A multidisciplinary optimization to simultaneously enhance the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance of an axial-flow fan was performed. Flow analysis through the axial-flow fan was conducted by solving three-dimensional steady and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with the shear-stress transport turbulence model. Starting with the results for the unsteady flow, aeroacoustic analysis was performed by solving the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings equations. A single-objective optimization for high-efficiency design was carried out before the multi-objective optimization. The single-objective optimization was conducted using a weighted average surrogate model with five design variables defining the hub-to-tip ratio, hubcap installation distance, hubcap ratio, and angle distributions at the midspan and blade tip. The objective function (i.e., the efficiency) was evaluated at the design points, sampled by Latin hypercube sampling in the design space, to construct the surrogate model. Then, multi-ob...
Urban wind turbines are recommended for installation on a building roof-top to capture more wind energy. It is critical to decide an exact location for the wind turbine installation on the roof-top area. In this paper a joint probability density function of wind speed and direction is proposed as a statistical model for wind distribution, and a CFD approach is taken to predict the wind acceleration effect by the geometry of the building. Singly Truncated Normal Weibull (TNW) PDF mixture (TNW-PDF) is used as the wind speed distribution function, and von Mises mixture distribution is utilized for the wind direction distribution. These two functions are jointly tested to accurately describe the wind database. The method proposed by Johnson and Wehrly is used to obtain angular-linear distributions for this purpose. The inevitable acceleration and secondary effects of building's roof-top upon the wind distribution is assessed quantitatively by means of the CFD technique. The CFD simulation provides time-averaged wind speeds of various directions with their calculated probabilities at a specific location over the roof top. Thereby the micrositing method is suggested for determination of optimal location for the installation of small wind turbine in the urban roof-top environment.
This paper presents a systematic procedure for three-dimensional noise analysis of an axial-flow fan by using computational aero-acoustics based on Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation. Flow-fields of a basic fan model are simulated by solvingBRthree-dimensional, unsteady, Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations using the commercial code ANSYS CFX 11.0. Starting with steady flow results, unsteady flow analysis is performed to extract the fluctuating pressures in the time domain at specifiedBRlocal points on the blade surface of the axial flow fan. The perturbed density wave by rotating blades reaches at the observer position, which is simulated by an in-house noise prediction software based on Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equation. TheBRdetailed far-field noise signatures from the axial-flow fan are analyzed in terms of source types, field characteristics, and interpolation schemes.
Fluctuating wall pressures were measured using an array of 16 piezoelectric transducers beneath a tutbulent boundary layer. The coating used in this experiment was an open-cell, methane-type foam with a porosity of approximately 50 ppi. The ultimate objective of the coating is to provide a mechanical filter to reduce the wall pressure fluctuations. The boundary layer on the flat plate was measured by using a hot wire probe, and the CPM method was used to determine the skin friction coefficient. The wall pressure autospectra and streamwise wavenumber-frequency spectra were compared to assess the attenuation of the wall pressure field by the coating. The coating is shown to attenuate the convective wall pressure energy. However, the relatively rough surface of the coating in this investigation resulted in a higher mean wall shear stress, thicker boundary layer, and higher low-frequency wall pressure spectral levels compared to a smooth wall.
The coupling between the emitted energy and the acoustic energy in a thermal system, e.g. combustor, may result in system instability accompanying severe vibration. In this study, the limit curve for thermo-acoustic instability is numerically obtained by using the CFD-CAA combined method. The response function for pulsating release of heat in the Rijke tube and the distribution of mean density in the tube are computed accurately by the CFD analysis and used as inputs to CAA predictions. To verify the accuracy of the prediction method, the thermo-acoustics inside the horizontal, one meter long Rijke tube of square cross-section, which has the heating part at the location of one quarter length, is simulated. The predicted instability curve agrees well with the experimental one except the low flow-rate region of Re-Do < 1.
This paper presents a procedure for the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of a sirocco fan. For the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic analyses of the sirocco fan, three-dimensional steady and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved with a shear stress transport turbulence model for turbulence closure. The flow analyses were performed on a hexahedral grid using a finite-volume solver. The validation of the numerical results is performed by comparing with experimental data for the pressure, efficiency and power. The internal flow analyses of the sirocco fan are performed to understand the unstable flow phenomenon on the casing for the wall pressure and internal flow characteristics at each position. It was found that fluctuation of pressure and locally concentrated noise source are observed near the cut-off and expansion regions of the casing.
Axial fans for an air-conditioning unit are designed to equip the system with an expected flow-rate and low noise level by applying the blade design method of multi-sectioning and local camber generation. In this study, the distributions of chord length, stagger angle, and camber angle are globally and locally determined for the given specific speed, which is considered to be relatively high. The mock-up fans are observed to satisfy the aerodynamic performance and the noise level for the system simultaneously and discussed in terms of local flow patterns related to the emitted noise.
Laminar flows in which mixing and chemical reactions take place between parallel streams of reactive species are studied numerically. The governing equations for laminar flows are from two-dimensional compressible boundary-layer equations. The relevant chemistry is a finite rate single step irreversible reaction with Arrhenius kinetics. Ignition, premixed flame, and diffusion flame regimes are found to exist in the laminar reacting mixing layer at high activation energy. At high Mach numbers, ignition occurs earlier due to the higher temperatures in the unburnt gas. In diffusion regimes, property variations affect the laminar profiles considerably and, thus, need to be included when there are large temperature differences. The maximum temperature of a laminar reacting mixing layer is in the almost linear relationship with the adiabatic flame temperature at low heat release, but is only weakly linearly-correlated at high heat release.
The piezoelectric bimorph film, which, as an actuator, can generate more effective displacement than the usual PVDF film, is used to control the turbulent boundary-layer flow. The change of wall pressures inside the turbulent boundary layer is observed by using the multi-channel microphone array flush-mounted on the surface when actuation at the non-dimensional frequency f b + =0.008 and 0.028 is applied to the turbulent boundary layer. The wall pressure characteristics by the actuation to produce local displacement are more dominantly influenced by the size of the actuator module than the actuation frequency. The movement of large-scale turbulent structures to the upper layer is found to be the main mechanism of the reduction in the wallpressure energy spectrum when the 700v/uτ-long bimorph film is periodically actuated at the non-dimensional frequency f b + =0.008 and 0.028. The biomorph actuator is triggered with the time delay for the active forcing at a single frequency when a 1/8″ pressuretype, pin-holed microphone sensor detects the large-amplitude pressure event by the turbulent spot. The wall-pressure energy in the late-transitional boundary layer is partially reduced near the convection wavenumber by the open-loop control based on the large amplitude event.
The instability curve of a Rijke tube system was obtained accurately by following different paths of heat power and flow-rate for three regions and by defining its locus from the criterion based on the measured sound pressure levels. The unstable limits in the region of flow-rate lower than that at the minimal power are compared with previous data. To observe the effect of turbulence on the unstable limits, inflow turbulence was introduced by placing a bundle of circular cylinders upstream of the heating part (50 < Re-d < 700). The large-amplitude inflow fluctuation may delay the transition of the chamber acoustic mode to the unstable zone even at a sufficient power.
Effect of grid resolution on the statistics of passive scalar in a complex shear layer was investigated using a direct numerical simulation technique. The grid resolution in the shear layer which was generated from the interaction of main and injected streams strongly influences the subsequent evolution of the passive scalar. Dissipation, integral length-scale, skewness and flatness factors of the passive scalar are sensitive to the numerical resolution away from the wall where coherent structures grow very rapidly.
The linear instability of reacting shear flow is analyzed with special emphasis on the effects of the heat release and variable transport properties. Both analytic profiles and laminar solutions of the boundary-layer equations are used as base flows. The growth rates of the instabilities are sensitive to the laminar profiles, differing by more than a factor of 2 according to which profile is used. Thus, it is important to base the analysis on accurate laminar profiles. Accounting for variable transport properties also changes the mean profiles considerably, and so including them in the computation of the laminar profiles is equally important. At larger heat release, two modes that are stronger in the outer part of the shear layer have the highest growth rates; they also have shorter wavelengths than the center mode.
Effect of filter size of dynamic mixed model combined with a box filter on the prediction of passive scalar field has been investigated in complex flow. Unlike in the simple channel flow, the result shows that the model performance depends on the ratio of test to grid filter widths.
Direct numerical simulation database of an axial turbulent boundary layer is used to compute frequency and wave number spectra of the wall shear-stress fluctuations in a low-Reynolds number axial turbulent boundary layer. One-dimensional and two-dimensional power spectra of flow variables are calculated and compared. At low wave numbers and frequencies, the power of streamwise shear stress is larger than that of spanwise shear stress, while the powers of both stresses are almost the same at high wave numbers and frequencies. The frequency/streamwise wave number spectra of the wall flow variables show that large-scale fluctuations to the rms value is largest for the streamwise shear stress, while that of small-scale fluctuations to the rms value is largest for pressure. In the two-point auto-correlations, negative correlation occurs in streamwise separations for pressure, and in spanwise correlation for both shear stresses.
The losses at off-design points from a compressor cascade occur due to the deviation from a design incidence angle at the inlet of the cascade. The self-noise from the blade cascade at off-design points comes from a separated boundary layer and vortex sheddings. If the incidence angle to the cascade increases, stalling in blades may occur and the noise level increases significantly. This study applied Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) using deductive and deductive dynamic SGS models to low Mach-number, turbulent flow with each incidence angle to the cascade ranging from −40° to +20°, and compared numerical predictions with measured data. It was observed that the oscillating separation bubbles attached to the suction surface do not modify wake flows dynamically for cases of negative incidence angles. However, an incidence angle greater than 8° caused a separated vortex near the leading edge to be shed downstream and created stalling. The computed performance parameters such as drag coefficient and total pressure loss coefficient showed good agreement with experimental results. Noise from the cascade of the compressor is summarized as sound generated by a structure interacting with unsteady, turbulent flows. The hybrid method using acoustic analogy was observed to closely predict the measured overall sound powers and directivity patterns at design and off-design points of blade cascade.
The BEM is a highly efficient method in the sense of economical computation. However, boundary integration is not easy for the complex geometry and moving surface, e.g. a rotating blade. Thus, Kirchhoff surface is designed in an effort to overcome the difficulty resulting from complex boundary conditions. A Kirchhoff surface is a fictitious surface which envelopes acoustic sources of main concern. Acoustic sources may be distributed on each Kirchhoff surface element according to their acoustic characteristics. In this study, an axial fan is assumed to have unsteady loading noise as a dominant source. Dipole sources can be modeled to solve the FW-H equation. Acoustic field is then computed by determining Kirchhoff surface on which near-field is implemented, to analyze the effect of Kirchhoff surface on it. The optimal shape and the location of Kirchhoff surface are discussed by comparing with experimental data acquired in an anechoic chamber.
The onset of cavitation causes head and efficiency of a main pump to be reduced significantly And generates vibration and noise. In order to avoid these phenomena, the inlet of the pump is fitted with a special rotor called an inducer, which can operate satisfactorily with extensive cavitation. The motivation of this study is to find out cavitation modes from the inducer inlet pressure signals and event characteristics from outlet ones at various operating conditions. The cavitation modes are analyzed by using a cross-spectral density of fluctuating pressures at the inducer inlet. The time-frequency characteristics of wall pressures downstream of the inducer are presented in terms of event frequency, its duration time, and number of events by using the Choi-Williams distribution.
Various experimental data, including mixing areas, cross correlation factors, surface flow patterns on nozzle walls, and far field noise spectra, was used to draw a noise control mechanism in a supersonic jet. In the underexpanded case, mixing of the jet air with ambient air was significantly enhanced as presented before, and mixing noise was also dramatically reduced. Screech tones, in the overexpanded case, were effectively suppressed by trailing edge modifications, although mixing enhancement was not noticeable. From mixing and noise performance of nozzles with modified trailing edges, enhancing mixing through streamwise vortices seems an effective way to reduce mixing noise in the underexpanded flow regime. However, screech tones in the overexpanded flow regime is well controlled or suppressed by making shock cells and/or spanwise large scale structures irregular and/or less organized by a proper selection of trailing edges. The noise field in the overexpanded flow regime was greatly affected by the symmetricity of the nozzle exit geometry. In the underexpanded flow regime, the effects of the symmetricity of the nozzle exit on mixing were negligible.
Offshore subsea pipelines must be stable against external loadings, which are mostly due to waves and currents. To determine the stability of a subsea pipeline on the seabed, the Morrison equation has been applied with prediction of inertia and drag forces. When the pipeline is placed in a trench, the force acting on it is reduced considerably. Therefore, to consider the stability of a pipeline in a trench, one must employ reduction factors. To investigate the stability of various trenches, we numerically simulated flows over various trenches and compared them with experimental data from PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) measurements. The present results were produced at Reynolds numbers ranging from 6×10 3 to 3×10 5 based on the diameter of the cylinder. Quasi-periodic flow patterns computed by large-eddy simulation were compared with experimental data in terms of mean flow characteristics for typical trench configurations (W/H=1 and H/D=3, 4). The stability for various trench conditions was addressed in terms of mean amplitudes of oscillating lift and drag, and the reduction factor for each case was suggested for pipeline design.