Vane Angle Influence on the Flow Pattern around a Circular Pier

Abstract

This paper intends to numerically analyze the hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow pattern that surrounds the circular pier near the vane angle. These include flow velocity, turbulent intensity, and pressure. A computational fluid dynamic is proposed to simulate the two-dimensional model by using the finite volume method, while the k - ε turbulence model is used to describe the turbulent model. The vane is located upstream of the pier, with its dimensions as function of the pier diameter. The distance between the vane and the pier center is equal to the pier diameter, the angle of the vane is put with a range from 60o to 180o, and the pier diameter is equal to 10 mm. The turbulent flow has a Reynolds number that varies from 20000 to 50000. The existence of the vane angle leads to two different processes, which are flow separation and flow dissipation, which have a direct effect on flow velocity, turbulent intensity, and pressure. From the current numerical results, the relationships between Reynolds number and average flow velocity, maximum flow velocity, turbulent intensity, and maximum turbulent intensity are more sensitive to flow separation and flow dissipation along the vane. Also, positive and negative pressure distributions have a higher influence on flow separation and flow dissipation.