<p>Ground vehicles are subjected to crosswind from various origins such as weather, topography of the ambient environment (land, forest, tunnels, high bushes...) or surrounding traffic. The trend of lowering the weight of vehicles imposes a stronger need for understanding the coupling between crosswind stability, the vehicle external shape and the dynamic properties. Means for reducing fuel consumption of ground vehicles can also conflict with the handling and dynamic characteristics of the vehicle. Streamlined design of vehicle shapes to lower the drag can be a good example of this dilemma. If care is not taken, the streamlined shape can lead to an increase in yaw moment under crosswind conditions which results in a poor handling.</p><p>The development of numerical methods provides efficient tools to investigate these complex phenomena that are difficult to reproduce experimentally. Time accurate and scale resolving methods, like Detached-Eddy Simulations (DES), are particularly of interest, since they allow a better description of unsteady flows than standard Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) models. Moreover, due to the constant increase in computational resources, this type of simulations complies more and more with industrial interests and design cycles.</p><p>In this thesis, the possibilities offered by DES to simulate unsteady crosswind aerodynamics of simple vehicle models in an industrial framework are explored. A large part of the work is devoted to the grid design, which is especially crucial for truthful results from DES. Additional concerns in simulations of unsteady crosswind aerodynamics are highlighted, especially for the resolution of the wind-gust boundary layer profiles. Finally, the transient behaviour of the aerodynamic loads and the flow structures are analyzed for several types of vehicles. The results simulated with DES are promising and the overall agreement with the experimental data available is good, which illustrates a certain reliability in the simulations. In addition, the simulations show that the force coefficients exhibit highly transient behaviour under gusty conditions.</p> / ECO2 Crosswind Stability and Unsteady Aerodynamics for Ground Vehicles

Separating and reattaching flows are important in a large number of engineering configurations. The flow through a sudden expansion (backward-facing step) represents a conceptually simple case of this class of flows and hence has been the subject of numerous studies. The present study focuses on the effect of the expansion ratio (defined as the ratio of downstream channel height to upstream channel height) on the unsteady flow features in the reattachment region and further downstream. It is known that this flow demonstrates two different instabilities; the Kelvin-Helmholtz shear layer instability, which scales with the shear layer thickness, and the instability associated with the separation bubble, which scales with the step height and has similarities to K´arman vortex shedding behind a cylinder.In addition to these, there is also a possibility of the presence of the ‘preferred’ mode of the jet issuing from the inlet channel of the sudden expansion, especially at high expansion ratios, where the flow resembles a wall jet. The aim of this study is to investigate experimentally the changes in the instability of the separation bubble, as the expansion ratio is changed, and its possible interactions with the other instabilities in the flow.One might expect some changes in the flow with expansion ratio, as at low expansion ratios, the configuration represents a simple backward-facing step geometry, while at high expansion ratios, the geometry approaches that of a wall jet. A variable expansion ratio backward-facing step facility has been developed in an open circuit wind tunnel.This facility permits continuous variation of the expansion ratio from 1 to around 6. Attention is focused on the turbulent regime of the flow, where the flow structure has been found in previous studies to be relatively insensitive to the Reynolds number. The inlet conditions have been kept constant with a thin turbulent boundary layer at the step, the boundary layer thickness at separation being approximately 14 % of the inlet channel height. The Reynolds number based on the inlet channel height, H, is kept constant at Re=48,000 and the expansion ratio is varied by changing the channel height downstream of the step. Detailed hot wire measurements have been made to characterize the spatial variation of the dominant frequencies in the flow at different expansion ratios. The expansion ratio has been varied from a low value of 1.14 to a high value of 3.25, and detailed measurements are obtained for five expansion ratios of 1.14, 1.3, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0. Further, to elucidate the dominant vortical structures in the flow, Particle Image Velocimetry measurements have been undertaken simultaneously with hot wire measurements for the case of expansion ratio 1.5, which have permitted the conditional averaging of vorticity fields.These investigations have brought forth some interesting features of the flow over a backward-facing step. Results for the time-mean properties of the flow indicate that the shear layer separating from the step deviates from a free mixing layer behaviour away from the step, possibly due to its interaction with the wall and the recirculation region underneath it. At any given streamwise location, the shear layer momentum thickness, θ, is seen to increase with the expansion ratio. Further, upto reattachment, the momentum thickness of the shear layer is seen to scale with the step height, h, independent of its initial thickness at separation, θo, as long as the boundary layer at separation is sufficiently thin as compared to the step height. Investigations for the unsteady flow features show that the frequency of the dominant peak in the velocity spectrum, supposed to represent the passage frequency (Strouhal number, S, based on the step height, h, and the inlet velocity, U) of the vortical structures, varies in the cross stream (y) direction, in addition to its expected variation in the streamwise (x) direction. The variation of the Strouhal number in the cross stream direction is seen to scale with the local momentum thickness of the shear layer, except for locations very close to the step. To characterize the development of the dominant frequency in the streamwise direction, the maximum value of the Strouhal number at a streamwise location is taken to be the representative value for that streamwise location. The Strouhal number is seen to decrease in the streamwise direction, from a very high value near the step, to a value of approximately 0.08 in the reattachment region, and remains constant further downstream. This value, supposed to represent the large scale structures shed from the reattachment region, is seen to remain very close to 0.08 for all Expansion ratios investigated. Conditional averaging of the vorticity fields in the reattachment region is done for an expansion ratio of 1.5, to get a detailed picture of the unsteady flow field. The hot wire signal at the outer edge of the shear layer in the reattachment region, which represents the non-dimensional structure passage frequency of S=0.08, is used as the conditioning signal. Results seem to indicate that the recirculation region, or the ‘bubble’ divides into two cells, and sheds the downstream cell quasi-periodically. The passage of these structures through the reattachment region seems to be concomitant With a local vertical motion of the shear layer. Further, the streamwise development of the local Strouhal number, Sθ, based on the local momentum thickness of the shear layer, and the local free stream velocity, Umax, indicates a possibility of a coupling between the shear layer and the structures shed from the reattachment region.

Ground vehicles are subjected to crosswind from various origins such as weather, topography of the ambient environment (land, forest, tunnels, high bushes...) or surrounding traffic. The trend of lowering the weight of vehicles imposes a stronger need for understanding the coupling between crosswind stability, the vehicle external shape and the dynamic properties. Means for reducing fuel consumption of ground vehicles can also conflict with the handling and dynamic characteristics of the vehicle. Streamlined design of vehicle shapes to lower the drag can be a good example of this dilemma. If care is not taken, the streamlined shape can lead to an increase in yaw moment under crosswind conditions which results in a poor handling. The development of numerical methods provides efficient tools to investigate these complex phenomena that are difficult to reproduce experimentally. Time accurate and scale resolving methods, like Detached-Eddy Simulations (DES), are particularly of interest, since they allow a better description of unsteady flows than standard Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS) models. Moreover, due to the constant increase in computational resources, this type of simulations complies more and more with industrial interests and design cycles. In this thesis, the possibilities offered by DES to simulate unsteady crosswind aerodynamics of simple vehicle models in an industrial framework are explored. A large part of the work is devoted to the grid design, which is especially crucial for truthful results from DES. Additional concerns in simulations of unsteady crosswind aerodynamics are highlighted, especially for the resolution of the wind-gust boundary layer profiles. Finally, the transient behaviour of the aerodynamic loads and the flow structures are analyzed for several types of vehicles. The results simulated with DES are promising and the overall agreement with the experimental data available is good, which illustrates a certain reliability in the simulations. In addition, the simulations show that the force coefficients exhibit highly transient behaviour under gusty conditions. / ECO2 Crosswind Stability and Unsteady Aerodynamics for Ground Vehicles

No description available.

No description available.

Highly loaded single stage gas turbines are being developed to minimize the turbine size and weight. Such highly loaded turbines often result in transonic flows, which imply a reduction in the efficiency due to the shock losses. The efficiency of a turbine is defined as the ratio between the real work extracted by the turbine rotor from the fluid and the maximum available enthalpy for a given pressure ratio. The relationship between turbine performance and design parameters is not yet fully comprehended due to the complexity of the flow field and unsteady flow field interactions. Hence, experimental and numerical studies remain necessary to understand the flow behavior at different conditions to advance the state of the art of the prediction tools. The purpose of the current research is to develop a methodology to determine the efficiency with an accuracy better than 1 % in a cooled and uncooled high pressure (HP) turbine tested in a short duration facility with a running time of about 0.4s. Such low level of uncertainty requires the accurate evaluation of a large number of quantities simultaneously, namely the mass flow of the mainstream, the coolant, and leakage flows properties, the inlet total pressure and total temperature, the stage exit total pressure, the shaft power, the mechanical losses and the heat transfer. The experimental work is carried out in a compression tube facility that allows testing the turbine at the temperature ratios, Re and Mach numbers encountered in real engines. The stage mass flow is controlled by a variable sonic throat located downstream of the stage exit. Due to the absence of any brake, the turbine power is converted into rotor acceleration. The accurate measurement of this acceleration as well as those of the inertia and the rotational speed provides the shaft power. The inertia of the whole rotating assembly was accurately determined by accelerating and decelerating the shaft with a known energy. The mass-flow is derived from the measured turbine inlet total pressure and the vane sonic throat. The turbine sonic throat was evaluated based on a zero-dimensional model of the turbine. The efficiencies of two transonic turbines are measured at design and off-design conditions. The turbine design efficiency is obtained as 91.8 %. The repeatability of the measurements for 95% confidence level varies between 0.3 % and 1.1 % of the efficiency depending on the test case. The theoretical uncertainty level of 1.2 % is mainly affected by the uncertainty of exit total pressure measurements. Additionally, the effect of vane trailing edge shock formations and their interactions with the rotor blade are analyzed based on the experimental data, the numerical tools and the loss correlations. The changes of blade and vane performances are measured at mid-span for three different pressure ratios which influence the vane and rotor shock mechanisms. Moreover, the unsteady forces on the rotor blades and the rotor disk were calculated by integration of the unsteady static pressure field on the rotor surface.

The use of steady-state aerodynamic optimization methods in the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) community is fairly well established. In particular, the use of adjoint methods has proven to be very beneficial because their cost is independent of the number of design variables. The application of numerical optimization to airframe-generated noise, however, has not received as much attention, but with the significant quieting of modern engines, airframe noise now competes with engine noise. Optimal control techniques for unsteady flows are needed in order to be able to reduce airframe-generated noise. In this thesis, a general framework is formulated to calculate the gradient of a cost function in a nonlinear unsteady flow environment via the discrete adjoint method. The unsteady optimization algorithm developed in this work utilizes a Newton-Krylov approach since the gradient-based optimizer uses the quasi-Newton method BFGS, Newton's method is applied to the nonlinear flow problem, GMRES is used to solve the resulting linear problem inexactly, and last but not least the linear adjoint problem is solved using Bi-CGSTAB. The flow is governed by the unsteady two-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations in conjunction with a one-equation turbulence model, which are discretized using structured grids and a finite difference approach. The effectiveness of the unsteady optimization algorithm is demonstrated by applying it to several problems of interest including shocktubes, pulses in converging-diverging nozzles, rotating cylinders, transonic buffeting, and an unsteady trailing-edge flow. In order to address radiated far-field noise, an acoustic wave propagation program based on the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings (FW-H) formulation is implemented and validated. The general framework is then used to derive the adjoint equations for a novel hybrid URANS/FW-H optimization algorithm in order to be able to optimize the shape of airfoils based on their calculated far-field pressure fluctuations. Validation and application results for this novel hybrid URANS/FW-H optimization algorithm show that it is possible to optimize the shape of an airfoil in an unsteady flow environment to minimize its radiated far-field noise while maintaining good aerodynamic performance.

The use of steady-state aerodynamic optimization methods in the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) community is fairly well established. In particular, the use of adjoint methods has proven to be very beneficial because their cost is independent of the number of design variables. The application of numerical optimization to airframe-generated noise, however, has not received as much attention, but with the significant quieting of modern engines, airframe noise now competes with engine noise. Optimal control techniques for unsteady flows are needed in order to be able to reduce airframe-generated noise. In this thesis, a general framework is formulated to calculate the gradient of a cost function in a nonlinear unsteady flow environment via the discrete adjoint method. The unsteady optimization algorithm developed in this work utilizes a Newton-Krylov approach since the gradient-based optimizer uses the quasi-Newton method BFGS, Newton's method is applied to the nonlinear flow problem, GMRES is used to solve the resulting linear problem inexactly, and last but not least the linear adjoint problem is solved using Bi-CGSTAB. The flow is governed by the unsteady two-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations in conjunction with a one-equation turbulence model, which are discretized using structured grids and a finite difference approach. The effectiveness of the unsteady optimization algorithm is demonstrated by applying it to several problems of interest including shocktubes, pulses in converging-diverging nozzles, rotating cylinders, transonic buffeting, and an unsteady trailing-edge flow. In order to address radiated far-field noise, an acoustic wave propagation program based on the Ffowcs Williams and Hawkings (FW-H) formulation is implemented and validated. The general framework is then used to derive the adjoint equations for a novel hybrid URANS/FW-H optimization algorithm in order to be able to optimize the shape of airfoils based on their calculated far-field pressure fluctuations. Validation and application results for this novel hybrid URANS/FW-H optimization algorithm show that it is possible to optimize the shape of an airfoil in an unsteady flow environment to minimize its radiated far-field noise while maintaining good aerodynamic performance.

One of the best opportunities to reduce pipeline accidents and subsequent product loss comes from implementing better pipeline condition assessment and fault detection systems. Transient analysis model based condition assessment is the most promising technique because pressure transients propagate entire system interacting with the pipe and any devices in the system. Transient measurements embody a large amount of information about the physical characteristics of the system. The performance of this technique has its difficulties because a highly accurate transient model is required. Real systems have numerous uncertainties and flow system components that presents a major challenge in the development of precise transient analysis models. To improve transient modelling for the performance of condition assessment, this research undertakes a comprehensive investigation into the transient behaviour of distributed and various local energy loss system components in water and gas pipelines. The dynamic behaviours that have been investigated in this research are the effect of unsteady wall resistance, viscoelasticity effects of polymer pipe, and local energy loss elements including leakages, entrapped air pockets, orifices, and blockages during unsteady pipe flow conditions. The dynamic characteristics of these system components are modelled based on the conservative solution scheme using the governing equations in their conservative form. Use of the conservative form of the equations improves the sensitivity and applicability of transient analysis in both liquid and gas pipeline systems. The numerical model results are compared to laboratory experiments in water and gas pipelines to observe the interaction between transient pressure wave and system components and to verify the proposed models. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1337145 / Thesis( Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering 2008

L’aspirateur d’une centrale hydroélectrique est l’organe hydraulique se situant en aval de la roue. Il a une forme divergente afin de récupérer l’énergie cinétique résiduelle en sortie de roue sous forme de pression statique et augmenter ainsi la chute nette de la centrale. Dans le cas des turbines de basse chute de type bulbe, les pertes de charge dans l’aspirateur influencent fortement le rendement global de la centrale. La prédiction correcte de ces pertes de charge au cours du dimensionnement de la turbine représente donc un enjeu majeur. La prédiction numérique des pertes de charge dans l’aspirateur est un réel challenge car l’écoulement dans l’aspirateur est dynamiquement complexe avec des nombres de Reynolds élevés, la présence de swirl et d’un gradient adverse de pression. Ces caractéristiques font que les approches de modélisation classiquement utilisées dans l’industrie sont mises en défaut. L’objectif de ce travail est double : (i) améliorer la prédiction de l’écoulement turbulent dans l’aspirateur en utilisant des approches instationnaires URANS et LES et en portant une attention particulière à la description des conditions d’entrée de l’aspirateur et (ii) réaliser une analyse fine des échanges énergétiques dans l’aspirateur pour mieux comprendre l’origine des pertes de charge. Une condition d’entrée instationnaire représentative de l’écoulement en sortie de roue est élaborée pour ces calculs. Les résultats de simulation sont comparés avec des mesures expérimentales afin d’évaluer la capacité prédictive de chaque approche de modélisation de la turbulence (URANS et LES). Cette étape de validation met en évidence l’importance d’une définition correcte des trois composantes de la vitesse en entrée d’aspirateur. L’influence des conditions aux limites du domaine de calcul, à savoir la rugosité de la paroi et la condition de sortie de l’aspirateur, sur les résultats de simulation est évaluée, notamment dans le cas d’une résolution LES. Grâce à une analyse détaillée du bilan d’énergie cinétique moyenne dans l’aspirateur, les phénomènes hydrodynamiques responsables des pertes de charge sont identifiés. Ceci permet d'analyser en détail les différences de prédiction de pertes de charge entre les calculs URANS et LES et d’identifier les pistes d’amélioration de la prédiction numérique de ces pertes. Enfin, cette analyse permet de comprendre l’évolution des pertes de charge observée entre plusieurs points de fonctionnement de la turbine. / The draft tube of a hydraulic turbine is the turbine element located downstream of the runner. It has a divergent shape in order to convert the residual kinetic energy leaving the runner into pressure and thus increase the effective head of the turbine. The performances of low head bulb turbines are highly influenced by the head losses in the draft tube. The prediction of these head losses in a design process is thereby a major issue. The numerical prediction of the head losses in the draft tube is a real challenge because the flow in the draft tube is dynamically complex with high Reynolds numbers, a swirl and an adverse pressure gradient. These characteristics render conventional industrial approaches not appropriate. The objective of this work is twofold: (i) to improve the numerical prediction of the turbulent flow in the draft tube by using URANS and LES unsteady approaches and paying special attention to the description of the inlet boundary conditions of the draft tube and (ii) to conduct a detailed analysis of the energy transfers in the draft tube in order to better understand the origin of the head losses. An unsteady inlet boundary condition for the simulations reproducing the flow field at the runner outlet is developed. Numerical results are compared to experimental measurements in order to evaluate the predictive capacity of each turbulence modelling approach (URANS and LES). This validation step highlights the importance of defining properly the three velocity components at the draft tube inlet. The influence on the numerical results of boundary conditions of the calculation domain, such as wall roughness and the outlet boundary condition, is evaluated, in particular in case of LES. Thanks to a detailed analysis of the mean kinetic energy balance in the draft tube, the hydrodynamic phenomena responsible for head losses are identified. The head losses prediction differences between URANS and LES are thus analyzed in detail and possible improvements for the head losses prediction are identified. Finally, this analysis enables to understand the head losses evolution observed between several operating points of the turbine.