Performance of turbulence models for single phase and liquid-solid slurry flows in pressurized pipe systems

Abstract

In hydraulic engineering, turbulent flow is the most encountered flow regime in closed conduits. Because of the difficulty and complexity of the turbulence mechanism dominated by fluctuations, it is very important to model the turbulence mechanism correctly. Numerous models are developed by researchers in order to characterize turbulence. However, it is crucial to choose the model that gives the correct results. In this study, the performance of some well-known turbulence models is comparatively investigated. Extensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and experimental analysis of water flow in the rough pipe, eccentric and concentric annulus, and liquid-solid slurry flow in the eccentric annulus are presented. The accuracy of turbulence models is verified with the experiments that have been conducted and presented data by Sorgun, 2010). Reasonable agreements are obtained between CFD simulations and experiments. Results show that the RNG κ-ϵ gives better results than the other turbulence models for the water flow through the rough pipe and eccentric annulus. For the water flow through the concentric annulus, the EARSM model outperforms the other turbulence models. All models except SSG showed similar performances in the estimation of the pressure difference for slurry flow.