scholarly journals A Computational Fluid Dynamics Model for a Water Vortex Power Plant as Platform for Etho- and Ecohydraulic Research

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 639
Author(s):  
Dennis Powalla ◽  
Stefan Hoerner ◽  
Olivier Cleynen ◽  
Nadine Müller ◽  
Jürgen Stamm ◽  
...  

The objective of the present paper is to develop a validated numerical model of a water vortex power plant that serves as a digital twin for further studies such as assessments of the ethohydraulic characteristics or the performance of such devices. The reference for the validation process is a large-scale hydraulic installation equipped with a full-scale water vortex power plant prototype installed in Dresden (Germany), where flow field measurements were carried out using three-dimensional Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry. The numerical model was implemented within the software package Star-CCM+. The unsteady, two-phase flow was solved with the Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations in a Eulerian Multiphase approach, deploying a Volume of Fluid method to describe the free-surface flow. Water level and flow velocities were systematically compared in key areas of the device, demonstrating that the simulation is in good agreement with experimental observations. Relative differences are limited to at most 4% regarding water height in the system, and even the much more challenging velocity fields are reproduced with typical relative errors of roughly 10%. This validates the ability of the model to model the challenging flow conditions found in a water vortex power plant, enabling subsequent studies of the characteristics of this power plant concerning fish migration.

2013 ◽  
Vol 353-356 ◽  
pp. 2496-2501
Author(s):  
Biao Lv

A three dimensional non-hydrostatic numerical model is presented based on the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations and mass transport equations. An unstructured finite-volume technique is used to discretized the governing equations with good adaptable to complicated boundary. A conservative scalar transport algorithm is also applied in this model. An integral method of the top- layer pressure is applied to reduce the number of vertical layers. Three classical examples including periodic waves propagating over a submerged bar and non-hydrostatic lock exchange are used to demonstrate the capability and efficiency of the model. The simulation results are in good agreement with the analytical solution and experimental data.


Fluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 350
Author(s):  
Georgios A. Leftheriotis ◽  
Iason A. Chalmoukis ◽  
Guillermo Oyarzun ◽  
Athanassios A. Dimas

An advanced numerical model is presented for the simulation of wave-induced free-surface flow, utilizing an efficient hybrid parallel implementation. The model is based on the solution of the Navier–Stokes equations using large-eddy simulation of large-scale coastal free-surface flows. The three-dimensional immersed boundary method was used for the enforcement of the no-slip boundary condition on the bed surface. The water-air interface was tracked using the level-set method. The numerical model was effectively validated against laboratory measurements involving wave propagation over a flatbed with an elliptical shoal, whose presence induces combined wave refraction and diffraction phenomena. The parallel implementation of the model enabled the efficient simulation of depth-resolved, wave-induced, three-dimensional, free-surface flow; the model parallel efficiency and strong scaling are quantitatively demonstrated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Reidar B. Olsen ◽  
Stefan Haun

AbstractSoil slides can occur when the water level in a lake or a reservoir is lowered. This may take place in situations when a reservoir is flushed to remove sediments. The current study describes a three-dimensional numerical model used for the simulation of reservoir flushing that includes the slide movements. The geotechnical failure algorithms start with modelling the groundwater levels at the banks of the reservoir. A limit equilibrium approach is further used to find the location of the slides. The actual movement of the sediments is computed by assuming the soil to be a viscous liquid and by solving the Navier–Stokes equations. The resulting bed elevation changes from the slides are computed in adaptive grids that change as a function of water level, bed erosion and slide movements. The numerical model is tested on the Bodendorf reservoir in Austria, where field measurements are available of the bank elevations before and after a flushing operation. The results from the numerical simulations are compared with these observations. A parameter test shows that the results are very sensitive to the cohesion and less sensitive to the E and G modules of the soil.


2000 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. R. B. Olsen ◽  
D. K. Lysne

A three-dimensional numerical model was used to model water circulation and spatial variation of temperature in Lake Sperillen in Norway. A winter situation was simulated, with thermal stratification and ice cover. The numerical model solved the Navier-Stokes equations on a 3D unstructured non-orthogonal grid with hexahedral cells. The SIMPLE method was used for the pressure coupling and the k-ε model was used to model turbulence, with a modification for density stratification due to the vertical temperature profile. The results were compared with field measurements of the temperature in the lake, indicating the location of the water current. Reasonably good agreement was found.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiao-ling Ji ◽  
Xi-zeng Zhao ◽  
Sheng Dong

A two-phase flow model is developed to study violent impact flow problem. The model governed by the Navier-Stokes equations with free surface boundary conditions is solved by a Constrained Interpolation Profile (CIP)-based high-order finite difference method on a fixed Cartesian grid system. The free surface is immersed in the computation domain and expressed by a one-fluid density function. An accurate Volume of Fluid (VOF)-type scheme, the Tangent of Hyperbola for Interface Capturing (THINC), is combined for the free surface treatment. Results of another two free surface capturing methods, the original VOF and CIP, are also presented for comparison. The validity and utility of the numerical model are demonstrated by applying it to two dam-break problems: a small-scale two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) full scale simulations and a large-scale 2D simulation. Main attention is paid to the water elevations and impact pressure, and the numerical results show relatively good agreement with available experimental measurements. It is shown that the present numerical model can give a satisfactory prediction for violent impact flow.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Hilgersom ◽  
Marcel Zijlema ◽  
Nick van de Giesen

Abstract. The three-dimensional (3-D) modelling of water systems involving double-diffusive processes is challenging due to the large computation times required to solve the flow and transport of constituents. In systems that approach axisymmetry around a central location, computation times can be reduced by applying a quasi 3-D axisymmetric model setup. This article applies the Navier-Stokes equations described in cylindrical coordinates, and integrates them to guarantee mass and momentum conservation. The discretized equations are presented in a way that a Cartesian finite volume model can be easily extended to this quasi 3-D framework, which is demonstrated by the implementation into a non-hydrostatic free-surface flow model. This model employs temperature and salinity dependent densities, molecular diffusivities, and kinematic viscosity. Four qualitative case studies demonstrate a good behaviour with respect to expected density and diffusivity driven flow and stratification in shallow water bodies. A fifth case study involves a new validation method that quantifies the radial expansion of a dense water layer developing from a central inflow at the bottom of a shallow water body.


Author(s):  
Van-Tu Nguyen ◽  
Warn-Gyu Park

In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical investigation of dam-break and water entry problems with emphasis on the water impact loading is presented. Flow fields of incompressible viscous fluids are solved using unsteady Navier-Stokes equations (NS). Pseudo-time derivatives are introduced into the equations to improve computational efficiency. The interface between two phases is tracked using a volume-of-fluid (VOF) interface tracking algorithm developed in a generalized curvilinear coordinate system. The accuracy and capability of the numerical model for free surface flow simulations are demonstrated by using experiments of the dam-break flow over a horizontal dry bed. The water impact problem has been analyzed by free falling water entry of a hemisphere and a cone. Comparisons between the obtained solutions, the experimental data and the results of other numerical simulations in the literature are presented exhibiting good agreement.


Author(s):  
Stefan Puttinger ◽  
Mahdi Saeedipour

AbstractThis paper presents an experimental investigation on the interactions of a deflected submerged jet into a liquid pool with its above interface in the absence and presence of an additional lighter liquid. Whereas the former is a free surface flow, the latter mimics a situation of two stratified liquids where the liquid-liquid interface is disturbed by large-scale motions in the liquid pool. Such configurations are encountered in various industrial applications and, in most cases, it is of major interest to avoid the entrainment of droplets from the lighter liquid into the main flow. Therefore, it is important to understand the fluid dynamics in such configurations and to analyze the differences between the cases with and without the additional liquid layer. To study this problem, we applied time-resolved particle image velocimetry experiments with high spatial resolution. A detailed data analysis of a small layer beneath the interface shows that although the presence of an additional liquid layer stabilizes the oscillations of the submerged jet significantly, the amount of kinetic energy, enstrophy, and velocity fluctuations concentrated in the proximity of the interface is higher when the oil layer is present. In addition, we analyze the energy distribution across the eigenmodes of a proper orthogonal distribution and the distribution of strain and vortex dominated regions. As the main objective of this study, these high-resolution time-resolved experimental data provide a validation platform for the development of new models in the context of the volume of fluid-based large eddy simulation of turbulent two-phase flows.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2511
Author(s):  
Jintao Liu ◽  
Di Xu ◽  
Shaohui Zhang ◽  
Meijian Bai

This paper investigates the physical processes involved in the water filling and air expelling process of a pipe with multiple air valves under water slow filling condition, and develops a fully coupledwater–air two-phase stratified numerical model for simulating the process. In this model, the Saint-Venant equations and the Vertical Average Navier–Stokes equations (VANS) are respectively applied to describe the water and air in pipe, and the air valve model is introduced into the VANS equations of air as the source term. The finite-volume method and implicit dual time-stepping method (IDTS) with two-order accuracy are simultaneously used to solve this numerical model to realize the full coupling between water and air movement. Then, the model is validated by using the experimental data of the pressure evolution in pipe and the air velocity evolution of air valves, which respectively characterize the water filling and air expelling process. The results show that the model performs well in capturing the physical processes, and a reasonable agreement is obtained between numerical and experimental results. This agreement demonstrates that the proposed model in this paper offers a practical method for simulating water filling and air expelling process in a pipe with multiple air valves under water slow filling condition.


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