Abstract
The paper presents mathematical modelling of steam condensation in the atmospheric air transonic flows. A single-fluid model was employed. The model was validated against the in-house experimental studies of internal flow in nozzles and against benchmark tests available in literature i.e., RAE2822 transonic airfoil. The impact of air relative humidity on the condensation process under transonic flow conditions was examined. The paper shows that the impact of the condensation process in air transonic flow is non-negligible and has to be taken under consideration in flow simulations. The presence of air contaminants in form of small particles was considered too. Their crucial role in the change of the transonic flow structure was numerically confirmed.
Highlights
Air is certainly one of the most popular working fluids in power and transport machinery and installations
The results of the condensation model, which was implemented to commercial software, are shown
The condensation phenomenon drives a rapid release of latent heat, which influences the pressure distribution along the nozzle, and the condensation wave occurs
Summary
Air is certainly one of the most popular working fluids in power and transport machinery and installations. In moist air transonic flows, the condensation process can be very sudden, forming a so-called condensation wave, which, due to latent heat release, exerts a significant impact on the flow. The most popular experimental studies of moist air transonic flow are the works of Schnerr et al [2,3], who proposed a model based on the kinetic nucleation theory, and it has been successfully implemented to numerical solvers by many researchers. The importance of condensation induced by spontaneous nucleation and air pollution has encouraged scientists to investigate its influence regarding external flows [6,7]; the result presented by the authors indicate different effects of condensation on lift and drag forces acting on the airfoil in transonic flow regime. The implementation of the condensation into commercial software (including its validation) was one of the main aims of this study, as the commercial codes give a robust and reliable tool for a wide range of applications—their major advantage over specialized—dedicated for single application academic codes
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