Effect of Guide Vane on Turbulence Characteristics for Single-Phase Flow through a 90-Degree Pipe Bend

Abstract

The present study expresses the turbulent flow characteristics through a 90° pipe bend using a numerical ‎method by determining the solutions for Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) expression using the k-ω ‎‎(SST) turbulence model. For that purpose, numerical analysis has been carried out by solving RANS equations ‎using ANSYS FLUENT 16.2, considering incompressible fluid in turbulent flow conditions. Simulations have ‎been carried out for three different Reynolds number ranging from 1×105 to 10×105 at three different bend ‎curvature ratios (Rc/D = 1, 1.5, and 2). Pipe bends with guide vane are generally used where flow separation ‎and space problem makes an issue in mechanical design. The presence of guide vane inside the bend ‎positively suppressed the flow separation and presence of cross-flow which can cause the engine to run off ‎design, thus reducing the engine efficiency. So, to observe the effect of guide vane and its position on ‎turbulence characteristics, four different positions of guide vane inside the bend are considered in the present ‎study. At first, an analysis was led to make sure that the results obtained from the present numerical model are ‎reliable and in line with previous results obtained from similar published experiments and numerical work. ‎Research has been conducted to find out the impact of Reynolds number, bend curvature ratio and position of ‎guide vane on different turbulence characteristics namely; turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent intensity, and ‎wall shear stress at bend outlet position. In general, the turbulent intensity is found larger for the lower bend ‎curvature ratio at the inner wall curvature side. Results for turbulent kinetic energy have similarities in results ‎with turbulent intensity. Significantly, the wall shear stress represented a strong dependency on the ‎circumferential angle at the bend outlet cross-section, and curvature ratio rather than Reynolds number and ‎guide vane positions‎‎.