Conference proceeding
Large Eddy Simulation and Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Simulations of Flow in a Realistic Pump Intake: A Validation Study
Impacts of Global Climate Change, pp.1-12
World Water and Environmental Resources Congress 2005
2005
DOI: 10.1061/40792(173)423
Abstract
It is well known that the flow inside pump-bays is characterized by the formation of sub-surface and free-surface vortices due to poor design or due to operating those structures outside their design range. These vortices are observed to be highly unsteady and intermittent. The presence of these vortices and the high level of non-uniformity in the approach flow can produce high levels of unsteady swirl inside the pump column which in turn can result in uneven impeller loading and adversely affect the performance of the pumps. Numerical prediction of these flows characterized by the formation of unsteady (meandering) intermittent vortices and massive separation is very challenging. Successful prediction of these phenomena requires numerical methods and turbulence models that can accurately capture the dynamics of the main coherent structures in these flows. The present paper describes such a model that is based on using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) techniques in conjunction with an accurate non-dissipative Navier-Stokes massively parallel solver to predict the flow and vortical structures in pump intakes. The numerical solver can use unstructured hybrid meshes which allows flexibility in meshing very complex geometries while maintaining high quality of the computational mesh which is essential in obtaining accurate solutions. Some recent PIV data collected on a laboratory model of a realistic geometry pump intake is used to validate the newly developed LES model. To better put in perspective the predictive performances of the LES model, results from simulations employing the SST RANS model performed using a state-of-the-art commercial Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software are presented and compared with LES. The LES model is intended to be used as a design tool to remediate problems at existing pump intakes or test new design ideas without need to perform expensive scaled-model studies.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Large Eddy Simulation and Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Simulations of Flow in a Realistic Pump Intake: A Validation Study
- Creators
- S. G Constantinescu - University of IowaT. E Tokyay - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Publication Details
- Impacts of Global Climate Change, pp.1-12
- Conference
- World Water and Environmental Resources Congress 2005
- DOI
- 10.1061/40792(173)423
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2005
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984202146002771
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