral spreading and significantly increases the propagation length. For highly turbulent flows at fishway entrances, the RANS model tends to overestimate the jet propagation compared to the transient DES model.


Author(s):  
N. Lymberopoulos ◽  
K. Giannakoglou ◽  
I. Nikolaou ◽  
K. D. Papailiou ◽  
A. Tourlidakis ◽  
...  

Mechanical constraints dictate the existence of tip clearances in rotating cascades, resulting to a flow leakage through this clearance which considerably influences the efficiency and range of operation of the machine. Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solvers are often used for the numerical study of compressor and turbine stages with tip-clearance. The quality of numerical predictions depends strongly on how accurately the blade tip region is modelled; in this respect the accurate modelling of tip region was one of the main goals of this work. In the present paper, a 3-D Navier-Stokes solver is suitably adapted so that the flat tip surface of a blade and its sharp edges could be accurately modelled, in order to improve the precision of the calculation in the tip region. The adapted code solves the fully elliptic, steady, Navier-Stokes equations through a space-marching algorithm and a pressure correction technique; the H-type topology is retained, even in cases with thick leading edges where a special treatment is introduced herein. The analysis is applied to two different cases, a linear cascade and a compressor rotor, and comparisons with experimental data are provided.


Author(s):  
S-J Seo ◽  
K-Y Kim ◽  
S-H Kang

A numerical study is presented for Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes analysis of three-dimensional turbulent flows in a multiblade centrifugal fan. Present work aims at development of a relatively simple analysis method for these complex flows. A mathematical model of impeller forces is obtained from the integral analysis of the flow through the impeller. A finite volume method for discretization of governing equations and a standard k-ɛ model as turbulence closure are employed. For the validation of the mathematical model, the computational results for velocity components, static pressure, and flow angles at the exit of the impeller were compared with experimental data. The comparisons show generally good agreement, especially at higher flow coefficients.


Author(s):  
Patrick H. Oosthuizen ◽  
David Naylor

The horizontal frame members that often protrude from the inner surface of a window can significantly effect the convective heat transfer rate from this inner surface to the room. The purpose of the present numerical study was to determine how the size of a pair of horizontal frame members effect this heat transfer rate. The flow has been assumed to be steady and conditions under which laminar, transitional, and turbulent flows occur are considered. Fluid properties have been assumed constant except for the density change with temperature that gives rise to the buoyancy forces, this being dealt with using the Boussinesq approach. The governing equations have been solved using the FLUENT commercial CFD code. The k-epsilon turbulence model with standard wall functions and with buoyancy force effects fully accounted for has been used. The solution has the following parameters: the Rayleigh number, the Prandtl number, the dimensionless window recess depth, and the dimensionless width and depth of the frame members. Results have been obtained for a Prandtl number of 0.74.


2005 ◽  
Vol 122 (3) ◽  
pp. 42-55
Author(s):  
Jorge BARATA

The present paper presents a numerical study on evaporating droplets injected through a turbulent cross-stream. Several models have been used with more or less success to describe similar phenomena, but much of the reported work deals only with sprays in stagnant surroundings. The ultimate goal of this study is to develop an Eulerian/Lagragian approach to account for turbulent transport, dispersion, evaporation and coupling between both processes in practical spray injection systems, which usually include air flows in the combustion chamber like swirl, tumble and squish in I.C. engines or crossflow in gas turbines. In this work a method developed to study isothermal turbulent dispersion is extended to the case of an array of evaporating droplets through a crossflow, and the performance of two different evaporation models widely used is investigated. The convection terms were evaluated using the hybrid or the higher order QUICK scheme. The dispersed phase was treated using a Lagrangian reference frame. The differences between the two evaporation models and its applicability to the present flow are analysed in detail. During the preheating period of the Chen and Pereira [1] model the droplets are transported far away from the injector by the crossflow, while with the Sommerfeld [2] formulation for evaporation the droplet has a continuous variation of the diameter. This result has profound implications on the results because the subsequent heat transfer and turbulent dispersion is extremely affected by the size of the particles (or droplets). As a consequence, droplet diameter, temperature and mass fraction distributions were found to be strongly dependent on the evaporation model used. So, a new formulation that takes into account also the transport of the evaporating droplets needs to be developed if practical injection systems are to be simulated. Also, in order to better evaluate and to improve the vaporization models more detailed measurements of three-dimensional configurations are required.


Author(s):  
Daniel J. Garmann ◽  
Miguel R. Visbal ◽  
Paul D. Orkwis

A numerical study is conducted to examine the vortex structure about a revolving wing in quiescent flow employing a high-fidelity, implicit large eddy simulation (ILES) technique found to be effective in simulating flows that exhibit interspersed regions of laminar, transitional, and turbulent flows. The revolving wing configuration consists of a single, aspect ratio one rectangular plate extended out a distance of 0.5 chords from the origin. Shortly after the onset of the motion, the rotating wing generates a stable and coherent vortex system across the leading edge and wing root that remains throughout the motion. The aerodynamic loads are also analyzed and found to remain mostly constant during the maneuver. Transitional effects on the vortex system are investigated over a range of Reynolds numbers (3,000 < Re < 15,000). It is found that higher Reynolds numbers promote more breakdown of the leading edge and root vortices, but do not alter the stability of the vortex system. The aerodynamic loads also show little sensitivity to Reynolds number with the higher Reynolds numbers producing only moderately higher forces. Comparisons with recent experimental PIV measurements using a PIV-like data reduction technique applied to the computational solution show very favorable agreement with the mid-span velocity and vorticity contours.


1991 ◽  
Vol 231 ◽  
pp. 501-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lambros Kaiktsis ◽  
George Em Karniadakis ◽  
Steven A. Orszag

A numerical study of three-dimensional equilibria and transition to turbulence in flow over a backward-facing step is performed using direct numerical solution of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The numerical method is a high-order-accurate mixed spectral/spectral-element method with efficient viscous outflow boundary conditions. The appearance of three-dimensionality in nominally two-dimensional geometries is investigated at representative Reynolds numbers ranging from the onset of three-dimensional bifurcation to later transitional stages. Strongly three-dimensional regions are identified through standard correlation coefficients and new three-dimensionality indices, as well as through instantaneous and time-average streamline patterns and vorticity contours. Our results indicate that onset of three-dimensionality occurs at the boundaries between the primary and secondary recirculating zones with the main channel flow, the latter being the most stable flow component. There is. therefore, strong secondary instability in the shear layers, mainly due to the one emanating from the step corner.The flow further downstream is excited through the action of the upstream shear layers acquiring a wavy form closely resembling Tollmien–Schlichting waves both spatially and temporally with a characteristic frequency f1; upstream, at the shear layer another incommensurate frequency, f2, is present. The two-frequency flow locks-in to a single frequency if external excitations are imposed at the inflow at a frequency close to f1 or f2; the smaller amplitude excitations, however, may cause a strong quasi-periodic response. Such excitations may significantly increase or decrease (by more than 20%) the length of the primary separation zone XR at lock-in or quasi-periodic states. The equilibrium states resulting from the secondary instability at supercritical Reynolds numbers produce a flow modulated in the spanwise direction, with corresponding variations in the reattachment location XR. While three-dimensionality explains partially the discrepancy between numerical predictions and experimental results on XR at higher Reynolds number Re, the main source of discrepancy is attributed to the inflow conditions, and in particular to external disturbances superimposed on the mean flow, the latter being the main reason also for the somewhat earlier transition found in laboratory experiments.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rau´l Barrio ◽  
Jorge Parrondo ◽  
Eduardo Blanco ◽  
Joaqui´n Ferna´ndez

A numerical study is presented on the unsteady flow at the tongue region of a single suction volute-type centrifugal pump with a specific speed of 0.46. The flow through the pump, available at laboratory, was simulated by means of a commercial CFD software that solved the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations for three-dimensional unsteady flow (3D-URANS). A sensitivity analysis of the numerical model was carried out and the numerical predictions were compared with previous experimental results of both global and unsteady variables. Once validated, the model was used to study the flow pulsations associated to the interaction between the impeller blades and the volute tongue as a function of the flow rate, from partial load to overload. The study allowed relating the passage of the impeller blades with the tangential and radial velocity pulsations at some reference positions and with the pressure pulsations at the tongue region.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (3) ◽  
pp. 631-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. Singh ◽  
E. Leonardi ◽  
G. R. Thorpe

This paper presents a numerical study of three-dimensional, laminar natural convection in an enclosure containing a fluid layer overlying a porous layer saturated with the same fluid. The Brinkman-extended Darcy formulation is used to model fluid flow in the porous layer as this facilitates the imposition of a no-slip boundary condition at the fluid/porous layer interface. The enclosure is heated from one side wall and cooled from an opposite wall, while the remaining walls are adiabatic. The mathematical analysis is carried out in terms of a vorticity-vector potential formulation that ensures the conservation of mass. The governing equations in non-dimensional form are transformed into parabolic equations by means of a false transient method in order to facilitate a solution procedure by an alternating direction implicit method. Accuracy of the numerical solutions with respect to uniformly and nonuniformly spaced grid points has been tested by performing extensive numerical experiments. As expected, it is found that the intensity of free convection is much more profound in the fluid layer. The numerical results indicate that penetration of the fluid into the porous region depends strongly upon the Darcy and Rayleigh numbers. The effect of the ratio of thermal conductivities (porous to fluid regions) is to intensify the convection current in the fluid layer.


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