Influence of Geometric Parameters on Aerodynamic and Acoustic Performances of Bladeless Fans

In recent years, the bladeless fan that does not have visible impellers have been widely applied in household appliances. Since the customers are particularly sensitive to noise and the strength of wind generated by the fan, the aerodynamic and acoustic performances of the fan need to be accurately characterized in the design stage. In this study, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and computational aeroacoustics (CAA) are applied to investigate the performances of different designs of a bladeless fan model. The influence of four parameters, namely the airfoil selection for cross-section of the wind channel, the slit width, the height of cross-section and the location of the slit, is investigated. The results indicate the streamwise air velocity increases significantly by narrowing the outlet, but the noise level increases simultaneously. In addition, the generated noise increases while the height of fan cross-section increases, and a 4mm height of the cross section is optimal for aerodynamic performance. When the slit is closer to the location of maximum thickness, the performances of the bladeless fan increases. Moreover, the performance is not changed significantly by changing the cross-sectional profile. Finally, the optimal geometric parameters are identified to guide the future design of the bladeless fan.

Multi-Objective Hydraulic Optimization on Intake Duct of Water-Jet Propulsion Using NSGA-II

Flow distortions occur at the outlet section of the intake duct owing to its shape properties, which is a component of water-jet propulsion. Since the noticeable influence of intake’s flow characteristics upon propulsive efficiency, it’s necessary to focus on intake duct redesign. In this paper, a systematic methodology for reducing flow distortions and power losses within the intake duct through a shape optimization process was obtained. In addition, the mechanism of flow distortions was also developed. The flush type inlet applied in the marine vessel with the speed of 30 knots was chosen as research project. Four characteristic parameters were set as optimization variables depending on the geometrical relationship of thirteen characteristic parameters referred to the duct longitudinal midsection, which were the ramp angle α, the radius of the upper lip R3, the radius of the lower lip R4 and the lip height h respectively. Subsequently, a sample space was built by Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) and the parameters were normalized in the range of 0 to 1. With the commercial software CFX, the numerical simulation was accomplished driven by SST k-ω turbulence model. Multi-objective optimization based on the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) was utilized to minimize the non-uniformity at outlet section and maximize the minimal pressure at lip simultaneously. Moreover, the Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network was employed to approximate the functional relationship between variables and objectives, which could be applied in the NSGA-II to get the Pareto Front. The minimum non-uniformity point and the trade-off point (The point both satisfies the minimum non-uniformity and the maximum minimal pressure at lip strategically) were selected from the Pareto Front. With regard to the characteristic parameters of the trade-off point, the ramp angle, the radius of the upper lip, the radius of the lower lip and the lip height are 31.91°, 11.42 mm, 400.97 mm and 55.43 mm respectively. Meanwhile, the characteristic parameters of the minimum non-uniformity point are 30.22°, 25.59 mm, 166.65 mm and 89.90 mm respectively. Ultimately, the duct outflow characteristics of prototype and optimization are compared. In terms of the trade-off point, the minimal pressure at lip increases 66.40% to −24488.93 Pa and the non-uniformity has a drop of 4.56% to 0.1571. The non-uniformity of the minimum point is 0.1481 which is reduced by 10.02%. Through the optimization of duct shape, the secondary flow (Dean vortices) is suppressed effectively. This paper is expected to provide a better comprehension of the flow field within the intake duct of water-jet propulsion.

CFD Investigation of a PEMFC Stack Assembly

In this study 3-D CFD modeling of a cylindrical stack Proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is provided. The H2O-O2 PEMFC uses a 10.8 mm2 area membrane and Platinum (Pt) catalyst. The paper presents the methodology for the PEMFC commercial software module, the set-up of the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) geometry, mesh and boundary conditions. Results for the current-voltage performance curves and 3-D contour plots of the fluid, heat and species concentrations within the PEMFC are given. Results are presented for a low-temperature fuel cell using NAFION membrane and a high-temperature fuel cell using BZY membrane.

Effect of Moisture Content on Mixing Air With Water-Liquid Flowing Through Inverted U-Tube for Power Plant Condenser Applications

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for air/water-vapor and water-liquid two-phase flow mixing with condensation in a vertical inverted U-tube is presented in this paper. This study is to investigate the flow behaviors and underlying some physical mechanisms encountered in air/water-vapor and water-liquid mixing flow when condensation is considered. Water-liquid flows upward-downward through the inverted U-tube while the air/water-vapor mixture is extracted from a side-tube just after the flow oriented downward. The CFD simulation is carried out for a side air/water-vapor mixture volume fraction (αm) of 0.2–0.7, water-vapor mass fraction (Xv) of 0.1–0.5 in the side air/water-vapor mixture and water-liquid mass flowrate (mw) of 2,4,6, and 8 kg/s. The present results reveal that, at lower air mass flow rate, no significant effect of Xv on the generated static pressure at the inverted U-tube higher part. However, by increasing the air mass flow rates, ma ≥ 0.001 at mw = 2 kg/s, and ma ≥ 0.00125 at mw = 4 kg/s, we can infer that the lowest static pressure can be attained at Xv = 0.1. This may be attributed to the increased vapor and air mass flow rates from the side tube which results in shifting the condensation from the tube highest part due to air accumulation. This leads to increasing the flow pressure and decelerating the water-liquid flow. Raising mw from 2 to 4 kg/s at the same vapor mass ratio results in a lower static pressure due to more condensation of water vapor. The turbulent intensity and kinetic energy starts to drop approximately at ma = 0.002 kg/s, and αm = 0.55–0.76 at mw = 2 kg/s for all Xv values but no noticeable change at mw = 4 kg/s occurs. These findings estimate the operational values of air and water mass flow rates for stable air entrainment from the side-tube. Increasing the air and vapor mass ratio over these values may block the evacuation process and fails the system continuance. Likewise more air entrainment from the side-tube will decelerate the water flow through the inverted U-tube and hence the flow velocity will decrease thereafter. Moreover, this study reveals that the inverted U-tube is able to generate a vacuum pressure down to 55.104 kPa for the present model when vapor condensation is considered. This generated low-pressure helps to vent an engineering system from the non-condensable gases and water vapor that fail its function if these are accumulated with time. Moreover, the water-liquid mass flow rate in the inverted U-tube can be used to sustain the required operating pressure for this system and extract the non-condensable gases with a less energy consuming system. The present CFD model provides a good physical understanding of the flow behavior for air/water-vapor and water-liquid flow for possible future application in the steam power plant.

Mixing of Dry Air With Water-Liquid Flowing Through an Inverted U-Tube for Power Plant Condenser Applications

This paper presents a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation for dry air/water-liquid and two-phase flow mixing in a vertical inverted U-tube using the mixture multiphase and turbulence models. This study is to investigate the flow behaviors and underlying some physical mechanisms encountered in dry air/water-liquid flow in the inverted U-tube. Water flows through the inverted U-tube while the dry air is entrained using the side-tube installed after the water flow downward. The inverted U-tube is tested at water mass flow rates of 2,4,6 and 8 kg/s, air mass flow rates, 0.000614–0.02292 kg/s, with dry air volume fractions 0.2–0.9. The obtained results are compared with the experimental data for model validation and the present CFD model is able to give an acceptable agreement. Also, the results show that, at water mass flow rate of 2 kg/s, there are vortices and turbulent intensity disturbances are noticed at the inverted U-tube higher part, which refers to an air entrainment occurrence from the side-tube. Theses disturbances starts to be stabilized at air mass flow rate around 0.00736 kg/s and air volume fraction, αa = 0.75. This means, if the air mass flow rate increases above this limit, the air entrainment may be blocked. On the other side, at water mass flow rate of 4 kg/s, there are little noticed disturbances until air mass flow rate of 0.00368 kg/s and αa = 0.43 and thereafter stabilized. After this point for water mass flow rate of 4 kg/s, increasing air mass flow rate may block the water flow and the whole inverted U-tube system possible stop flowing. Therefore, this study is able to estimate the required operational conditions and mass ratios for stable air entrainment process. Beyond these operational conditions, air entrainment may be blocked and the whole system discontinues its normal induced gravitational flow. In addition, this study proves that the inverted U-tube is able to generate a vacuum pressure up to 53.382 kPa based on the present geometrical configuration. This generated low-pressure by the inverted U-tube can be used for engineering applications which are working under vacuum and need continuous evacuating form the dry air and non-condensable gases. Furthermore, these findings motivate the utilizing of inverted U-tube for the air evacuation purposes for less power consuming in power plants.

Numerical Simulation and Vorticity Analysis of Cavitating Flow Around a Marine Propeller Behind the Hull

In this paper, the unsteady cavitating turbulent flow around a marine propeller behind the hull is simulated by the k-ω SST turbulence model coupled with the Zwart cavitation model. Three systematic refined structured meshes around the hull and propeller have been generated to study the predicted cavitation patterns and pressure fluctuations. Numerical results indicate that the predicted transient cavitating flow behind the hull wake, including sheet cavitation and tip vortex cavitation, shows quasi-periodic feature and agrees fairly well with the available experimental data. The deviations of pressure fluctuations between experimental data and numerical results are much small. With mesh refining, the cavitation region and the magnitudes of the calculated pressure fluctuations increase, while the differences between two adjacent sets of grids become smaller. In addition, the uncertainty of the thrust coefficient obtained by Factor of Safety method is significantly small. Further, the interaction between the cavitation and the vortex by the relative vorticity transport equation is illustrated. Results show that the magnitude of stretching term is obviously larger than the other three terms, and the dilatation term and the baroclinic term both have an important influence on the generation of vortices.

Suppression of Secondary Flows in a Transonic Centrifugal Compressor Impeller Using an Inverse Design Method Based on Meridional Viscous Flow Analysis

Secondary flows in transonic centrifugal compressor impellers affect their aerodynamic performance. In open-type impellers, low energy fluids can accumulate on the suction surfaces near the trailing edge tip side since the secondary flows and tip leakage flows interfere each other and complex flow phenomena can be generated around the impellers. Therefore, designers must consider the effect of secondary flows to avoid the aerodynamic performance degradation while designing compressor impellers. In this paper, a novel design concept about suppression of secondary flows in centrifugal compressor impellers to improve their aerodynamic performance. A transonic centrifugal compressor impeller was redesigned with the present design concept by a two-dimensional inverse method based on a meridional viscous flow calculation in this study. A design concept was introduced in above calculation process. As the design concept, by bending vortex filaments with controlling peak positions of the blade loading distributions, induced velocity due to bound vortices at the blades was generated in radial opposite direction of the secondary flows on the suction surface. Due to investigate the effect of the design concept in this paper, three-dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations were carried out, and the vortex cores were visualized by a critical point theory and colored by non-dimensional helicity. In the conventional transonic centrifugal compressor impeller, the secondary flow vortices were confirmed and one of the vortices was broken down. In the redesigned impeller, the breakdown of the secondary flow vortices was not observed and the accumulation of the low energy fluids was suppressed compared with the conventional impeller. The total pressure ratio and adiabatic efficiency of the redesign impeller were higher than that of the conventional impeller, and the secondary flows were successfully suppressed in this research.

A Study on Improvement of Aerodynamic Performance for 100HP Axial Fan Blade and Guide Vane Using Response Surface Method

This paper describes the numerical optimization of an axial fan focused on the blade and guide vane (GV). For numerical analysis, three-dimensional (3D) steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model are discretized by the finite volume method (FVM). The objective function is enhancement of aerodynamic performance with specified total pressure. To select the design variables which have main effect to the objective function, 2k factorial design is employed as a method for design of experiment (DOE). In addition, response surface method (RSM) based on the central composite design applied to carry out the single-objective optimization. Effects on the components such as bell mouth and hub cap are considered with previous analysis. The internal flow characteristics between base and optimized model are analyzed and discussed.

Numerical Investigation of an Intake Duct for a Waterjet Propulsion System Using Modified Partially Averaged Navier-Stokes Method

When the marine vessels exceed the speed of 30 knots, it is preferred to adopt the waterjet propulsion method due to its high propulsive efficiency, good maneuverability, less vibration and good anti-cavitation performance. The efficiency of the waterjet pump is up to 90% with advanced modern design methods while 7∼9% of total power is lost in the intake duct. In this paper, the flow simulation in an intake duct has been conducted using the modified partially averaged Navier-Stokes method for better understanding of flow features inside the intake duct and instructing how to reduce the power loss at various ship speeds and inlet velocity ratio (IVR) with considering the hull boundary layer. The nonuniformity and perpendicularity at the impeller plane is applied to analyze the flow quality at the outlet plane of intake duct. The results indicate that the nonuniformity decreases while the perpendicularity increases with increasing IVR. Thus a large IVR together with a high ship speed would cause better outflows. Further analyses of the pressure along the ramp and cutwater depict that cavitation easily occurs at the upper side of the cutwater with a larger IVR. The hydraulic efficiency is seen to firstly increase and then decrease with an increase in IVR. The hydraulic efficiency of the intake duct is over 80% during IVR = 0.4∼1.2 with the maximum value of 92.19% at IVR = 0.6.

A Comparison Study for Off-Design Performance Prediction of a Supercritical CO2 Compressor With Similitude Analysis

Most of the power plants operating nowadays mainly have adopted a steam Rankine cycle or a gas Brayton cycle. To devise a better power conversion cycle, various approaches were taken by researchers and one of the examples is an S-CO2 (supercritical CO2) power cycle. Over the past decades, the S-CO2 power cycle was invented and studied. Eventually the cycle was successful for attracting attentions from a wide range of applications. Basically, an S-CO2 power cycle is a variation of a gas Brayton cycle. In contrast to the fact that an ordinary Brayton cycle operates with a gas phase fluid, the S-CO2 power cycle operates with a supercritical phase fluid, where temperatures and pressures of working fluid are above the critical point. Many advantages of S-CO2 power cycle are rooted from its novel characteristics. Particularly, a compressor in an S-CO2 power cycle operates near the critical point, where the compressibility is greatly reduced. Since the S-CO2 power cycle greatly benefits from the reduced compression work, an S-CO2 compressor prediction under off-design condition has a huge impact on overall cycle performance. When off-design operations of a power cycle are considered, the compressor performance needs to be specified. One of the approaches for a compressor off-design performance evaluation is to use the correction methods based on similitude analysis. However, there are several approaches for deriving the equivalent conditions but none of the approaches has been thoroughly examined for S-CO2 conditions based on data. The purpose of this paper is comparing these correction models to identify the best fitted approach, in order to predict a compressor off-design operation performance more accurately from limited amount of information. Each correction method was applied to two sets of data, SCEIL experiment data and 1D turbomachinery code off-design prediction code generated data, and evaluated in this paper.