In this dissertation, various VAT parameters are investigated to determine the effect of the overall efficiency of the turbine at a high Reynolds number. To increase the efficiency of the vertical axis turbines, 2D CFD simulations are completed in an effort to better understand the physics behind the operation of these turbines. Specifically, the effect of advance ratio, solidity, and wake interactions were investigated. Simulations were completed in OpenFOAM using the k-ω SST turbulence model at a nominal Reynolds number of 500,000 using a NACA 0015 airfoil. To simulate the motion of the turbine, Arbitrary Mesh Interfacing (AMI) was used. For all of the parameters tested, it was found that the geometric effective angle of attack seen by the turbine blades had a significant impact on the power extracted from the flow. The range of effective angles of attack was found to decrease as the advance ratio increased. In spite of this, a severe loss in the power coefficient occurred at an advance ratio of 2.5 during which the blade experienced dynamic stall. This effect was also seen when the number of turbine blades was changed to four, at a solidity of 1.08. This negative impact on performance was found to be due to the increase in the drag component of the tangential force when dynamic stall occurs. Results indicate that wake interactions between subsequent blades have a large impact on performance especially when the wake interaction alters the flow direction sufficiently to create conditions for dynamic stall. To improve the performance of the VAT in the presence of dynamic stall, calculations were completed of a static twisted blade profile using GenIDLEST and OpenFOAM. There was found to be no improvement in the lift coefficient when comparing the twisted blade profile with a 2D blade at the same median angle of attack as the twisted blade. To further see the effects of the twisted blade, an effective VAT pitching motion was given to the blade and again compared to a 2D blade with the same motion. In this case there was significant improvement seen in the performance of the twisted blade. / Master of Science

This dissertation uses spatial filtering to develop a large eddy simulation reduced order model (LES-ROM) framework for fluid flows. Proper orthogonal decomposition is utilized to extract the dominant spatial structures of the system. Within the general LES-ROM framework, two approaches are proposed to address the celebrated ROM closure problem. No phenomenological arguments (e.g., of eddy viscosity type) are used to develop these new ROM closure models. The first novel model is the approximate deconvolution ROM (AD-ROM), which uses methods from image processing and inverse problems to solve the ROM closure problem. The AD-ROM is investigated in the numerical simulation of a 3D flow past a circular cylinder at a Reynolds number $Re=1000$. The AD-ROM generates accurate results without any numerical dissipation mechanism. It also decreases the CPU time of the standard ROM by orders of magnitude. The second new model is the calibrated-filtered ROM (CF-ROM), which is a data-driven ROM. The available full order model results are used offline in an optimization problem to calibrate the ROM subfilter-scale stress tensor. The resulting CF-ROM is tested numerically in the simulation of the 1D Burgers equation with a small diffusion parameter. The numerical results show that the CF-ROM is more efficient than and as accurate as state-of-the-art ROM closure models. / Ph. D. / Numerical simulation of complex fluid flows is often challenging in many realistic engineering, scientific, and medical applications. Indeed, an accurate numerical approximation of such flows generally requires millions and even billions of degrees of freedom. Furthermore, some design and control applications involve repeated numerical simulations for different parameter values. Reduced order models (ROMs) are an efficient approach to the numerical simulation of fluid flows, since they can reduce the computational time of a brute force computational approach by orders of magnitude while preserving key features of the flow. Our main contribution to the field is the use of spatial filtering to develop better ROMs. To construct the new spatially filtered ROMs, we use ideas from image processing and inverse problems, as well as data-driven algorithms. The new ROMs are more accurate than standard ROMs in the numerical simulation of challenging three-dimensional flows past a circular cylinder.

Continuous casting is by far the most widely used casting method for steel production all over the world. The Swedish steel industry has specialized in niche products with high quality. To obtain high-quality steel, flow control is crucial when operating the caster. Computational fluid dynamics is used in the research and development of steel production to gain knowledge and optimize flow control, with meshing being a crucial step. One challenge with meshing is finding the balance between computational cost (time and storage) and accuracy. This study investigated whether polyhedral mesh elements would be suffcient for modeling turbulent flow in continuous casting. Firstly, Ansys Fluent's polyhedral converter was used on an existing mesh containing tetrahedral and hexahedral elements. The mesh quality in terms of skewness, orthogonality, and aspect ratio was studied. The results showed that the polyhedral converter lowered the cell count and slightly improved the quality compared to the original mesh. However, more research is needed with other meshes and actual simulations to determine if it is suffcient for modeling turbulent flow in continuous casting. Following that, two new meshes were generated: one polyhedral and one poly-hexcore mesh, both using Ansys Fluent Meshing, and their mesh quality was analyzed as in the first case. These meshes were then simulated with the Large Eddy Simulation model for steel, slag, and air for 60 seconds. They were compared and evaluated using production data in the form of steel layer fluctuations and nail board measurements. The results from the polyhedral and poly-hexcore meshes showed that both meshes had good, equal quality and cell count. Even so, due to the construction of the poly-hexcore, switching between polyhedral and hexahedral elements, and the occurrence of hanging nodes, the simulation showed signs of discretization errors. This might have also contributed to the lower flow velocities at the steel layer compared to the nail boards for the poly-hexcore mesh. The polyhedral mesh showed more stable simulation results with closer velocity trends compared to the nailboard measurements. The steel layer fluctuations for both meshes were somewhat similar to the production data, but further FFT analysis concluded that fluid flow simulations alone are not enough for an FFT comparison to production data since many factors are missing from the simulations, such as mould oscillations and regulations from the stopper. The computational cost varied between time and storage, with the polyhedral mesh requiring 13 % less simulation time but 32.7 % more storage. In summary, it can be concluded that polyhedral mesh elements can be successfully implemented for modeling turbulent flow in continuous castingwith a reasonable computational cost. / Stränggjutning är den främsta metoden använt för stålproduktion över hela världen. Den svenska stålindustrin har specialiserat sig på nischade produkter med hög kvalitet. För att uppnå högkvalitativt stål är flödeskontroll avgörande vid drift av gjutmaskinen. Numeriska strömningsberäkningar används i forskningen och utvecklingen av stålproduktion för att skaffa kunskap och optimera flödeskontrollen, där meshing är ett avgörande steg. En utmaning med meshing är att hitta balansen mellan beräkningskostnad (tid och lagring) och noggrannhet. Denna studie undersökte om polyhedrala mesh-element skulle vara tillräckliga för att modellera turbulent flöde i stränggjutning. Först användes Ansys Fluents polyhedrala konverterare på en befintlig mesh, innehållande tetrahedrala och hexahedrala element. Meshkvalitén i termer av skevhet, ortogonalitet och aspektförhållande studerades. Resultaten visade att den polyhedrala konverteraren sänkte cellantalet och förbättrade kvaliteten något jämfört med den ursprungliga meshen. Dock behövs mer forskning med andra mesher, och faktiska simuleringar, för att avgöra om den är tillräcklig för att modellera turbulent flöde i stränggjutning. Därefter genererades två nya mesher: ett polyhedralt och en poly-hexcore, båda med hjälp av Ansys Fluent Meshing, och precis som i det första fallet, studerades deras meshkvalitet. Dessa två meshes simulerades sedan med Large Eddy Simulation-modellen för stål, slagg och luft i 60 sekunder. De jämfördes och utvärderades med hjälp av produktionsdata i form av stålnivå, fluktuationer och 'nail board'-mätningar. Resultaten från det polyhedrala och poly-hexcore meshen visade att båda mesherna hade god och likvärdiga kvalitéer samt cellantal. Trots detta, på grund av uppbyggnaden av poly-hexcore meshen, alltså växlingen mellan polyhedrala och hexahedrala element och förekomsten av hängande noder, visade simuleringen tecken på diskretiseringsfel. Detta kan också ha bidragit till de lägre flödeshastigheterna vid stålnivån jämfört med 'nail board'-mätningarna för poly-hexcore meshen. Den polyhedrala meshen visade mer stabila simuleringsresultat med hastighetstrender närmare 'nail board'-mätningarna. Amplituden för stålnivåfluktuationerna för båda näten var något lika produktionsdatan, men en vidare FFT-analys visade att endast flödesimuleringar inte är tillräckliga för en FFT-jämförelse med produktionsdata eftersom många faktorer saknas i simuleringarna, såsom svängningar av gjutformen och reglering av inloppashastigheten. Beräkningskostnaden varierade mellan tid och lagring, där den polyhedrala meshen krävde 13 % mindre simuleringstid men 32,7 % mer lagring. Sammanfattningsvis kan det konstateras att polyhedrala mesh-element framgångsrikt kan implementeras för att modellera turbulent flöde i stränggjutning med en rimlig beräkningskostnad.

Rotor internal cooling is a new concept for high power density electric vehicle drives. A turbulent pipe flow is injected into a cylindrical cavity in the rotor shaft of the motor. The flow is deflected in the cavity, accelerated in circumferential direction by the rotor wall and exits through an annular duct with the outer wall rotating. Due to the opposing effects of rotation on turbulence, a complex transitional flow develops. The strong shear layer in the jet region causes high turbulence production. On the other hand, these fluctuations are damped by the centrifugal forces due to the flow rotation. To investigate the influences of the rotation on the turbulence properties and the mean flow, highly resolved large eddy simulations are performed. It is shown that the turbulence production and attenuation due to rotation affect different components of the Reynolds shear stress tensor. This results in highly anisotropic turbulence. In certain areas, where the turbulence attenuation is strongest, the flow even relaminarises. Since the cooling efficiency depends on the turbulent heat transfer of the flow, the local turbulence characteristics are key quantities for the cooling application.

La physique de la couche limite atmosphérique en domaine océanique est principalement régie par les processus couplés liés au vent, à l’état de mer local, et à des effets de flottabilité. Leur compréhension reste néanmoins parcellaire et leurs descriptions théoriques et stochastiques sont pour le moins lacunaires, lorsqu’elles ne sont tout simplement pas mises à mal par les rares observations. Dans un contexte d’exploitation croissante de la ressource éolienne offshore, la mise en place de méthodes numériques visant à une description plus fine des propriétés turbulentes de cette couche limite sera une étape déterminante dans la réduction des coûts et l’optimisation des structures pour des rendements de récupération d’énergie améliorés. Ainsi, un outil numérique a été mis en place afin d’étudier le couplage entre un écoulement atmosphérique et l’état de mer. Un code Large-Eddy Simulation massivement parallèle pour la simulation des écoulements atmosphériques incompressibles développé par P. Sullivan au National Center for Atmospheric Research est couplé à un code spectral d’états de mer non-linéaires développé au Laboratoire de recherche en Hydrodynamique, Energétique et Environnement Atmosphérique. De nombreuses configurations de vents et d’états de mer sont modélisées. On montre que les lois semi empiriques souvent utilisées pour représenter la distribution verticale de la vitesse moyenne du vent sont une bonne approximation dans les situations où un petit état de mer est soumis à un fort vent. Néanmoins, dans le cas de houles très rapides se propageant dans des zones de faible vent, la création d’un jet de vent par la houle invalide ces lois semi-empiriques. / Modelling the dynamic coupling of ocean-atmosphere systems requires a fundamental and quantitative understanding of the mechanisms governing the windwave interactions: despite numerous studies, our current understanding remains quite incomplete and, in certain conditions, sparse field observations contradict the usual theoretical and stochastic models. Within the context of a growing exploitation of the offshore wind energy and the development of met ocean models, a fine description of this resource is a key issue. Field experiments and numerical modelling have revealed that atmospheric stability and wave effects, including the dynamic sea surface roughness, are two major factors affecting the wind field over oceans. A numerical tool has been implemented in order to study the coupling between an atmospheric flow and the seastate. A massively parallel large-eddy simulation developed by P. Sullivan at the National Center for Atmospheric Research is then coupled to a High-Order Spectral wave model developed at the Hydrodynamics,Energetics & Atmospheric Environment Laboratory in Ecole Centrale de Nantes. Numerous configurations of wind and sea states are investigated. It appears that, under strongly forced wind conditions above a small sea state, the semi-empirical laws referred to as standards in the international guidelines are a good approximation for the vertical profile of the mean wind speed. However, for light winds overlying fast-moving swell, the presence of a wave induced wind jet is observed, invalidating the use of such logarithmic laws.

More and larger wind farms are planned offshore. As the most suitable build sites are limited wind farms will be constructed near to each other in so called wind farm clusters. Behind the wind turbines in these farms there is a disrupted flow of air called a wake that is characterized by reduced wind speed and increased turbulence. These individual turbine wakes combine to form a farm wake that can travel a long distance. In wind farm clusters farm to farm interaction will occur, i.e. the long distance wake from one wind farm will impact the wind conditions for other farms in the surrounding area. The thesis contains numerical studies of these long distance wakes. In this study Large Eddy Simulations (LES) using an Actuator Disc method (ACD) are used. A prescribed boundary layer is used where the wind shear is introduced using body forces. The turbulence, based on the Mann model, is introduced as fluctuating body forces upstream of the farm. A neutral atmosphere is assumed. The applied method has earlier been used for studies of wake effects inside farms but not for the longer distances needed for farm to farm interaction. Numerical studies are performed to get better knowledge about the use of this model for long distance wakes. The first study compares the simulation results with measurements behind an existing farm. Three parameter studies are thereafter setup to analyze how to best use the model. The first parameter study examines numerical and physical parameters in the model. The second one looks at the extension of the domain and turbulence as well as the characteristics of the flow far downstream. The third one gathers information on the downstream development of turbulence with different combinations of wind shear and turbulence level. The impact of placing the turbines at different distances from the turbulence plane is also studied. Finally a second study of an existing wind farm is performed and compared with a mesoscale model. The model is shown to be relevant also for studies of long distance wakes. Combining LES with a mesoscale model can be of interest.

Afin de pouvoir simuler la formation des principaux polluants au sein de foyers aéronautiques réalistes, un modèle de réduction de la chimie détaillée (FPI), basé sur la construction de tables à partir de calculs de flammes de prémélange laminaires élémentaires, est adapté et couplé au code d’aérothermochimie CEDRE de l’ONERA. Après une brève validation de ce modèle via la simulation de flammes laminaires canoniques, les interactions chimie/turbulence sont modélisées sous l’hypothèse des flammelettes, en approchant les PDF des paramètres d’entrée des tables par des fonctions beta. Cette approche complète est appliquée à la simulation numérique de l’écoulement au sein d’une configuration plus appliquée : la chambre PRECCINSTA. Ce cas bien connu a permis notamment l’évaluation des capacités du modèle dans un contexte plus industriel par comparaison des résultats de calcul aux données expérimentales disponibles. Il a en particulier permis de tester l’approche FPI étendue à la modélisation de la combustion partiellement prémélangée. Par ailleurs, l’utilisation d’un modèle de chimie réduite s’avère particulièrement appropriée pour prédire l’émission de substances polluantes, par exemple CO. Cependant, lorsque l’on considère la formation de NO, FPI ne peut pas être utilisé directement du fait de la lente dynamique chimique de cette espèce.Pour pallier à cette limitation, deux approches permettant de modéliser la production de NO au sein d’écoulements complexes sont proposées, fondées sur l’utilisation des tables chimiques FPI. Les capacités de ces modèles sont finalement analysées à l’aide de calculs effectués sur la configuration PRECCINSTA. / In order to simulate major pollutant formation inside realistic aeronautical combustion chambers, a detailed chemistry reduction technique (FPI), based on the construction of databases from elementary laminar premixed flame calculations, is adapted and coupled to the ONERA household CFD code : CEDRE. After a short validation of this model based on the numerical simulation of simplified laminar flames, the chemistry turbulence interactions are modeled under the laminar flamelet hypothesis, by assuming the shape of the FPI progress variable PDFs using beta functions. This comprehensive approach is then applied to the numerical simulation of the flow inside a realistic geometry :the PRECCINSTA combustion chamber. This well-known configuration has enabled the evaluation of the model’s abilities within an industrial framework using numerical/experimental results comparisons. It has especially allowed to test an extension of the model to partially premixed combution. Furthermore, the use of a tabulated chemistry model turns out to be particularly appropriate to predict pollutant species formation such as CO. However, when considering the formation of nitrogen oxides,FPI cannot be applied directly because of the slow dynamics of the chemical processes involved. Toovercome these limitations, two approaches allowing NO production modeling within complexe flowsare proposed, derived from the use of the tabulated data. The capacities of these models are finally analysed using computations performed on the PRECCINSTA chamber.

L’application de cette thèse est le contrôle actif de la combustion dans les brûleurs industriels à combustible liquide. Il s’agit d’explorer les possibilités de contrôle d’un spray par des jets gazeux auxiliaires. Deux familles d’actionneurs utilisant ce procédé ont été testées sur un atomiseur coaxial assisté par air. Le premier dispositif est appelé (Dev). Composé d’un unique jet actionneur, il vise à dévier le spray. La seconde configuration, appelée (Sw), est équipée de 4 jets auxiliaires tangents au spray afin de lui conférer un effet de swirl et d’en augmenter le taux d’expansion. Les mesures de granulométrie par PDA et les visualisations du spray par strioscopie démontrent un effet important du contrôle sur l’atomisation et la forme du spray. On observe en outre une déviation pouvant atteindre 30°avec l’actionneur (Dev) et une augmentation du taux d’expansion de 80% dans le cas (Sw). Des simulations du banc expérimental ont de plus été menées avec le code AVBP. L’écoulement de gaz est calculé par simulation aux grandes échelles (SGE ou LES en Anglais). L’approche lagrangienne est utilisée pour simuler la phase dispersée. Une attention particulière a été portée aux conditions d’injection du gaz et des gouttes dans le calcul. Ceci a abouti au développement d’une nouvelle condition limite caractéristique non réfléchissante (VFCBC) destinée à l’injection d’écoulements turbulents en LES compressible. Les résultats de LES présentent un bon accord avec les mesures expérimentales. Les effets du contrôle sur la dynamique des gouttes et sur la topologie du spray (forme, déviation, expansion) sont correctement décrits. / The present work focuses on active control of two-phase combustion in industrial burners. The generic method explored in this thesis consists in controlling the injected fuel spray with transverse air jets. Two families of these jet actuators are tested on a coaxial airblast atomizer. The first system (Dev) is used to modify the trajectory of the spray, while the second one (Sw) introduces swirl into the spray to modify its spreading rate and mixing with the surrounding air. Experimental characterisations of the controlled flow with Schlieren visualisations and Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA) show that actuators induce important effect on the spray. The deviation angle reaches 30° for the actuator (Dev) and the expansion rate increases of 80 % in the swirl case (Sw). Simulations of the experiment are then performed with the CFD code AVBP. The gas flow is computed with Large Eddy Simulation (LES). A Lagrangian formulation is used to simulate droplets trajectories. A particular attention is given to the injection of the gas flow and the droplets in the calculations. Therefore, a new non-reflecting characteristic boundary condition (VFCBC) has been derived to inject turbulent flows in compressible LES. A good agreement is observed between simulation and experiment. Control effects on the spray topology ( features, deviation, spread rate) and on the droplets velocities and diameters are correctly described by the Lagrangian LES.

La distillation est un procédé industriel de séparation de phases qui fait typiquement intervenir un écoulement diphasique caractérisé par un film liquide laminaire ou faiblement turbulent s'écoulant par gravité et cisaillé à contre-courant par un courant gazeux turbulent. Afin de comprendre la dynamique de ce genre d'écoulements, nous avons développé un modèle numérique de simulation d'écoulements diphasiques prenant en compte la présence éventuelle des structures turbulentes. Ce modèle s'appuie sur un couplage entre les méthodologies Volume of Fluid sans étape de reconstruction pour le suivi d'interface et la simulation des grandes échelles pour le traitement de la turbulence. Les contraintes de sous-maille sont évaluées par une approche dynamique mixte, ce qui permet au modèle de s'adapter aux caractéristiques locales de la turbulence et de fonctionner même dans des zones laminaires. Le modèle développé est ensuite testé en simulant différentes configuration d'écoulements de films liquides cisaillés ou non par un courant gazeux. / Distillation is an industrial process of phase separation which involves a two-phase flow characterized by a laminar or weakly turbulent gravity- riven liquid film sheared by a countercurrent turbulent gas stream. To understand the dynamics of such flows, we developed a numerical technique aimed at computing incompressible turbulent two-phase flows. A large eddy simulation (LES) approach based on a dynamic mixed model is used to compute turbulence while the two-phase nature of the flow is described through a Volume of Fluid (VOF) approach with no interface reconstruction step. The use of a dynamic mixed approach for modelling the subgrid stresses allows the developed model to self-adapt to local characteristics of turbulence, so that it also works in laminar flows. The whole methodology is then applied to the computation of different configurations of liquid films sheared or not by a gas stream.

Dans la première partie de cette thèse de doctorat une méthodologie est présentée qui permet de prédire les niveaux de suies produits dans des flammes laminaires monodimensionnelles, ou un modèle semi-empirique de suies est utilisé en combinaison avec une chimie complexe et un solveur radiatif détaillé. La méthodologie est appliquée au calcul de suies dans une série de flammes de diffusion à contre-courant d'éthylène/air. Plusieurs modèles d'oxydation de suies sont testés et les constantes du modèle sont ajustées afin de retrouver un meilleur accord avec les expériences. L'effet des pertes thermiques radiatives sur la formation de suies et la structure des flammes est évalué. Finalement, la performance du modèle de suies est évalué sur des flammes prémélangées monodimensionnelles, ou une expression alternative du terme de croissance de surface est proposée pour reproduire les résultats expérimentaux. Dans la deuxième partie de cette thèse, des outils de Simulation aux Grandes Échelles (SGE) et d'analyse acoustique sont appliqués à la prédiction des oscillations de cycle limite (OCL) d'une instabilité thermo-acoustique qui apparaît dans un brûleur académique partiellement prémélangé de méthane/air à pression atmosphérique. La SGE prédit bien l'apparition et le développement des OCL est un bon accord est trouvé entre simulations et expériences en termes d'amplitude et fréquence des OCL. La simulation permet de révéler certains aspects clés responsables du comportement instable de la flamme. Ensuite, une analyse préliminaire de la quantification des incertitudes est fait, ou l'effet des paramètres tels que l'impédance des entrées, le degré de raffinement du maillage ou les pertes thermiques sur les caractéristiques des OCL est évalué. Aussi, la SGE prédit bien la dépendance de la stabilité de la flamme du point d'opération et de la géométrie du brûleur / In the first part of the present PhD. thesis a methodology is presented that allows to predict the soot produced in one-dimensional academic flames, where a semi-empirical soot model is used in combination with a complex chemistry and a detailed radiation solver. The methodology is applied to the computation of soot in a set of ethylene/air counterflow diffusion flames. Several oxidation models are tested and the constants of the model were adjusted to retrieve the experimental results. Also, the effect of radiative losses on soot formation and the flame structure is evaluated. Finally, the performance of the soot model is evaluated on 1D premixed flames, where an alternative expression for the surface growth term is proposed to better reproduce the experimental findings. In the second part of the thesis, Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) and acoustic analysis tools are applied to the prediction of limit cycle oscillations (LCO) of a thermo-acoustic instability appearing in a partially premixed methane/air academic burner operating at atmospheric pressure. The LES captures well the appearance and development of the LCO and a good agreement is found between simulations and experiments in terms of amplitude and frequency of the LCO. Some light is shed on the mechanisms leading to the existence of such instability. Then, a preliminar uncertainty quantification (UQ) analysis is performed, where the effect on the features of the LCO of several computational parameters such as the inlets impedances, mesh refinement or heat losses is assessed. Also, the LES captures well the flame stability behaviour dependence on the operating point and the burner geometry