Numerical computation and analysis of unsteady viscous flow around autonomous underwater vehicle with propellers based on sliding mesh

The flexible transmission shaft and wheel propeller are combined as the kinetic source equipment, which realizes the nmlti-motion modes of the autonomous underwater vehicle （AUV） such as vectored thruster and wheeled movement. In order to study the interactional principle between the hull and the wheel propellers while the AUV navigating in water, the computational fluid dynamics （CFD） method is used to simulate numerically the unsteady viscous flow around AUV with propellers by using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） equations, shear-stress transport （SST） k-w model and pressure with splitting of operators （PISO） algorithm based on sliding mesh. The hydrodynamic parameters of AUV with propellers such as resistance, pressure and velocity are got, which reflect well the real ambient flow field of AUV with propellers. Then, the semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations （SIMPLE） algorithm is used to compute the steady viscous flow field of AUV hull and propellers, respectively. The computational results agree well with the experimental data, which shows that the numerical method has good accuracy in the prediction of hydrodynamic performance. The interaction between AUV hull and wheel propellers is predicted qualitatively and quantitatively by comparing the hydrodynamic parameters such as resistance, pressure and velocity with those from integral computation and partial computation of the viscous flow around AUV with propellers, which provides an effective reference to the shady on noise and vibration of AUV hull and propellers in real environment. It also provides technical support for the design of new AUVs.

Numerical Simulation of Aerodynamic Interaction Effects in Coaxial Compound Helicopters

The so-called coaxial compound helicopter features two rigid coaxial rotors,and possesses high-speed capabilities.Nevertheless,the small separation of the coaxial rotors causes severe aerodynamic interactions,which require careful analysis.In the present work,the aerodynamic interaction between the various helicopter components is investigated by means of a numerical method considering both hover and forward flight conditions.While a sliding mesh method is used to deal with the rotating coaxial rotors,the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)equations are solved for the flow field.The Caradonna&Tung(CT)rotor and Harrington-2 coaxial rotor are considered to validate the numerical method.The results show that the aerodynamic interaction of the two rigid coaxial rotors significantly influences hover’s induced velocity and pressure distribution.In addition,the average thrust of an isolated coaxial rotor is smaller than that of the corresponding isolated single rotor.Compared with the isolated coaxial rotor,the existence of the fuselage results in an increment in the thrust of the rotors.Furthermore,these interactions between the components of the considered coaxial compound helicopter decay with an increase in the advance ratio.

Studies on Performance of Distributed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine under Building Turbulence

As a part of the new energy development trend,distributed power generation may fully utilize a variety of decentralized energy sources.Buildings close to the installation location,besides,may have a considerable impact on the wind turbines’operation.Using a combined vertical axis wind turbine with an S-shaped lift outer blade and-shaped drag inner blade,this paper investigates how a novel type of upstream wall interacts with the incident wind at various speeds,the influence region of the turbulent vortex,and performance variation.The results demonstrate that the building’s turbulence affects the wind’s horizontal and vertical direction,as well as its speed,in downstreamplaces.The wall’s effect on wind speed changing in the downstreamarea is thoroughly investigated.It turns out that while choosing an installation location,disturbing flow areas or low disturbing flow zones should be avoided to have the least impact on wind turbine performance.

CFD Simulation of Hydrodynamic Characteristics in Stirred Reactors Equipped with Standard Rushton or 45°-Upward PBT Impeller

The hydrodynamic characteristics generated by the standard Rushton or 45°-upward pitched-blade-turbine (PBT) impellers in a baffled reactor are numerically simulated for different off-bottom clearances (C= 1/3H and 1/2H) and agitator speeds (100, 150, 200, 250 and 300r·min^-1) by using FLUENT code (Version 5.4). The results are compared with the experimental and simulated data in the published papers and good agreement is observed. The shapes of the profile of mean velocities seem independent to the speed of agitators under the experimental conditions (100-300r·min^-1).

Numerical Simulation of Viscous Cavitating Flow Around A Ship Propeller

In the present study, cavitation and a ship propeller wake are reported by computed fluid dynamics based on viscous multiphase flow theory. Some recent validation results with a hybrid grid based on unsteady Navier-Stokes （N-S） and bubble dynamics equations are presented to predict velocity, pressure and vapor volume fraction in propeller wake in a uniform inflow. Numerical predictions of sheet cavitation, tip vortex cavitation and hub vortex cavitation are in agreement with the experimental data, same as numerical predictions of longitudinal and transversal evolution of the axial velocity. Blade and shaft rate frequency of propeller is well predicted by the computed results of pressure, and tip vortex is the most important to generate the pressure field within the near wake. The overall results indicate that the present approach is reliable for prediction of cavitation and propeller wake on the condition of uniform inflow.

Using RANS to Simulate the Interaction and overall Performance of Propellers and Rudders with Thrust Fins

The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method, along with the Fluent software package, was used to study the steady and unsteady interaction of propellers and rudders with additional thrust fins.The sliding mesh model was employed to simulate unsteady interactions between the blades, the rudder and the thrust fins.Based on the numerical results, the pressure distribution on the propeller and the efficiency of the fins were calculated as a function of the attack angle.The RANS results were compared with results calculated by the potential method.It was found that the results for the potential method and the RANS method have good consistency, but they yield maximum efficiencies for the fins, and thus corresponding attack angles, that are not identical.

Numerical Study on Influence of Key Parameters of Aerodynamic Characteristics of Shaftless Ducted Rotor

Shaftless ducted rotor(SDR)is a new type of ducted rotor system designed with ducted-rotor-motor integration,which is quite different from traditional ducted rotor(DR)in aerodynamic characteristics.The sliding mesh based on unstructured grid is used to simulate the aerodynamic characteristics of SDR and DR.Then,the effects of five key parameters,namely,the rotor disk height,the number of blades,the spread angle of the duct,the central hole radius and the ducted lip radius on the aerodynamic characteristics of the SDR are investigated.It is found that the same-sized SDR produces a larger total lift than the DR in hovering,but the lift proportion of its duct is reduced.In the forward flight,a large low-speed region is generated behind the SDR duct,and the reflux vortex in blade root above the advancing blade has the trend for inward diffusion.The rotor disk height has similar effects on SDR and DR.Increasing the number of blades can effectively increase the total lift of SDR,which also increases the lift proportion of duct.Increasing the spread angle of the duct will lead to the rotor lift coefficient decrease,reducing the central hole radius can increase the total lift,but the component lift coefficient decreases.Appropriately increasing the ducted lip radius can increase the total lift,which begins to decrease after reaching a certain value.

Analysis of the flow pattern and periodicity of gas–liquid–liquid three-phase flow in a countercurrent mixer-settler

In contrast to the concurrent mixer-settler,the interaction between the mixing and settling chambers have to be taken into account in the simulation of the countercurrent mixer-settler,and no work has been reported for this equipment.In this work,a three-phase flow model based on the Eulerian multiphase model,coupled with a sliding mesh model is proposed for a countercurrent mixer-settler.Based on this,the dispersed phase distribution,flow pattern,and pressure distribution are investigated,which can help to fill the gap in the operation mechanism.In addition,the velocity vector distribution at the phase port shows an intriguing phenomenon that two types of vectors with opposite directions are distributed on the left and right sides of the same plane,which indicates that the material exchange in the mixing and settling chambers is simultaneous.Analysis of this variation at this location by a fast Fourier transform(FFT)method reveals that it is mainly influenced by the mixing chamber and is consistent with the main period of the outlet flow fluctuations.Therefore,by monitoring the fluctuation of the outlet flow and then analyzing it by the FFT method,the state of the whole tank can be determined,which makes it promising for the design of control systems for countercurrent mixer-settlers.

Research on two-step throttle characteristics of double-rotation valve port for hydraulic servo joint

The hydraulic robot with large output torque is widely used in industry,however,its precision is not high.In order to solve this problem,this paper presents a new structure of rotary valve with double-rotation valve port,which can improve the two-step throttle characteristics of the valve port,reduce the cavitation phenomenon of the valve port,and increase the output accuracy of the hydraulic servo joint.Firstly,the internal flow field of the rotary valve is simulated by using the sliding grid technology of FLUENT software,and the changing rule of the throttle position in the working process of the structure is analyzed.Secondly,compared with the simulation results of rotary valve with single-rotation valve port,it is shown that the two-step throttle characteristics of the structure are less affected by the change of the opening of the rotary valve,and the cavitation index of the joint valve port is reduced.Finally,the influence of the rotation speed of the valve core,oil supply pressure and key dimension of valve core on throttle characteristics of rotary valve have been analyzed.

Numerical simulation of hull/propeller interaction of submarine in submergence and near surface conditions

Hull/propeller interaction is of great importance for powering performance prediction. The features of hull/propeller interaction of a submarine model with a high-skew five blade propeller in submergence and near surface conditions are numerically simulated. The effect of propeller rotation is simulated by the sliding mesh technique. Free surface is captured by the volume of fluid （VOF） method. Computed results including resistance, thrust, torque and self-propulsion factor are compared with experimental data. It shows fairly good agreement. The resistance and wave pattern of the model at different depths of submergence are computed. And the thrust, torque and self-propulsion factor of the model in submergence and near surface condition are compared to analyze the effect of free surface on self-propulsion performance. The results indicate that free surface has more influence on resistance than that on self-propulsion factors.

Investigation of the unstable flow phenomenon in a pump turbine

Instability of pump turbine with S-shaped curve is characterized by large fluctuations of rotational speed during the transient processes.For investigating this phenomenon,a numerical model based on the dynamic sliding mesh method(DSSM)is presented and used to numerically solve the 3D transient flow which is characterized by the variable rotation speed of runner.The method is validated by comparison with measured data for a load rejection process in a prototype pump turbine.The results show that the calculated rotation speed agrees well with the experimental data.Based on the validated model,simulations were performed for the runaway process using an artificially assumed operating condition under which the unstable rotation speed is expected to appear.The results confirm that the instability of runner rotational speed can be effectively captured with the proposed method.Presented results include the time history profiles of unit flow rate and unit rotating speed.The internal flow characteristics in a typical unstable period are discussed in detail and the mechanism of the unstable hydraulic phenomenon is explained.Overall,the results suggest that the method presented here can be a viable alternative to predict the dynamic characteristics of pump turbines during transient processes.

NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF CAVITATION PERFORMANCE OF SHIP PROPELLERS

The cavitation performance of propellers is studied based on viscous multiphase flow theories. With a hybrid grid based on Navier-Stokes （N-S） and bubble dynamics equations, some recent validation results are presented in this paper in the predictions of the thrust, the torque and the vapor volume fraction on the back side of propeller blade for a uniform inflow. The numerical predictions of the hydrodynamic performance and the sheet cavitation under several operating conditions for two propellers agree with the corresponding measured data in general. The thrust and the torque are plotted with respect to the advance rate and the cavitation number. The cavitation performance breakdown is closely related to the strong sheet cavitation around propellers. The models with parameters modified are shown to predict the propeller cavitation well.

Numerical investigation of the effect of rotation on cavitating flows over axisymmetric cavitators

The rotating axisymmetric cavitator is widely applied in underwater vehicles, and its rotational motion affects the cavita- ting flow over the cavitator. This study focuses on the effect of rotation on the flow structure in the cavity bubble. Unsteady 2-D/3-D numerical simulations of cavitating flows over axisymmetric cavitators are performed using the volume of fraction （VOF） method and the Sauer-Schnerr cavitation model. Firstly, the 2-D simulation of cavitating flow over a circular disk or a cone cavitator is carried out at various cavitation numbers （0.15, 0.175, 0.2, 0.225 and 0.25）. The simulated cavity lengths and drag coefficients are compared with the experimental data, the theoretical estimations and the published numerical results. Then the 3-D simulations of cavitating flows over the same axisymmetric cavitators with different rotating speeds are performed using the sliding mesh model （SMM）. The effect of rotation on the cavity shape and the internal flow structure is analyzed.

Numerical simulation on rolling characteristics of canard-controlled rockets with a free-spinning tail

Rolling characteristics of the canard-controlled rocket with a free-spinning tail are researched based on 3-dimensional Navier–Stokes(N–S)equations.The slide mesh technology of computational fluid dynamics is used to numerically simulate the flow field when tails rotate relative to the rocket body and research the varying pattern of roll moment coefficients of the whole rocket,tail,and canard with Mach number.The comparison between the computation results and a part of experimental data shows that the simulation method is accurate.The convergence criterion during the numerical simulation is put forward;the induced rotation speed of the free-spinning tail and the roll moment coefficient of the rocket under this rotation in actual flight when the canard deflects by 10◦for roll control are obtained and the reason for the free-spinning tail being able to eliminate roll coupling is analyzed.The research provides a reference for the configuration design of canard-controlled rockets with a free-spinning tail and the numerical simulation of their aerodynamic characteristics.

Lattice Boltzmann Approach for Local Reference Frames

In this paper we present a generalized lattice Boltzmann based approach for sliding-mesh local reference frame.This scheme exactly conserves hydrodynamic fluxes across local reference frame interface.The accuracy and robustness of our scheme are demonstrated by benchmark validations.