scholarly journals Spectral-Element Simulation of the Turbulent Flow in an Urban Environment

Author(s):  
Maxime Stuck ◽  
Alvaro Vidal ◽  
Pablo Torres ◽  
Hassan M. Nagib ◽  
Candace Wark ◽  
...  

The mean flow and turbulence statistics of the flow through a simplified urban environment, which is an active research area in order to improve the knowledge of turbulent flow in cities, is investigated. This is useful for civil engineering, pedestrian comfort and for health concerns caused by pollutant spreading. In this work, we provide analysis of the turbulence statistics obtained from well-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES). A detailed analysis of this database reveals the impact of the geometry of the urban array on the flow characteristics and provides for a good description of the turbulent features of the flow within a simplified urban environment. The most prominent features of this complex flow include coherent vortical structures such as the so-called arch vortex, the horseshoe vortex and the roof vortex. These structures of the flow have been identified by an analysis of the turbulence statistics. The influence of the geometry of the urban environment (and particularly the street width and the building height) on the overall flow behavior have also been studied. Finally, the well-resolved LES results were compared with the experimental database from Monnier et al. to discuss differences and similarities between the respective urban configurations.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 6472
Author(s):  
Maxime Stuck ◽  
Alvaro Vidal ◽  
Pablo Torres ◽  
Hassan M. Nagib ◽  
Candace Wark ◽  
...  

The mean flow and turbulence statistics of the flow through a simplified urban environment, which is an active research area in order to improve the knowledge of turbulent flow in cities, is investigated. This is useful for civil engineering, pedestrian comfort and for health concerns caused by pollutant spreading. In this work, we provide analysis of the turbulence statistics obtained from well-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES). A detailed analysis of this database reveals the impact of the geometry of the urban array on the flow characteristics and provides for a good description of the turbulent features of the flow within a simplified urban environment. The most prominent features of this complex flow include coherent vortical structures such as the so-called arch vortex, the horseshoe vortex and the roof vortex. These structures of flow have been identified by an analysis of the turbulence statistics. The influence of the geometry of urban environment (and particularly the street width and the building height) on the overall flow behavior has also been studied. Finally, the well-resolved LES results were compared with an available experimental database to discuss differences and similarities between the respective urban configurations.


Author(s):  
Matthew J. Golsen ◽  
Jahed Hossain ◽  
Anthony Bravato ◽  
John Harrington ◽  
Joshua Bernstein ◽  
...  

Aerodynamic unsteadiness generated upstream of the combustor basket via the complicated geometry of a modern gas turbine can lead to incomplete combustion, reduced efficiency, greater pressure drop, flashback, and reduced part life. The MidFrame section encompasses the main gas path from the compressor exit to the turbine inlet. Diffuser performance, support struts, transition pieces, and other flow obstructing geometries can lead to flow unsteadiness which can reduce performance. This study uses a combination of thermal anemometry, pressure microphone, and wall mounted accelerometer measurements to determine the primary unsteadiness frequencies and target their source. Diffuser performance is shown to have a significant impact on the downstream flow behavior. Inlet conditions are modified to provide a separated bottom wall and a fully attached compressor exit diffuser (CED) condition at an area average inlet Mach number of 0.26. Unsteadiness levels are seen to increase as a result of the separated inlet condition while the mean flow characteristics are slightly altered due to the varying exit trajectory of the main core from the CED, nevertheless the overall level of unsteadiness/turbulence is low for such a complex flow field (8 to 11 %). Results of this study can help diagnose and prevent the aforementioned issues for complicated geometries where simple flow experiments fall short.


2016 ◽  
Vol 796 ◽  
pp. 257-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian J. Kähler ◽  
Sven Scharnowski ◽  
Christian Cierpka

The understanding and accurate prediction of turbulent flow separation on smooth surfaces is still a challenging task because the separation and the reattachment locations are not fixed in space and time. Consequently, reliable experimental data are essential for the validation of numerical flow simulations and the characterization and analysis of the complex flow physics. However, the uncertainty of the existing near-wall flow measurements make a precise analysis of the near-wall flow features, such as separation/reattachment locations and other predicted near-wall flow features which are under debate, often impossible. Therefore, the periodic hill experiment at TU Munich (ERCOFTAC test case 81) was repeated using high resolution particle image velocimetry and particle tracking velocimetry. The results confirm the strong effect of the spatial resolution on the near-wall flow statistics. Furthermore, it is shown that statistically stable values of the turbulent flow variables can only be obtained for averaging times which are challenging to realize with highly resolved large eddy simulation and direct numerical simulation techniques. Additionally, the analysis implies that regions of correlated velocity fluctuations with rather uniform streamwise momentum exist in the flow. Their size in the mean flow direction can be larger than the hill spacing. The possible impact of the correlated turbulent motion on the wake region is discussed, as this interaction might be important for the understanding and control of the flow separation dynamics on smooth bodies.


Author(s):  
Caleb Stanley ◽  
Georgios Etsias ◽  
Steven Dabelow ◽  
Dimitrios Dermisis ◽  
Ning Zhang

Submerged breakwaters are favored for their design simplicity in projects intended to dissipate wave energy and reduce erosion on coastlines. Despite their popularity, the effects that submerged breakwaters exhibit on the surrounding hydrodynamics are not clearly understood, mainly due to the flow complexity generated from 3-dimensional turbulent structures in the vicinity of the breakwaters that affect the mean flow characteristics and the transport of sediment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects that various geometric designs of submerged permeable breakwaters have on the turbulent flow characteristics. To meet the objective of this study, laboratory experiments were performed in a water-recirculating flume, in which the 3-dimensional velocity field was recorded in the vicinity of scaled breakwater models. Breakwaters that were tested include non-permeable, three-hole, and ten-hole models. The experimental data obtained was compared to results obtained from numerical simulations. Results demonstrated that permeable breakwaters exhibit more vertical turbulent strength than their non-permeable counterparts. It was also discovered that three-hole breakwater models produce higher turbulent fluctuations than that of the ten-hole breakwaters. The results from this study will be used eventually to enhance the performance of restoration projects in coastal areas in Louisiana.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaudija Sapač ◽  
Anže Medved ◽  
Simon Rusjan ◽  
Nejc Bezak

It is not clear how projected climate change will impact the hydrological functioning of complex catchments that have significant karst characteristics. Therefore, in this paper we focused on the investigation of the low- and high-flow characteristics of the karst Ljubljanica River catchment. One smaller (51 km2) and one larger (1135 km2) catchment were selected in order to investigate the projected climate change impact on the hydrological conditions. For the investigation of the hydrological situation in the future, we used a lumped conceptual hydrological model. The model was calibrated using past measured daily data. Using the calibrated model, we investigated the impact of five different climate models outputs for the moderately optimistic scenario (RCP4.5). We investigated the situation in next 30-years periods: 2011–2040, 2041–2070, and 2071–2100. Several low and high-flow indices were calculated and compared. The results indicate that a summer precipitation decrease (i.e., 2011–2070) could lead to lower low-flow values for the investigated areas, which could increase the vulnerability of karst areas. Thus, additional focus should be given to water resource management in karst areas. On the other hand, mean flow could increase in the future. The same also applies for the high-flows where flood frequency analysis results indicate that a climate adaptation factor could be used for the hydrotechnical engineering design. However, differences among investigated models are large and show large variability among investigated cases.


2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 3397-3421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiye Yao ◽  
Christiane Jablonowski

Abstract The paper demonstrates that sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) can be simulated in an ensemble of dry dynamical cores that miss the typical SSW forcing mechanisms like moist processes, land–sea contrasts, or topography. These idealized general circulation model (GCM) simulations are driven by a simple Held–Suarez–Williamson (HSW) temperature relaxation and low-level Rayleigh friction. In particular, the four dynamical cores of NCAR’s Community Atmosphere Model, version 5 (CAM5), are used, which are the semi-Lagrangian (SLD) and Eulerian (EUL) spectral-transform models and the finite-volume (FV) and the spectral element (SE) models. Three research themes are discussed. First, it is shown that SSW events in such idealized simulations have very realistic flow characteristics that are analyzed via the SLD model. A single vortex-split event is highlighted that is driven by wavenumber-1 and -2 wave–mean flow interactions. Second, the SLD simulations are compared to the EUL, FV, and SE dynamical cores, which sheds light on the impact of the numerical schemes on the circulation. Only SLD produces major SSWs, while others only exhibit minor stratospheric warmings. These differences are caused by SLD’s more vigorous wave–mean flow interactions in addition to a warm pole bias, which leads to relatively weak polar jets in SLD. Third, it is shown that tropical quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO)–like oscillations and SSWs can coexist in such idealized HSW simulations. They are present in the SLD dynamical core that is used to analyze the QBO–SSW interactions via a transformed Eulerian-mean (TEM) analysis. The TEM results provide support for the Holton–Tan effect.


2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (7-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurul ‘Azizah Mukhlas ◽  
Nordiana Mashros ◽  
Othman Che Puan ◽  
Sitti Asmah Hassan ◽  
Norhidayah Abdul Hassan ◽  
...  

Understanding traffic behavior for obtaining a smooth, safe and economical traffic operation requires a thorough knowledge of traffic flow parameters and their mutual relationships.Eventhough adverse weather can reduce traffic efficiencies, there are still questions to answer regarding the relationship between weather conditions and traffic flow at night. This paper presents an investigation of the rainfall effects to the traffic flow characteristics on atwo-lane rural highway during night time. The traffic data and corresponding rainfall data for uninterrupted road segment of Federal route 3 at Dungun, Terengganu were collected under road lighting condition during the north-east monsoon season. The effect of good weather condition, light rain, moderate rain and heavy rain conditions on speed, flow and density were quantified and compared. Results from the analysis indicate that mean speed, mean flow and mean density are reduced under various rainfall conditions. In general, the impact of good weather and various rainfall conditions on Greenshield’s fundamental traffic flow relationship have weak correlations except for the relationship between flow and density. The important points in the fundamental diagram derived from flow-density relationships indicated that critical density, maximum flow, critical speed, jam density and free flow speed of roadway all decrease as rainfall intensity increases. It can be concluded that traffic flow characteristics of two-lane rural highway in Terengganu are affected by rainfall conditions.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Shyy ◽  
T. C. Vu

The spiral casing of a hydraulic turbine is a complex flow device which contains a passage of 360-degree turning and multiple elements of airfoils (the so-called distributor). A three-dimensional flow analysis has been made to predict the flow behavior inside the casing and distributor. The physical model employs a two-level approach, comprising of (1) a global model that adequately accounts for the geometry of the spiral casing but smears out the details of the distributor, and represents the multiple airfoils by a porous medium treatment, and (2) a local model that performs detailed analysis of flow in the distributor region. The global analysis supplies the inlet flow condition for the individual cascade of distributor airfoils, while the distributor analysis yields the information needed for modeling the characteristics of the porous medium. Comparisons of pressure and velocity profiles between measurement and prediction have been made to assess the validity of the present approach. Flow characteristics in the spiral casing are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Wang Kee In ◽  
Dong Seok Oh ◽  
Tae Hyun Chun

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed to investigate the coolant mixing in a nuclear fuel bundle that is promoted by the mixing vane on the grid spacer. Single and multiple subchannels of one grid span of the fuel bundle were modeled to simulate a 5×5 rod array experiment with the mixing vane. The three-dimensional CFD models were generated by a structured multi-block method. The standard k-ε turbulence model was used in the current CFD simulation since it is practically useful and converges well for the complex turbulent flow in a nuclear fuel bundle. The CFD predictions of axial and lateral mean flow velocities showed a somewhat large difference from the experimental results near the spacer but represented the overall characteristics of coolant mixing well in a nuclear fuel bundle with the mixing vane. Comparison of single and multiple subchannel predictions shows good agreement of the flow characteristics in the central subchannel of the rod array. The simulation of multiple subchannels shows a slightly off-centered swirl in the peripheral subchannels due to the external wall of the rod array. It also shows no significant swirl and crossflow in the wall subchannels and the corner subchannels.


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