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Article
Publication date: 1 February 2000

A.N. Pavlov, S.S. Sazhin, R.P. Fedorenko and M.R. Heikal

Detailed results of numerical calculations of transient, 2D incompressible flow around and in the wake of a square prism at Re = 100, 200 and 500 are presented. An implicit…

Abstract

Detailed results of numerical calculations of transient, 2D incompressible flow around and in the wake of a square prism at Re = 100, 200 and 500 are presented. An implicit finite‐difference operator‐splitting method, a version of the known SIMPLEC‐like method on a staggered grid, is described. Appropriate theoretical results are presented. The method has second‐order accuracy in space, conserving mass, momentum and kinetic energy. A new modification of the multigrid method is employed to solve the elliptic pressure problem. Calculations are performed on a sequence of spatial grids with up to 401 × 321 grid points, at sequentially halved time steps to ensure grid‐independent results. Three types of flow are shown to exist at Re = 500: a steady‐state unstable flow and two which are transient, fully periodic and asymmetric about the centre line but mirror symmetric to each other. Discrete frequency spectra of drag and lift coefficients are presented.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2015

Shooka Karimpour Ghannadi and Vincent H. Chu

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of a numerical method for the solution to shallow-water equations on a staggered grid, in simulations for shear…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of a numerical method for the solution to shallow-water equations on a staggered grid, in simulations for shear instabilities at two convective Froude numbers.

Design/methodology/approach

The simulations start from a small perturbation to a base flow with a hyperbolic-tangent velocity profile. The subsequent development of the shear instabilities is studied from the simulations using a number of flux-limiting schemes, including the second-order MINMOD, the third-order ULTRA-QUICK and the fifth-order WENO schemes for the spatial interpolation of the nonlinear fluxes. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method advances the simulation in time.

Findings

The simulations determine two parameters: the fractional growth rate of the linear instabilities; and the vorticity thickness of the first nonlinear peak. Grid refinement using 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512 nodes over one wave length determines the exact values by extrapolation and the computational error for the parameters. It also determines the overall order of convergence for each of the flux-limiting schemes used in the numerical simulations.

Originality/value

The four-digit accuracy of the numerical simulations presented in this paper are comparable to analytical solutions. The development of this reliable numerical simulation method has paved the way for further study of the instabilities in shear flows that radiate waves.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 25 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 December 2018

Navid Moghaddaszadeh, Saman Rashidi and Javad Abolfazli Esfahani

This paper aims to use the second law of thermodynamic to evaluate the potential of gear-ring turbulator in a three-dimensional heat exchanger tube. Accordingly, a numerical…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to use the second law of thermodynamic to evaluate the potential of gear-ring turbulator in a three-dimensional heat exchanger tube. Accordingly, a numerical simulation is performed to obtain the irreversibilities in a three-dimensional heat exchanger tube equipped with some gear-ring turbulators for turbulence regime.

Design/methodology/approach

A numerical simulation is performed to obtain the irreversibilities in a three-dimensional heat exchanger tube equipped with some gear-ring turbulators for turbulence regime. The analysis is carried out based on shear stress transport (SST) k-ω turbulent model. The influences of different parameters containing tooth number, free-space length ratios and Reynolds number on frictional and thermal irreversibilities and Bejan number are discussed.

Findings

The results indicated that the thermal irreversibility reduces by decreasing the tooth number. For example, the thermal entropy generation decreases about 25.81 per cent by decreasing the tooth number in the range of 24 to 0 at Re = 6,000. Moreover, the frictional entropy generation decreases by increasing the tooth number as the gear with more tooth number causes a lower flow disturbance.

Originality/value

The present study arranged a numerical work to study the potential of a gear-ring turbulator in a heat exchanger tube from first and second laws of thermodynamic viewpoint. The turbulent flow is considered for this problem. The literature review showed that the usage of a gear-ring turbulator in a heat exchanger tube is not investigated from the second law of thermodynamic viewpoint by previous studies. As a result, the influences of different parameters containing tooth number, free-space length ratios and Reynolds number on frictional and thermal irreversibilities and Bejan number are discussed.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 29 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2009

Behzad Ghadiri Dehkordi and Hamed Houri Jafari

The purpose of this paper is to outline more computational schemes which provide a low computational cost approach to analyze flow characteristics through tube bundles. Flow…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to outline more computational schemes which provide a low computational cost approach to analyze flow characteristics through tube bundles. Flow through tube bundles has been numerically simulated by means of an alternative approach so as to assess flow behavior and its characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

A Cartesian‐staggered grid based finite‐volume solver has been implemented. Furthermore, the ghost‐cell method in conjunction with Great‐Source‐Term technique has been employed in order to directly enforce no‐slip condition on the tubes boundaries. Before giving a solution for flow field through tube bundles, the accuracy of the solver is validated by simulation of flow in the cavity and also over a single circular cylinder. The results are completely compatible with the experiments reported in the literature.

Findings

Eventually, the flow through two types of tube bundles in in‐line square and general staggered arrangements in Re = 100 are simulated and analyzed. For these tube bundles that are being studied, the maximum drag and lift coefficients and maximum gap velocities have been numerically obtained. The same simulations have been also performed for the cases where the tube bundles are confined by two lateral walls.

Practical implications

These configurations are frequently used in heat exchangers, steam boilers, nuclear reactors, and many mechanical structures.

Originality/value

The adapted method is firstly implemented to simulate flow through tube bundles and the analyzed simulations have not previously been presented by other researches.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 19 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 September 2009

S. Jayavel and Shaligram Tiwari

The purpose of this paper is to develop an indigenous three‐dimensional computational code and apply it to compare flow and heat transfer characteristics for inline and staggered

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop an indigenous three‐dimensional computational code and apply it to compare flow and heat transfer characteristics for inline and staggered arrangement of circular tubes in a tube bundle.

Design/methodology/approach

A finite‐volume based computational code is developed to solve the momentum and energy equations for flow through a three‐dimensional rectangular channel and past built‐in tube bundles having inline and staggered arrangement. The approach is based on SIMPLE algorithm. The basic conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy are solved over a body‐fitting grid on the physical domain to obtain the flow and temperature fields.

Findings

Heat transfer and pressure drop are compared for inline and staggered tube arrangements in a tube bundle over range of Reynolds numbers 300 ≤ Re ≤ 800. Results are validated suitably against those available in literature.

Research implications

Tube‐fin heat exchangers with continuous fins on a tube array are commonly used in air‐conditioning industry and in air‐cooled condensers of power plants. The flow structure within the finned tube bank is complex due to the presence of a circular tube, which causes flow acceleration over the fin surface and flow separation on the back side of the tube resulting in low velocity wake region. The present study provides a better understanding of flow behavior and heat transfer for inline and staggered arrangement of tube bundles in tube‐fin heat exchangers at different Reynolds numbers.

Originality/value

A numerical code based on finite volume method has been developed and used for computations to predict heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics for flow past inline and staggered arrangement of circular tubes. Predictions are made from the computed results about suitability of staggered/inline tube arrangements in a given range of Reynolds number.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 19 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 March 2018

Jianping Huang, Wenyuan Liao and Zhenchun Li

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new finite difference method for solving the seismic wave propagation in fluid-solid media, which can be described by the acoustic and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a new finite difference method for solving the seismic wave propagation in fluid-solid media, which can be described by the acoustic and viscoelastic wave equations for the fluid and solid parts, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors introduced a coordinate transformation method for seismic wave simulation method. In the new method, the irregular fluid–solid interface is transformed into a horizontal interface. Then, a multi-block coordinate transformation method is proposed to mesh every layer to curved grids and transforms every interface to horizontal interface. Meanwhile, a variable grid size is used in different regions according to the shape and the velocity within each region. Finally, a Lebedev-standard staggered coupled grid scheme for curved grids is applied in the multi-block coordinate transformation method to reduce the computational cost.

Findings

The instability in the auxiliary coordinate system caused by the standard staggered grid scheme is resolved using a curved grid viscoelastic wave field separation strategy. Several numerical examples are solved using this new method. It has been shown that the new method is stable, efficient and highly accurate in solving the seismic wave equation defined on domain with irregular fluid–solid interface.

Originality/value

First, the irregular fluid–solid interface is transformed into a horizontal interface by using the coordinate transformation method. The conversion between pressures and stresses is easy to implement and adaptive to different irregular fluid–solid interface models, because the normal stress and shear stress vanish when the normal angle is 90° in the interface. Moreover, in the new method, the strong false artificial boundary reflection and instability caused by ladder-shaped grid discretion are resolved as well.

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2014

Tomomi Uchiyama, Yutaro Yoshii and Hirotaka Hamada

This study is concerned with the direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a turbulent channel flow by an improved vortex in cell (VIC) method. The paper aims to discuss these issues…

Abstract

Purpose

This study is concerned with the direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a turbulent channel flow by an improved vortex in cell (VIC) method. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

First, two improvements for VIC method are proposed to heighten the numerical accuracy and efficiency. A discretization method employing a staggered grid is presented to ensure the consistency among the discretized equations as well as to prevent the numerical oscillation of the solution. A correction method for vorticity is also proposed to compute the vorticity field satisfying the solenoidal condition. Second, the DNS for a turbulent channel flow is conducted by the improved VIC method. The Reynolds number based on the friction velocity and the channel half width is 180.

Findings

It is highlighted that the simulated turbulence statistics, such as the mean velocity, the Reynolds shear stress and the budget of the mean enstrophy, agree well with the existing DNS results. It is also shown that the organized flow structures in the near-wall region, such as the streaks and the streamwise vortices, are favourably captured. These demonstrate the high applicability of the improved VIC method to the DNS for wall turbulent flows.

Originality/value

This study enables the VIC method to perform the DNS for wall turbulent flows.

Details

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

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1992

M.C. MELAAEN

A solution algorithm for the numerical calculation of isothermal fluid flow inside gas turbine combustors is presented. The finite‐volume method together with curvilinear…

Abstract

A solution algorithm for the numerical calculation of isothermal fluid flow inside gas turbine combustors is presented. The finite‐volume method together with curvilinear non‐orthogonal coordinates and a non‐staggered grid arrangement is employed. Cartesian velocity components are chosen as dependent variables in the momentum equations. The turbulent flow inside the combustor is modelled by the k—ε turbulence model. The grid is generated by solving elliptic equations. This solution algorithm, which can be used on both can‐type and annular combustors, is tested on a water model can‐type combustor because of the availability of geometrical and experimental data for comparison.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 2 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2017

Masoud Kharati-Koopaee and Mahsa Rezaee

The purpose of the current research is to study the turbulent flow through microchannels having a micropost in aligned and staggered arrangements.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the current research is to study the turbulent flow through microchannels having a micropost in aligned and staggered arrangements.

Design/methodology/approach

Numerical calculations are performed on the basis of the finite volume approach, which is based on the SIMPLEC algorithm. In this work, the slip velocity, flow velocity distribution and friction factor for the two micropost patterns are examined at friction Reynolds numbers of Reτ = 395 and 590, relative module widths of Wm = 0.1 and 1 and cavity fraction range of Fc = 0.1 to 0.9.

Findings

Results reveal that for the two micropost patterns, as the friction Reynolds number, relative module width or cavity fraction increases, the slip velocity increases and friction factor decreases. It is found that the aligned micropost configuration leads to higher slip velocity and lower friction factor. Numerical findings indicate that the existence of the continuous cavity surface along the flow direction could be a significant criterion to realize if the velocity distribution deviates from that of the smooth channel. It is also shown that the turbulent flows are capable of producing more drag reduction than the laminar ones.

Originality/value

Previous studies have shown that microchannels consisting of a micropost pattern in aligned and staggered arrangements could be viewed as a promising alternative in the microscale flows for the heat removal purposes. Therefore, understanding the fluid flow through microchannels consisting of these configurations (which is a prerequisite to better understand thermal performance of such microchannels) is a significant issue, which is the subject of the present work.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 34 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1994

M.M. De Guzman, C.A.J. Fletcher and J.D. Hooper

The detailed flow behaviour around a four—hole Cobra Pitot pressureprobe, developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial ResearchOrganization, Australia, (CSIRO), to…

Abstract

The detailed flow behaviour around a four—hole Cobra Pitot pressure probe, developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia, (CSIRO), to determine the pressure and the velocity components in three dimensional single‐phase/multi‐phase fluid flow, is investigated computationally. The incompressible steady state Navier—Stokes equations are solved numerically using a general purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code developed at CANCES. Computational results are presented for representative probe pitch and yaw angles at a Reynolds number = 2 × 103, emphasising the pressure distribution and flow separation patterns on the probe tip adjacent to the pressure ports. Quantitative comparison of the computational simulation to experimental results is done by comparing experimental calibration data to numerically computed pressure responses. The topological features of the near tip flow behaviour are visualised using critical point concepts and three dimensional streamlines. Additional qualitative comparison to experiment is discussed using data from a preliminary experimental investigation using surface oil film visualisation techniques, where available. Conclusions are drawn concerning the near tip flow behaviour, the good level of agreement between the numerical results and experimental data and the effectiveness of using a computational analysis to provide accurate detail useful for engineering design purposes.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 4 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

1 – 10 of 478