3D Unsteady Flow Research Articles

Impact of hydropeaking on downstream fish habitat at the Goesan Dam in Korea

AbstractThe impact of hydropeaking on downstream fish habitat was investigated. The study area is a 2.3‐km long reach of the Dal River, located downstream from the Goesan Dam, Korea. Such short‐term effects of hydropeaking as flow unsteadiness, down‐ramping rate, transport of benthic macro‐invertebrate, and changes in composite suitability index (CSI) and weighted usable area (WUA) were examined. To assess the change in CSI and WUA, physical habitat simulations were carried out. The 2D unsteady flow model and the habitat suitability index model were used for hydraulic and habitat simulations, respectively. Zacco platypus was selected as a target species of the study area. Hydraulic simulations showed that flow depth changes rapidly with time at the rising and falling stages of discharge due to hydropeaking, and this impact propagates with time. The down‐ramping rate was found to decrease gradually in the downstream direction, implying that the fish can be stranded in the 1.5‐km upstream reach. In addition, simulation results indicate that the transport of macro‐invertebrate may occur in the riffle, and the hydropeaking flows increase slightly the area of possible transport of macro‐invertebrate compared with the normal flow. However, catastrophic drift will not occur due to hydropeaking flows. The results of physical habitat simulations revealed that the hydropeaking flows decrease the CSI, although the river morphology affects the CSI to some extent. Regarding the WUA, the overall habitat quality in the entire study reach was found to decrease due to hydropeaking.

Effects of axial gap on aerodynamic force and response of shrouded and unshrouded blade

Forced response analysis of a rocket engine turbine blade was conducted by a decoupled fluid-structure interaction procedure. Aerodynamic forces on the rotor blade were obtained using 3D unsteady flow simulations. The resulting aerodynamic forces were interpolated to the finite element (FE) model through surface effect elements prior to conducting forced response calculations. Effects of axial gap on aerodynamic forces were studied. In addition, influence of axial gap on the response of the shrouded blade was compared with that on the response of the unshrouded blade. Results demonstrated that as the axial gap increases, time-averaged pressure on the blade surface changes very little, while the pressure fluctuations decrease significantly. Pressure and aerodynamic forces on the blade surface display periodic variation, and the vane passing frequency component is dominant. Amplitudes of aerodynamic forces decrease with increasing axial gap. Restricted by the shroud, deformation and response of shrouded blade are much lower than those of the unshrouded blade. The response of unshrouded blade shows obvious beat vibration phenomenon, while the response of the shrouded blade does not have this characteristic because the shroud restrains multiple harmonics. Blade response in time domain was converted to frequency domain using fast Fourier transformation (FFT). Results revealed that the axial gap mainly affects the forced harmonic at the vane passing frequency, while the other two harmonics at natural frequency are hardly affected. Amplitudes of the unshrouded blade response decrease as the axial gap increases, while amplitudes of the shrouded blade response change very little in comparison.

High-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory finite-difference formulation of the lattice Boltzmann method in generalized curvilinear coordinates.

In this work, a high-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) finite-difference lattice Boltzmann method (WENOLBM) is developed and assessed for an accurate simulation of incompressible flows. To handle curved geometries with nonuniform grids, the incompressible form of the discrete Boltzmann equation with the Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) approximation is transformed into the generalized curvilinear coordinates and the spatial derivatives of the resulting lattice Boltzmann equation in the computational plane are solved using the fifth-order WENO scheme. The first-order implicit-explicit Runge-Kutta scheme and also the fourth-order Runge-Kutta explicit time integrating scheme are adopted for the discretization of the temporal term. To examine the accuracy and performance of the present solution procedure based on the WENOLBM developed, different benchmark test cases are simulated as follows: unsteady Taylor-Green vortex, unsteady doubly periodic shear layer flow, steady flow in a two-dimensional (2D) cavity, steady cylindrical Couette flow, steady flow over a 2D circular cylinder, and steady and unsteady flows over a NACA0012 hydrofoil at different flow conditions. Results of the present solution are compared with the existing numerical and experimental results which show good agreement. To show the efficiency and accuracy of the solution methodology, the results are also compared with the developed second-order central-difference finite-volume lattice Boltzmann method and the compact finite-difference lattice Boltzmann method. It is shown that the present numerical scheme is robust, efficient, and accurate for solving steady and unsteady incompressible flows even at high Reynolds number flows.

Two- and three-dimensional instabilities in the wake of a circular cylinder near a moving wall

Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) instabilities in the wake of a circular cylinder placed near to a moving wall are investigated using direct numerical simulation (DNS). The study covers a parameter space spanning a non-dimensional gap ratio ($G^{\ast }$) between 0.1 to 19.5 and Reynolds number ($Re$) up to 300. Variations in the flow characteristics with $Re$ and $G^{\ast }$ are studied, and their correlations with the hydrodynamic forces on the cylinder are investigated. It is also found that the monotonic increase of the critical $Re$ for 2D instability ($Re_{cr2D}$) with decreasing $G^{\ast }$ is influenced by variations in the mean flow rate around the cylinder, the confinement of the near-wake flow by the plane wall and the characteristics of the shear layer formed above the moving wall directly below the cylinder. The first factor destabilizes the wake flow at a moderate $G^{\ast }$ while the latter two factors stabilize the wake flow with decreasing $G^{\ast }$. In terms of 3D instability, the flow transition sequence of ‘2D steady $\rightarrow$ 3D steady $\rightarrow$ 3D unsteady’ for small gap ratios is analysed at $G^{\ast }=0.2$. It is found that the 3D steady and 3D unsteady flows are triggered by Mode C instability due to wall proximity. However, the Mode C structure is not sustained indefinitely, since interference with the shear layer leads to other 3D steady and unsteady flow structures.

Numerical analysis of unsteady 3D flow of Carreau nanofluid with variable thermal conductivity and heat source/sink

Inspired by modern deeds of nanotechnology and nanoscience and their abundant applications in the field of science and engineering, we establish a mathematical relation for unsteady 3D forced convective flow of Carreau nanofluid over a bidirectional stretched surface. Heat transfer phenomena of Carreau nanofluid is inspected through the variable thermal conductivity and heat generation/absorption impact. Furthermore, this research paper presents a more convincing approach for heat and mass transfer phenomenon of nanoliquid by utilizing new mass flux condition. Practically, zero mass flux condition is more adequate because in this approach we assume nanoparticle amends itself accordingly on the boundaries. Now the features of Buongiorno’s relation for Carreau nanofluid can be applied in a more efficient way. An appropriate transformation is vacant to alter the PDEs into ODEs and then tackled numerically by employing bvp4c scheme. The numerous consequence of scheming parameters on the Carreau nanoliquid velocity components, temperature and concentration fields are portrayed graphically and deliberated in detail. The numerical outcomes for local skin friction and the wall temperature gradient for nanoliquid are intended and vacant through tables. The outcomes conveyed here manifest that impact of Brownian motion parameter Nb on the rate of heat transfer for nanoliquids becomes negligible for the recently recommended revised relation. Addationally, for authentication of the present relation, the achieved results are distinguished with earlier research works in specific cases and marvelous agreement has been noted.

Influence of non-linear thermal radiation on 2D unsteady flow of a Williamson fluid with heat source/sink

Abstract The present article reports a new mathematical formulation for a time dependent flow of a non-Newtonian Williamson fluid model by taking into account the impacts of infinite shear rate viscosity. By incorporating the constitutive relation of Williamson fluid model the basic conservation equations are obtained for two dimensional boundary layer flow. In addition, the heat transfer characteristics for flow filed over a stretching surface has been explored within the sight of thermal radiation and heat sink or source. The Rosseland approximation is being employed for non-linear thermal radiation impacts in the presence of convective heat transfer mode. The current work aims at revealing the solution of equations describing the flow of Williamson fluid by mean of employing the dimensionless approach. Therefore, the leading nonlinear momentum and energy equations are rendered into a set of simultaneously ordinary differential equations via non-dimensional variables with associated physical boundary conditions. Numerical treatment of these reduced conservation equations has been conducted by utilizing the Runge-Kutta Fehlberg integration scheme. We have examined the influence of various physical variables, like, the unsteadiness parameter, Weissenberg number, viscosity ratio parameter, Biot number, radiation parameter, temperature ratio parameter, Prandtl number and heat source/sink parameter on momentum and thermal boundary layers, which is illustrated by means of graphs and tables. The results suggest that the impact of larger viscosity ratio parameter lead to higher fluid velocity while the converse is true for the temperature field. It is noted that the greater unsteadiness parameter results in a significant enhancement in the friction factor. In addition, an increase in thermal radiation as well as temperature ratio parameters improves the heat transfer performance in fluid flow. The work of previous researchers is correlated with the findings of this paper in some special cases in the absence of Weissenberg number and viscosity ratio parameter for different values of unsteadiness parameter. A reasonably accurate predictions are achieved in this comparison.

Experimental investigation of flow field in a laboratory-scale compressor

The inner flow environment of turbomachinery presents strong three-dimensional, rotational, and unsteady characteristics. Consequently, a deep understanding of these flow phenomena will be the prerequisite to establish a state-of-the-art design system of turbomachinery. Currently the development of more accurate turbulence models and CFD tools is in urgent need for a high-quality database for validation, especially the advanced CFD tools, such as large eddy simulation (LES). Under this circumstance, this paper presents a detailed experimental investigation on the 3D unsteady flow field inside a laboratory-scale isolated-rotor with multiple advanced measurement techniques, including traditional aerodynamic probes, hotwire probes, unsteady endwall static pressure measurement, and stereo particle image velocimetry (SPIV). The inlet boundary layer profile is measured with both hotwire probe and aerodynamic probe. The steady and unsteady flow fields at the outlet of the rotor are measured with a mini five-hole probe and a single-slanted hotwire probe. The instantaneous flow field in the rotor tip region inside the passage is captured with SPIV, and then a statistical analysis of the spatial distribution of the instantaneous tip leakage vortex/flow is performed to understand its dynamic characteristics. Besides these, the uncertainty analysis of each measurement technique is described. This database is quite sufficient to validate the advanced numerical simulation with LES. The identification process of the tip leakage vortex core in the instantaneous frames obtained from SPIV is performed deliberately. It is concluded that the ensemble-averaged flow field could not represent the tip leakage vortex strength and the trajectory trace. The development of the tip leakage vortex could be clearly cataloged into three phases according to their statistical spatial distribution. The streamwise velocity loss induced by the tip leakage flow increases until the splitting process is weak and the turbulent mixing phase is dominant.

Numerical simulation of 2D unsteady shear-thinning non-Newtonian incompressible fluid in screw extruder with fictitious domain method

In this paper, we develop a fictitious domain method with Distributed Lagrange Multipliers for simulating 2D unsteady shear-thinning non-newtonian incompressible flow in a single-screw and twin-screw extruder. The advantage of the fictitious domain method is that one can use a fixed mesh even as the fluid domain changes in time (as the screws are rotating), eliminating the need for repeated remeshing and projection. The method uses a finite element discretization in space and an operator-splitting technique for discretization in time. Numerical results are given for the flow inside a single-screw extruder or twin-screw extruder, which show that the fictitious domain method is efficient for the problem.

Modelling of a Francis Turbine Runner Fatigue Failure Process Caused by Fluid-Structure Interaction

In the present paper considered is the problem of the numerical simulation of Francis turbine runner fatigue failure caused by fluid-structure interaction. The unsteady 3D flow is modeled simultaneously in the spiral chamber, each wicket gate and runner channels and in the draft tube using the Euler equations. Based on the unsteady runner loadings at each time step stresses in the whole runner are calculated using the elastic equilibrium equations solved with boundary element method. Set of static stress-strain states provides quasi-dynamics of runner cyclic loading. It is assumed that equivalent stresses in the runner are below the critical value after which irreversible plastic processes happen in the runner material. Therefore runner is subjected to the fatigue damage caused by high-cycle fatigue, in which the loads are generally low compared with the limit stress of the material. As a consequence, the stress state around the crack front can be fully characterized by linear elastic fracture mechanics. The place of runner cracking is determined as a point with maximal amplitude of stress oscillations. Stress pulsations amplitude is used to estimate the number of cycles until the moment of fatigue failure, number of loading cycles and oscillation frequency are used to calculate runner service time. Example of the real Francis runner which has encountered premature fatigue failure as a result of incorrect durability estimation is used to verify the developed numerical model.

Numerical investigations on cavitation intensity for 3D homogeneous unsteady viscous flows

The cavitation erosion remains an industrial issue. In this paper, we deal with the cavitation intensity which can be described as the aggressiveness - or erosive capacity - of a cavitating flow. The estimation of this intensity is a challenging problem both in terms of modelling the cavitating flow and predicting the erosion due to cavitation. For this purpose, a model was proposed to estimate cavitation intensity from 3D unsteady cavitating flow simulations. An intensity model based on pressure and void fraction derivatives was developped and applied to a NACA 65012 hydrofoil tested at LMH-EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) [1]. 2D and 3D unsteady cavitating simulations were performed using a homogeneous model with void fraction transport equation included in Code_Saturne with cavitating module [2]. The article presents a description of the numerical code and the physical approach considered. Comparisons between 2D and 3D simulations, as well as between numerical and experimental results obtained by pitting tests, are analyzed in the paper.

Approach to solution of coupled heat transfer problem on the surface of hypersonic vehicle of arbitrary shape

In this paper, an approach to solve conjugate heat- and mass-transfer problems is considered to be applied to hypersonic vehicle surface of arbitrary shape. The approach under developing should satisfy the following demands. (i) The surface of the body of interest may have arbitrary geometrical shape. (ii) The shape of the body can change during calculation. (iii) The flight characteristics may vary in a wide range, specifically flight altitude, free-stream Mach number, angle-of-attack, etc. (iv) The approach should be realized with using the high-performance-computing (HPC) technologies. The approach is based on coupled solution of 3D unsteady hypersonic flow equations and 3D unsteady heat conductance problem for the thick wall. Iterative process is applied to account for ablation of wall material and, consequently, mass injection from the surface and changes in the surface shape. While iterations, unstructured computational grids both in the flow region and within the wall interior are adapted to the current geometry and flow conditions. The flow computations are done on HPC platform and are most time-consuming part of the whole problem, while heat conductance problem can be solved on many kinds of computers.

VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT USING LIDAR DATA IN SILANG-STA. ROSA SUBWATERSHED, PHILIPPINES

Abstract. Silang-Sta. Rosa Subwatershed is experiencing rapid urbanization. Its downstream area is already urbanized and the development is moving fast upstream. With the rapid land conversion of pervious to impervious areas and increase frequency of intense rainfall events, the downstream of the watershed is at risk of flood hazard. The widely used freeware HEC-RAS (Hydrologic Engineering Center- River Analysis System) model was used to implement the 2D unsteady flow analysis to develop a flood hazard map. The LiDAR derived digital elevation model (DEM) with 1m resolution provided detailed terrain that is vital for producing reliable flood extent map that can be used for early warning system. With the detailed information from the simulation like areas to be flooded, the predicted depth and duration, we can now provide specific flood forecasting and mitigation plan even at community level. The methodology of using 2D unsteady flow modelling and high resolution DEM in a watershed can be replicated to other neighbouring watersheds specially those areas that are not yet urbanized so that their development will be guided to be flood hazard resilient. LGUs all over the country will benefit from having a high resolution flood hazard map.

Numerical simulation of conjugate heat transfer in a tube bank of a subsea cooler based on buoyancy effects

The contribution deals with a model of passive heat exchanger based on the buoyancy effects aimed at subsea processing of natural gas produced. 3D unsteady external buoyancy-induced seawater flow through a staggered tube bundle at Gr = 3 × 105 was simulated using the full Navier-Stokes equations with no turbulence model in combination with the unsteady RANS modelling of internal natural gas flow at Re = 8×105 and simulation of heat conduction through the steel pipe wall. Evolution of internal and external flow and temperature fields as well as variations in the heat output from row to row are predicted. It was found that the conjugate problem formulation resulted in dramatic changes in draft flow characteristics and external heat transfer coefficient values as compared with the simplified formulation based on the isothermal pipe wall assumption.

3D unsteady flow analysis around a rotor blade of horizontal axis wind turbine-Rutland 503

The unsteady aerodynamics computational fluid dynamics simulations of the flow-field around a three-bladed Rutland 503 horizontal axis wind turbine rotor have been conducted in this paper to provide information needed to predict the three-dimensional aerodynamics behavior. In the CFD analysis, the variation of wind velocity between 9.3m/s and 15m/s is investigated. The Detached Eddy Simulation method is used with the turbulence model SST. A multiblock structured mesh is used for the discretization of the study domain. The solutions are obtained by using the Solver Fluent 6.3 which uses the method of finites volumes. The results of simulations obtained are compared with the experimental data [1] obtained in Wind Tunnel Laboratory LMA Arts and Metiers Paris-Tech in order to validate these results. Results of the numerical simulation in three dimensions of the unsteady field of flow around the blade are presented.

Unstructured Cartesian refinement with sharp interface immersed boundary method for 3D unsteady incompressible flows

A novel numerical method is developed for solving the 3D, unsteady, incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on locally refined fully unstructured Cartesian grids in domains with arbitrarily complex immersed boundaries. Owing to the utilization of the fractional step method on an unstructured Cartesian hybrid staggered/non-staggered grid layout, flux mismatch and pressure discontinuity issues are avoided and the divergence free constraint is inherently satisfied to machine zero. Auxiliary/hanging nodes are used to facilitate the discretization of the governing equations. The second-order accuracy of the solver is ensured by using multi-dimension Lagrange interpolation operators and appropriate differencing schemes at the interface of regions with different levels of refinement. The sharp interface immersed boundary method is augmented with local near-boundary refinement to handle arbitrarily complex boundaries. The discrete momentum equation is solved with the matrix free Newton–Krylov method and the Krylov-subspace method is employed to solve the Poisson equation. The second-order accuracy of the proposed method on unstructured Cartesian grids is demonstrated by solving the Poisson equation with a known analytical solution. A number of three-dimensional laminar flow simulations of increasing complexity illustrate the ability of the method to handle flows across a range of Reynolds numbers and flow regimes. Laminar steady and unsteady flows past a sphere and the oblique vortex shedding from a circular cylinder mounted between two end walls demonstrate the accuracy, the efficiency and the smooth transition of scales and coherent structures across refinement levels. Large-eddy simulation (LES) past a miniature wind turbine rotor, parameterized using the actuator line approach, indicates the ability of the fully unstructured solver to simulate complex turbulent flows. Finally, a geometry resolving LES of turbulent flow past a complete hydrokinetic turbine illustrates the potential of the method to simulate turbulent flows past geometrically complex bodies on locally refined meshes. In all the cases, the results are found to be in very good agreement with published data and savings in computational resources are achieved.

Photoplethysmography and ultrasonic-measurement-integrated simulation to clarify the relation between two-dimensional unsteady blood flow field and forward and backward waves in a carotid artery

Understanding the spatiotemporal change in hemodynamics is essential for the basic research of atherosclerosis. The objective of this study was to establish a methodology to clarify the relation between a two-dimensional (2D) unsteady blood flow field and forward and backward propagating waves in a carotid artery. This study utilized photoplethysmography (PPG) for blood pressure measurement and two-dimensional ultrasonic-measurement-integrated (2D-UMI) simulation for flow field analysis. The validity of the methodology was confirmed in an experiment for a carotid artery of a healthy volunteer. Synchronization between the pressure measurement and flow field analysis was achieved with an error of <10 ms. A 2D unsteady blood flow field in the carotid artery was characterized in relation to forward and backward waves. 2D-UMI simulation reproduced the flow field in which the wall shear stress takes a maximum at the time of the backward wave superiority in the systolic phase, whereas 2D ordinary simulation failed to reproduce this feature because of poor reproducibility of velocity distribution. In conclusion, the proposed methodology using PPG and 2D-UMI simulation was shown to be a potential tool to clarify the relation between 2D unsteady blood flow field and the forward and backward waves in a carotid artery.

Multi-GPU unsteady 2D flow simulation coupled with a state-to-state chemical kinetics

In this work we are presenting a GPU version of a CFD code for high enthalpy reacting flow, using the state-to-state approach. In supersonic and hypersonic flows, thermal and chemical non-equilibrium is one of the fundamental aspects that must be taken into account for the accurate characterization of the plasma and state-to-state kinetics is the most accurate approach used for this kind of problems. This model consists in writing a continuity equation for the population of each vibrational level of the molecules in the mixture, determining at the same time the species densities and the distribution of the population in internal levels. An explicit scheme is employed here to integrate the governing equations, so as to exploit the GPU structure and obtain an efficient algorithm. The best performances are obtained for reacting flows in state-to-state approach, reaching speedups of the order of 100, thanks to the use of an operator splitting scheme for the kinetics equations.

Simulation of Reservoir Sediment Flushing of the Three Gorges Reservoir Using an Artificial Neural Network

Reservoir sedimentation and its effect on the environment are the most serious world-wide problems in water resources development and utilization today. As one of the largest water conservancy projects, the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) has been controversial since its demonstration period, and sedimentation is the major concern. Due to the complex physical mechanisms of water and sediment transport, this study adopts the Error Back Propagation Training Artificial Neural Network (BP-ANN) to analyze the relationship between the sediment flushing efficiency of the TGR and its influencing factors. The factors are determined by the analysis on 1D unsteady flow and sediment mathematical model, mainly including reservoir inflow, incoming sediment concentration, reservoir water level, and reservoir release. Considering the distinguishing features of reservoir sediment delivery in different seasons, the monthly average data from 2003, when the TGR was put into operation, to 2011 are used to train, validate, and test the BP-ANN model. The results indicate that, although the sample space is quite limited, the whole sediment delivery process can be schematized by the established BP-ANN model, which can be used to help sediment flushing and thus decrease the reservoir sedimentation.

Flow field distribution of liquid film of water lubricated bearing-rotor coupling systems

According to the desalination high-pressure pump water lubricated bearing-rotor coupling systems flow field distribution of liquid film in the starting transient process and its power transmission mechanism can lay the foundation of further exploring and judging lubrication state at the boot process. By using the computational fluid dynamics Fluent secondary development platform and calling the relevant DEFINE macro function to achieve the translation and rotation movement of the journal, we will use the dynamic grid technique to realize the automatic calculation and grid update of water lubricated bearings 3d unsteady liquid film flow field, and finally we will dispose the results of numerical simulation and get the pressure. When the eccentricity is large, film thickness was negatively correlated with the pressure, and positive with the velocity. Differential pressure was negatively correlated with velocity. When the eccentricity is small, film thickness is no significant relationship with differential pressure and velocity. Differential pressure has little difference with velocity.

Assessment of turbulence models for the simulation of turbulent flows past bluff bodies

The accuracy of a recently developed one-equation turbulence model in predicting complex flows with massive separation is assessed against the well-known Spalart Allmaras (SA) and the k-ω-SST-Scale Adaptive Simulation (SAS) models. The unsteady 3-D flow past a square cylinder at Re=2.2×104, as well as a 3-D flow over a wall-mounted cube at Re=4.0×104 are computed and compared to available experimental data. The recently developed model is capable of resolving turbulent flow structures, thereby predicting all major unsteady phenomena with a marked improvement over other Reynolds average Navier–Stokes (RANS) models. The computational time required by the model in comparison to that required by Large Eddy Simulation (LES) renders it a suitable candidate for simulating 3D unsteady complex engineering flows such as building aerodynamics with reasonable accuracy.