Modeling Reichardt’s Formula for Eddy-Viscosity in the Fluid Film of Tilting Pad Thrust Bearings

Oil-lubricated bearings are widely used in high speed rotating machines such as those used in the aerospace and automotive industries that often require this type of lubrication. However, environmental issues and risk-adverse operations have made water lubricated bearings increasingly popular. Due to different viscosity properties between oil and water, the low viscosity of water increases Reynolds numbers drastically and therefore makes water-lubricated bearings prone to turbulence effects. The turbulence model is affected by eddy-viscosity, while eddy-viscosity depends on wall shear stress. Therefore, effective wall shear stress modeling is necessary in producing an accurate turbulence model. Improving the accuracy and efficiency of methodologies of modeling eddy-viscosity in the turbulence model is important, especially considering the increasingly popular application of water-lubricated bearings and also the traditional oil-lubricated bearings in high speed machinery. This purpose of this paper is to study the sensitivity of using different methodologies of solving eddy-viscosity for turbulence modeling. Eddy-viscosity together with flow viscosity form the effective viscosity, which is the coefficient of the shear stress in the film. The turbulence model and Reynolds equation are bound together to solve when hydrodynamic analysis is performed, therefore improving the accuracy of the turbulence model is also vital to improving a bearing model’s ability to predict film pressure values, which will determine the velocity and velocity gradients in the film. The velocity gradients in the film are the other term determining the shear stress. In this paper, three approaches applying Reichardt’s formula were used to model eddy-viscosity in the fluid film. These methods are for determining where one wall’s effects begin and the other wall’s effects end. Trying to find a suitable model to capture the wall’s effects of these bearings, with aim to improve the accuracy of the turbulence model, would be of high value to the bearing industry. The results of this study could aid in improving future designs and models of both oil and water lubricated bearings.

Two-Phase Flow Behavior in Channels With Sudden Area Change Using Experimental and Computational Approach

The current study shows computational and experimental analysis of multiphase flows (gas-liquid two-phase flow) in channels with sudden area change. Four test sections used for sudden contraction and expansion of area in experiments and computational analysis. These are 0.5–0.375, 0.5–0.315, 0.5–0.19, 0.5–0.14, inversely true for expansion channels. Liquid Flow rates ranging from 0.005 kg/s to 0.03 kg/s employed, while gas flow rates ranging from 0.00049 kg/s to 0.029 kg/s implemented. First, single-phase flow consists of only water, and second two-phase Nitrogen-Water mixture flow analyzed experimentally and computationally. For Single-phase flow, two mathematical models used for comparison: the two transport equations k-epsilon turbulence model (K-Epsilon), and the five transport equations Reynolds stress turbulence interaction model (RSM). A Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase approach and the RSM mathematical model developed for two-phase gas-liquid flows based on current experimental data. As area changes, the pressure drop observed, which is directly proportional to the Reynolds number. The computational analysis can show precise prediction and a good agreement with experimental data when area ratio and pressure differences are smaller for laminar and turbulent flows in circular geometries. During two-phase flows, the pressure drop generated shows reasonable dependence on void fraction parameter, regardless of numerical analysis and experimental analysis.

Diesel Engine Performance Improvement for Constant Speed Application Using CFD

The detailed investigation of flow behavior inside the combustion chamber and performance of engine is most challenging problem due to constraints in Experimental Data collection during testing; However, Experimental testing is essential for establishment of correlation with CFD Predictions. Hence, the baseline engine was tested at different load conditions and validated with CFD results, before it was optimized for performance improvement. The objective of the CFD Prediction was not only to optimize performance (Fuel Efficiency, Power, Torque, etc.) & Emissions Reduction, but also to assess feasibility of Performance Upgrade Potential. In the present CFD study, surface mesh and domain was prepared for the flame face, intake valve, intake valve seat, exhaust valve, exhaust valve seat and liner for closed volume cycle, between IVC and EVO using CFD code VECTIS. Finally simulations for three different load conditions were conducted using VECTIS solver. Initially, in-cylinder pressure vis a vis crank angle prediction was carried out for 100%, 75% and 50% load conditions. Then the fine tuning of (P-ϴ) diagram for different load conditions was conducted by varying different combustion parameters. Further, the engine performance validation was carried out for rated and part load conditions in terms of, IMEP, BMEP, break specific fuel consumption and power output, while NOx mass fractions were used to convert the NOx to g/kWh for comparison of emission levels with the test data. Finally optimized re-entrant combustion chamber and modified valve timing with optimum fuel injection system simulation was carried out to achieve target performance with reduced fuel consumption. A 3D CFD result showed reduction in BSFC and was in close agreement with the test data.

Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Micro Heat Sinks With In-Line and Staggered Arrangements of Cylindrical Micro Pin Fins

This study compares the hydraulic performance of rectangular micro heat sinks (MHS) with different in-line and staggered arrangements of micro pin fins (MPF). With fixed MHS dimensions of 50 × 1.5 × 0.1 mm3 (1 × w × h), the height (H) and diameter (D) of MPFs are both set to be 0.1 mm which corresponds to a fixed H/D ratio of 1 in all cases. Four in-line and four staggered arrangements of MPFs with alternative horizontal and vertical pitch ratios (SL/D and ST/D) of 1.5 and 3 are considered. Streamline profiles are used to illustrate the flow patterns and wake regions. Using ANSYS FLUENT v.14.5 for this single phase study, the simulations are done at five Reynolds numbers of 20, 40, 80, 120 and 150, ensuring the flow remains in the laminar flow regime. Considering water as the coolant, a constant heat flux of 30 W/cm2 is applied through the bottom surface of the MHS and the MPFs liquid interacting surfaces. The results show a great dependency of the evaluating parameters on the arrangement type, geometrical specification and Reynolds numbers. For pressure drop, clear comparison could be made regarding each of the geometrical specifications. However, the trends with friction factor depend on geometrical specification and Reynolds number at the same time.

Explicit Finite Element Study of Liquid Sloshing Behavior in Fluid-Structure Interaction Condition

As a common phenomenon in liquid motions, sloshing usually happens in a partially filled liquid tank of moving vehicle or structure. The objectives of this paper are to study sloshing behavior in rigid tank and deformable tank, and to develop a better performance baffle design in the tank under seismic excitations. The tank is surged with a sinusoidal oscillation about horizontal x-direction. The hydro-elasticity effect of sloshing pressure on the tank wall was taken into consideration due to the fluid-structure interaction between impact pressures and tank structures. ABAQUS finite element program using Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) technique was employed to simulate fluid sloshing. The sloshing phenomenon was studied in rigid tank and deformable tank models with three different water levels, and the effect of wall thickness of the deformable tank on sloshing behavior was discussed. One way to minimize the effect of sloshing in a tank, baffles are used and installed in the middle of the tank, and then various heights and material types of baffle were evaluated. The simulation results show that higher water level case creates greater pressure impact on the tank wall than lower water level case, and the elasticity of the tank structure would reduce the impact pressure of the wall. For the simulation tank model with size of 1m (H) × 1m (W) × 0.2m (D), better performance baffle was found to be the one with the height of 0.35m and was made of acrylic material. Moreover, the conclusion of this study can be extrapolated to other dimensions of the model based on similarity theory. This paper also can serve as an aid in further studying sloshing phenomenon. The findings of this study can be applied to restrain or minimize sloshing motions inside a tank.

Experimental Visualization and Numerical Simulation of Liquid-Gas Two-Phase Flows in a Horizontal Pipe

This paper presents the results of both visualization experiment and numerical simulation for two-phase (water-air mixture) flows in a horizontal tube. A visualization experimental setup was used to observe various two-phase flow patterns for different flow rates of water/air mixture flow in a glass tube of 12 mm in diameter. Total of 303 experimental data points were compared with Mandhane’s flow map. Most of the data for stratified, plug and slug flows were found to be in good agreement. However, annular flow was observed for relatively lower gas flow rates and also wavy flow occurred at relatively higher liquid flow rates in this experiment. A three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation was performed using OpenFOAM employing “interFoam” as the solver to simulate the two-phase flows in horizontal pipe based on Volume-Of-Fluid (VOF) method. The simulated and experimentally observed flow patterns for the same set of superficial velocities shows acceptable similarities for stratified, wavy, plug, slug and annular flows. Also, the computed values of the void fraction and pressure drop for the numerical simulations shows reasonable agreement with well-known correlations in literature.

A DNS Study of Falling Droplets Under Effects of Electric Field

In this study deformation and breakup of a falling drop which is surrounded by another liquid are modeled numerically. The drop is influenced by an external electric field which is applied uniformly on the side walls of the domain. An open-source volume-of-fluid solver, Gerris with dynamic adaptive grid refinement has been used for numerically modeling the three-dimensional deformation of a falling droplet. The numerical results are presented for various values of density ratios and electrical conductivity and permittivity. The current numerical results are compared with previous experimental and analytical works which shows a great agreement between them.

Impact of Bifurcation Angle and Inlet Reynolds Number on Local Pressure Recovery in Biologically-Inspired Flow Networks

This work computationally investigates local flow behavior in tree-like flow networks of varying scale, bifurcation angle, and inlet Reynolds number. The performance of the tree-like flow networks were evaluated based on pressure drop and wall temperature distributions. Microscale, mesoscale, and macroscale tree-like flow networks, composed of a range of symmetric bifurcation angles (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90°) and subject to a range of inlet Reynolds numbers (1000, 2000, 4000, 10000, and 20000) were evaluated. Local pressure recoveries were evident at bifurcations, regardless of scale and bifurcation angle which may result in a lower total pressure drop when compared with traditional parallel channel networks. Similarly, wall temperature spikes were also present immediately following bifurcations due to flow separation and recirculation. The magnitude of the wall temperature increases at bifurcations was dependent upon both bifurcation angle and scale. When compared with mesoscale and macroscale flow networks, microscale flow networks resulted in the largest local pressure recoveries and the smallest temperature jumps at bifurcations. Thus, while biologically-inspired flow networks offer the same advantages at all scales, the greatest performance increases are achieved at microscale.

Bladelets-Winglets on Blades of Wind Turbines: A Multiobjective Design Optimization Study

The work presented in this paper used rigorous 3D flow-field analysis combined with multi-objective constrained shape design optimization for the design of bladelet (winglet) configurations for a three-blade propeller type wind turbine. The fluid flow analysis in this work was performed using 3D, steady, incompressible, turbulent flow Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations in the rotating frame of reference for each combination of a given wind turbine blade and a varying bladelet geometry. The free stream uniform wind speed in all cases was assumed to be 9 m s−1 and rotational speed was 12 rpm. These were off-design conditions for this rotor. The three simultaneous design optimization objectives were: a) maximize the coefficient of power, b) minimize the coefficient of thrust, and c) minimize twisting moment around the blade axis. The bladelet geometry was fully defined by using a small number of parameters. The optimization was carried out by creating a multi-dimensional response surface for each of the simultaneous objectives. The response surfaces were based on radial basis functions, where the support points were designs analyzed using the high fidelity CFD analysis of the full blade + bladelet geometry. The response surfaces were then coupled to a multi-objective optimization algorithm. The predicted values of the objective functions for the optimum designs were then again validated using the high fidelity computational fluid dynamics analysis code. Results for a Pareto optimized bladelet on a given blade indicate that more than 4% increase in the coefficient of power at minimal thrust force penalty is possible compared to the same wind turbine rotor blade without a bladelet.