Numerical simulation of turbulent flow of hydraulic oil through 90° circular-sectional bend

Abstract

Oil flow through pipe bends is found in many engineering applications. However, up to now, the studies of oil flow field in the pipe bend appear to be relatively sparse, although the oil flow field and the associated losses of pipe bend are very important in practice. In this paper, the relationships between the turbulent flow of hydraulic oil in a bend and the Reynolds number Re and the curvature ratio δ are studied by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A particular emphasis is put on hydraulic oil, which differs from air or water, flowing through 90° circular-sectional bend, with the purpose of determining the turbulent flow characteristics as well as losses. Three turbulence models, namely, RNG k-ɛ model, realizable k-ɛ model, and Reynolds stress model (RSM), are used respectively. The simulation results in the form of contour and vector plots for all the three turbulence models for pipe bends having curvature ratio of δ = 0.5, and the detailed pressure fields and total pressure losses for different Re and δ for RSM are presented. The RSM can predict the stronger secondary flow in the bend better than other models. As Re increases, the pressure gradient changes rapidly, and the pressure magnitude increases at inner and outer wall of the bend. When δ decreases, two transition points or transition zones of pressure gradient arise at inner wall, meanwhile, the transition point moves towards the inlet at outer wall of the bend. Owing to secondary flow, the total pressure loss factor k increases as the bend tightens, on the contrary, as Re increases, factor k decreases due to higher velocity heads, and the rapid change of pressure gradient on the surface of the bend leads to increasing of friction and separation effects, and magnified swirl intensity of secondary flow. A new mathematical model is proposed for predicting pressure loss in terms of Re and δ in order to provide support to the one-dimensional simulation software. The proposed research provides reference for the analysis of oil flow with higher Re in the large bends.