Study on the cleaning effect of atomized droplets on the aero-engine

The aero-engine will produce fouling during operation, which will affect the engine performance. On-line cleaning can effectively remove fouling, in order to solve the problem of the poor cleaning effect for aero-engine on-wing cleaning and carry out numerical simulation of the on-line cleaning process. The discrete phase model is used to optimize the particle size and mass flow of the cleaning fluid. The erosion rate and vorticity of the droplets on the blade surface are used as the effect target to simulate and optimize the cleaning process parameters to obtain a better particle size range and the ratio of cleaning fluid to air mass flow. Through the evaluation of the cleaning process parameters of the aero-engine on-wing cleaning test and the analysis of the engine exhaust temperature margin (EGTM) data, it is concluded that the cleaning effect is improved by nearly 40%.

The Operation of a Three-Bladed Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine under Hailstorm Conditions—A Computational Study Focused on Aerodynamic Performance

The aim of this study is the aerodynamic degradation of a three-bladed Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) under the influence of a hailstorm. The importance and originality of this study are that it explores the aerodynamic performance of an optimum wind turbine blade during a hailstorm, when hailstones and raindrops are present. The commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS Fluent 16.0 was utilized for the simulation. The first step was the calculation of the optimum blade geometry characteristics for a three-bladed rotor, i.e., twist and chord length along the blade, by a user-friendly application. Afterwards, the three-dimensional blade and the flow field domain were designed and meshed appropriately. The rotary motion of the blades was accomplished by the application of the Moving Reference Frame Model and the simulation of hailstorm conditions by the Discrete Phase Model. The SST k–ω turbulence model was also added. The produced power of the wind turbine, operating in various environmental conditions, was estimated and discussed. Contours of pressure, hailstone and raindrop concentration and erosion rate, on both sides of the blade, are presented. Moreover, contours of velocity at various cross sections parallel to the rotor are demonstrated, to understand the effect of hailstorms on the wake behavior. The results suggest that the aerodynamic performance of a HAWT degrades due to impact and breakup of the particles on the blade.

A Comprehensive CFD Assessment of Wheat Flow in Wheat Conveying Cyclone Validation and Performance Analysis by Experimental Data

Cyclone is often used in the Industry due to its low maintenance costs, simple design, and ease of operation. This work presents both experimental and simulation evaluation on the effect of inlet velocity and mass flow rate on the performance of a wheat conveying cyclone. According to the great importance of the pressure drop and separation efficiency on the separation phenomenon in the cyclone, a comprehensive study has been conducted in this regard. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was realized using a Reynolds stress turbulence model, and particle-air interactions were modeled using a discrete phase model. The result showed a good agreement between the measured value and CFD simulation on the pressure drop and tangential velocity with a maximum deviation of 6.8%. It was found that the separation efficiency increased with inlet velocity up to 16 m s−1 but decreased slightly at a velocity of 20 m s−1. The pressure drop increased proportionally with inlet velocity. However, optimum performance with the highest separation efficiency (99%) and acceptable pressure drop (416 Pa) was achieved at the inlet velocity of 16 m s−1 and mass flow rate of 0.01 kg s−1.

Numerical simulation of the effects of sandy water on regulator labyrinth channel in micro-sprinkler systems

The effects of sandy water on the W-shaped labyrinth channel of micro-sprinkler irrigation systems with large flowrate were investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Using ANSYS FLUENT software and different inflow conditions (e.g., pressure, velocity, sediment concentration, and sand particle diameter), internal turbulent multiphase flow and sand deposition were simulated by the Eulerian multiphase flow model. Particle erosion in the labyrinth channel was calculated by the Discrete Phase Model (DPM). The results show that vortex movements and shear actions at the boundary layer cause self-flushing in the channel. The location of sand particle deposits and the turbulent dissipation rate are related to the operating pressure, which is optimal at 300 kPa. The erosion rate of the channel wall is proportional to the inflow sediment concentration but has no obvious relationship with inflow velocity. Based on the movement regulation of sand particles in the labyrinth channel, recommendations on filtration requirements and operating pressure of irrigation systems are proposed.

Influence of the Visitor Walking on Airflow and the Bioaerosol Particles in Typical Open Tomb Chambers: An Experimental and Case Study

Effective maintenance of ancient buildings is paid more and more attention worldwide. Many ancient buildings with high inheritance value were gradually destroyed, especially for murals in the open tombs. The bioaerosol particles (BPs) are the major source of contamination in murals and visitor walking could increase this hazard. In order to study the impact of visitors walking on the air flow and the distribution of BPs in the typical tomb chambers, the k-ε and Lagrangian discrete phase model were adopted. The walking visitor was described by the dynamic mesh, and the concentration of BPs in the simulation was verified by experimental sampling. The distribution and migration mechanism of contamination in the chamber were dynamically analyzed. The results indicate that the denser vortex generated when a visitor was walking, and the concentration of BPs changed obviously. Therefore, the number of BPs deposited on some precious murals increased and the contamination location shifted in the direction of visitor walking. In addition, the deposition time of BPs was lagging which would cause potential risk. This research can provide scientific basis for reducing murals contamination during visitor visiting and a reference for the maintenance of ancient buildings.

Numerical Simulation on Motion Behavior of Inclusions in the Lab-Scale Electroslag Remelting Process with a Vibrating Electrode

In order to meet the requirement of high-quality ingots, the vibrating electrode technique in the electroslag remelting (ESR) process has been proposed. Non-metallic inclusions in ingots may cause serious defects and deteriorate mechanical properties of final products. Moreover, the dimension, number and distribution of non-metallic inclusions should be strictly controlled during the ESR process in order to produce high-quality ingots. A transient 2-D coupled model is established to analyze the motion behavior of inclusions in the lab-scale ESR process with a vibrating electrode, especially under the influence of the vibration frequency, current, slag layer thickness, and filling ratio, as well as type and diameter of inclusions. Simulation model of inclusions motion behavior is established based on the Euler-Lagrange approach. The continuous phase including metal and slag, is calculated based on the volume of fluid (VOF) method, and the trajectory of inclusions is tracked with the discrete phase model (DPM). The vibrating electrode is simulated by the user-defined function and dynamic mesh. The results show that when the electrode vibration frequency is 0.25 Hz or 1 Hz, the inclusions will gather on one side of the slag layer. When it increases from 0.25 Hz to 1 Hz, the removal ratio of 10 μm and 50 μm inclusions increases by 5% and 4.1%, respectively. When the current increases from 1200 A to 1800 A, the flow following property of inclusions in the slag layer becomes worse. The removal ratio of inclusions reaches the maximum value of 92% with the current of 1500 A. The thickness of slag layer mainly affects the position of inclusions entering the liquid-metal pool. As the slag layer thickens, the inclusions removal ratio increases gradually from 82.73% to 85.91%. As the filling ratio increases, the flow following property of inclusions in the slag layer is enhanced. The removal ratio of 10 μm inclusions increases from 94.82% to 97%. However, for inclusions with a diameter of 50 μm, the maximum removal ratio is 96.04% with a filling ratio of 0.46. The distribution of 50 μm inclusions is significantly different, while the distribution of 10μm inclusions is almost similar. Because of the influence of a vibrating electrode, 10 μm Al2O3 and MnO have a similar removal ratios of 81.33% and 82.81%, respectively.

The influence of vapor on the particle transport in high humid neighborhood environment

The particle transport characteristics have a significant effect on the exposure of residents and pedestrians to traffic pollutants in the street canyon. Around the lakeside environment, the diffusion of water vapor affects the flow characteristics of the gas mixture, which has a considerable influence on particle transport in the street canyon. A computational domain containing water bodies from which droplets were emitted by evaporation, a lakeside avenue and architectural groups were constructed. The RNG k-ε turbulence model and discrete phase model were applied to study the velocity, pressure, density of the airflow and particle transport characteristics in the street canyon with the absolute humidity increase (AHI) of 0, 3.8×10-4 g/kg, 1.7×10-3 g/kg, 3.1×10-3 g/kg. The saturated vapor pressure on the surface of droplets was modified by the pressure correction equation, which can limit the evaporation rate of the droplets. The simulation results demonstrated that, the diffusion of vapor could reduce the airflow velocity and increase the air pressure and density. The particle concentration in the street canyon increased with the AHI. Most of the pathogens in the air are transmitted with the flow of particle, and the study has some guiding significance to prevent the transmission of viruses.

Review of Calibration and Improvement Methods of Light- Scattering Airborne Particle Concentration

Clean environment and its internal airborne particle concentration have been paid more and more attention, the demand for use and measurement of light-scattering airborne particle counter, as the main instrument for measuring airborne particle concentration, has increased synchronously. This paper untangles the worldwide standards and specifications for calibration of light-scattering airborne particle counter, analyses the shortcomings of traditional comparative calibration method, introduces the research progress of non-traditional calibration method based on statistical analysis of membrane and scanning electron microscope, then based on the theory of discrete phase model and gas-solid fluid dynamics, puts forward two improved calibration methods to obtain more reliable "true value" of the number of the standard particles passing through the calibrated OPC, to provide an innovative idea for improving the measurement accuracy of airborne particle concentration worldwide.

Discrete Phase Modelling of Sediment Transport and Scouring of Suspended Particles in Dam Spillway

One of foremost issue arise in the dam management and dam reliability assessment is the sedimentation of suspended particles. Sedimentation affected the energy production and efficiency, storage, discharge capacity, and flood attenuation capabilities. In this paper, the sediment transport and scouring in the dam spillway structure was modelled using finite volume method (FVM) based software, ANSYS. The trajectory of suspended particles in the water flow was formulated based on the discrete phase model (DPM). To access the simulation model, particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiment using scaled-down dam spillway model was conducted. The discrepancy between the findings attained from simulation and PIV experiment is less than 4.89%, inferred the numerical model was acceptable. It was found that the maximum scouring rate and maximum deposition rate are respectively 4.20×10−9 kg/s and 2.00×10−6 kg/s. As such, it was empirically approximated the dam maintenance should be scheduled once every 8.9 years, based on sole consideration on resolving the scouring and deposition of suspended particles. This work demonstrated the viability of DPM based numerical simulation in study the fluid-particle interaction of sediment transport problem, particularly for the application of dam reliability.

Numerical Simulation of Gas-Solid Two-Phase Erosion for Elbow and Tee Pipe in Gas Field

Erosion caused by solid particles in a pipeline is one of the main problems endangering the safety production of the oil and gas industry, which may lead the equipment to malfunction or even fail. However, most of the previous studies focused on the standard elbow, and the erosion law of right-angle elbow and blind tee is rarely reported in the literature. This work aims to investigate the erosion law of different pipeline structures including 90° elbow, right-angle pipe, and tee pipe based on the production characteristics and engineering parameters of the gas field. An integrated CFD-DPM method is established including a realizable k-ε turbulence model, discrete phase model, and erosion rate prediction model. The accuracy of the model is evaluated by a series of experimental data of flow conditions of our previous work. Further, the erosion rate, pressure distributions, and particle trajectories in 90° elbow, right-angle pipe, and tee pipe under different flow velocities, particle mass flow rate, pipe diameter are investigated by applying the presented model. The results show that the blind tee has the most obvious growth rate, and the most serious erosion is located in the blind end of the pipe wall. The maximum erosion rate of the 1.5D is greater than that of the 3D elbow as a whole, and the 1.5D elbow is more concentrated in the serious erosion area. Furthermore, the erosion rate of the bend weld is much greater than that of the straight pipe weld. This study can provide a basis for the selection of different structural pipe fittings, thereby reducing the pipeline erosion rate and improving the integrity of the management of gas pipelines.