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Article
Publication date: 1 January 2014

Tareq Salameh and Bengt Sunden

– The aim of this paper is to study two-dimensional numerical simulations of the flow and temperature fields inside the bend (turn) part of a U-duct.

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to study two-dimensional numerical simulations of the flow and temperature fields inside the bend (turn) part of a U-duct.

Design/methodology/approach

Several turbulence models based on two and five equations were used to solve the momentum and energy equations inside the bend (turn) part of the U-duct. For two-equation models, both the renormalization group and realizable k-ɛ turbulence models were implemented. The five-equation model used is a Reynolds stress model with different wall boundary conditions. Standard, non-equilibrium and enhanced wall functions were used in parallel with the two- and five-equation models to treat the turbulent flow near the duct walls.

Findings

Several turbulence models were used to simulate the flow and temperature fields along the bend part of a U-duct with different inlet and thermal boundary conditions. The numerical results indicate that the renormalization and realizable k-ɛ turbulence models with standard wall function treatment gave the best results when compared with experimental data obtained for similar conditions.

Research limitations/implications

For heat transfer analysis, two different thermal boundary conditions, i.e. constant wall temperature and constant heat flux at the wall are implemented. The results are calculated for Reynolds number equal 20,000.

Practical implications

The results can be used in designing heat exchangers, piping and duct systems, and internal passage cooling of gas turbine blades.

Originality/value

The numerical results obtained here concentrate on the detailed investigation of flow and temperature field at the outer wall of the bend part. Different boundary conditions at the inlet and the outer bend walls of the U-duct were applied to study how these boundary conditions affect the flow and temperature fields.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 May 2015

Jin Wang, Chunwei Gu and Bengt Ake Sunden

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of thermal conductivity on gas turbine blades, and to investigate the contribution of different rib configurations to the heat…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of thermal conductivity on gas turbine blades, and to investigate the contribution of different rib configurations to the heat flux and the film cooling effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

The Renormalization Group (RNG) model with enhanced wall treatment was used for the turbulence modeling, and the SIMPLE algorithm was used to handle the pressure-velocity coupling.

Findings

A flame-shape distribution on the internal wall provides high heat flux compared to a hawk-shape distribution; the film cooling effectiveness on the external wall is enhanced for the lateral film cooling effectiveness by heat conduction and film cooling (convection); by comparing the square-rib and pin-rib configurations, the circular-rib configuration offers a higher film cooling effectiveness on the Aluminum wall.

Research limitations/implications

In the present research, the combination of internal cooling and external cooling is used to predict cooling effectiveness on film-cooled flat plate; two kinds of different plate materials are used to obtain the influence of the thermal conductivity. The successful computational method should give guidelines for potential CFD users in engineering sciences.

Practical implications

The results of the paper are of engineering interest where film cooling and ribbed surfaces are applied. The successful computational method will also serve as guidelines for potential users of CFD in design as well as research and development work.

Originality/value

In the present research, the combination of internal cooling and external cooling is used to predict cooling effectiveness on film-cooled flat plate; two kinds of different plate materials are used to obtain the influence of the thermal conductivity.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 25 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 February 2024

Zhen Chen, Jing Liu, Chao Ma, Huawei Wu and Zhi Li

The purpose of this study is to propose a precise and standardized strategy for numerically simulating vehicle aerodynamics.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to propose a precise and standardized strategy for numerically simulating vehicle aerodynamics.

Design/methodology/approach

Error sources in computational fluid dynamics were analyzed. Additionally, controllable experiential and discretization errors, which significantly influence the calculated results, are expounded upon. Considering the airflow mechanism around a vehicle, the computational efficiency and accuracy of each solution strategy were compared and analyzed through numerous computational cases. Finally, the most suitable numerical strategy, including the turbulence model, simplified vehicle model, calculation domain, boundary conditions, grids and discretization scheme, was identified. Two simplified vehicle models were introduced, and relevant wind tunnel tests were performed to validate the selected strategy.

Findings

Errors in vehicle computational aerodynamics mainly stem from the unreasonable simplification of the vehicle model, calculation domain, definite solution conditions, grid strategy and discretization schemes. Using the proposed standardized numerical strategy, the simulated steady and transient aerodynamic characteristics agreed well with the experimental results.

Originality/value

Building upon the modified Low-Reynolds Number k-e model and Scale Adaptive Simulation model, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, a precise and standardized numerical simulation strategy for vehicle aerodynamics is proposed for the first time, which can be integrated into vehicle research and design.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2020

Yong Li, Gongnan Xie and Bengt Ake Sunden

The purpose of this paper is to numerically study the influence of wall conduction on the heat transfer of supercritical n-decane in the active regenerative cooling channels.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to numerically study the influence of wall conduction on the heat transfer of supercritical n-decane in the active regenerative cooling channels.

Design/methodology/approach

A horizontally placed rectangular pipe with a solid zone and another one without a solid zone were used. A drastic variation of thermo-physical properties was emphatically addressed. After the verification of mesh and turbulence models comparing with the experimental results, a mesh number of 4.5 M and the low Reynolds number SST k-ω turbulence model were chosen. The solution of the governing equations and the acquisition of the numerical results were executed by the commercial software FLUENT 2020 R1.

Findings

The numerical results indicate that there is a heat transfer deterioration (HTD) potential for the upper wall, lower wall and sidewall with the decrease of mass flux. Due to wall conduction, the distribution of the fluid temperature at spanwise-normal planes becomes uniform and this feature also takes advantage of the relatively uniform transverse velocity. For the streamwise-normal planes, the low fluid temperature appears close to the upper wall at the region near the sidewall and vice versa for the region near the centre. Undoubtedly, the secondary flow at the cross-section plays a crucial role in this process and the relatively cool mainstream is affected by the vortices.

Originality/value

This study warns that the wall conduction must be considered in the practical design and thermal optimization due to the sensibility of thermo-physical properties to the heat flux. The secondary flow caused by the buoyancy force (gravity) plays a significant role in the supercritical heat transfer and mixed convection heat transfer should be further studied.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 February 2024

Rahim Şibil

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of near-wall treatment approaches, which are crucial parameters in predicting the flow characteristics of open channels, and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of near-wall treatment approaches, which are crucial parameters in predicting the flow characteristics of open channels, and the influence of different vegetation covers in different layers.

Design/methodology/approach

Ansys Fluent, a computational fluid dynamics software, was used to calculate the flow and turbulence characteristics using a three-dimensional, turbulent (k-e realizable), incompressible and steady-flow assumption, along with various near-wall treatment approaches (standard, scalable, non-equilibrium and enhanced) in the vegetated channel. The numerical study was validated concerning an experimental study conducted in the existing literature.

Findings

The numerical model successfully predicted experimental results with relative error rates below 10%. It was determined that nonequilibrium wall functions exhibited the highest predictive success in experiment Run 1, standard wall functions in experiment Run 2 and enhanced wall treatments in experiment Run 3. This study has found that plant growth significantly alters open channel flow. In the contact zones, the velocities and the eddy viscosity are low, while in the free zones they are high. On the other hand, the turbulence kinetic energy and turbulence eddy dissipation are maximum at the solid–liquid interface, while they are minimum at free zones.

Originality/value

This is the first study, to the best of the author’s knowledge, concerning the performance of different near-wall treatment approaches on the prediction of vegetation-covered open channel flow characteristics. And this study provides valuable insights to improve the hydraulic performance of open-channel systems.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 March 2018

Zhibo Shi, Yong Han and Jie Bai

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the ozone risk introduced by the mixing air-supply mode, displacement air-supply mode and personalized air-supply mode, respectively, in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the ozone risk introduced by the mixing air-supply mode, displacement air-supply mode and personalized air-supply mode, respectively, in commercial aircraft cabins.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of aircraft cabin has been built to study the distribution of ozone mass fraction and the ozone surface deposition rate on passenger’s face and clothes under the three different air-supply modes, respectively. The distribution of ozone mass fraction has been obtained by calculating the mass concentration of ozone in different location. The ozone surface deposition rate on passenger’s face and clothes has been calculated according to the mechanism of the reactions between ozone and squalene, which is the primary reactant in human sebum.

Findings

By comparing the three air-supply modes, it was considered that the mixing air-supply mode made lower ozone concentration and ozone surface deposition risk in most area, but this was because of the thin air distribution in cabin. The displacement air-supply mode made an uneven distribution of ozone concentration and increased absorbing ozone risk in the breathing zone. The personalized air-supply mode was proper for avoiding ozone harm and making a comfortable air environment. The air supply from the inlet on seat back could not increase the ozone surface deposition risk on passenger’s face.

Originality/value

This paper provides the qualitative and quantitative analysis for ozone risk to the passengers under the different air-supply modes. Findings can provide some suggestions for the designers to optimize the air-supply mode of air distribution system for reducing passengers’ discomfort caused by high-altitude ozone introduction, such as breathing in too much ozone.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 90 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 November 2021

Mingyang Liu, Guangjun Gao, Huifen Zhu and Chen Jiang

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of solving turbulent flows based on smoothed finite element method (S-FEM). Then, the differences between S-FEM and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of solving turbulent flows based on smoothed finite element method (S-FEM). Then, the differences between S-FEM and finite element method (FEM) in dealing with turbulent flows are compared.

Design/methodology/approach

The stabilization scheme, the streamline-upwind/Petrov-Galerkin stabilization is coupled with stabilized pressure gradient projection in the fractional step framework. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with standard k-epsilon model are selected to solve turbulent flows based on S-FEM and FEM. Standard wall functions are applied to predict boundary layer profiles.

Findings

This paper explores a completely new application of S-FEM on turbulent flows. The adopted stabilization scheme presents a good performance on stabilizing the flows, especially for very high Reynolds numbers flows. An advantage of S-FEM is found in applying wall functions comparing with FEM. The differences between S-FEM and FEM have been investigated.

Research limitations/implications

The research in this work is limited to the two-dimensional incompressible turbulent flow.

Practical implications

The verification and validation of a new combination are conducted by several numerical examples. The new combination could be used to deal with more complicated turbulent flows.

Social implications

The applications of the new combination to study basic and complex turbulent flow are also presented, which demonstrates its potential to solve more turbulent flows in nature and engineering.

Originality/value

This work carries out a great extension of S-FEM in simulations of fluid dynamics. The new combination is verified to be very effective in handling turbulent flows. The performances of S-FEM and FEM on turbulent flows were analyzed by several numerical examples. Superior results were found compared with existing results and experiments. Meanwhile, S-FEM has an advantage of accuracy in predicting boundary layer profile.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 32 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

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