Modern computational science permits the accurate solution of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) on overlapping computational domains, known as an overset approach. The complex grid interconnectivity inherent in the overset method can introduce errors in the solution through “orphan” points, i.e., grid points for which reliable solution donor points cannot be located. For this reason, a variety of data transfer strategies based on scattered data interpolation techniques have been assessed with application to both overset and hybrid methodologies. Scattered data approaches are attractive because they are decoupled from solver type and topology, and may be readily applied within existing methodologies. In addition to standard radial basis function (RBF) interpolation, a novel steered radial basis function (SRBF) interpolation technique has been developed to introduce data adaptivity into the data transfer algorithm. All techniques were assessed by interpolating both continuous and discontinuous analytical test functions. For discontinuous functions, SRBF interpolation was able to maintain solution gradients with the steering technique being the scattered-data analog of a slope limiter. In comparison with linear mappings, the higher-order approaches were able to more accurately preserve flow physics for arbitrary grid configurations. Overset validation test cases included an inviscid convecting vortex, a shock tube, and a turbulent ship airwake. These were studied within unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations to determine quantitative and qualitative improvements when applying RBF interpolation over current methods. The convecting vortex was also analyzed on a grid configuration which contained orphan points under the state-of-the-art overset paradigm. This was successfully solved by the RBF-based algorithm, which effectively eliminated orphans by enabling high-order extrapolation. Order-of-magnitude reductions in error compared to the exact vortex solution were observed. In addition, transient conservation errors that persisted in the original overset methodology were eliminated by the RBF approach. To assess the effect of advanced mapping techniques on the fidelity of a moving grid simulation, RBF interpolation was applied to a hybrid simulation of an isolated wind turbine rotor. The resulting blade pressure distributions were comparable to a rotor simulation with refined near-body grids.

The staged combustion aft-injected hybrid (SCAIH) rocket motor is a promising design for the future of hybrid rocket propulsion. Advances in computational fluid dynamics and scientific computing have made computational modelling an effective tool in design and development. The focus of this thesis is the numerical modelling of the SCAIH rocket motor in a turbulent combustion, high-speed, reactive flow accounting for solid soot transport and radiative heat transfer. The SCAIH motor has a shear coaxial injector with liquid oxygen injected centrally at sub-critical conditions: 150K, 150m/s (Mach≈0.9), and a gas-generator gas-solid mixture of one-third carbon soot by mass injected in the annual opening at 1175K, and 460m/s (Mach≈0.6). Flow conditions in the near injector region and the flame anchoring mechanism are of particular interest. Overall, the flow is shown to exhibit instabilities and the flame is shown to anchor directly on the injector faceplate with temperatures in excess of 2700K.

In the present work, the breakage of wastewater particles in orifice flow is investigated through numerical simulations. Using maximum strain rate along particle paths as the breakage criterion, breakage is predicted using computational fluid dynamics. The numerical simulations confirm that nominal orifice strain rate cannot explain the higher particle breakage in single-orifice systems compared to that of multi-orifice systems, instead particle breakage was found to correlate well with the maximum strain rates in the system. On the issue of effect of initial particle location on breakage, numerical modeling shows that particles travelling along the centerline are suspected to break less than those travelling near the wall. However, experiments designed to study the breakage of particles injected at various radial locations proved inconclusive. Finally, results suggest that while single orifice systems are ideal for strong particles, multi-orifice systems may be more effective in breaking weak particles.

The staged combustion aft-injected hybrid (SCAIH) rocket motor is a promising design for the future of hybrid rocket propulsion. Advances in computational fluid dynamics and scientific computing have made computational modelling an effective tool in design and development. The focus of this thesis is the numerical modelling of the SCAIH rocket motor in a turbulent combustion, high-speed, reactive flow accounting for solid soot transport and radiative heat transfer. The SCAIH motor has a shear coaxial injector with liquid oxygen injected centrally at sub-critical conditions: 150K, 150m/s (Mach≈0.9), and a gas-generator gas-solid mixture of one-third carbon soot by mass injected in the annual opening at 1175K, and 460m/s (Mach≈0.6). Flow conditions in the near injector region and the flame anchoring mechanism are of particular interest. Overall, the flow is shown to exhibit instabilities and the flame is shown to anchor directly on the injector faceplate with temperatures in excess of 2700K.

In the present work, the breakage of wastewater particles in orifice flow is investigated through numerical simulations. Using maximum strain rate along particle paths as the breakage criterion, breakage is predicted using computational fluid dynamics. The numerical simulations confirm that nominal orifice strain rate cannot explain the higher particle breakage in single-orifice systems compared to that of multi-orifice systems, instead particle breakage was found to correlate well with the maximum strain rates in the system. On the issue of effect of initial particle location on breakage, numerical modeling shows that particles travelling along the centerline are suspected to break less than those travelling near the wall. However, experiments designed to study the breakage of particles injected at various radial locations proved inconclusive. Finally, results suggest that while single orifice systems are ideal for strong particles, multi-orifice systems may be more effective in breaking weak particles.

In the present work, the processes of steady combustion and autoignition of hydrogen are investigated using the Conditional Moment Closure (CMC) model with a Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. A study of the effects on the flowfield of changing turbulence model constants, specifically the turbulent Schmidt number, Sct, and C epsilon 1 of the k − epsilon model, are investigated. The effects of two different mixing models are explored: the AMC model, which is commonly used in CMC implementations, and a model based on the assumption of inhomogeneous turbulence. The background equations required for implementation of the CMC model are presented, and all relevant closures are discussed. The numerical implementation of the CMC model, in addition to other techniques aimed at reducing computational expense of the CMC calculations, are provided. The CMC equation is discretised using finite volume (FV) method. The CFD and CMC calculations are fully coupled, allowing for simulations of steady flames or flame development after the occurrence of autoignition. Through testing of a steady jet flame, it is observed that the flowfield calculations follow typical k − epsilon model trends, with an overprediction of spreading and an underprediction of penetration. The CMC calculations are observed to perform well, providing good agreement with experimental measurements. Autoignition simulations are conducted for 3 different cases of turbulence constants and 7 different coflow temperatures to determine the final effect on the steady flowfield. In comparison to the standard constants, reduction of Sct results in a reduction of the centreline mixing intensity within the flowfield and a corresponding reduction of ignition length, while reducing C 1 results in an increase of centreline mixing intensity and an increase in the ignition length. All scenarios tested result in an underprediction of ignition length in comparison to experimental results; however, good agreement with the experimental trends is achieved. At low coflow temperatures, the effects of mixing intensity within the flowfield are seen to have the largest influence on ignition length, while at high coflow temperatures, the chemical source term in the CMC equation increases in magnitude, resulting in very little difference between predictions for different sets of turbulence constants. The inhomogeneous mixing model is compared using the standard turbulence constants. A reduction of ignition lengths in comparison to the AMC model is observed. In steady state simulation of the autoigniting flow, the inhomogeneous model is observed to predict both lifted flames and fully anchored flames, depending on coflow temperature.

A theoretical study on the hydrodynamics of mixing processes in stirred tanks is described. The primary objective of this study is to investigate flow field and power consumption generated by the six blades Rushton turbine impeller in baffled, flat-bottom cylindrical tank both at laminar and turbulent flow regime both qualitatively and quantitatively. Experimental techniques are expensive and time consuming in characterizing mixing processes. For these reasons, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been considered as an alternative method. In this study, the velocity field and power requirement are obtained using FASTEST, which is a CFD package. It employs a fully conservative second order finite volume method for the solution of Navier-Stokes equations. The inherently time-dependent geometry of stirred vessel is simulated by a multiple frame of reference approach. The flow field obtained numerically agrees well with those published experimental measurements. It is shown that Rushton turbine impeller creates predominantly radial jet flow pattern and produces two main recirculation flows one above and the other below the impeller plane. Throughout the tank impeller plane dimensionless radial velocity is not affected significantly by the increasing impeller speed and almost decreases linearly with increase in radial distance. Effect of the baffling on the radial and tangential velocities is also investigated. It is seen that tangential velocity is larger than radial velocity at the same radial position in unbaffled system. An overall impeller performance characteristic like power number is also found to be in agreement with the published experimental data. Also power number is mainly affected by the baffle length and increase with increase in baffle length. It is concluded that multiple frame of reference approach is suitable for the prediction of flow pattern and power number in stirred tank.

Novel sequential and parallel computational fluid dynamic (CFD) codes based on method of lines (MOL) approach were developed for the numerical simulation of multi-component reacting flows using detailed transport and thermodynamic models. Both codes were applied to the prediction of a confined axisymmetric laminar co-flowing methane-air diffusion flame for which experimental data were available in the literature. Flame-sheet model for infinite-rate chemistry and one-, two-, and five- and ten-step reduced finite-rate reaction mechanisms were employed for methane-air combustion sub-model. A second-order high-resolution total variation diminishing (TVD) scheme based on Lagrange interpolation polynomial was proposed in order to alleviate spurious oscillations encountered in time evolution of flame propagation. Steady-state velocity, temperature and species profiles obtained by using infinite- and finite-rate chemistry models were validated against experimental data and other numerical solutions. They were found to be in reasonably good agreement with measurements and numerical results. The proposed difference scheme produced accurate results without spurious oscillations and numerical diffusion encountered in the classical schemes and hence was found to be a successful scheme applicable to strongly convective flow problems with non-uniform grid resolution. The code was also found to be an efficient tool for the prediction and understanding of transient combustion systems. This study constitutes the initial steps in the development of an efficient numerical scheme for direct numerical simulation (DNS) of unsteady, turbulent, multi-dimensional combustion with complex chemistry.

Predictive accuracy of the previously developed coupled code for the solution of the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations in conjunction with the radiative transfer equation was first assessed by applying it to the prediction of thermally radiating, hydrodynamically developed laminar pipe flow for which the numerical solution had been reported in the literature. The effect of radiation on flow and temperature fields was demonstrated for different values of conduction to radiation ratio. It was found that the steady-state temperature predictions of the code agree well with the benchmark solution. In an attempt to test the predictive accuracy of the coupled code for turbulent radiating flows, it was applied to fully developed turbulent flow of a hot gas through a relatively cold pipe and the results were compared with the numerical solution available in the literature. The code was found to mimic the reported steady-state temperature profiles well. Having validated the predictive accuracy of the coupled code for steady, laminar/turbulent, radiating pipe flows, the performance of the code for transient radiating flows was tested by applying it to a test problem involving laminar/turbulent flow of carbon dioxide through a circular pipe for the simulation of simultaneous hydrodynamic and thermal development. The transient solutions for temperature, velocity and radiative energy source term fields were found to demonstrate the physically expected trends. In order to improve the performance of the code, a parallel algorithm of the code was developed and tested against sequential code for speed up and efficiency. It was found that the same results are obtained with a reasonably high speed-up and efficiency.

The presence of hydrodynamically generated air bubbles has been observed to enhance fine particle flotation in a high intensity agitation (HIA) flotation cell. In this study, the cavitation in an HIA cell, used in our laboratory, is studied by hydrodynamic computational fluid dynamics. Different types of impellers are studied to obtain flow characteristics such as velocity and pressure distributions and turbulent dissipation rate in a two-baffled HIA cell. A cavitation model in conjunction with a multiphase mixture model is used to predict the vapor generation in the HIA cell. Cavitating flow is simulated as a function of revolution speed (RPM) and dissolved gas concentration to understand the dependency of hydrodynamic cavitation on these operating parameters. For comparison, cavitation in a pressure driven flow through a constriction is also modeled. A population balance model is used to obtain bubble size distributions of the generated cavities in a flow through constriction. / Chemical Engineering