DNS of a turbulent boundary layer using inflow conditions derived from 4D-PTV data

Unsteady, 3D particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) data are applied as an inlet boundary condition in a direct numerical simulation (DNS). The considered flow case is a zero pressure gradient (ZPG) turbulent boundary layer (TBL) flow over a flat plate. The study investigates the agreement between the experimentally measured flow field and its simulated counterpart with a hybrid 3D inlet region. The DNS field inherits a diminishing contribution from the experimental field within the 3D inlet region, after which it is free to spatially evolve. Since the measurement does not necessarily provide a spectrally complete description of the turbulent field, the spectral recovery of the flow field is analyzed as the TBL evolves. The study summarizes the pre-processing methodology used to bring the experimental data into a form usable by the DNS as well as the numerical method used for simulation. Spectral and mean flow analysis of the DNS results show that turbulent structures with a characteristic length on the order of one average tracer particle nearest neighbor radius $${\bar{r}}_{\text {NN}}$$ r ¯ NN or greater are well reproduced and stay correlated to the experimental field downstream of the hybrid inlet. For turbulent scales smaller than $${\bar{r}}_{\text {NN}}$$ r ¯ NN , where experimental data are sparse, a relatively quick redevelopment of previously unresolved turbulent energy is seen. The results of the study indicate applicability of the approach to future DNS studies in which specific upstream or far field boundary conditions (BCs) are required and may provide the utility of decreasing high initialization costs associated with conventional inlet BCs. Graphic abstract

Numerical Simulation of Axial Vortex in a Centrifugal Pump as Turbine with S-Blade Impeller

Pump as turbines (PATs) are widely applied for recovering the dissipated energy of high-pressure fluids in several hydraulic energy resources. When a centrifugal pump operates as turbine, the large axial vortex occurs usually within the impeller flow passages. In view of the structure and evolution of the vortex, and its effect on pressure fluctuation and energy conversion of the machine, a PAT with specific-speed 9.1 was analyzed based on detached eddy simulation (DES), and the results showed that vortices generated at the impeller inlet region, and the size and position of detected vortices, were fixed as the impeller rotated. However, the swirling strength of vortex cores changed periodically with double rotational frequency. The influence of vortices on pressure fluctuation of PAT was relatively obvious, deteriorating the operating stability of the machine evidently. In addition, the power loss near impeller inlet region was obviously heavy as the impact of large axial vortices, which was much more serious in low flow rate conditions. The results are helpful to realize the flow field of PAT and are instructive for blade optimization design.

Numerical Investigations on the Influence of Innovative Hub Geometry Design for Augmented Performance in a Low Speed Centrifugal Fan

Inlet region of a centrifugal fan is considered as one of the important flow domains which provides air into the impeller with adequate flow incidence. There is a dire need for flow guidance for incoming air in order to minimize induced swirl losses in the vicinity of eye of the impeller. An extrusion type of structure, commonly termed hub, is attached to the impeller of turbo machineswhich is used to reduce inlet turning losses and thereby enhancing the performance of the machine in terms of overall static pressure rise. It is seen from a careful literature survey that there has not been significant research on the effect of hub of various shapes and sizeson performance improvement. Analytical tool like computational fluid dynamics (CFD) capture the physics of flow losses encountered especially at the inlet region. This research work attempts to explore numerically the contributions of hub of hemi-spherical and ellipsoidal shapes and parametrically varied sizes on overall performance of the fan. The analysis shows that amongst hemi-spherical and ellipsoidal hub configurations considered in this work, an optimized ellipsoidal hub configuration is found to yield a significant contribution of about 8.4 % for head coefficient and 8.6 % in relative theoretical efficiency over the hub-less base configuration. Finally correlations are developed for the optimized hub shape configurations.

Impact of a Larger Fore‐Arc Region on Earthquake Ground Motions in South‐Central Alaska Including the 2018 M 7.1 Anchorage Inslab Earthquake

The thermal state of the crust and mantle in subduction zones is controlled by the depth of the subducting plate. With low‐angle subduction, like at the eastern end of the Alaska subduction zone, the less attenuating fore‐arc is extended farther from the trench and can effect ground motions in addition to source and site effects. Recent crustal and subduction earthquakes in south‐central Alaska, including the 2018 M 7.1 Anchorage event, demonstrate these effects. Inslab earthquake waves in the subducting plate can propagate up the slab to the fore‐arc region with less attenuation, causing an increase in observed ground motions. Long‐period ground motions from the 2018 M 7.1 Anchorage earthquake are significantly higher than predicted ground motions from current subduction ground‐motion models within 50–100 km of the epicenter. At short periods, ground motions show reduced amplitudes due to nonlinear sediment effects in the Anchorage area, reducing the damage potential of the earthquake. At long periods, ground motions are little affected by sediment nonlinearity and remain higher than expected. The duration of shaking was too short for widespread liquefaction effects, unlike during the 1964 M 9.2 earthquake. Other historical earthquakes have produced similar increases in ground motions in the Cook Inlet and Kenai Peninsula region. At both short and long periods, ground motions from the 2016 Iniskin M 7.1 inslab earthquake are higher than expected in the Cook Inlet region. The 2015 Redoubt M 6.3 inslab earthquake also shows increased ground motions in the Cook Inlet region at all periods. Crustal Q estimates from Lg waves show less attenuation in south‐central Alaska at longer periods. In the larger south‐central Alaska region crustal Q(f)=336f0.34 compared to Q(f)=217f0.84 for all of Alaska with most of the decrease in attenuation at frequencies below 2 Hz.