Numerical study of turbulent cavitating flows in thermal regime
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
ISSN: 0961-5539
Article publication date: 3 July 2017
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this work is to quantify the relative importance of the turbulence modelling for cavitating flows in thermal regime. A comparison of various transport-equation turbulence models and a study of the influence of the turbulent Prandtl number appearing in the formulation of the turbulent heat flux are proposed. Numerical simulations are performed on a cavitating Venturi flow for which the running fluid is freon R-114 and results are compared with experimental data.
Design/methodology/approach
A compressible, two-phase, one-fluid Navier–Stokes solver has been developed to investigate the behaviour of cavitation models including thermodynamic effects. The code is composed by three conservation laws for mixture variables (mass, momentum and total energy) and a supplementary transport equation for the volume fraction of gas. The mass transfer between phases is closed assuming its proportionality to the mixture velocity divergence.
Findings
The influence of turbulence model as regard to the cooling effect due to the vaporization is weak. Only the k – ε Jones–Launder model under-estimates the temperature drop. The amplitude of the wall temperature drop near the Venturi throat increases with the augmentation of the turbulent Prandtl number.
Originality/value
The interaction between Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes turbulence closure and non-isothermal phase transition is rarely studied. It is the first time such a study on the turbulent Prandtl number effect is reported in cavitating flows.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the German Jordanian University and ISAE-ENSMA, Institut Pprime. This research has been supported in part by the German Jordanian University through the project SEED-SNRE 7-2014. Computer facilities at ISAE-ENSMA, Institut Pprime, UPR 3346 CNRS, Poitiers, France have been extensively used. A short version of this paper was presented at the 10th International Symposium on Numerical Analysis of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer, Numerical Fluids 2015 held in Rhodes, Greece from 23 to 29 September 2015.
Citation
Goncalves, E. and Zeidan, D. (2017), "Numerical study of turbulent cavitating flows in thermal regime", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 1487-1503. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-05-2016-0202
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited