Numerical Simulation of Tidal Breathing Through the Human Respiratory Tract

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamasp Azarnoosh ◽  
Kidambi Sreenivas ◽  
Abdollah Arabshahi

Abstract The objective of this study is to explore the complexity of airflow through the human respiratory tract by carrying out computational fluid dynamics simulation. In order to capture the detailed physics of the flow in this complex system, large eddy simulation (LES) is performed. The crucial step in this analysis is to investigate the impact of breathing transience on the flow field. In this connection, simulations are carried out for transient breathing in addition to peak inspiration and expiration. To enable a fair comparison, the flowrates for constant inspiration/expiration are selected to be identical to the peak flowrates during the transient breathing. Physiologically appropriate regional ventilation for two different flowrates is induced. The velocity field and turbulent flow features are discussed for both flowrates. The airflow through the larynx is observed to be significantly complex with high turbulence level, recirculation, and secondary flow while the level of turbulence decreases through the higher bifurcations.

Author(s):  
Angus C. W. Creech ◽  
Alistair G. L. Borthwick ◽  
David Ingram

Computational fluid dynamics is used to study the impact of the support structure of a tidal turbine on performance and the downstream wake characteristics. A high-fidelity computational model of a dual rotor, contra-rotating tidal turbine in a large channel domain is presented, with turbulence modelled using large eddy simulation. Actuator lines represent the turbine blades, permitting the analysis of transient flow features and turbine diagnostics. The following four cases are considered: the flow in an unexploited, empty channel; flow in a channel containing the rotors; flow in a channel containing the support structure; and flow in a channel with both rotors and support structure. The results indicate that the support structure contributes significantly to the behaviour of the turbine and to turbulence levels downstream, even when the rotors are upstream. This implies that inclusion of the turbine structure, or some parametrisation thereof, is a prerequisite for the realistic prediction of turbine performance and reliability, particularly for array layouts where wake effects become significant.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jihang Li ◽  
Hyunguk Kwon ◽  
Drue Seksinsky ◽  
Daniel Doleiden ◽  
Jacqueline O’Connor ◽  
...  

Abstract Pilot flames are commonly used to extend combustor operability limits and suppress combustion oscillations in low-emissions gas turbines. Combustion oscillations, a coupling between heat release rate oscillations and combustor acoustics, can arise at the operability limits of low-emissions combustors where the flame is more susceptible to perturbations. While the use of pilot flames is common in land-based gas turbine combustors, the mechanism by which they suppress instability is still unclear. In this study, we consider the impact of a central jet pilot on the stability of a swirl-stabilized flame in a variable-length, single-nozzle combustor. Previously, the pilot flame was found to suppress the instability for a range of equivalence ratios and combustor lengths. We hypothesize that combustion oscillation suppression by the pilot occurs because the pilot provides hot gases to the vortex breakdown region of the flow that recirculate and improve the static, and hence dynamic, stability of the main flame. This hypothesis is based on a series of experimental results that show that pilot efficacy is a strong function of pilot equivalence ratio but not pilot flow rate, which would indicate that the temperature of the pilot gases as well as the combustion intensity of the pilot flame play more of a role in oscillation stabilization than the length of the pilot flame relative to the main flame. Further, the pilot flame efficacy increases with pilot flame equivalence ratio until it matches the main flame equivalence ratio; at pilot equivalence ratios greater than the main equivalence ratio, the pilot flame efficacy does not change significantly with pilot equivalence ratio. To understand these results, we use large-eddy simulation to provide a detailed analysis of the flow in the region of the pilot flame and the transport of radical species in the region between the main flame and pilot flame. The simulation, using a flamelet/progress variable-based chemistry tabulation approach and standard eddy viscosity/diffusivity turbulence closure models, provides detailed information that is inaccessible through experimental measurements.


Author(s):  
Lara Schembri Puglisevich ◽  
Gary Page

Unsteady Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is carried out for the flow around a bluff body equipped with an underbody rear diffuser in close proximity to the ground, representing an automotive diffuser. The goal is to demonstrate the ability of LES to model underbody vortical flow features at experimental Reynolds numbers (1.01 × 106 based on model height and incoming velocity). The scope of the time-dependent simulations is not to improve on Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS), but to give further insight into vortex formation and progression, allowing better understanding of the flow, hence allowing more control. Vortical flow structures in the diffuser region, along the sides and top surface of the bluff body are successfully modelled. Differences between instantaneous and time-averaged flow structures are presented and explained. Comparisons to pressure measurements from wind tunnel experiments on an identical bluff body model shows a good level of agreement.


Author(s):  
H. T. C. Pedro ◽  
K.-W. Leung ◽  
M. H. Kobayashi ◽  
H. R. Riggs

This work concerns the numerical investigation of the impact of a wave on a square column. The wave is generated by a dam break in a wave tank. Two turbulence models were used: Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS). The numerical simulations were carried out using a finite volume approximation and the SIMPLE algorithm for the solution of the governing equations. Turbulence was modeled with the standard Smagorinsky-Lilly subgrid-model for the LES and the standard κ-ε model for the URANS. The results are validated against experimental data for the wave impact on a square column facing the flow. The results, especially for LES, show very good agreement between the predictions and experimental results. The overall accuracy of the LES, as expected, is superior to the URANS. However, if computational resources are limited, URANS can still provide satisfactory results for structural design.


Author(s):  
Yunfei Wang ◽  
Huanlong Chen ◽  
Huaping Liu ◽  
Yanping Song ◽  
Fu Chen

An in-house large eddy simulation (LES) code based on three-dimensional compressible N-S equations is used to research the impact of incoming wakes on unsteady evolution characteristic in a low-pressure turbine (LPT) cascade. The Mach number is 0.4 and Reynolds number is 0.6 × 105 (based on the axial chord and outlet velocity). The reduced frequency of incoming wakes is Fred = 0 (without wakes), 0.37 and 0.74. A detailed analysis of Reynolds stresses and turbulent kinetic energy inside the boundary layer has been carried out. Particular consideration is devoted to the transport process of incoming wakes and the intermittent property of the unsteady boundary layer. With the increase of reduced frequency, the inhibiting effect of wakes on boundary layer separation gradually enhances. The separation at the rear part of the suction side is weakened and the separation point moves downstream. However, incoming wakes lead to an increase in dissipation and aerodynamic losses in the main flow area. Excessive reduced frequency ( Fred = 0.74) causes the main flow area to become one of the main source areas of loss. An optimal reduced frequency exists to minimize the aerodynamic loss of the linear cascade.


2010 ◽  
Vol 652 ◽  
pp. 5-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. DUPONT ◽  
F. GOSSELIN ◽  
C. PY ◽  
E. DE LANGRE ◽  
P. HEMON ◽  
...  

In order to investigate the possibility of modelling plant motion at the landscape scale, an equation for crop plant motion, forced by an instantaneous velocity field, is introduced in a large-eddy simulation (LES) airflow model, previously validated over homogeneous and heterogeneous canopies. The canopy is simply represented as a poroelastic continuous medium, which is similar in its discrete form to an infinite row of identical oscillating stems. Only one linear mode of plant vibration is considered. Two-way coupling between plant motion and the wind flow is insured through the drag force term. The coupled model is validated on the basis of a comparison with measured movements of an alfalfa crop canopy. It is also compared with the outputs of a linear stability analysis. The model is shown to reproduce the well-known phenomenon of ‘honami’ which is typical of wave-like crop motions on windy days. The wavelength of the main coherent waving patches, extracted using a bi-orthogonal decomposition (BOD) of the crop velocity fields, is in agreement with that deduced from video recordings. The main spatial and temporal characteristics of these waving patches exhibit the same variation with mean wind velocity as that observed with the measurements. However they differ from the coherent eddy structures of the wind flow at canopy top, so that coherent waving patches cannot be seen as direct signatures of coherent eddy structures. Finally, it is shown that the impact of crop motion on the wind dynamics is negligible for current wind speed values. No lock-in mechanism of coherent eddy structures on plant motion is observed, in contradiction with the linear stability analysis. This discrepancy may be attributed to the presence of a nonlinear saturation mechanism in LES.


Author(s):  
Hayder Schneider ◽  
Dominic von Terzi ◽  
Hans-Jo¨rg Bauer ◽  
Wolfgang Rodi

Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) calculations and Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) of the flow in two asymmetric three-dimensional diffusers were performed. The numerical setup was chosen to be in compliance with previous experiments. The aim of the present study is to find the least expensive method to compute reliably and accurately the impact of geometric sensitivity on the flow. RANS calculations fail to predict both the extent and location of the three-dimensional separation bubble. In contrast, LES is able to determine the amount of reverse flow and the pressure coefficient within the accuracy of experimental data.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 24345-24370
Author(s):  
V. Anabor ◽  
U. Rizza ◽  
G. A. Degrazia ◽  
E. de Lima Nascimento

Abstract. An isolated and stationary microburst is simulated using a 3-D time-dependent, high resolution Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) model. The microburst downdraft is initiated by specifying a simplified cooling source at the top of the domain near 2 km. The modelled time scale for this damaging wind (30 m/s) is of order of few min with a spatial scale enclosing a region with 500 m radius around the impact point. These features are comparable with results obtained from full-cloud models. The simulated flow shows the principal features observed by Doppler radar and others observational full-scale downburst events. In particular are observed the expansion of the primary and secondary cores, the presence of the ring vortex at the leading edge of the cool outflow, and finally an accelerating outburst of surface winds. This result evidences the capability of LES to reproduce complexes phenomena like a Microburst and indicates the potential of LES for utilization in atmospheric phenomena situated below the storm scale and above the microscale, which generally involves high velocities in a short time scale.


2011 ◽  
Vol 679 ◽  
pp. 156-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
EZGI S. TAŞKINOĞLU ◽  
JOSETTE BELLAN

For flows at supercritical pressure, p, the large-eddy simulation (LES) equations consist of the differential conservation equations coupled with a real-gas equation of state, and the equations utilize transport properties depending on the thermodynamic variables. Compared to previous LES models, the differential equations contain not only the subgrid-scale (SGS) fluxes but also new SGS terms, each denoted as a ‘correction’. These additional terms, typically assumed null for atmospheric pressure flows, stem from filtering the differential governing equations and represent differences, other than contributed by the convection terms, between a filtered term and the same term computed as a function of the filtered flow field. In particular, the energy equation contains a heat-flux correction (q-correction) which is the difference between the filtered divergence of the molecular heat flux and the divergence of the molecular heat flux computed as a function of the filtered flow field. We revisit here a previous a priori study where we only had partial success in modelling the q-correction term and show that success can be achieved using a different modelling approach. This a priori analysis, based on a temporal mixing-layer direct numerical simulation database, shows that the focus in modelling the q-correction should be on reconstructing the primitive variable gradients rather than their coefficients, and proposes the approximate deconvolution model (ADM) as an effective means of flow field reconstruction for LES molecular heat-flux calculation. Furthermore, an a posteriori study is conducted for temporal mixing layers initially containing oxygen (O) in the lower stream and hydrogen (H) or helium (He) in the upper stream to examine the benefit of the new model. Results show that for any LES including SGS-flux models (constant-coefficient gradient or scale-similarity models; dynamic-coefficient Smagorinsky/Yoshizawa or mixed Smagorinsky/Yoshizawa/gradient models), the inclusion of the q-correction in LES leads to the theoretical maximum reduction of the SGS molecular heat-flux difference; the remaining error in modelling this new subgrid term is thus irreducible. The impact of the q-correction model first on the molecular heat flux and then on the mean, fluctuations, second-order correlations and spatial distribution of dependent variables is also demonstrated. Discussions on the utilization of the models in general LES are presented.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Colli ◽  
Luca G. Lanza ◽  
Roy Rasmussen ◽  
Julie M. Thériault

Abstract The use of windshields to reduce the impact of wind on snow measurements is common. This paper investigates the catching performance of shielded and unshielded gauges using numerical simulations. In Part II, the role of the windshield and gauge aerodynamics, as well as the varying flow field due to the turbulence generated by the shield–gauge configuration, in reducing the catch efficiency is investigated. This builds on the computational fluid dynamics results obtained in Part I, where the airflow patterns in the proximity of an unshielded and single Alter shielded Geonor T-200B gauge are obtained using both time-independent [Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)] and time-dependent [large-eddy simulation (LES)] approaches. A Lagrangian trajectory model is used to track different types of snowflakes (wet and dry snow) and to assess the variation of the resulting gauge catching performance with the wind speed. The collection efficiency obtained with the LES approach is generally lower than the one obtained with the RANS approach. This is because of the impact of the LES-resolved turbulence above the gauge orifice rim. The comparison between the collection efficiency values obtained in case of shielded and unshielded gauge validates the choice of installing a single Alter shield in a windy environment. However, time-dependent simulations show that the propagating turbulent structures produced by the aerodynamic response of the upwind single Alter blades have an impact on the collection efficiency. Comparison with field observations provides the validation background for the model results.


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