Numerical study on conjugate convective thermal transport in an annular porous geometry

Buoyancy-driven convection in an annular space between two upright concentric cylinders having finite thickness of inner/outer cylinder is an essential physical structure exposing several practical applications. The current article reports the coupled conduction-convection transfer in an upright porous annular space and the buoyant convective stream and thermal transfer, associated thermal transport rates has been numerically investigated. In this analysis, the inner cylinder has fixed width and maintained at uniform high temperature, while the outer cylinder wall is preserved at uniform lower temperature. However, the lower & upper boundaries of annular region are presumed to be sealed and insulated. The Brinkman-extended Darcy formulation is implemented for modeling the stream in the porous medium. An implicit finite difference technique based on SLOR & ADI methods is adopted to resolve the governing equations. From the numerical predictions, it has been detected that the conductivity ratio & wall thickness has crucial role in controlling thermal transport through the annular space. The present work will have applications in electronic equipment, electric machinery, solar collectors, and lubrication systems.

Flow and Heat Transfer Mechanisms in a Rotating Compressor Cavity Under Centrifugal Buoyancy-Driven Convection

This paper presents a systematic study of flow and heat transfer mechanisms in a compressor disc cavity with an axial throughflow under centrifugal buoyancy-driven convection, comparing with previously published experimental data. Wall-modelled large-eddy simulations are conducted for six operating conditions, covering a range of rotational Reynolds number (3.2x10^5 - 2.2x10^6), buoyancy parameter (0.11 - 0.26) and Rossby number (0.4 - 0.8). Numerical accuracy and computational efficiency of the simulations are considered. Wall heat transfer predictions are compared with measured data with a good level of agreement. A constant rothalpy core occurs at high Eckert number, appearing to reduce the driving buoyancy force. The flow in the cavity is turbulent with unsteady laminar Ekman layers observed on both discs except in the bore flow affected region on the downstream disc cob. The shroud heat transfer Nusselt number-Rayleigh number scaling agrees with that of natural convection under gravity for high Rayleigh numbers. Disc heat transfer is dominated by conduction across unsteady Ekman layers, except on the downstream disc cob. The disc bore heat transfer is close to a pipe flow forced convection correlation. The unsteady flow structure is investigated showing strong unsteadiness in the cavity that extends into the axial throughflow.

A multi-site, year-round turbulence microstructure atlas for the deep perialpine Lake Garda

A multi-site, year-round dataset comprising a total of 606 high-resolution turbulence microstructure profiles of shear and temperature gradient in the upper 100 m depth is made available for Lake Garda (Italy). Concurrent meteorological data were measured from the fieldwork boat at the location of the turbulence measurements. During the fieldwork campaign (March 2017-June 2018), four different sites were sampled on a monthly basis, following a standardized protocol in terms of time-of-day and locations of the measurements. Additional monitoring activity included a 24-h campaign and sampling at other sites. Turbulence quantities were estimated, quality-checked, and merged with water quality and meteorological data to produce a unique turbulence atlas for a lake. The dataset is open to a wide range of possible applications, including research on the variability of turbulent mixing across seasons and sites (demersal vs pelagic zones) and driven by different factors (lake-valley breezes vs buoyancy-driven convection), validation of hydrodynamic lake models, as well as technical studies on the use of shear and temperature microstructure sensors.

Flow and Heat Transfer Mechanisms in a Rotating Compressor Cavity Under Centrifugal Buoyancy-Driven Convection

This paper presents a systematic study of flow and heat transfer mechanisms in a compressor disc cavity with an axial throughflow under centrifugal buoyancy-driven convection, comparing with previously published experimental data. Wall-modelled large-eddy simulations are conducted for six operating conditions, covering a range of rotational Reynolds number (3.2 × 105 – 2.2 × 106), buoyancy parameter (0.11 – 0.26) and Rossby number (0.4 – 0.8). Numerical accuracy and computational efficiency of the simulations are considered. Wall heat transfer predictions are compared with measured data with a good level of agreement. A constant rothalpy core occurs at high Eckert number, appearing to reduce the driving buoyancy force. The flow in the cavity is turbulent with unsteady laminar Ekman layers observed on both discs except in the bore flow affected region on the downstream disc cob. The shroud heat transfer Nusselt number-Rayleigh number scaling agrees with that of natural convection under gravity for high Rayleigh numbers. Disc heat transfer is dominated by conduction across unsteady Ekman layers, except on the downstream disc cob. The disc bore heat transfer is close to a pipe flow forced convection correlation. The unsteady flow structure is investigated showing strong unsteadiness in the cavity that extends into the axial throughflow.

Evaluation and application of advanced CFD models for rotating disc flows

This paper addresses limitations of widely used Reynolds-averaged turbulence models (RANS) for prediction of gas turbine internal air systems. Results from direct numerical simulation (DNS), wall-resolved large-eddy simulation (LES), wall-modelled large-eddy simulation (WMLES), and RANS for benchmark test cases are compared. For rotor-stator disc cavity flows results for mean velocities, velocity fluctuations, rotor torque and laminar-turbulent transition are considered and compared with published data. For cavities between co-rotating discs attention is focused on buoyancy-driven convection in the centrifugal force field. It is concluded that WMLES is suitable for application in engine conditions, offering better accuracy than RANS in some critical applications. This confirms recently published results for turbine rim sealing and is further illustrated by application to convection in a sealed cavity at higher Rayleigh number than is practical with DNS or wall-resolved LES. The results show that the approximate near-wall treatment gives reasonable results for complex flows and extend previous studies to higher speed rig conditions where Eckert number effects become significant.