Influence of Cavitation on Unsteady Vortical Flows in a Side Channel Pump

Previous investigation on side channel pump mainly concentrates on parameter optimization and internal unsteady vortical flows.However,cavitation is prone to occur in a side channel pump,which is a challenging issue in promoting performance.In the present study,the cavitating flow is investigated numerically by the turbulence model of SAS combined with the Zwart cavitation model.The vapors inside the side channel pump firstly occur in the impeller passage near the inlet and then spread gradually to the downstream passages with the decrease of NPSHa.Moreover,a strong adverse pressure gradient is presented at the end of the cavity closure region,which leads to cavity shedding from the wall.The small scaled vortices in each passage reduce significantly and gather into larger vortices due to the cavitation.Comparing the three terms of vorticity transport equation with the vapor volume fraction and vorticity distributions,it is found that the stretching term is dominant and responsible for the vorticity production and evolution in cavitating flows.In addition,the magnitudes of the stretching term decrease once the cavitation occurs,while the values of dilatation are high in the cavity region and increase with the decreasing NPSHa.Even though the magnitude of the baroclinic torque term is smaller than vortex stretching and dilatation terms,it is important for the vorticity production along the cavity surface and near the cavity closure region.The pressure fluctuations in the impeller and side channel tend to be stronger due to the cavitation.The primary frequency of monitor points in the impeller is 24.94 Hz and in the side channel is 598.05 Hz.They are quite corresponding to the shaft frequency of 25 Hz(fshaft=1/n=25 Hz)and the blade frequency of 600 Hz(fblade=Z/n=600 Hz)respectively.This study complements the investigation on cavitation in the side channel pump,which could provide the theoretical foundation for further optimization of performance.

Tubular limiting stream surface: “tornado” in three-dimensional vortical flow

A new physical structure of vortical flow, i.e., tubular limiting stream surface(TLSS), is reported. It is defined as a general mathematical structure for the physical flow field in the neighborhood of a singularity, and has a close relationship with limit cycles.The TLSS is a tornado-like structure, which separates a vortex into two regions, i.e., the inner region near the vortex axis and the outer region further away from the vortex axis.The flow particles in these two regions can approach to(or leave) the TLSS, but never could reach it.

Near wake vortex dynamics of a hovering hawkmoth

Numerical investigation of vortex dynamics in near wake of a hovering hawkmoth and hovering aerodynamics is conducted to support the development of a biology-inspired dynamic flight simulator for flapping wingbased micro air vehicles. Realistic wing-body morphologies and kinematics are adopted in the numerical simulations. The computed results show 3D mechanisms of vortical flow structures in hawkmoth-like hovering. A horseshoe-shaped primary vortex is observed to wrap around each wing during the early down- and upstroke; the horseshoe-shaped vortex subsequently grows into a doughnut-shaped vortex ring with an intense jet-flow present in its core, forming a downwash. The doughnut-shaped vortex rings of the wing pair eventu- ally break up into two circular vortex rings as they propagate downstream in the wake. The aerodynamic yawing and rolling torques are canceled out due to the symmetric wing kinematics even though the aerodynamic pitching torque shows significant variation with time. On the other hand, the time- varying the aerodynamics pitching torque could make the body a longitudinal oscillation over one flapping cycle.

RESEARCH ON THE HYSTERESIS PROPERTIES OF UNSTEADY AERODYNAMICS ABOUT THE OSCILLATING WINGS

In the work, it is shown the numerical investigations about the unsteady inviscid results obtained for the pitching oscillating wings at different angles of attack. The results are obtained by solving the unsteady Euler equations in a body_fitted coordinate system. It is based on the four_stage Runge_Kutta time stepping scheme. Meanwhile to increase the time step that is limited by Courant limit (CFL), the implicit residual smoothing with local variable parameters is used. As a result, the unsteady aerodynamics about a rectangular wing and a delta wing, which are oscillated in pitching with different frequencies, are shown in this paper. The properties of the unsteady aerodynamics in these cases are researched here.

Effects of tip perturbation and wing locations on rolling oscillation induced by forebody vortices

The wing rock motion is frequently suffered by a wing-body configuration with low swept wing at high angle of attack. It is found from our experimental study that the tip perturbation and wing longitudinal locations affect significantly the wing rock motion of a wing-body. The natural tip perturbation would make the wing rock motion of a nondeterministic nature and an artificial mini-tip perturbation would make the wing rock motion deterministic. The artificial tip perturbation would, as its circumferential location is varied, generate three different types of motion patterns： （1） limit cycle oscillation, （2） irregular oscillation, （3） equilibrium state with tiny oscillation. The amplitude of rolling oscillation corresponding to the limit cycle oscillatory motion pattern is decreased with the wing location shifting downstream along the body axis.

3-D Lagrangian-based investigations of the time-dependent cloud cavitating flows around a Clark-Y hydrofoil with special emphasis on shedding process analysis

In the present paper, the unsteady cavitating flow around a 3-D Clark-Y hydrofoil is numerically investigated with the filter-based density correction model（FBDCM）, a turbulence model and the Zwart-Gerber-Belamri（ZGB） cavitation model. A reasonable agreement is obtained between the numerical and experimental results. To study the complex flow structures more straightforwardly, a 3-D Lagrangian technology is developed, which can provide the particle tracks and the 3-D Lagrangian coherent structures（LCSs）. Combined with the traditional methods based on the Eulerian viewpoint, this technology is used to analyze the attached cavity evolution and the re-entrant jet behavior in detail. At stage I, the collapse of the previous shedding cavity and the growth of a new attached cavity, the significant influence of the collapse both on the suction and pressure sides are captured quite well by the 3-D LCSs, which is underestimated by the traditional methods like the iso-surface of Q-criteria. As a kind of special LCSs, the arching LCSs are observed in the wake, induced by the counter-rotating vortexes. At stage II, with the development of the re-entrant jet,the influence of the cavitation on the pressure side is still not negligible. And with this 3-D Lagrangian technology, the tracks of the re-entrant jet are visualized clearly, moving from the trailing edge to the leading edge. Finally, at stage Ⅲ, the re-entrant jet collides with the mainstream and finally induces the shedding. The cavitation evolution and the re-entrant jet movement in the whole cycle are well visualized with the 3-D Lagrangian technology. Moreover, the comparison between the LCSs obtained with 2-D and 3-D Lagrangian technologies indicates the advantages of the latter. It is demonstrated that the 3-D Lagrangian technology is a promising tool in the investigation of complex cavitating flows.

Numerical prediction of hydrodynamic cavitating flow structures and their corresponding erosion

Hydrodynamic cavitating flows usually consist of 3-D intense vortical flows that are detached from solid boundaries.Detached vortical flows normally generate heaps of cavitating flow structures,which,in turn,govern the location of cavitation erosion before collapse.Thus,this study introduces a new numerical approach based on the improved delayed detached eddy simulation(IDDES)turbulence modeling for predicting cavitating flows.Then,the solution of compressible Eulerian-Eulerian two-phase flow and the IDDES turbulence model was linked to the microjet hypothesis and unsteady behavior of pressure and vapor volume to predict the corresponding erosion of cavitating flows.The method for cavitation erosion prediction,a modified version taken from previous studies,was applied as a post-processing tool.The validation of cavitating flow predictions was performed for the first time on the Grenoble axisymmetric nozzle by comparing them with 21 photos of cavitation from the previous experimental study.The results showed that the present numerical approach estimated various features of hydrodynamic cavitation well,including shedding processes and the length,shape,and collapse of cavitating structures.Using the numerical analysis,three main stages were detected for the present cavitating flow,and the vorticity-cavitation interactions were investigated by the vorticity transport equation.The streak-like and tube-like cavitating(STLIC and TULIC)structures were introduced in the second stage,initiated by flow instability,and entirely governed by corresponding turbulent flow structures.The collapse of these cavitating structures is one of the primary sources of cavitation erosion on lower and upper walls.The results of the numerical erosion predictions were compared with those of the previous erosion tests on the Grenoble axisymmetric nozzle.Satisfactory numerical performance was achieved in predicting the location and intensity of cavitation erosion.

VR helicity density and its application in turbomachinery tip leakage flows

Helicity is an important quantity that represents the topological interpretation of vortices;however,helicity is not a Galilean invariant.In this study,VR helicity density(HVR)is derived via taking the dot product of vorticity with the unit real eigen vector of the velocity gradient tensor when the complex eigenvalues exist.The analytical solution of HVR is derived to resolve it in a local pointwise manner,and the Galilean invariance of HVR is proved.Tip leakage flow structures in a direct numerical simulation of a tip leakage flow model and a delayed detached eddy simulation of a low-speed large-scale axial compressor rotor are extracted using helicity,eigen helicity density and HVR methods.Results show that the utilization of HVR permits the identification and accentuation of concentrated vortices.Vortices identified by HVR appear in more connective states.As in the case of helicity,the sign of HVR distinguishes between primary and secondary vortices,while eigen helicity density fails.The normalized HVR is superior to the normalized helicity density in locating the vortex axis,especially for the induced vortex structures.Hence,HVR is a strong candidate to replace the helicity density,especially when Galilean invariance is required.

Experimental study of flow field distribution over a generic cranked double delta wing

The flow fields over a generic cranked double delta wing were investigated. Pressure and velocity distributions were obtained using a Pitot tube and a hot wire anemometer. Two different leading edge shapes, namely ＂sharp＂ and ＂round＂, were applied to the wing. The wing had two sweep angles of 55° and 30°. The experiments were conducted in a closed circuit wind tunnel at velocity 20 m/s and angles of attack of 5°- 20° with the step of 5°. The Reynolds number of the model was about 2 - 105 according to the root chord. A dual vortex structure was formed above the wing surface. A pressure drop occurred at the vortex core and the root mean square of the measured velocity increased at the core of the vortices, reflecting the instability of the flow in that region. The magnitude of power spectral density increased strongly in spanwise direction and had the maximum value at the vortex core. By increasing the angle of attack, the pressure drop increased and the vortices became wider; the vortices moved inboard along the wing, and away from the surface; the flow separation was initiated from the outer portion of the wing and developed to its inner part. The vortices of the wing of the sharp leading edge were stronger than those of the round one.

Vortex Capturing Using PNS-WENO Schemes in Uniform and Non Uniform Mesh Formulations

High order approximations of the vortical flowfield and resulting aerodynamic coefficients of complex supersonic vortical flows,are computed using the Implicit Parabolized Navier-Stokes solver(IMPNS).Third and fifth order Weighted Essentially Non-oscillating(WENO)schemes for evenly spaced and for stretched structured meshes are employed for the approximate Riemann solution of the inviscid cross flow fluxes.An approximate Riemann solution is obtained using the Osher and Solomon solver and the one-equation Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model is modified for an improved strain-vorticity approximation.Results indicate that even on much coarser meshes the 5th order PNS-WENO-Spalart-Allmaras approach may achieve results that are superior to previously published full Navier-Stokes solutions that employ a two-equation RANS model but the additional computational demand of schemes for non-uniform grids,may not be justifiable for smoothly varying meshes.The proposed PNS-WENO scheme combination provides a novel approach that is fast,accurate and robust,and that can substantially reduce numerical dissipation and improve the resolution of the vortical structures.