A concise method for determining a valve flow coefficient of a valve under compressible gas flow

This work presents a novel method of determining a valve flow coefficient for a valve and transient mass flow rate of compressible gas discharged from a reservoir. The proposed method consists of a set of equations to express the physical phenomena and measurement equipment to measure the indispensable data used in the above equations. Regardless of the kind of valve, the valve flow coefficient can be obtained efficiently and feasibly. The results of this study indicate not only that the valve flow characteristics of the diaphragm valve significantly differ from those of the ball valve, but also that the C_v flow equation conventionally used is no longer valid for the diaphragm valve. The valve flow coefficient of the ball valve determined by the proposed method is about 48 and the representative one proposed by the ANSI/ISA is about 56. In addition, the mass flow rate of gas flow through a valve under transient process can be estimated without using a flow meter. Moreover, the cumulated masses discharged predicted by the method proposed herein are consistent well with those of the experimental results. The deviations are smaller than 6%.     

Assessment of Subgrid-Scale Models for Decaying Compressible MHD Turbulence

Large eddy simulation method is formulated for study of compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and assessment of different subgrid-scale models as applied for decaying case is performed. The filtered equations of compressible magnetopause using the mass-weighted filtering operation are obtained. Mass-weighted filtered equations for large-scale turbulent component comprise subgrid-scale terms and five models for closure of the subgrid-scale terms are suggested. In present paper the obtained results of numerical computations for large eddy simulation are compared with the results of direct numerical simulation of three-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. Assessment of five subgrid-scale models of large eddy simulation for MHD flows is fulfilled. The comparisons between large eddy simulation and direct numerical simulation are carried out regarding the temporal evolution of the global quantities kinetic and magnetic energy, cross helicity and the spectra of kinetic and magnetic energy.     

Numerical solution of plane and axially symmetric jet flow problems based on the variational inequality formulation

The numerical analysis of plane and axially symmetric jet flows of an incompressible inviscid fluid is treated. A new formulation of the variational inequality type is developed from the variational principle associated with jet problems. A successive approximation method is formulated by the combined use of variational inequality and the finite element method. Numerical examples based on the iterative method are presented. The results obtained agree well with those by other methods.     

Compressible flow of a two-phase fluid between finite vessels—I: Ideal carrier gas

The transfer of a multiphase fluid from a high-pressure vessel to one initially at lower pressure is investigated. The fluid is composed of two phases which do not undergo any change. The phases consist of an ideal gas, and solid particles (or liquid droplets) having constant density. The mixture is assumed to be stagnant and always perfectly mixed as well as at thermal equilibrium in each constant volume vessel. The fluid also remains homogeneous and at equilibrium while flowing between vessels. The transport properties of the mixture are taken to be zero. One important finding is that the expanding mixture or pseudo-fluid behaves similarly to a polytropic Abel-Noble gas. The mixture thermodynamic properties, the end state in each vessel at pressure equilibrium, the critical parameters and time-dependent results are given for the adiabatic and isothermal limiting cases. The results include both initially sonic and initially subsonic transfers. No mathematical restriction is placed on the particle concentration, although some limiting results are given for small particle volume fraction. The mass transferred at adiabatic pressure equilibrium can be significantly less than that when thermal equilibrium is also reached. Furthermore, the adiabatic pressure equilibrium level may not be the same as that obtained at thermal equilibrium, even when all initial temperatures are the same. Finally, it is shown that the transfer times can be very slow compared to those of a pure gas due to the large reduction possible in the mixture sound speed.     

Compressible viscous flow calculations using compatible finite element approximations

We discuss in this paper the numerical simulation of compressible viscous flows by a combination of finite element methods for the space approximation, an implicit second-order multistep scheme for the time discretization and GMRES iterative methods for solving the non-linear problems encountered at each time step. Numerical results corresponding to flows around aerofoils and aerospace vehicles illustrate the possibilities of these methods.     

On the implementation of symmetric and antisymmetric periodic boundary conditions for incompressible flow

In this paper we consider symmetric and antisymmetric periodic boundary conditions for flows governed by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Classical periodic boundary conditions are studied as well as symmetric and antisymmetric periodic boundary conditions in which there is a pressure difference between inlet and outlet. The implementation of this type of boundary conditions in a finite element code using the penalty function formulation is treated and also the implementation in a finite volume code based on pressure correction. The methods are demonstrated by computation of a flow through a staggered tube bundle.     

Finite element implementation of boundary conditions for the pressure Poisson equation of incompressible flow

In this paper we address the problem of the implementation of boundary conditions for the derived pressure Poisson equation of incompressible flow. It is shown that the direct Galerkin finite element formulation of the pressure Poisson equation automatically satisfies the inhomogeneous Neumann boundary conditions, thus avoiding the difficulty in specifying boundary conditions for pressure. This ensures that only physically meaningful pressure boundary conditions consistent with the Navier-Stokes equations are imposed. Since second derivatives appear in this formulation, the conforming finite element method requires C¹ continuity. However, for many problems of practical interest (i.e. high Reynolds numbers) the second derivatives need not be included, thus allowing the use of more conventional C⁰ elements. Numerical results using this approach for a wall-driven contained flow within a square cavity verify the validity of the approach. Although the results were obtained for a two-dimensional problem using the p-version of the finite element method, the approach presented here is general and remains valid for the conventional h-version as well as three-dimensional problems.     

Numerical experiments on the gas flow between eccentric rotating cylinders

A numerical experiment was carried out on the gas flow field between two eccentric cylinders, one of which is rotating. Attention was paid to the presence of separated recirculating regions from the continuum to the rarefied regimes. The direct simulations were performed by means of a Monte Carlo (DSMC) method and bi‐polar co‐ordinates were adopted. The calculations were relative to isothermal walls at the same temperature. Streamlines and velocity profiles were evaluated as functions of the Knudsen number, of the Mach number and of the geometric parameters. The gas considered was argon. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exact solution for entrance region flow between parallel plates

A method of obtaining an exact solution of the complete Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible flow has been developed to study the development of fluid flow between parallel plates. An analytical solution has been developed in the form of a convergent infinite series and a numerical solution obtained for Reynolds numbers of 10 and 500. These results have been compared with data available elsewhere. The method developed here is expected to have general application     

A total linearization method for solving viscous free boundary flow problems by the finite element method

In this paper a total linearization method is derived for solving steady viscous free boundary flow problems (including capillary effects) by the finite element method. It is shown that the influence of the geometrical unknown in the totally linearized weak formulation can be expressed in terms of boundary integrals. This means that the implementation of the method is simple. Numerical experiments show that the iterative method gives accurate results and converges very fast.     

Least-squares finite element methods for compressible Euler equations

A method based on backward finite differencing in time and a least-squares finite element scheme for first-order systems of partial differential equations in space is applied to the Euler equations for gas dynamics. The scheme minimizes the L²-norm of the residual within each time step. The method naturally generates numerical dissipation proportional to the time step size. An implicit method employing linear elements has been implemented and proves robust. For high-order elements, computed solutions based on the L²-method may have oscillations for calculations at similar time step sizes. To overcome this difficulty, a scheme which minimizes the weighted H¹-norm of the residual is proposed and leads to a successful scheme with high-degree elements. Finally, a conservative least-squares finite element method is also developed. Numerical results for two-dimensional problems are given to demonstrate the shock resolution of the methods and compare different approaches.     

New model of gas flow problem in multi-layered gas reservoir and application

In this paper,the new model of the real gas filtration problem has been presented multi-layered gas reservoir,when a gas well output and wellbore storage may be variable,and have obtained the exact solutions of pressure distribution for each reservoir bed under three kinds of typical out-boundary conditions.As a special case,according to the new model have also obtained the exact solutions of presssure distribution in homogeneous reservoir and is given important application in gas reservoir development.     

Locally mass-conserving Taylor–Hood elements for two- and three-dimensional flow

By supplementing the pressure space for Taylor–Hood elements, elements that satisfy continuity locally are produced. These elements are shown to satisfy the Babuska–Brezzi compatibility condition by using the patch argument. Two examples are presented, one illustrating the convergence rates and the other illustrating a difficulty with a Taylor–Hood element that is overcome by the element presented here.     

An orthogonal mapping technique for the computation of a viscous free-surface flow

In this paper we describe finite element computations of the free-surface flow of a viscous fluid down an undulating inclined plane. The technique developed here employs an orthogonal mapping that is computed along with the velocity and pressure. This is allied to a technique to compute symbolically the Jacobian and other derivatives required for numerical continuation methods. The solutions obtained are compared with laboratory experiments and finite element computations reported by Pritchard and co-workers. The finite element computational method used by these authors employs spines to represent the free surface. An excellent agreement is shown to exist between the new computations and the laboratory experiments, and with the numerical solutions of Pritchard and co-workers.     

Finite element technique to solve the elastic strain for Leonov fluid flow

The finite element method is used to find the elastic strain (and thus the stress) for given velocity fields of the Leonov model fluid. With a simple linearization technique and the Galerkin formulation, the quasi-linear coupled first-order hyperbolic differential equations together with a non-linear equality constraint are solved over the entire domain based on a weighted residual scheme. The proposed numerical scheme has yielded efficient and accurate convective integrations for both the planar channel and the diverging radial flows for the Leonov model fluid. Only the strain in the inflow plane is required to be prescribed as the boundary conditions. In application, it can be conveniently incorporated in an existing finite element algorithm to simulate the Leonov viscoelastic fluid flow with more complex geometry in which the velocity field is not known a priori and an iterative procedure is needed.     

Compressible gas-liquid mixture flow at abrupt pipe enlargements

A detailed investigation was made of the flow of compressible gas-liquid mixtures through sudden enlargements in diameter of circular pipes. One-dimensional analysis shows that the dimensionless pressure rise varies with mixture void fraction and mixture momentum, while the establishment of choking conditions at the enlargement is controlled by the length of pipe downstream in which frictional pipe flow occurs. The flows were found to exhibit two characteristic modes, jet flow and submerged flow, with intermediate flows displaying unsteady oscillation between these modes. The distance to the downstream position of maximum pressure increased steadily with mixture void fraction when the upstream pipe outlet was choked, varying from 5 to 50 times the downstream pipe diameter. If the flow was not choked, this distance was much smaller and showed discrete fixed values associated with the mode of flow.

One-dimensional analysis accurately predicted maximum pressure, but when flow was choked at the enlargement the calculation was sensitive to the pressure in the region of separated flow surrounding the central jet in the enlargement. Although analysis of maximum pressure in terms of flow expansion and normal shock gave a general indication of the maximum pressure (which was thus concluded to depend on the general flow processes expected in the enlargement), accurate prediction of maximum pressures will depend on empirical knowledge of the separated flow region pressures. The maximum pressure rise was found to be in the range extending down to 0.3 of the upstream pipe outlet pressure and reduced with void fraction; it was also influenced by the enlargement area ratio. Flows in the approach and outlet pipes were found to be compressible, frictional pipe flows of the Fanno type, with somewhat reduced friction factors occurring in the outlet pipe.     

Numerical simulation of compressible gas flow and heat transfer in a microchannel surrounded by solid media

In this study, a numerical model is developed to investigate the coupled compressible gas flow and heat transfer in a microchannel surrounded by solid media. To accommodate the varying flow cross-section, the compressible gas flow model is established in a non-orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system. An iterative numerical procedure is employed to solve the coupled heat transfer and gas flow equations. The computer code for the compressible gas flow is first validated against two test problems, and then extended by including the heat conduction in the solid media. The effect of the inlet Mach number on the Nusselt number is examined. It is found that the pressure difference from the pyrolysis front to the heated surface is induced essentially by the gas addition from the channel wall, instead from the pyrolysis front. The necessity of accounting for the gas compressibility is clearly demonstrated when severe heating is applied. The pressure distribution obtained along the channel axial direction is useful for further structural analysis of composite materials.     

A finite element analysis of the steady laminar entrance flow in a 90° curved tube

A standard Galerkin finite element penalty function method is used to approximate the solution of the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations for steady incompressible Newtonian entrance flow in a 90° curved tube (curvature ratio δ = 1/6) for a triple of Dean numbers (κ = 41, 122 and 204). The computational results for the intermediate Dean number (κ = 122) are compared with the results of laser–Doppler velocity measurements in an equivalent experimental model. For both the axial and secondary velocity components, fair agreement between the computational and experimental results is found.