The research focus of this thesis is on modelling techniques for river kinetic turbines, to develop predictive numerical tools to further the design of this emerging hydro technology. The performance benefits of enclosing the turbine in a shroud are quantified numerically and an optimized shroud design is developed. The optimum performing model is then used to study river kinetic turbines, including different anchoring systems to enhance performance. Two different turbine numerical models are studied to simulate the rotor. Four different computational fluid dynamics (CFD) turbulence models are compared against a series of particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments involving highly-separated diffuser-flow and nozzle-flow conditions. The risk of cavitation is briefly discussed as well as riverbed boundary layer losses. This study is part of an effort to develop this emerging technology for distributed power generation in provinces like Manitoba that have a river system well adapted for this technology. / May 2007

No description available.

El entendimiento de los fenómenos de transferencia de calor y de masa en medios porosos implica el estudio de modelos de transporte de fluidos en la fracción vacía del medio; este hecho es de fundamental importancia en muchos sistemas de Ingeniería Química, tal como en procesos de extracción o en reactores catalíticos. Los estudios de flujo realizados hasta ahora (teóricos y experimentales) usualmente tratan al medio poroso como un medio efectivo y homogéneo, y toman como válidas las propiedades medias del fluido. Este tipo de aproximación no tiene en cuenta la complejidad del flujo a través del espacio vacío del medio poroso, reduciendo la descripción del problema a promedios macroscópicos y propiedades efectivas. Sin embargo, estos detalles de los procesos locales de flujo pueden llegar a ser factores importantes que influencien el comportamiento de un proceso físico determinado que ocurre dentro del sistema, y son cruciales para entender el mecanismo detallado de, por ejemplo, fenómenos como la dispersión de calor, la dispersión de masa o el transporte entre interfaces.La Dinámica de Fluidos Computacional (CFD) como herramienta de modelado numérico permite obtener una visión mas aproximada y realista de los fenómenos de flujo de fluidos y los mecanismos de transferencia de calor y masa en lechos empacados, a través de la resolución de las ecuaciones de Navier - Stokes acopladas con los balances de materia y energía y con un modelo de turbulencia si es necesario. De esta forma, esta herramienta permite obtener los valores medios y/o fluctuantes de variables como la velocidad del fluido, la temperatura o la concentración de una especie en cualquier punto de la geometría del lecho empacado.El objetivo de este proyecto es el de utilizar programas comerciales de simulación CFD para resolver el flujo de fluidos y la transferencia de calor y de masa en modelos bi/tri dimensionales de lechos empacados, desarrollando una estrategia de modelado aplicable al diseño de equipos para procesos de extracción o de reacción catalítica. Como referencia se tomaran procesos de tecnología supercrítica debido a la complejidad de los fenómenos de transporte involucrados en estas condiciones, así como a la disponibilidad de datos experimentales obtenidos previamente en nuestro grupo de investigación. Estos datos experimentales se utilizan como herramienta de validación de los modelos numéricos generados, y de las estrategias de simulación adoptadas y realizadas durante el desarrollo de este proyecto. / An understanding of the heat and mass transfer phenomena in a porous media implies the study of the fluid transport model within the void space; this fact is of fundamental importance to many chemical engineering systems such as packed bed extraction or catalytic reaction equipment. Experimental and theoretical studies of flow through such systems often treat the porous medium as an effectively homogeneous system and concentrate on the bulk properties of the flow. Such an approach neglects completely the complexities of the flow within the void space of the porous medium, reducing the description of the problem to macroscopic average or effective quantities. The details of this local flow process may, however, be the most important factor influencing the behavior of a given physical process occurring within the system, and are crucial to understanding the detailed mechanisms of, for example, heat and mass dispersion and interface transport.Computational Fluid Dynamics as a simulation tool allows obtaining a more approached view of the fluid flow and heat and mass transfer mechanisms in fixed bed equipment, through the resolution of 3D Reynolds averaged transport equations, together with a turbulence model when needed. In this way, this tool permit to obtain mean and fluctuating flow and temperature values in any point of the bed. The goal of this project is to use commercial available CFD codes for solving fluid flow and heat and mass transfer phenomena in two and three dimensional models of packed beds, developing a modeling strategy applicable to the design of packed bed chemical reaction and extraction equipment. Supercritical extraction and supercritical catalytic reaction processes will be taken as reference processes due to the complexity of the transport phenomena involved within this processes, and to the availability of experimental data in this field, obtained in the supercritical fluids research group of this university. The experimental data priory obtained by our research group will be used as validation data for the numerical models and strategies dopted and followed during the developing of the project.

Deep knowledge of combustion phenomenon is of great scientific and technological interest due to its presence in a wide range of industrial processes and equipment. Being the most important worldwide energy support provided by combustion of fossil fuels, the goal of developing more efficient and cleaner systems or equipment is clearly justified. In the last decade, the importance of the reduction of pollutant emissions has increased considerably due to both environmental consciousness and to governmental policies, being one of the most important aspects to assure the competitiveness of combustion-related industries.Traditionally, a high number of experimental studies based on trial-and-error analysis were necessary on the optimisation of thermal equipment, where heat and mass transfer and fluid flow have a dominant role. In the last decades, in agreement with the development of computational capabilities, CFD simulations have become a worthful complement to experimental investigations, reducing in this sense production costs and time to market. However, the considerable complexity of combustion phenomena and the strong feedback between the flow and the chemistry, makes more difficult the task of develop accurate, computationally capable and robust numerical codes for combustion phenomena in industrial applications. This goal remains a promising challenge today and for the foreseeable future.The work developed in this thesis contributes to this objective. Rather than assuming less accurate mathematical approaches and consider their application to engineering problems, our main intention has been centred to the development of numerical tools that enable the feasible resolution of combustion problems with the highest level of detail.On the detailed numerical simulation of combustion problems, main difficulties arise from the stiffness of the governing equations, the presence of flame fronts, and the huge number of species and reactions involved in the reaction mechanisms. In order to overcome these numerical difficulties, a parallel multiblock algorithm able to work efficiently with loosely coupled computers, has been developed. The employment of numerical strategies to deal with the commented stiffness, and the use of multiblock techniques to optimise the discretisation and to parallelise the code, are the main attributes that can be pointed out. An excellent ratio between computational time and resources have been obtained.In the analysis of the numerical solutions, special attention is given to their verification. The accuracy of the results has been analysed providing uncertainty estimations. The numerical methodology employed in this thesis to simulate reactive flows is one of the most relevant contributions presented.The numerical infrastructure developed has been applied to the numerical analysis of laminar flames. Although combustion nearly always takes place within a turbulence flow field to increase the mixing process and thereby enhance combustion, laminar flames are considered as an illustrative example of combustion phenomenon and its experimental and detailed numerical analysis is a basic ingredient on the modelling of turbulent combustion processes as well as for pollutant formation. Special attention has been given to co-flow non-premixed and partially premixed methane-air laminar flames. The wide application of these flames in house-hold and industrial heating systems due to both their intense combustion process and the relatively clean nature of natural gas (composed mainly by methane), has motivated extensive research on the experimental and numerical modelling of such flames.Detailed numerical simulations have been performed to analyse fundamental aspects of these flames, and the adequacy of several mathematical approaches employed on their modelling. Available experimental data have been taken into account both on the analysis of the influence of partially premixing to main flame properties and on the mathematical approaches comparison. Special attention has also been given to pollutant formation, NOx and CO emission indexes.

Se ha desarrollado una infraestructura numérica, que permite el estudio de problemas donde están presentes fenómenos periódicos espaciales, haciendo uso de dominios computacionales reducidos con condiciones de contorno periódicas. Se enfoca en particular el estudio de la convección natural del aire, numérica y experimentalmente, en estructuras honeycomb de tipo rectangular, de interés aplicativo en aislamientos transparentes para sistemas solares térmicos. Para abordar el estudio, la tesis se ha estructurado en tres bloques, cuyos contenidos abarcan:1) El estudio del tratamiento numérico de condiciones de contorno periódicas, en base al método de volúmenes finitos, estableciéndose estrategias adecuadas de transferencia de información entre contornos periódicos en una forma explícita. Los tratamientos se sustentan en dos procedimientos: (i) en estrategias que tratan directamente con el valor de las variables del problema sobre nodos de los volúmenes de control (ubicados en los contornos periódicos y en posiciones anexas al contorno) y (ii) en interpolaciones sobre los contornos periódicos utilizadas en el método multibloque: interpolaciones de tipo conservativas e interpolaciones matemáticas. Se proponen tres formulaciones: DIF (Direct Interpolation Formulation), EPF (Exact Position Formulation) y CTF (Conservative Treatment Formulation). En la formulación DIF la transferencia de información se basa en la aplicación de interpolaciones Lagrangianas, en la formulación EPF la información se transfiere nodo a nodo entre posiciones geométricamente semejantes, mientras que en la formulación CTF la transferencia de información se basa en forzar la conservación de los flujos físicos (masa, momento y energía). Las formulaciones son comparadas entre si. Para el análisis comparativo se reproduce un caso de la literatura científica, cuyos campos de velocidad y temperatura presentan un comportamiento periódico espacial. Los criterios de comparación se basan en la verificación de las soluciones numéricas obtenidas para cada formulación. Se resuelven otros casos con la finalidad de presentar nuevos detalles acerca del tratamiento de condiciones de contorno periódicas, en base a las metodologías propuestas.2) Se aborda el estudio numérico del comportamiento periódico del aire en cavidades alargadas e inclinadas 45º, en cuyo interior se ubica una estructura honeycomb de tipo rectangular. Se reproducen casos de la literatura científica, numéricos y experimentales, con la finalidad de verificar y validar el código numérico para geometrías específicas. Aprovechando la naturaleza periódica del flujo, se proponen expresiones matemáticas para representar el comportamiento periódico de las variables velocidad, temperatura y presión dinámica. Dichas expresiones fueron utilizadas como modelos para definir las condiciones de contorno periódicas aplicables a una celda de honeycomb. Se establecen estudios comparativos entre los resultados numéricos conseguidos sobre dominios computacionales completos y los obtenidos aplicando condiciones de contorno periódicas sobre dominios computacionales reducidos a una celda de honeycomb. Mediante un estudio específico, se demuestra la utilidad de las simulaciones numéricas para solucionar geometrías de interés tecnológico, próximas al aislamiento transparente para sistemas solares térmicos, aplicando condiciones de contorno periódicas en dominios computacionales reducidos.3) El estudio numérico de la convección natural del aire en una cavidad rectangular, con estructuras honeycomb en su interior. Se lleva a cabo la validación de los resultados numéricos, contrastando sus valores con resultados experimentales obtenidos en base a técnicas PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry), las cuales permitieron visualizar y cuantificar el campo de velocidades.Las simulaciones numéricas de todo el trabajo se basaron en el método de volúmenes finitos. Las ecuaciones gobernantes discretizadas fueron resueltas en forma segregada, utilizándose el algoritmo SIMPLEC. Las geometrías fueron discretizadas en base a mallas Cartesianas desplazadas. Los resultados numéricos fueron verificados a través de herramientas de post - proceso basadas en la extrapolación de Richardson generalizada y en el concepto del GCI (Grid Convergence Index).

This thesis presents the Sequentially Optimized Meshfree Approximation (SOMA) method, a new and powerful Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solver. While standard computational methods can be faster and cheaper that physical experimentation, both in cost and work time, these methods do have some time and user interaction overhead which SOMA eliminates. As a meshfree method which could use adaptive domain refinement methods, SOMA avoids the need for user generated and/or analyzed grids, volumes, and meshes. Incremental building of a feed-forward artificial neural network through machine learning to solve the flow problem significantly reduces user interaction and reduces computational cost. This is done by avoiding the creation and inversion of possibly dense block diagonal matrices and by focusing computational work on regions where the flow changes and ignoring regions where no changes occur.

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.

<p>The main purpose of this research is to investigate liquid entrainment mechanisms of annular flow by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. A numerical model is developed. The model is based on the physics of an upward annular flow. In the modeling, a transient renormalization group (RNG) k-å model in conjunction with enhanced wall treatment method was employed. In order to reconstruct the two-phase interface, the geometric reconstruction scheme of volume of fluid (VOF) model was adopted. Fluent® 6.18 was used as the solution tool. Simulation results indicated that disturbance waves were generated first on the two-phase interface and their evolution eventually resulted in the liquid entrainment phenomena. The most significant accomplishment of this work is that details of the entrainment mechanisms are well described by the numerical simulation work. In addition, two new entrainment mechanisms are presented. One entrainment mechanism demonstrates that the evolution of individual waves causes the onset of liquid entrainment; the other mechanism shows that the coalescence of two adjacent waves (during the course of their evolution) plays an important role in the progression of liquid entrainment. The newly developed entrainment mechanisms are based on conservation laws. In order to explore the flow physics of the targeted annular flow, the law of the wall, in conjunction with an analytical model based on a force balance, was applied to previously collected experimental data. Results indicated that the film flow had strong features of near-wall flow. In addition, based on prior experimental work and a newly developed physical wave model by researchers in the Microgravity Research Group, University of Saskatchewan, a steady RNG k-å model, in conjunction with the enhanced wall treatment method, was applied to the gas core. The simulation results showed turbulent flow features in the gas core and strong effects of the interfacial waves on the simulation results. The above information forms the physical foundation for the simulation work on the entrainment mechanism.</p><p>One significant contribution to the authors research group is the liquid entrainment fraction data. A new method was introduced to make the measurements. The method combined a chemically-based titration method with a newly-designed instrument, a separator, to effectively measure the entrainment fraction. Experiments were conducted at low system pressure (~ 1 atm) and relatively low gas and liquid superficial velocities (Vsg = 25.8 m/s to 45.5 m/s, and Vsl = 0.15 m/s to 0.30 m/s, respectively). The entrainment fraction was found to be under 7 %, with a maximum uncertainty of 0.26 % for all the experimental set points. Repeatability test results and comparisons with previous entrainment data indicated that the new technique can perform as well as other measurement techniques.</p>

A spur dike is a hydraulic structure built on the bank of a river at some angle to the main flow direction. A series of spur dikes in a row may also be placed on one side or both sides of a river to form a spur dike field. Spur dikes are used for two main purposes, namely river training and bank protection. For river training, spur dikes may be used to provide a desirable path for navigation purposes or to direct the flow to a desirable point such as a water intake. For bank protection, spur dikes may be used to deflect flow away from a riverbank and thus protect it from erosion. It has also been observed that spur dikes provide a desirable environment for aquatic habitat. Despite the fact that spur dikes are useful hydraulic structures, they have been found to increase the flow resistance in rivers and hence increase the flow stage. The present study focuses on the quantification of the flow resistance and associated flow stage increase due to a single spur dike and also that of a spur dike field. Increased flow stage is referred to herein as a backwater effect.<p> In the first stage of the study, the flow resistance due to a single spur dike, expressed as a drag force exerted on the flow in an open channel, was studied and quantified. The work was carried out in a rigid bed flume, with the model spur dike being simulated using various sizes of a two-dimensional (2-D) rectangular plate. Several discharge conditions were studied. The drag force exerted by the spur dike for both submerged and unsubmerged flow conditions was determined directly from measurements made using a specially designed apparatus and also by application of the momentum equation to a control volume that included the spur dike. It was found that the unit drag force (i.e., drag force per unit area of dike) of an unsubmerged spur dike increases more rapidly with an increase in the discharge when compared with that of a submerged spur dike. The results also showed that an increase in the blockage of the open channel cross-section due to the spur dike is the main parameter responsible for an increase in the spur dike drag coefficient, hence the associated flow resistance and backwater effect. Based on these findings, relationships were developed for estimating the backwater effect due to a single spur dike in an open channel.<p> In the second stage of the study, the flow resistance due to a spur dike field expressed as a drag force exerted on the flow was quantified and subsequently related to the backwater effect. The work was carried out in a rigid bed flume, with the model spur dikes simulated using 2-D, rectangular plates placed along one side of the flume. For various discharges, the drag force of each individual spur dike in the spur dike field was measured directly using a specially-designed apparatus. For these tests, both submerged and unsubmerged conditions were evaluated along with various numbers of spur dikes and various relative spacings between the spur dikes throughout the field. It was concluded that the configuration of a spur dike field in terms of the number of spur dikes and relative spacing between the spur dikes has a substantial impact on the drag force and hence the flow resistance and backwater effect of a spur dike field. The most upstream spur dike had the highest drag force amongst the spur dikes in the field, and it acted as a shield to decrease the drag force exerted by the downstream spur dikes. From the experiments on the submerged spur dikes, it was observed that the jet flow over the spur dikes has an important effect on the flow structure and hence the flow resistance.<p> In the third stage of the study, the flow field within the vicinity of a single submerged spur dike was modeled using the three-dimensional (3-D) computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software FLUENT. Application of the software required solution of the 3-D Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations wherein the Reynolds stresses were resolved using the RNG ê-å turbulence model. One discharge condition was evaluated in a smooth, rectangular channel for two conditions, including uniform flow conditions without the spur dike in place and one with the spur dike in place. The CFD model was evaluated based on some experimental data acquired from the physical model. It was found that the CFD model could satisfactorily predict the flow resistance and water surface profile adjacent to the spur dike, including the resulting backwater effect. Furthermore, the CFD model gave a good prediction of the velocity field except for the area behind the spur dike where the effects of diving jet flow over the spur dike was not properly modeled.

This research presents a detailed study of non-synchronous vibration (NSV) and the development of an efficient design method for NSV. NSV occurs as a result of the complex interaction of an aerodynamic instability with blade vibrations. Two NSV design methods are considered and applied to three test cases: 2-D circular cylinder, 2-D airfoil cascade tip section of a modern compressor, and 3-D high pressure compressor cascade that encountered NSV in rig testing. The current industry analysis method is to search directly for the frequency of the instability using CFD analysis and then compare it with a fundamental blade mode frequency computed from a structural analysis code. The main disadvantage of this method is that the blades' motion is not considered and therefore, the maximum response is assumed to be when the blade natural frequency and fluid frequency are coincident. An alternate approach, the enforced motion method, is also presented. In this case, enforced blade motion is used to promote lock-in of the blade frequency to the fluid natural frequency at a specified critical amplitude for a range of interblade phase angles (IBPAs). For the IBPAs that are locked-on, the unsteady modal forces are determined. This mode is acceptable if the equivalent damping is greater than zero for all IBPAs. A method for blade re-design is also proposed to determine the maximum blade response by finding the limit cycle oscillation (LCO) amplitude. It is assumed that outside of the lock-in region is an off-resonant, low amplitude condition. A significant result of this research is that for all cases studied herein, the maximum blade response is not at the natural fluid frequency as is assumed by the direct frequency search approach. This has significant implications for NSV design analysis because it demonstrates the requirement to include blade motion. Hence, an enforced motion design method is recommended for industry and the current approach is of little value. / Dissertation