Effect of Pre-Swirling Flow on Performance and Flow Fields in Semi-Opened Axial Fan

In this study, we tried to improve the performance by giving a pre-swirling flow to the radial inflow that occurred in the semi-opened axial fan. In addition, the flow fields of rotor outlet were clarified experimentally, and the effect of pre-swirling flow was considered. The experiment was carried out using a performance test wind tunnel with a square cross section of 880 mm. Three types of casings were prepared, in which the blade tip protruded 0%, 20%, and 40% of the meridional chord length. They were called R25, R15, and R05, respectively, in the casing bellmouth model code. Guide blades for generating a pre-swirling flow were installed on the vertical wall surface of the casing. In addition, a vertical wall was installed 60% upstream of the meridional chord length as an obstacle to prevent axial inflow. The velocity fields of the rotor outlet were measured using a hot-wire anemometer. From the results, the pre-swirling flow did not significantly affect the fan performance. When there was no obstacles wall upstream, there was a partial increase in efficiency, but the difference was not so large. When there was an obstacle wall upstream, the efficiency increased overall in the case of R15, but in the case of R05, the efficiency increased only in the low flow rate region, and conversely decreased in the high flow rate region. By observing the blade outlet flow fields when the performance was improved, it was confirmed that the influence of the tip leakage vortex was weakened.

Computational Analysis of Mixing Guide Vane Effects on Performance of the Supersonic Ejector-Diffuser System

The flow field in the ejector-diffuser system and its optimal operation condition are hardly complicated due to the complicated turbulent mixing, compressibility effects and even flow unsteadiness which are generated inside the ejector- diffuser system. This paper aims at the improvement in ejector-diffuser system by focusing attention on entrainment ratio and pressure recovery. Several mixing guide vanes were installed at the inlet of the secondary stream for the purpose of the performance improvement of the ejector system. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method based on Fluent has been applied to simulate the supersonic flows and shock waves inside the ejector. A finite volume scheme and density-based solver with coupled scheme were applied in the computational process. Standard k-ω turbulent model, implicit formulations were used considering the accuracy and stability. Previous experimental results showed that more flow vortexes were generated and more vertical flow was introduced into the stream under a mixing guide vane influence. Besides these effects on the secondary stream, the mixing guide vane effects on the shock system of the primary stream were also investigated in this paper. Optimal analysis results of the mixing guide vane effects were also carried out in detail in terms of the positions, lengths and numbers to achieve the best operation condition. The comparison of ejector performance with and without the mixing guide vane was obtained. The ejector-diffuser system performance is discussed in terms of the entrainment ratio, pressure recovery as well as total pressure loss.

Comparison of One-Dimensional Analysis with Experiment for CO₂Two-Phase Nozzle Flow

The aim of this study is to investigate CO2 two-phase nozzle flow in terms of both experimental and analytical aspects for the optimum design of two-phase flow nozzle of CO2 two-phase flow ejector. In the experiment, it is measured that the temperature profile in the stream-wise direction of a divergent-convergent nozzle through which CO2 in the supercritical pressure condition is blown down into the atmosphere. In the analysis, a one-dimensional model which assumes steady, adiabatic, frictionless, and equilibrium is proposed. In the convergent part of the nozzle the flow is treated as single-phase flow of liquid, whereas in the divergent part the flow is treated as separated two-phase flow with saturated condition. The analytical results indicate that the temperature and the pressure decrease rapidly in the divergent part, and the void fraction increases immediately near the throat. Although this analysis is quite simple, the analytical results can follow the experimental results well within this study.

Design of Half-Ducted Axial Flow Fan Considering Radial Inflow and Outflow

Half-ducted fan and ducted fan have been designed and numerically analyzed for investigating the radial flow effect on the overall performance and the three dimensional flow field in design. Based on quasi-three dimensional flow theory, the meridional flow was calculated by adopting the radial balance equations, while the calculation of the blade to blade flow was obtained by 2D cascade data with the correction by a potential flow theory. Two types of axial flow fan were designed. One is the full ducted case as if it was in the straight pipe and another is the half-ducted case with the radial inflow and outflow. The previous experimental results of authors were used to decide the inclinations of both the inflow and outflow. And the circular arc blade with equal thickness was adopted. The numerical results indicate that both of the designed fans can reach the specified efficiency and also the efficiency surpasses more than 11%. Furthermore, the static pressure characteristic of half-ducted fan is much better than that of ducted fan. In comparison of the three dimensional internal flow of these two fans, the improvement of the flow angle at inlet and outlet, the distributions of velocity in the flow field and the pressure distributions on the blade surfaces can be achieved more successfully in accordance with the design intension on consideration of flow angle in design. The conclusion that half-ducted design with considering radial inflow and outflow is feasible and valid in comparison with ducted design for axial flow fans has been obtained at the end of the paper.

Numerical Study on the Effect of Unsteady Downstream Conditions on Hydrogen Gas Flow through a Critical Nozzle

A critical nozzle (sonic nozzle) is used to measure the mass flow rate of gas. It is well known that the coefficient of discharge of the flow in the nozzle is a single function of Reynolds number. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of unsteady downstream condition on hydrogen gas flow through a sonic nozzle, numerically. Navier-Stokes equations were solved numerically using 3rd-order MUSCL type TVD finite-difference scheme with a second-order fractional-step for time integration. A standard k-ε model was used as a turbulence model. The computational results showed that the discharge coefficients in case without pressure fluctuations were in good agreement with experimental results. Further, it was found that the pressure fluctuations tended to propagate upstream of nozzle throat with the decrease of Reynolds number and an increase of amplitude of pressure fluctuations.

MaI-Uniformity of Two-Phase Flow Distribution in Merged Pipe Distributor under Different Outlet Channel Length

Two-phase flow distributions in the merged pipe distributor have still remained mal-uniformity problem and the causes have not clearly discovered yet. Therefore, the enhancement study is needed, absolutely. The experimental was carried out upon the distributor constructed by acrylics resembling merged triple pipe, 8 mm in diameter of inlet channel and two set 5 mm in diameter of each outlet channel, set horizontally sideways. Three flow patterns were fed, i.e., bubble, slug and stratified flow, observed via high speed video camera. The pressure distribution was measured by series of U-tube water gauge manometer. The flow patterns, phase distribution and pressure drop were analyzed by CFD software, validated by experimental data and compared by existing correlation, analytically. The experiment is extended by modeling, in order to vary three inclinations of distributor： horizontally, 45° and vertically up-ward as well as to vary three outlet channel lengths with length ratio lc/dc： 3.2, 10 and 70. It was revealed that the two-phase flow distribution tends to be mal-uniform and to transform to different flow pattern in outlet channels. These are promoted by different： outlet channel length, feeding two-phase flow pattern in inlet distributor and inclination angle. The changing of flow pattern is driven by fluctuating velocity in both upper and lower outlet channel.

Experimental Study of Heat Transfer for a Rotating Cylinder Water Jet Impingement Quenching

Transient heat transfer has been experimentally investigated for subcooled water jet impingement quenching of a hot rotating stainless steel cylinder. Temperatures beneath the impinged surface were measured during quenching and used to estimate surface temperature and surface heat flux by using a developed numerical inverse solution of heat conduction. Heat flux reached its maximum value just after the WF （wetting front） （visible leading edge of boiling region） started moving from stagnation towards the circumferential region. WF moved in a non-uniform manner in angular direction on the hot rotating surface. With the increase of surface velocity, heat flux decreased. Higher surface velocity moved away the produced vapor bubbles and reduced the solid-liquid contact time which made it one-dimensional heat conduction from multi-dimensional, that reduced heat flux. The generated boiling curve from the estimated heat flux showed a reasonable agreement with existing studies. The surface maximum heat flux （maximum value in each cycle） distribution trend with radial position is entirely comparable with the static surface critical heat flux in literature. An explosive to a sheet like flow patterns were observed with the decrease of surface temperature. The flow patterns were followed by the intensity of sound during quenching.

A Study on the Half-Ducted Axial Flow Fan Designed by a Diagonal Flow Fan Design Method

A study on the half-ducted axial flow fan designed by a diagonal flow fan design method was conducted. The rotor which has NACA65 blades was designed, calculated numerically, manufactured and tested experimentally. As a result of the design and CFD, the meridional streamline and three distributions of the meridional, tangential and radial velocity at inlet and outlet go well as designed values of the half ducted fan. On the other hand, the values of the meridional velocity and the tangential velocity are little smaller than the design values at the hub side of the radial distribution. The improvement of the design is prospected for this point, that is, the approach between the design value and the actual flow is prospected if the tangential velocity is assigned small at hub and is assigned large at the tip so as to accord the actual flow in the vortex design of the rotor blade. Then the designed half-ducted rotor with four NACA65 blades was fabricated by a three-dimensional printer and tested in the wind tunnel in order to validate the half-ducted design method. For the comparison between the design values and the experimental values at the design flow rate coefficient of φ = 0.264, the experimental values of the pressure rise coefficient ψ and the efficiency η are rather small than the design values, while the experimental value of the torque coefficient τ is almost the same as the design value. However, the experimental value of approximately 0.45 of the maximum efficiency is comparably large value considering for the limitation of the situation of half-ducted. For the comparison between the experimental values and the CFD values at φ = 0.264, the CFD values are almost the same values as the experimental values for all the values of ψ, τ and η. In addition, the tendencies of the CFD values when the flow rate coefficient changes are almost similar as the experimental tendencies, though the flow rate coefficient for the CFD values when ψ or η takes the peak value shifts toward larger flow rate. For the case at rotor outlet at φ = 0.264, two values of the meridional velocity and the tangential velocity are larger than the design values at the tip side of the radial distribution.

A Counter-Rotating Impulse Turbine for Wave Energy Conversion

Wave energy can be converted to the electrical energy by using a wave energy converter. The wave energy converter with oscillating water column (OWC) is one of the most promising devices because of its simple structure and easy maintenance. In this device, an oscillating water column due to the wave motion is used to drive an air column. An air turbine is used to convert the pneumatic energy of this bi-directional airflow into the mechanical energy. The counter-rotating impulse turbine for wave energy conversion has been proposed and tested so far, and the average efficiency has been shown to about 0.3. On the contrary, in another offshore experiment, it has been reported that the power generation efficiency of this turbine is larger than Wells turbine in case of small waves. However, there is a scarcity of the detailed characteristics data of counter-rotating impulse turbine. In a previous study, the authors investigated the effect of rotor blade solidity and setting angle of guide vane on the performance of this turbine, and they clarified that the efficiency of this turbine is higher than impulse turbine with single rotor in the range of high flow coefficients. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of rotor blade profile on the turbine performance by using the computation fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis. The inner and outer angles of turbine rotor blade are changed in the range of 50° to 70°. The commercial CFD software of SCRYU/Tetra of Cradle Co. Ltd. was used in the present work. The Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations were used as the governing equations and the low Reynold’s number SST k-ω model was used to predict the turbulent stresses. As a result, it was found that the inner angle of γ = 70° and the outer angle of γ = 60° of the turbine rotor blades can give the best turbine efficiency and it shows the efficiency close to the impulse turbine with single rotor, even in the range of low flow coefficients.

A Computational Study of Thrust Vectoring Control Using Dual Throat Nozzle

Dual throat nozzle (DTN) is fast becoming a popular technique for thrust vectoring. The DTN is designed with two throats, an upstream minimum and a downstream minimum at the nozzle exit, with a cavity in between the upstream throat and exit. In the present study, a computational work has been carried out to analyze the performance of a dual throat nozzle at various mass flow rates of secondary flow and nozzle pressure ratios (NPR). Two-dimensional, steady, compressible Navier-Stokes equations were solved using a fully implicit finite volume scheme. The present computational results were validated with available experimental data. Based on the present results, the control effectiveness of thrust-vectoring is discussed in terms of the thrust coefficient and the coefficient of discharge.

Optimization Study of a Coanda Ejector

The Coanda effect has long been employed in the aerospace applications to improve the performances of various devices. This effect is the ability of a flow to follow a curved contour without separation and has well been utilized in ejectors where a high speed jet of fluid emerges from a nozzle in the ejector body, follows a curved surface and drags the secondary flow into the ejector. In Coanda ejectors, the secondary flow is dragged in the ejector due to the primary flow momentum. The transfer of momentum from the primary flow to the secondary flow takes place through turbulent mixing and viscous effects. The secondary flow is then dragged by turbulent shear force of the ejector while being mixed with the primary flow by the persistence of a large turbulent intensity throughout the ejector. The performance of a Coanda ejector is studied mainly based on how well it drags the secondary flow and the amount of mixing between the two flows at the ejector exit. The aim of the present study is to investigate the influence of various geometric parameters and pressure ratios on the Coanda ejector performance. The effect of various factors, such as, the pressure ratio, primary nozzle and ejector configurations on the system performance has been evaluated based on a performance parameter defined elsewhere. The performance of the Coanda ejector strongly depends on the primary nozzle configuration and the pressure ratio. The mixing layer growth plays a major role in optimizing the performance of the Coanda ejector as it decides the ratio of secondary mass flow rate to primary mass flow rate and the mixing length.

Effects of Heterogeneous Condensation on the Transonic Flow Fields on a Bump Model

In the present study, effect of the heterogeneous condensation on the characteristics of shock wave generated on the bump model in the transonic flow field was investigated numerically. As a result, it was found that, for the flow field with steady adiabatic shock wave on the bump model, the condensation with heterogeneous nucleation has a strong effect on the whole flow field, and it reduced the strength of the shock. Furthermore, the total pressure loss was dependent on the concentration of the solid particles per unit volume.

Numerical Analysis of Chevron Nozzle Effects on Performance of the Supersonic Ejector-Diffuser System

The supersonic nozzle is the most important device of an ejector-diffuser system.The best operation condition and optimal structure of supersonic nozzle are hardly known due to the complicated turbulent mixing,compressibility effects and even flow unsteadiness which are generated around the nozzle extent.In the present study,the primary stream nozzle was redesigned using convergent nozzle to activate the shear actions between the primary and secondary streams,by means of longitudinal vortices generated between the Chevron lobes.Exactly same geometrical model of ejector-diffuser system was created to validate the results of experimental data.The operation characteristics of the ejector system were compared between Chevron nozzle and conventional convergent nozzle for the primary stream.A CFD method has been applied to simulate the supersonic flows and shock waves inside the ejector.It is observed that the flow structure and shock system were changed and primary numerical analysis results show that the Chevron nozzle achieve a positive effect on the supersonic ejector-diffuser system performance.The ejector with Chevron nozzle can entrain more secondary stream with less primary stream mass flow rate.

Influence of Tip End-plate on Noise of Small Axial Fan

In this work, tip end-plate is used to improve the noise performance of small axial fans. Both numerical simulations and experimental methods were adopted to study the fluid flow and noise level of axial fans. Four modified models and the prototype are simulated. Influences of tip end-plate on static characteristics, internal flow field and noise of small axial fans are analyzed. The results show that on basis of the prototype, the model with the tip end-plate of 2 mm width and changed length achieved best noise performance. The overall sound pressure level of the model with the tip end-plate of 2 mm width and changed length is 2.4 dB less than that of the prototype at the monitoring point in specified far field. It is found that the mechanism of noise reduction is due to the decrease of vorticity variation on the surface of blades caused by the tip end-plate. Compared with the prototype, the static pressure of the model with the tip end-plate of 2 mm width and changed length at design flow rate decreases by 2 Pa and the efficiency decreases by 0.8%. It is concluded that the method of adding tip end-plate to impeller blades has a positive influence on reducing noise, but it may diminish the static characteristics of small axial fan to some extent. © 2017, Science Press, Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, CAS and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

The Effect of Diffuser Angle on the Discharge Coefficient of a Miniature Critical Nozzle

Many researches on critical nozzles have been performed to accurately measure the mass flow rate of gas flow,and to standardize the performance as a flow meter.Recently,much interest is being paid on the measurement of very small mass flow rate in industry fields such as MEMS applications.However,the design and performance data of the critical nozzles obtained so far have been applied mainly to the critical nozzles with comparatively large diameters,and the works available on miniature critical nozzles are lacking.In the present study,a computational fluid dynamics method has been applied to investigate the influence of the diffuser angle on discharge coefficient of the miniature critical nozzles.In computations,the throat diameter of critical nozzle is varied from 0.2 mm to 5.0 mm and the diffuser angle is changed from 2 deg to 8 deg.The computational results are validated with some experimental data available.The results show that the present computational results predict appropriately the discharge coefficient of the gas flows through miniature critical nozzles.It is known that the discharge coefficient is considerably influenced by the diffuser angle,as the throat diameter of nozzle becomes small below a certain value.This implies that the miniature critical nozzles should be carefully designed.

Computational Analysis of a Variable Ejector Flow

The present study addresses a variable ejector which can improve the ejector efficiency and control the re-circulation ratio under a fixed operating pressure ratio. The variable ejector is a facility to obtain specific recirculation ratio under a given operating pressure ratio by varying the ejector throat area ratio. The numerical simulations are carried out to provide an understanding of the flow characteristics inside the variable ejector. The sonic and supersonic nozzles are adopted as primary driving nozzles in the ejector system, and a movable cone cylinder, inserted into a conventional ejector-diffuser system, is used to change the ejector throat area ratio. The numerical simulations are based on a fully implicit finite volume scheme of the compressible, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The results show that the variable ejector can control the recirculation ratio at a fixed operating pressure ratio.

Effect of Inlet Guide Vanes on the Performance of Small Axial Flow Fan

Effects of the inlet guide vanes on the static characteristics, aerodynamic noise and internal flow characteristics of a small axial flow fan are studied in this work. The inlet guide vanes with different outlet angle are designed, which are mounted on the casing and located at the upstream of the impeller of the prototype fan. Both steady and unsteady flow simulations arc performed. The steady flow is simulated by the calculations of Navier-Stokes equa- tions coupled with RNG k-epsilon turbulence model, while the unsteady flow is computed with large eddy simu- lation. According to the theoretical analysis, the inlet guide vanes with outlet angle of 60° are regarded as the op- timal inlet guide vanes. The static characteristic experiment is carried out in a standard test rig and the aerody- namic noise is tested in a semi-anechoic room. Then, performances of the fan with optimal inlet guide vanes are compared with those of the prototype fan. The results show that there is reasonable agreement between the simu- lation results and the experimental data. It is found that the static characteristics of small axial flow fan is im- proved obviously after installing the optimal inlet guide vanes. Meanwhile, the optimal inlet guide vanes have effect on reducing noise at the near field, but have little effect on the noise at the far field.

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 Rey- nolds number 40〈 Re 〈200 and various rotation rate 8i. 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 in- creases, 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.

Natures of Rotating Stall Cell in a Diagonal Flow Fan

In order to clarify the natures of a rotating stall cell, the experimental investigation was carried out in a high specific-speed diagonal flow fan. The pressure field on the casing wall and the velocity fields at the rotor inlet and outlet were measured under rotating stall condition with a fast response pressure transducer and a single slant hot-wire probe, respectively. The data were processed using the “Double Phase-Locked Averaging (DPLA)”technique, which enabled to obtain the unsteady flow field with a rotating stall cell in the relative co-ordinate system fixed to the rotor. As a result, the structure and behavior of the rotating stall cell in a high specific-speed diagonal flow fan were shown.

Characteristics of the Mach Disk in the Underexpanded Jet in which the Back Pressure Continuously Changes with Time

When the high-pressure gas is exhausted to the vacuum chamber from the nozzle,the underexpanded supersonic jet contained with the Mach disk is generally formed.The eventual purpose of this study is to clarify the unsteady phenomenon of the underexpanded free jet when the back pressure continuously changes with time.The characteristic of the Mach disk has been clarified in consideration of the diameter and position of it by the numerical analysis in this paper.The sonic jet of the exit Mach number Me=1 is assumed and the axisymmetric conservational equation is solved by the TVD method in the numerical calculation.The diameter and position of the Mach disk differs with the results of a steady jet and the influence on the continuously changing of the back pressure is evidenced from the comparison with the case of steady supersonic jet.