Young-Do Choi

Performance and Internal Flow Characteristics of a Very Low Specific Speed Centrifugal Pump

In very low specific speed range (n,<0.25), the efficiency of the centrifugal pump designed by the conventional method becomes remarkably low. Therefore, positive-displacement pumps have been widely used for long. However, the positive-displacement pumps remain associated with problems such as noise and vibration and they require high manufacturing precision. Since the recently used centrifugal pumps are becoming higher in rotational speed and smaller in size, there appear to be many expectations to develop a new centrifugal pump with high performance in the very low specific speed range. The purpose of this study is to investigate the internal flow characteristics and its influence on the performance of a very low specific speed centrifugal pump. The results show that large reverse flow at the semi-open impeller outlet decreases absolute tangential velocity considerably which in turn decreases the pumping head.

Air Layer Effect on the Performance Improvement of a Cross-Flow Hydro Turbine

The purpose of this study is not only to investigate the effects of air layer in the turbine chamber on the performance and internal flow of the cross-flow turbine, but also to suggest a newly developed air supply method. Field test is performed in order to measure the output power of the turbine by a new air supply method. CFD analysis on the performance and internal flow of the turbine is conducted by an unsteady state calculation using a two-phase flow model in order to embody the air layer effect on the turbine performance effectively. The result shows that air layer effect on the performance of the turbine is considerable. The air layer located in the turbine runner passage plays the role of preventing a shock loss at the runner axis and suppressing a recirculation flow in the runner. The location of air suction hole on the chamber wall is very important factor for the performance improvement. Moreover, the ratio between air from suction pipe and water from turbine inlet is also significant factor of the turbine performance.

Numerical Analysis on the Flow Uniformity in a Pump Sump Model with Multi Pump Intake

The head-capacity curves for pumps developed by the pump manufacturer are based on tests of a single pump operating in a semi-infinite basin with no close walls or floors and with no stray currents. Therefore, flow into the pump intake is with no vortices or swirling. However, pump station designers relying on these curves to define the operating conditions for the pump selected sometimes meet the reductions of capacity and efficiency, as well as the increase of vibration and additional noise, which were caused by air-entered flow in the pump station. From this background, the authors are carrying out a systematic study on the flow characteristics of intakes within a sump of pump station model. Multi-intake sump model with anti-submerged vortex device basin is designed and the characteristics of submerged vortex is investigated in the flow field by numerical simulation. In this study, a commercial CFD code is used to predict the vortex generation in the pump station accurately. The analysed results by CFD show that the vortex structure and effect of anti-submerged vortex device are different at each pump intake channel.

Flow Characteristics of Cryogenic Butterfly Valve for LNG Carrier (Part 2 : Flow Characteristics under Cryogenic Condition)

Recently, butterfly valves are used as control valves for industrial process. However, there are not so many reports on cryogenic butterfly valves in spite of broad application in LNG storage station and LNG carriers. Present study is focused on the investigation of the detailed hydrodynamic and aerodynamic characteristics of cryogenic butterfly valves to contribute to the operation during the handling on LNG transportation system, and to the practical utilization in design of butterfly valves and actuators. The results show that large recirculation vortices in the region downstream of the valve are founded and the cavitation flows are intensively generated on the surface of valve disc at the relatively small opening angle. The aerodynamic characteristics, lift, drag and torque, acting on the valve disc are calculated. The pressure distribution and the pressure loss coefficient of the cryogenic butterfly valve show almost similar pattern with those of the butterfly valve which is used on the normal temperature.

Study on the performance of helical savonius rotor for wave energy conversion

This paper presents a numerical study of the savonius type direct drive turbine in typical chamber geometry of an oscillating water column chamber (OWC) for wave energy conversion. The paper deals with a numerical modeling devoted to predict the turbine efficiency in the components of an oscillating water column (OWC) system used for the wave energy capture. In the present paper, the flow behavior is modeled by using the commercial code ANSYS CFX. Three numerical flow models have been elaborated and tested independently in the geometries of a water chamber with a conventional three bladed savonius type wave turbine and a three bladed helical savonius type turbine. Conventional three bladed savonius rotors have high coefficient of static torque at certain rotor angles. In order to increase the efficiency of the system a helical savonius rotor with a twist of certain proposed degree is introduced. Constant periodic wave flow calculations were performed to investigate the flow distribution at the turbines in...

A Study on the Nozzle Shapes of a Cross-Flow Type Hydro Turbine for Wave Power Generation

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of nozzle shapes on the performance and internal flow characteristics of a cross-flow type hydro turbine for wave power generation. The performance of the turbine is calculated with the variation of rotational speed for 4 types of the nozzle shape using a commercial CFD code. The results show that nozzle shape should be designed considering available head of the turbine. Best efficiencies of the turbine by 4 types of the nozzle shape do not change largely but overall performances varies mainly by the nozzle width. The output power of the cross-flow type hydro turbine changes considerably by the nozzle shape and a partial region of stage 2 in the runner blade passage produces maximum regional output power in comparison with the other runner blade passage areas.

Performance and Internal Flow of a Cross-Flow Type Hydro Turbine for Wave Power Generation

Clean and renewable energy technologies using ocean energy give us non-polluting alternatives to fossil and nuclear-fueled power plants to meet establishment of countermeasures against the global warming and growing demand for electrical energy. Among the ocean energy resources, wave power takes a growing interest because of its enormous amount of potential energy in the world. Therefore, various types of wave power conversion system to capture the energy of ocean waves have been developed. However, suitable turbine type is not normalized yet because of relatively low efficiency of the turbine systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the internal flow and performance characteristics of a cross-flow type hydro turbine, which will be built in a caisson for wave power generation. Numerical simulation using a commercial CFD code is conducted to clarify the effects of the turbine rotation speed and flow rate variation on the turbine characteristics. The results show that the output power of the cross-flow type hydro turbine with symmetric nozzle shape is obtained mainly from Stage 2. Turbine inlet configuration should be designed to obtain large amount of flow rate because the static pressure and absolute tangential velocity are influenced considerably by inlet flow rate.

Flow Analysis in Positive Displacement Micro-Hydro Turbine and Development of Low Pulsation Turbine

In order to extract micro hydropower in the very low specific speed range, a Positive Displacement Turbine (PDT) was proposed and steady performance was determined experimentally. However, the suppression of large pressure pulsation is inevitable for practical application of PDT. The objective of the present study is to reveal the mechanism and the characteristics of pressure pulsation in PDT by use of CFD and to suppress the pressure pulsation. Unsteady CFD analysis has revealed that large pressure pulsation is caused by large variation of rotational speed of the following rotor, while the driving rotor, which is output rotor, keeps constant speed. Here is newly proposed a 4-lobe helical type rotor which can reduce the pressure pulsation drastically and the performance prediction of new PDT is determined.

Improvement of Performance Instability and Miniaturization of Very Low Specific Speed Centrifugal Pump

The ratio of disk friction loss in a centrifugal pump is very large for the total pump loss in the range of very low specific speed. Therefore, impeller radius should be shortened to increase the pump efficiency because the disk friction loss is proportional to the fifth power of impeller radius. In order to compensate the decreased head by the shortened impeller radius, vane angle at impeller outlet should be increased. However, as the vane angle at impeller outlet becomes larger, performance instability occurs at low flow rate regions. In this study, J-Groove is adopted to suppress the performance instability and detailed examination is performed for the influence of the J-Groove on the pump performance. The results show that J-Groove gives good effect on the suppression of performance instability. Moreover, as J-Groove increases pump head considerably, the pump size can be smaller for head requirements.

Tubular-Type Hydroturbine Performance for Variable Guide Vane Opening by CFD

Micro hydraulic power generation which has output of less or equal to 100kW is attracting considerable attention. This is because of its small, simple, renewable, and large amount of energy resources. By using a small hydro power generator of which main concept is based on using differential water pressures in pipe lines, energy which was initially wasted by use of a reducing valve at an end of the pipeline, is collected by a turbine in the hydro power generator. A propeller shaped hydroturbine has been used in order to make use of this renewable pressure energy. In this study, in order to acquire basic design data of tubular type hydroturbine, output power, head, and efficiency characteristics due to the guide vane opening angle are examined in detail. Moreover, influences of pressure, tangential and axial velocity distributions on turbine performance are investigated by using a commercial CFD code.