scholarly journals Flow Kinematics in Variable-Height Rotating Cylinder Arrays

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna E. Craig ◽  
John O. Dabiri ◽  
Jeffrey R. Koseff

Experimental data are presented for large arrays of rotating, variable-height cylinders in order to study the dependence of the three-dimensional mean flows on the height heterogeneity of the array. Elements in the examined arrays were spatially arranged in the same staggered paired configuration, and the heights of each element pair varied up to ±37.5% from the mean height (kept constant across all arrays), such that the arrays were vertically structured. Four vertical structuring configurations were examined at a nominal Reynolds number (based on freestream velocity and cylinder diameter) of 600 and nominal tip-speed ratios of 0, 2, and 4. It was found that the vertical structuring of the array could significantly alter the mean flow patterns. Most notably, a net vertical flow into the array from above was observed, which was augmented by the arrays' vertical structuring, showing a 75% increase from the lowest to highest vertical flows (as evaluated at the maximum element height, at a single rotation rate). This vertical flow into the arrays is of particular interest as it represents an additional mechanism by which high streamwise momentum can be transported from above the array down into the array. An evaluation of the streamwise momentum resource within the array indicates up to a 56% increase in the incoming streamwise velocity to the elements (from the lowest to highest ranking arrays, at a single rotation rate). These arrays of rotating cylinders may provide insight into the flow kinematics of arrays of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). In a physical VAWT array, an increase in incoming streamwise flow velocity to a turbine corresponds to a (cubic) increase in the power output of the turbine. Thus, these results suggest a promising approach to increasing the power output of a VAWT array.

2018 ◽  
Vol 839 ◽  
pp. 408-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Thomas ◽  
Oliver Bühler ◽  
K. Shafer Smith

Theoretical and numerical computations of the wave-induced mean flow in rotating shallow water with uniform potential vorticity are presented, with an eye towards applications in small-scale oceanography where potential-vorticity anomalies are often weak compared to the waves. The asymptotic computations are based on small-amplitude expansions and time averaging over the fast wave scale to define the mean flow. Importantly, we do not assume that the mean flow is balanced, i.e. we compute the full mean-flow response at leading order. Particular attention is paid to the concept of modified diagnostic relations, which link the leading-order Lagrangian-mean velocity field to certain wave properties known from the linear solution. Both steady and unsteady wave fields are considered, with specific examples that include propagating wavepackets and monochromatic standing waves. Very good agreement between the theoretical predictions and direct numerical simulations of the nonlinear system is demonstrated. In particular, we extend previous studies by considering the impact of unsteady wave fields on the mean flow, and by considering the total kinetic energy of the mean flow as a function of the rotation rate. Notably, monochromatic standing waves provide an explicit counterexample to the often observed tendency of the mean flow to decrease monotonically with the background rotation rate.


Author(s):  
Davis W. Hoffman ◽  
Laura Villafañe ◽  
Christopher J. Elkins ◽  
John K. Eaton

Abstract Three-dimensional, three-component time-averaged velocity fields have been measured within a low-speed centrifugal fan with forward curved blades. The model investigated is representative of fans commonly used in automotive HVAC applications. The flow was analyzed at two Reynolds numbers for the same ratio of blade rotational speed to outlet flow velocity. The flow patterns inside the volute were found to have weak sensitivity to Reynolds number. A pair of counter-rotating vortices evolve circumferentially within the volute with positive and negative helicity in the upper and lower regions, respectively. Measurements have been further extended to capture phase-resolved flow features by synchronizing the data acquisition with the blade passing frequency. The mean flow field through each blade passage is presented including the jet-wake structure extending from the blade and the separation zone on the suction side of the blade leading edge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1221-1236
Author(s):  
Hui-Huang Fang ◽  
Shu-Xun Sang ◽  
Shi-Qi Liu

Abstract The three-dimensional (3D) structures of pores directly affect the CH4 flow. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the 3D spatial structure of pores and to simulate the CH4 flow with the connected pores as the carrier. The result shows that the equivalent radius of pores and throats are 1–16 μm and 1.03–8.9 μm, respectively, and the throat length is 3.28–231.25 μm. The coordination number of pores concentrates around three, and the intersection point between the connectivity function and the X-axis is 3–4 μm, which indicate the macro-pores have good connectivity. During the single-channel flow, the pressure decreases along the direction of CH4 flow, and the flow velocity of CH4 decreases from the pore center to the wall. Under the dual-channel and the multi-channel flows, the pressure also decreases along the CH4 flow direction, while the velocity increases. The mean flow pressure gradually decreases with the increase of the distance from the inlet slice. The change of mean flow pressure is relatively stable in the direction horizontal to the bedding plane, while it is relatively large in the direction perpendicular to the bedding plane. The mean flow velocity in the direction horizontal to the bedding plane (Y-axis) is the largest, followed by that in the direction horizontal to the bedding plane (X-axis), and the mean flow velocity in the direction perpendicular to the bedding plane is the smallest.


2012 ◽  
Vol 699 ◽  
pp. 320-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Malm ◽  
Philipp Schlatter ◽  
Dan S. Henningson

AbstractDominant frequencies and coherent structures are investigated in a turbulent, three-dimensional and separated diffuser flow at $\mathit{Re}= 10\hspace{0.167em} 000$ (based on bulk velocity and inflow-duct height), where mean flow characteristics were first studied experimentally by Cherry, Elkins and Eaton (Intl J. Heat Fluid Flow, vol. 29, 2008, pp. 803–811) and later numerically by Ohlsson et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 650, 2010, pp. 307–318). Coherent structures are educed by proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) of the flow, which together with time probes located in the flow domain are used to extract frequency information. The present study shows that the flow contains multiple phenomena, well separated in frequency space. Dominant large-scale frequencies in a narrow band $\mathit{St}\equiv fh/ {u}_{b} \in [0. 0092, 0. 014] $ (where $h$ is the inflow-duct height and ${u}_{b} $ is the bulk velocity), yielding time periods ${T}^{\ensuremath{\ast} } = T{u}_{b} / h\in [70, 110] $, are deduced from the time signal probes in the upper separated part of the diffuser. The associated structures identified by the POD are large streaks arising from a sinusoidal oscillating motion in the diffuser. Their individual contributions to the total kinetic energy, dominated by the mean flow, are, however, small. The reason for the oscillating movement in this low-frequency range is concluded to be the confinement of the flow in this particular geometric set-up in combination with the high Reynolds number and the large separated zone on the top diffuser wall. Based on this analysis, it is shown that the bulk of the streamwise root mean square (r.m.s.) value arises due to large-scale motion, which in turn can explain the appearance of two or more peaks in the streamwise r.m.s. value. The weak secondary flow present in the inflow duct is shown to survive into the diffuser, where it experiences an imbalance with respect to the upper expanding corners, thereby giving rise to the asymmetry of the mean separated region in the diffuser.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taichi Igarashi ◽  
Hiroshi Naito ◽  
Koji Fukagata

Flow around a circular cylinder controlled using plasma actuators is investigated by means of direct numerical simulation (DNS). The Reynolds number based on the freestream velocity and the cylinder diameter is set atReD=1000. The plasma actuators are placed at±90° from the front stagnation point. Two types of forcing, that is, two-dimensional forcing and three-dimensional forcing, are examined and the effects of the forcing amplitude and the arrangement of plasma actuators are studied. The simulation results suggest that the two-dimensional forcing is primarily effective in drag reduction. When the forcing amplitude is higher, the mean drag and the lift fluctuations are suppressed more significantly. In contrast, the three-dimensional forcing is found to be quite effective in reduction of the lift fluctuations too. This is mainly due to a desynchronization of vortex shedding. Although the drag reduction rate of the three-dimensional forcing is slightly lower than that of the two-dimensional forcing, considering the power required for the forcing, the three-dimensional forcing is about twice more efficient.


2015 ◽  
Vol 782 ◽  
pp. 178-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphane Le Dizès

In this work, we provide a viscous solution of the wave field generated by librating a disk (harmonic oscillation of the rotation rate) in a stably stratified rotating fluid. The zonal flow (mean flow correction) generated by the nonlinear interaction of the wave field is also calculated in the weakly nonlinear framework. We focus on the low dissipative limit relevant for geophysical applications and for which the wave field and the zonal flow exhibit generic features (Ekman scaling, universal structures, etc.). General expressions are obtained which depend on the disk radius $a^{\ast }$, the libration frequency ${\it\omega}^{\ast }$, the rotation rate ${\it\Omega}^{\ast }$ of the frame, the buoyancy frequency $N^{\ast }$ of the fluid, its kinematic diffusion ${\it\nu}^{\ast }$ and its thermal diffusivity ${\it\kappa}^{\ast }$. When the libration frequency is in the inertia-gravity frequency interval ($\min ({\it\Omega}^{\ast },N^{\ast })<{\it\omega}^{\ast }<\max ({\it\Omega}^{\ast },N^{\ast })$), the presence of conical internal shear layers is observed in which the spatial structures of the harmonic response and of the mean flow correction are provided. At the point of focus of these internal shear layers on the rotation axis, the largest amplitudes are obtained: the angular velocity of the harmonic response and the mean flow correction are found to be $O({\it\varepsilon}E^{-1/3})$ and $({\it\varepsilon}^{2}E^{-2/3})$ respectively, where ${\it\varepsilon}$ is the libration amplitude and $E={\it\nu}^{\ast }/({\it\Omega}^{\ast }a^{\ast 2})$ is the Ekman number. We show that the solution in the internal shear layers and in the focus region is at leading order the same as that generated by an oscillating source of axial flow localized at the edge of the disk (oscillating Dirac ring source).


Author(s):  
S M Fraser ◽  
Y Zhang

Three-dimensional turbulent flow through the impeller passage of a model mixed-flow pump has been simulated by solving the Navier-Stokes equations with an improved κ-ɛ model. The standard κ-ɛ model was found to be unsatisfactory for solving the off-design impeller flow and a converged solution could not be obtained at 49 per cent design flowrate. After careful analysis, it was decided to modify the standard κ-ɛ model by including the extra rates of strain due to the acceleration of impeller rotation and geometrical curvature and removing the mathematical ill-posedness between the mean flow turbulence modelling and the logarithmic wall function.


2015 ◽  
Vol 783 ◽  
pp. 379-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Marusic ◽  
K. A. Chauhan ◽  
V. Kulandaivelu ◽  
N. Hutchins

In this paper we study the spatial evolution of zero-pressure-gradient (ZPG) turbulent boundary layers from their origin to a canonical high-Reynolds-number state. A prime motivation is to better understand under what conditions reliable scaling behaviour comparisons can be made between different experimental studies at matched local Reynolds numbers. This is achieved here through detailed streamwise velocity measurements using hot wires in the large University of Melbourne wind tunnel. By keeping the unit Reynolds number constant, the flow conditioning, contraction and trip can be considered unaltered for a given boundary layer’s development and hence its evolution can be studied in isolation from the influence of inflow conditions by moving to different streamwise locations. Careful attention was given to the experimental design in order to make comparisons between flows with three different trips while keeping all other parameters nominally constant, including keeping the measurement sensor size nominally fixed in viscous wall units. The three trips consist of a standard trip and two deliberately ‘over-tripped’ cases, where the initial boundary layers are over-stimulated with additional large-scale energy. Comparisons of the mean flow, normal Reynolds stress, spectra and higher-order turbulence statistics reveal that the effects of the trip are seen to be significant, with the remnants of the ‘over-tripped’ conditions persisting at least until streamwise stations corresponding to $Re_{x}=1.7\times 10^{7}$ and $x=O(2000)$ trip heights are reached (which is specific to the trips used here), at which position the non-canonical boundary layers exhibit a weak memory of their initial conditions at the largest scales $O(10{\it\delta})$, where ${\it\delta}$ is the boundary layer thickness. At closer streamwise stations, no one-to-one correspondence is observed between the local Reynolds numbers ($Re_{{\it\tau}}$, $Re_{{\it\theta}}$ or $Re_{x}$ etc.), and these differences are likely to be the cause of disparities between previous studies where a given Reynolds number is matched but without account of the trip conditions and the actual evolution of the boundary layer. In previous literature such variations have commonly been referred to as low-Reynolds-number effects, while here we show that it is more likely that these differences are due to an evolution effect resulting from the initial conditions set up by the trip and/or the initial inflow conditions. Generally, the mean velocity profiles were found to approach a constant wake parameter ${\it\Pi}$ as the three boundary layers developed along the test section, and agreement of the mean flow parameters was found to coincide with the location where other statistics also converged, including higher-order moments up to tenth order. This result therefore implies that it may be sufficient to document the mean flow parameters alone in order to ascertain whether the ZPG flow, as described by the streamwise velocity statistics, has reached a canonical state, and a computational approach is outlined to do this. The computational scheme is shown to agree well with available experimental data.


1969 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 785-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis P. Bretherton

A train of internal gravity waves in a stratified liquid exerts a stress on the liquid and induces changes in the mean motion of second order in the wave amplitude. In those circumstances in which the concept of a slowly varying quasi-sinusoidal wave train is consistent, the mean velocity is almost horizontal and is determined to a first approximation irrespective of the vertical forces exerted by the waves. The sum of the mean flow kinetic energy and the wave energy is then conserved. The circulation around a horizontal circuit moving with the mean velocity is increased in the presence of waves according to a simple formula. The flow pattern is obtained around two- and three-dimensional wave packets propagating into a liquid at rest and the results are generalized for any basic state of motion in which the internal Froude number is small. Momentum can be associated with a wave packet equal to the horizontal wave-number times the wave energy divided by the intrinsic frequency.


2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan G. van de Wall ◽  
Jaikrishnan R. Kadambi ◽  
John J. Adamczyk

The unsteady process resulting from the interaction of upstream vortical structures with a downstream blade row in turbomachines can have a significant impact on the machine efficiency. The upstream vortical structures or disturbances are transported by the mean flow of the downstream blade row, redistributing the time-average unsteady kinetic energy (K) associated with the incoming disturbance. A transport model was developed to take this process into account in the computation of time-averaged multistage turbomachinery flows. The model was applied to compressor and turbine geometry. For compressors, the K associated with upstream two-dimensional wakes and three-dimensional tip clearance flows is reduced as a result of their interaction with a downstream blade row. This reduction results from inviscid effects as well as viscous effects and reduces the loss associated with the upstream disturbance. Any disturbance passing through a compressor blade row results in a smaller loss than if the disturbance was mixed-out prior to entering the blade row. For turbines, the K associated with upstream two-dimensional wakes and three-dimensional tip clearance flows are significantly amplified by inviscid effects as a result of the interaction with a downstream turbine blade row. Viscous effects act to reduce the amplification of the K by inviscid effects but result in a substantial loss. Two-dimensional wakes and three-dimensional tip clearance flows passing through a turbine blade row result in a larger loss than if these disturbances were mixed-out prior to entering the blade row. [S0889-504X(00)01804-3]


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