Measurement of Unsteady Flow in Pump-Turbine for Hydropower Using PIV Method

It is thought that the pressure fluctuation can occur due to the interaction between flow through guide vanes and flow into runner blades, resulting in a vibration of turbine and a blade cracking, in a hydraulic turbine operated in a wide range for flexible power demand. High accurate velocity measurement with high time/spatial resolution can help to clarify the mechanism of the interaction and to provide good experimental data for the validation of numerical procedure. So the aim of present study is to estimate the unstable velocity field quantitatively in the area between guide vanes and runner blades, using high time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV). Two types of velocity measurements were carried out, i.e., phase-locked measurement and high time sequential velocity measurement, in a pump-turbine model with 20 guide vanes and 6 runner blades. The characteristic of the flow field varied corresponding to the operating conditions such as flow rate and rotational speed. Opening angles of guide vanes were kept uniform. A clockwise vortex was generated at inside of the runner blade under smaller rotational speed. A counterclockwise vortex was separated at the backside of the runner blade under higher rotational speed. At any operating conditions, the velocity between guide vanes and runner blades oscillated periodically at the blade passing frequency.

Impact and Fire Modeling Considerations Employing SPH Coupling to a Dilute Spray Fire Code

Transportation accidents and the subsequent fire present a concern. Particularly energetic accidents like an aircraft impact or a high speed highway accident can be quite violent. We would like to develop and maintain a capability at Sandia National Laboratories to model these very challenging events. We have identified Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) as a good method to employ for the impact dynamics of the fluid for severe impacts. SPH is capable of modeling viscous and inertial effects for these impacts for short times. We have also identified our fire code Lagrangian/Eulerian (L/E) particle capability as an adequate method for fuel transport and spray modeling. A fire code can also model the subsequent fire for a fuel impact. Surface deposition of the liquid may also be acceptably predicted with the same code. These two methods (SPH and L/E) typically employ complimentary length and timescales for the calculation, and are potentially suited for coupling given adequate attention to relevant details. Length and timescale interactions are important considerations when joining the two capabilities. Additionally, there are physical model inadequacy considerations that contribute to the accuracy of the methodology. These models and methods are presented and evaluated. Some of these concerns are detailed for a verification type scenario used to show the work in progress of this coupling capability. The importance of validation methods and their appropriate application to the genesis of this class of predictive tool are also discussed.

Effect of Initial Velocity Field on Smoke Diffusion Characteristic in Subway Tunnel

In this paper, piston wind effect on smoke diffusion characteristic in subway tunnel is studied by using three-dimensional transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. In the first simulation case, fire disaster is simulated with homogeneous resting initial field condition. In the second simulation case, the train’s decelerating process till stopping in the tunnel is simulated for getting three-dimensional tunnel air velocity field distribution. Then the final heterogeneous air velocity field when the train stops in the tunnel is taken as initial field condition and the same fire scenario as the first case is simulated again. The data obtained under both initial conditions are compared by detecting people evacuation safety and the influence of initial air velocity field is analyzed. The results show that the inertial air velocity field caused by train’s movement has significant influence on smoke diffusion at the first few minutes of fire disaster, which is the key time for people’s evacuation. The adopted method in this paper and the simulation result could be used in establishing more effective subway fire evacuation plan.

Characteristics of Nanopatterns and the Associated Thermal Mechanisms During Near Field Laser-Material Interaction of Nanosecond Laser on Different Targets

Nano-patterns are generated on semiconducting and metallic surfaces through coupling an apertured near field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) with a pulsed laser source in this study. To understand the dominant mechanisms for the generation of the nano-patterns, a series of experimental measurement of the size and shape of nano-patterns generated on targets under different experimental conditions with different targets is conducted. The characteristic dimensions of nano-patterns show dependence on optical properties of the target material. The qualitative trend of the variation of nano-patterns as a function of laser and material conditions indicates that the dominant mechanisms for the generation of nano-patterns through a combination of nanosecond laser and an apertured NSOM under different conditions studied is near field laser-material interaction.

Experimental Evidence of Density and Mechanical Properties Enhancement of Binary Alloys by Solidification Subject to Vibrations

Preliminary evidence of density and mechanical properties enhancement of binary alloys by solidification subject to vibrations is presented. The frequency of vibrations was increased from 0 to 100 Hz by using sound waves as the vibration source. The latter shows that the solidified microstructure, the ultimate tensile strength, and the hardness improve as the frequency increases. The chosen alloy for this study was Pb-Sb 4.4% (lead antimony 4.4%) and was selected because of its low melting temperature. The cast chosen was of a rod shape having a diameter of 10mm and a length 500mm. This choice is consistent with assuming an infinite length and therefore ignoring boundary effects in a planned theoretical follow-up analysis. Also due to the geometry of the mould it can be assumed that the cast was cooled due to conduction alone.

A 2D-PIV Study on Natural Convective Heat Transfer in a Square Enclosure With Partially Active Side Walls

The present study is an experimental and numerical analysis on the natural convection of air in square enclosures with partially active side walls. The experimental equipment is based on two different systems: an holographic interferometer and a 2D-PIV. The test cell is a square enclosure filled of air with vertical partially active side walls at different temperatures. The hot and cold regions on these sides are located in the middle of the cavity. The remaining vertical walls are made up of glass to allow an optical access to the cavity. The top and bottom surfaces of the enclosure are made up of plexiglas to reduce heat leakages. The experimental study is carried out both through the holographic interferometry, in order to obtain the average Nusselt numbers at different Rayleigh numbers, and through the 2D-PIV, in order to analyse the dynamic behaviour of the phenomenon at the same Rayleigh numbers. The average Nusselt numbers are obtained measuring the temperature distribution in the air layer trough the real-time and double-exposure holographic interferometry; the dynamic structures are the velocity vector distribution, the streamlines and the velocity maps. Finally these experimental data are compared to the results obtained through a numerical study carried out using the finite volume code, Fluent 6.2.3. The aim of this comparison is the validation of the numerical procedure. In this way it is possible to use the numerical code to enlarge the Rayleigh number range.

Effect of Size and Slip Coefficient of a Porous Manifold on Thermal Stratification in Storage Tanks

Numerical simulations have been performed to study the effects of size and slip coefficient of a porous manifold on the thermal stratification in a storage tank. The model is used to predict the development of flow and temperature fields during a charging process. Computations have covered a wide range of the Grashof number (1.8 × 105 < Gr < 1.8 × 108) and Reynolds number (10 ≤ Re ≤ 104), or in terms of the Richardson number, 10−2 < Ri < 105. The results obtained compare favorably well with the experimental data. In addition, the present results have confirmed the effectiveness of porous manifold in the promotion of thermal stratification and provide useful information for the design of such system.

Fuel Flexible Biomass Reburn Technology

Biomass reburn is a low NOx alternative to cofiring that effectively uses the high volatility and high char reactivity of biomass for NOx reduction. In this paper, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and thermal modeling, and a NOx prediction model were used to evaluate the impacts of sawdust/coal reburn on the performance of a 250 MW opposed-fired boiler burning bituminous coal as the primary fuel. The results showed that the reburn system maintained overall boiler performance with a 50 – 70 °F reduction in the furnace exit gas temperature. Predicted losses in thermal efficiency were caused by the lower biomass fuel heating value (similar to biomass cofiring) and increase in unburned carbon. The higher unburned carbon emissions were attributed to an order of magnitude larger biomass mean particle size relative to bituminous coal. Thus, LOI emissions can be improved significantly by reducing the biomass mean particle size. The NOx predictions showed that for reburn rates above about 19%, adding dry sawdust biomass to a coal reburn system can improve NOx reduction; i.e., using pure dry sawdust as reburn fuel at 30% of the total heat input can lead to NOx levels about 30% less than those for pure coal reburn under for similar firing conditions.

Thermal Measurements of a Rail-Cask-Size Pipe-Calorimeter in Jet Fuel Fires

A series of fire tests was conducted involving a 2.44-m-(8-ft)-diameter, 4.57-m-(15-ft)-long, 2.54-cm-(1-inch)-wall thickness pipe calorimeter suspended 1-m above a 7.93-m-diameter pool that contained 7.57 m3 (2000 gallons) of jet fuel. The wind conditions, calorimeter temperature, participating media temperature and speed, and radiant heat flux, were measured at several locations as functions of time in three fire tests. The first two had relatively light winds and lasted roughly 40 minutes, while the third had much stronger winds and consumed the fuel in 25 minutes. The purpose of this paper is to describe the experimental facilities and certain fire characteristics. The large amount of data acquired cannot be fully presented in this paper. A website is available by contacting the first author so that the full data set may be used to quantitatively benchmark large-fire simulations and models.

Numerical Simulation of Two-Phase Slug Flows in Microchannels

In this paper the Navier-stokes equations for a single liquid slug have been solved in order to predict the circulation patterns within the slug. Surface tension effects on the air-water interface have been investigated by solving the Young–Laplace equation. The calculated interface shape has been utilized to define the liquid slug geometry at the front and tail interfaces of the slug. Then the effects of the surface tension on the hydrodynamics of the two-phase slug flow have been compared to those where no surface tension forces exist. The importance of the complex flow field features in the vicinity of the two interfaces has been investigated by defining a non-dimensional form of the wall shear stress. The latter quantity has been formulated based on non-dimensional parameters in order to define a general Moody friction factor for typical two-phase slug flows in microchannels. Moreover, the hydrodynamics of slug flow formation has been examined using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The volume-of-fluid (VOF) method has been applied to monitor the growth of the instability at the air-water interface. The lengths of the slugs have been correlated to the pressure fluctuations in the mixing region of the air and water streams at an axisymmetric T-junction. The main frequencies of the pressure fluctuations have been investigated using the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method.