Toru Shigemitsu

Study on Performance and Internal Flow Condition of Mini Turbo‐Pump

Mini turbo‐pumps which have a diameter smaller than 100mm are utilized in many fields; automobile radiator pump, artificial heart pump, cooling pump for electric devices, washing machine pump and so on. And the needs for the mini turbo‐pumps would become larger with the increase of the application of it for electrical machines. It is desirable that the mini turbo‐pump design is as simple as possible due to the limitation of the precision for manufacture. But the design method for the mini turbo‐pump is not established because the internal flow condition for these small‐sized fluid machineries is not clarified and conventional theory is not conductive for small‐sized pumps because of the low Reynolds number and the size effects. Therefore, we started the research of the mini turbo‐pump for the purpose of development of high performance mini turbo‐pump with simple structure. As a first step of this research, mini turbo‐pump with the 46mm rotor diameter was designed based on the conventional design method in...

Internal Flow Condition of High Power Contra-Rotating Small-Sized Axial Fan

Data centers have been built with spread of cloud computing. Further, electric power consumption of it is growing rapidly. High power cooling small-sized fans; high pressure and large flow rate small-sized fan, are used for servers in the data centers and there is a strong demand to increase power of it because of increase of quantity of heat from the servers. Contra-rotating rotors have been adopted for some of high power cooling fans to meet the demand for high power. There is a limitation of space for servers and geometrical restriction for cooling fans because spokes to support fan motors, electrical power cables and so on should be installed in the cooling fans. It is important to clarify complicated internal flow condition and influence of a geometric shape of the cooling fans on performance to achieve high performance of the cooling fans. In the present paper, the performance and the flow condition of the high power contra-rotating small-sized axial fan with a 40mm square casing are shown by experimental and numerical results. Furthermore, influence of the geometrical shape of the small-sized cooling fan on the internal flow condition is clarified and design guideline to improve the performance is discussed.

Influence of Blade Row Distance on Performance and Flow Condition of Contra-Rotating Small-Sized Axial Fan

Small-sized axial fans are used as air coolers for electric equipment. There is a strong demand for higher power of fans according to the increase of quantity of heat from electric devices. Therefore, higher rotational speed design is conducted, although, it causes the deterioration of the efficiency and the increase of noise. Then, the adoption of contra-rotating rotors for small-sized fans is proposed for the improvement of the performance. In the case of contra-rotating rotors, blade row distance between the front and the rear rotors influences on the performance and the noise. Therefore, it is important to clarify the optimum blade row distance between front and rear rotors. The performance curves of the contra-rotating small-sized axial fan under the condition of different blade row distances are shown and the blade row interaction between the front and the rear rotors are discussed by the numerical results. Furthermore, the optimum blade row distance of the contra-rotating small-sized axial fan is considered.

Influence of Blade Outlet Angle and Blade Thickness on Performance and Internal Flow Conditions of Mini Centrifugal Pump

Mini centrifugal pumps having a diameter smaller than 100mm are employed in many fields; automobile radiator pump, ventricular assist pump, cooling pump for electric devices and so on. Further, the needs for mini centrifugal pumps would become larger with the increase of the application of it for electrical machines. It is desirable that the mini centrifugal pump design be as simple as possible as precise manufacturing is required. But the design method for the mini centrifugal pump is not established because the internal flow condition for these small-sized fluid machines is not clarified and conventional theory is not suitable for small-sized pumps. Therefore, we started research on the mini centrifugal pump for the purpose of development of high performance mini centrifugal pumps with simple structure. Three types of rotors with different outlet angles are prepared for an experiment. The performance tests are conducted with these rotors in order to investigate the effect of the outlet angle on performance and internal flow condition of mini centrifugal pumps. In addition to that, the blade thickness is changed because blockage effect in the mini centrifugal pump becomes relatively larger than that of conventional pumps. On the other hand, a three dimensional steady numerical flow analysis is conducted with the commercial code (ANSYS-Fluent) to investigate the internal flow condition. It is clarified from the experimental results that head of the mini centrifugal pump increases according to the increase of the blade outlet angle and the decrease of the blade thickness. In the present paper, the performance of the mini centrifugal pump is shown and the internal flow condition is clarified with the results of the experiment and the numerical flow analysis. Furthermore, the effects of the blade outlet angle and the blade thickness on the performance are investigated and the internal flow of each type of rotor is clarified by the numerical analysis results.

Air/Water Two-Phase Flow Performance of Contra-Rotating Axial Flow Pump and Rotational Speed Control of Rear Rotor

An application of contra-rotating rotors, consisting of front and rear rotors rotating in the opposite direction from each other, has been proposed against a demand for developing a higher specific speed axial flow pump with a more compact structure, higher efficiency and higher cavitation performance. As axial flow pumps are used for standby operations of air-lock and air/water mixing discharge to prevent floods, air/water two-phase flow performance of the contra-rotating pump has to be also investigated. In the present paper, therefore, experimental results on air/water two-phase flow performance of a test pump with contra-rotating rotors are shown and compared with those of a conventional axial flow pump, consisting of a front rotor and a rear stator. Even under two-phase flow conditions head characteristic curve of the contra-rotating type has a more strongly negative slope than that of the conventional type. The contra-rotating type maintains higher head and higher efficiency even in the low flow rate range and vice versa in the high flow rate range. This result will be discussed by considering the change of outlet flow from front rotor due to two-phase flow with the help of observed air behavior in the rotors. Then effects of changes of rear rotor rotational speed different from front rotor speed, which is an advantage of the contra-rotating axial flow pump, on two-phase flow performance are examined. Under the condition of constant ratio of air to water flow rates, the head rise of the rear rotor linearly increases with rear rotor rotational speed. Air/water two-phase flow performance of the contra-rotating axial flow pump can be improved by this control procedure for the rear rotor rotational speed.Copyright

Performance and Flow Condition of Contra-rotating Small-sized Axial Fan at Partial Flow Rate

Small-sized axial fans are used as air cooler for electric equipments. But there is a strong demand for higher power of fans according to the increase of quantity of heat from electric devices. Therefore, higher rotational speed design is conducted, although, it causes the deterioration of efficiency and the increase of noise. Then the adoption of contrarotating rotors for the small-sized axial fan is proposed for the improvement of performance. In the present paper, the performance curves of the contra-rotating small-sized axial fan with 100mm diameter are shown and the velocity distributions at a partial flow rate at the inlet and the outlet of each front and rear rotor are clarified with experimental results. Furthermore, the flow conditions between front and rear rotors of the contra-rotating small-sized axial fan are investigated by numerical analysis results and causes of the performance deterioration of the contra-rotating small-sized axial fan at the partial flow rate is discussed.

Performance and Internal Flow of Contra-Rotating Small Hydro Turbine

Small hydropower generation is one of important alternative energy, and potential of small hydropower is great. Efficiency of small hydro turbines is lower than that of large one, and these small hydro turbine’s common problems are out of operation by foreign materials. Then, there are demands for small hydro turbines to keep high performance and wide flow passage. Therefore, we adopted contra-rotating rotors, which can be expected to achieve high performance and enable to use low-solidity rotors with wide flow passage, in order to accomplish high performance and stable operation. Final goal of this study is development of a small hydro turbine like electrical goods, which has high portability and makes an effective use of unused small hydro power energy source. In this research, experimental apparatus of the contra-rotating small hydro turbine with 60mm casing diameter was manufactured and performance of it was investigated by an experiment. Efficiency of the contra-rotating small hydro turbine was high in pico-hydro turbine and high efficiency could be kept in wide flow rate range. Internal flow condition, which was difficult to measure experimentally, was shown by the numerical flow analysis. Further, influence of spokes to support the rotor was clarified. Then, a relation between the performance and internal flow condition was considered by the experimental and numerical analysis results.Copyright

Performance Characteristics and Flow Conditions of High Pressure and Large Flow Rate Cooling Fan

Data center has been built with spread of cloud computing. Further, electric power consumption of it is growing rapidly. High pressure and large flow rates small-sized cooling fans are used for servers in the data center and there is a strong demand to increase pressure and flow rate of it because of increase of quantity of heat from the servers. Contra-rotating rotors have been adopted for some of the high pressure and large flow rate cooling fans to meet the demand of it. There is limitation of space for servers and geometrical restriction for cooling fan because spokes to support the fan motor, electrical power cables and so on should be installed in the cooling fan. It is important to clarify performance of each front and rear rotor of contra-rotating small-sized cooling fan and internal flow condition to achieve the high performance cooling fans.In the present paper, detailed performance and the flow condition around the rotor of the high pressure and large flow rate contra-rotating small-sized axial fan with 40mm square casing are investigated. Pressure, shaft power and efficiency curves of each front and rear rotor are clarified by the experimental and the numerical results. Furthermore, the internal flow condition of the rear rotor is clarified by the numerical analysis results and design guideline to improve the performance is discussed by these results.Copyright

Study on Performance and Flow Condition of a Cross-Flow Wind Turbine With a Symmetrical Casing

A cross-flow wind turbine has a high torque coefficient at a low tip speed ratio. Therefore, it is a good candidate for use as a self-starting turbine. Furthermore, it has low noise and excellent stability; therefore, it has attracted attention from the viewpoint of applications as a small wind turbine for an urban district. However, its maximum power coefficient is extremely low (10%) as compared to that of other small wind turbines. Prevailing winds in two directions often blow in urban and coastal regions. Therefore, in order to improve the performance and the flow condition of the cross-flow rotor, a casing suitable for this sort of prevailing wind conditions is designed in this research and the effect of the casing is investigated by experimental and numerical analysis. In the experiment, a wind tunnel with a square discharge is used and main flow velocity is set as 20 m/s. A torque meter, a rotational speed pickup, and a motor are assembled with the same axis as the test wind turbine and the tip speed ratio is changeable by a rotational speed controller. The casing is set around the cross-flow rotor and flow distribution at the rotor inlet and the outlet is measured by a one-hole pitot tube. The maximum power coefficient is obtained as Cpmax = 0.19 with the casing, however Cpmax = 0.098 without the casing. It is clear that the inlet and the outlet flow condition is improved by the casing. In the present paper, in order to improve the performance of a cross-flow wind turbine, a symmetrical casing suitable for prevailing winds in two directions is proposed. Then, the performance and the internal flow condition of the cross-flow wind turbine with the casing are clarified. Furthermore, the influence of the symmetrical casing on performance is discussed and the relation between the flow condition and performance is considered.

Performance and Flow Condition of Cross-Flow Wind Turbine with a Symmetrical Casing Having Side Boards

A cross-flow wind turbine has a high torque coefficient at a low tip speed ratio. Therefore, it is a good candidate for use as a self-starting turbine. Furthermore, it has low noise and excellent stability; therefore, it has attracted attention from the viewpoint of applications as a small wind turbine for an urban district. However, its maximum power coefficient is extremely low (10 %) as compared to that of other small wind turbines. In order to improve the performance and flow condition of the cross-flow rotor, the symmetrical casing with a nozzle and a diffuser are proposed and the experimental research with the symmetrical casing is conducted. The maximum power coefficient is obtained as Cpmax = 0.17 in the case with the casing and Cpmax=0.098 in the case without the casing. In the present study, the power characteristics of the cross-flow rotor and those of the symmetrical casing with the nozzle and diffuser are investigated. Then, the performance and internal flow patterns of the cross-flow wind turbine with the symmetrical casings are clarified. After that, the effect of the side boards set on the symmetrical casing is discussed on the basis of the analysis results.