Hua-Shu Dou

Effects of variable specific heat on energy transfer in a high-temperature supersonic channel flow

An energy transfer mechanism in high-temperature supersonic turbulent flow for variable specific heat (VSH) condition through turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), mean kinetic energy (MKE), turbulent in...

Effect of Rotational Speed on the Stability of Two Rotating Side-by-side Circular Cylinders at Low Reynolds Number

Flow around two rotating side-by-side circular cylinders of equal diameter D is numerically studied at the Reynolds number 40≤ Re ≤200 and various rotation rate θi. The incoming flow is assumed to be two-dimensional laminar flow. The governing equations are the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations and solved by the finite volume method (FVM). The ratio of the center-to-center spacing to the cylinder diameter is T/D=2. The objective of the present work is to investigate the effect of rotational speed and Reynolds number on the stability of the flow. The simulation results are compared with the experimental data and a good agreement is achieved. The stability of the flow is analyzed by using the energy gradient theory, which produces the energy gradient function K to identify the region where the flow is the most prone to be destabilized and the degree of the destabilization. Numerical results reveal that K is the most significant at the separated shear layers of the cylinder pair. With Re increases, the length of the wake is shorter and the vortex shedding generally exhibits a symmetrical distribution for θi <θcrit. It is also shown that the unsteady vortex shedding can be suppressed by rotating the cylinders in the counter-rotating mode.

Analysis of vortex breakdown in an enclosed cylinder based on the energy gradient theory

Abstract Numerical simulation is carried out to study the phenomenon of vortex breakdown in an enclosed cylinder. The energy gradient theory is used to explain the vortex breakdown in the cylinder with consideration of centrifugal force, Coriolis force, angular momentum and azimuthal vorticity. The research results show that the large value of energy gradient function K is mainly located at the centerline and the region between the circulation vortices on both sides of the cylinder and the vortex breakdown bubbles at the centerline. It is found that the position of the local peak value of the energy gradient function K at the centerline corresponds to the location of vortex breakdown first occurrence. The position of the local peak value of K function in horizontal direction corresponds to the velocity inflection points except for the centerline. The vortex breakdown is mainly determined by the high K value at the centerline for low aspect ratio. The influence of the region of high K value between the circulation vortices on both sides of the cylinder and the vortex breakdown bubbles at the centerline becomes larger with the increase of the aspect ratio. The occurrence and development of the vortex breakdown bubble may be affected by the region of high K value between the circulation vortices on both sides of the cylinder and the vortex breakdown bubbles at the centerline for high aspect ratio.

Effect of attack angle on flow characteristic of centrifugal fan

In this paper, numerical simulation is performed for the performance and internal flow of a centrifugal fan with different operating conditions using steady three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the RNG k-e turbulent model. The performance curves, the contours of static pressure, total pressure, radial velocity, relative streamlines and turbulence intensity at different attack angles are obtained. The distributions of static pressure and velocity on suction surface and pressure surface in the same impeller channel are compared for various attack angles. The research shows that the efficiency of the centrifugal fan is the highest when the attack angle is 8 degree. The main reason is that the vortex flow in the impeller is reduced, and the jet-wake pattern is weakened at the impeller outlet. The pressure difference between pressure side and suction side is smooth and the amplitude of the total pressure fluctuation is low along the circumferential direction. These phenomena may cause the loss reduced for the attack angle of about 8 degree.

The effects of air vitiation on the supersonic turbulent channel flow using direct numerical simulation

Temporally evolving supersonic turbulent channel flows are simulated using direct numerical simulation (DNS) approach at Mach number 2.56, Reynolds number 7000 with water vapor (H2O) mass fraction from 0.00 to 0.161 to study the air vitiation effects. Then, the turbulent statistical characteristics and velocity-temperature correlations have been studied based on the DNS database. It is found that in fully developed turbulent channel flow, many of turbulent statistical characteristics used to express supersonic turbulent channel flow of pure air also hold for the H2O considered. After a nondimensional static temperature parameters introduced, the mean velocity-temperature correlation collapses between current DNS results. The results of strong Reynolds analogy decrease with H2O mass fraction increasing, and modified strong Reynolds analogy show a better agreement than original strong Reynolds analogy. In addition, the correlation Ru’T’isn’t remained the same between the different H2O mass fraction cases.