Numerical simulation of the flow field in the vicinity of an axial flow fan

The main purpose of the current investigation is the development and evaluation of a numerical model used to simulate the effect of an axial flow fan on the velocity field in the vicinity of the fan blades. The axial flow fan is modeled as an actuator disc, where the actuator disc forces are calculated using blade element theory. The calculated disc forces are expressed as sources/sinks of momentum in the Navier–Stokes equations solved by a commercially available computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code, Flo⁺⁺. The model is used to determine the fan performance characteristics of an axial flow fan as well as the velocity fields directly up‐ and downstream of the fan blades. The results are compared with experimental data. In general, good agreement is obtained between the numerical results and experimental data, although the fan power consumption, as well as radial velocity downstream of the fan blades, is underpredicted by the fan model. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of a casing fence on the tip-leakage flow of an axial flow fan

The effect of a casing fence on the tip-leakage flow of an axial flow fan is investigated using large eddy simulation. A fence is attached on the shroud near the trailing edge of an axial flow fan used in an outdoor unit of air conditioner. The Reynolds number is 547,000 based on the blade tip radius and tip velocity. At the design condition, the fan efficiency is increased by the casing fence. The roles of the fence are to block backward leakage flows near the shroud and to weaken the movement of the tip-leakage vortex (TLV) in the azimuthal direction. Also, the fence reduces the double-leakage tip-clearance flow generated at the aft part of the blade tip due to the TLV-blade interaction, reducing the strength of the tip-separation vortex. Consequently, the tip leakage and total pressure losses are reduced, and the efficiency is increased. The pressure fluctuations on the aft part of the blade tip of the pressure surface caused by the TLV-blade interaction are also significantly reduced by the fence, indicating reduction of the noise source. According to the interaction between the fence and backward leakage flow induced by the TLV, the fence significantly and slightly increases the aerodynamic performances at the design and peak efficiency conditions, respectively, but reduces them at an overflow condition.     

Effects of an axial flow component on the Honji instability

This paper is concerned with a numerical study of the three-dimensional Honji instability that can arise in an oscillatory flow impinging on a circular cylinder. It is well known that when the fluid motion far from the cylinder is perpendicular to its axis then the flow is liable to a three-dimensional breakdown via this instability which initially appears as an axially periodic mushroom-like structure attached to the surface of the cylinder. Here the focus is on examining the Honji instability under an oblique inflow. The obliqueness of the free stream is represented by an angle of attack through introducing an axial flow component. It is found that the Honji mode is suppressed by increasing the axial flow component, and when this component is sufficiently large the instability mechanism is no longer operative so that all that remains is a featureless two-dimensional columnar flow. At smaller values of angle of attack, though the Honji structure remains, it is deformed by the axial flow component. The developed two-layer near-cylinder vortical structures can be related to the energy and momentum transfer between the two layers.     

Active feedback control of stall in an axial flow fan under dynamic inflow distortion

This work proposes an active feedback control strategy using cross-correlation technique in a single stage axial flow fan operating under dynamic inflow distortion. Experiments were carried out under dynamic inflow distortion at the design speed with only three sensors and actuators, each. The stall inception mechanism studies under dynamic inflow distortion were carried out using 1-D continuous Morlet wavelet transform. It was observed that stall inception under co- (in the same direction of rotor rotation) and counter-rotating (in the opposite direction of rotor rotation) inflow distortion occurred through long and short length-scale disturbances, respectively. The knowledge of the nature of instabilities under dynamic inflow distortion was used to set the threshold of the correlation coefficient. It was observed that the active feedback control strategy resulted in a stall onset delay of 125 (?3.125 s) and 65 (?1.625 s) rotor revolutions under co- and counter-rotating inflow distortions, respectively. The highest delay under co-rotating inflow distortion was attributed to the substantially higher stall warning time as compared to counter-rotating inflow distortion.     

Experimental investigation of the interaction of two flows on the axial fan hollow blades by flow visualization and hot-wire anemometry

Experimental investigation of the interaction of internal flow with external flow around hollow airfoil NACA series in a low-speed wind tunnel was conducted and is presented in the paper. The region near the trailing edge of the hollow airfoil was studied in detail and measurements of velocity and turbulence intensities were performed with hot-wire anemometry. Determination of flow structure on the hollow airfoil was performed with computer-aided visualization. It can be concluded from the measurement analysis that higher values of velocities, lower turbulence intensities and a significant decrease of circulation effects on the suction side of the hollow blade were achieved, due to the introduction of internal flow. The results obtained on the hollow airfoil were applied on the rotating axial fan. Influence of the internal flow of the hollow blade on the flow field of the axial fan was studied. With the introduction of the internal flow a reduction of circulation effects on the fan hollow blade was achieved. Aerodynamic characteristic of the axial fan reached higher degree of total pressure difference and normalized efficiency through the entire fan working conditions.     

Effects of flow width in nominally two-dimensional turbulent separated flows

Pulsed-wire measurements of mean and fluctuating wall shear stress have been measured beneath a nominally two-dimensional separated and reattaching flow, where the flow width has been varied by means of end plates. End effects are much larger near the surface than they are in the outer flow. Residual effects of the presence of the end walls on the mean wall shear stress are seen for a flow width as large as seven bubble lengths. It is inferred that the effects of the end-wall boundary layers extend to a substantially smaller distance. The influence of the end plates on the rms of the fluctuations is markedly less than that on the mean stress.     

Effect of an axial throughflow on buoyancy-induced flow in a rotating cavity

In this paper large-eddy simulation is used to study buoyancy-induced flow in a rotating cavity with an axial throughflow of cooling air. This configuration is relevant in the context of secondary air systems of modern gas turbines, where cooling air is used to extract heat from compressor disks. Although global flow features of these flows are well understood, other aspects such as flow statistics, especially in terms of the disk and shroud boundary layers, have not been studied. Here, previous work for a sealed rotating cavity is extended to investigate the effect of an axial throughflow on flow statistics and heat transfer. Time- and circumferentially-averaged results reveal that the thickness of the boundary layers forming near the upstream and downstream disks is consistent with that of a laminar Ekman layer, although it is shown that the boundary layer thickness distribution along the radial direction presents greater variations than in the sealed cavity case. Instantaneous profiles of the radial and azimuthal velocities near the disks show good qualitative agreement with an Ekman-type analytical solution, especially in terms of the boundary layer thickness. The shroud heat transfer is shown to be governed by the local centrifugal acceleration and by a core temperature, which has a weak dependence on the value of the axial Reynolds number. Spectral analyses of time signals obtained at selected locations indicate that, even though the disk boundary layers behave as unsteady laminar Ekman layers, the flow inside the cavity is turbulent and highly intermittent. In comparison with a sealed cavity, cases with an axial throughflow are characterised by a broader range of frequencies, which arise from the interaction between the laminar jet and the buoyant flow inside the cavity.     

Application of the SAS turbulence model to predict the unsteady flow field behaviour in a forward centrifugal fan

In the current study, the unsteady flow in a centrifugal fan is carried out using Computational Fluid Dynamics calculation based on the Scale Adaptive Simulation (SAS) approach to model the turbulence phenomenon. The SAS concept is based on the introduction of the von Karman length scale into the turbulence scale equation. The information provided by the von Karman length scale allows SAS models to dynamically adjust to resolved structures in an Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulation, which results in a Large Eddy Simulation-like behaviour in unsteady regions of the flow field. At the same time, the model provides standard RANS capabilities in stable flow regions. The introduction of the von Karman length scale is based on the reformulation of Rottas's equation for the integral length scale. To validate the numerical results, the overall performances of the fan and the wall pressure fluctuations computed upon the volute casing surface are compared with the unsteady measured data.     

Vortex-speed selection within the boundary-layer flow over a rotating sphere placed in an enforced axial flow

This paper furthers existing work into the instability mechanisms within the boundary-layer flow over a rotating sphere through the study of amplification rates within the convectively-unstable region. The onset of convective instability is associated with the experimentally observed onset of spiral vortices reported in the literature. Axial flow is found to stabilize the boundary layer by both delaying the onset of convective instability at all latitudes and also by significantly reducing the spatial amplification rates. We find that the type II (streamline curvature) mode becomes increasingly amplified with respect to the type I (crossflow) mode and is therefore likely to be selected in practice for sufficiently high axial flow rates. Furthermore, in experiments where special care is taken to remove all surface roughness, we predict that vortices will rotate at around 75% of the local surface speed. This is consistent with the experimental observations of Kobayashi & Arai who note a speed of around 76% under particular experimental conditions. These predictions are entirely consistent with related work on the rotating-disk and cone boundary layers.     

轴流泵参数化设计及应力与模态特征分析

以船用轴流式喷水推进泵为对象,探索了轴流泵参数化设计、水动力性能、静强度和结构声学特征分析的数值途径。轴流泵叶轮采用升力法设计,导叶采用流线法设计,叶片三维造型在NUMECA参数化设计平台中完成。轴流泵水动力性能校核由粘性CFD计算完成,CFD计算同时提取得到叶片分布式水动力载荷。叶片静强度校核由ANSYS有限元计算叶片应力和应变特征完成,应力分析时同时考虑水动力载荷、重力载荷和离心力载荷。叶片结构声学特征分析由NASTRAN有限元计算叶片模态振型和振型频率完成。计算结果表明,轴流泵扬程和功率满足设计指标,效率达87.13%;叶轮叶片形变相对于叶顶间隙来说为极小量,可忽略不计,叶片存在局部应力集中现象,最大应力小于许用应力,满足静强度要求;叶片前四阶振型特征与分析经验一致,且振型频率远离轴频、叶频及其谐频特征频率,能够避免共振产生。     

Linear stability analysis of coupled parallel flexible plates in an axial flow

We study here the linear stability of N identical flexible plates with clamped–free boundary conditions forced by a uniform parallel flow. Flow viscosity and elastic damping are neglected, and the flow around the plates is assumed potential. The shedding of vorticity from the plates’ trailing edges is accounted for by introducing a force-free wake behind each plate. A Galerkin method is used to compute the eigenmodes of the system. We are interested in the effects of the number of plates and their relative distance on the stability property of the state of rest, as well as in the nature and structure of the coupled states. Detailed results are presented for the cases N=2, N=3 and N1.     

Effect of an inhomogeneous magnetic field on the structure of an ionized gas flow

Results of an experimental study of the flow of an ionized gas produced by a shock wave through an inhomogeneous magnetic field are presented. Braking of the gas flow produced by the end currents is determined at two fixed sections of the magnetogasdynamic channel from the value of the isolated shock wave formed in the vicinity of the hemispherical model over which the flow passes. Maximum recorded reduction in Mach number was 30%, and with a magnetogasdynamic interaction parameter greater than 1.5, a transition of supersonic flow to infrasonic at the exit of the magnetic zone was observed. Experimental results were compared with a solution of a model problem which assumed one-dimensional flow in the flow core. The gas used was argon, with a maximum magnetic field induction of 1.5 T.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 174–178, September–October, 1976.     

Effect of finite cavity width on flow oscillation in a low-Mach-number cavity flow

The current study is focused on examining the effect of the cavity width and side walls on the self-sustained oscillation in a low Mach number cavity flow with a turbulent boundary layer at separation. An axisymmetric cavity geometry is employed in order to provide a reference condition that is free from any side-wall influence, which is not possible to obtain with a rectangular cavity. The cavity could then be partially filled to form finite-width geometry. The unsteady surface pressure is measured using microphone arrays that are deployed on the cavity floor along the streamwise direction and on the downstream wall along the azimuthal direction. In addition, velocity measurements using two-component Laser Doppler Anemometer are performed simultaneously with the array measurements in different azimuthal planes. The compiled data sets are used to investigate the evolution of the coherent structures generating the pressure oscillation in the cavity using linear stochastic estimation of the velocity field based on the wall-pressure signature on the cavity end wall. The results lead to the discovery of pronounced harmonic pressure oscillations near the cavity’s side walls. These oscillations, which are absent in the axisymmetric cavity, are linked to the establishment of a secondary mean streamwise circulating flow pattern near the side walls and the interaction of this secondary flow with the shear layer above the cavity.