Evaluation of near-wall solution approaches for large-eddy simulations of flow in a centrifugal pump impeller

The turbulent flow in a centrifugal pump impeller is bounded by complex surfaces, including blades, a hub and a shroud. The primary challenge of the flow simulation arises from the generation of a boundary layer between the surface of the impeller and the moving fluid. The principal objective is to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Engineering applications of computational fluid mechanics 2016-01, Vol.10 (1), p.452-465
Main Authors: Yao, Zhi-Feng, Yang, Zheng-Jun, Wang, Fu-Jun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Boundary layer flow
centrifugal pump impeller
Centrifugal pumps
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer simulation
evaluation
Flow simulation
Fluid flow
Impellers
Large eddy simulation
Laser doppler velocimeters
near-wall solution
Predictions
Product design
Pump impellers
Simulation
Steady flow
Turbulent flow
Velocimetry
Vortices
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Summary:The turbulent flow in a centrifugal pump impeller is bounded by complex surfaces, including blades, a hub and a shroud. The primary challenge of the flow simulation arises from the generation of a boundary layer between the surface of the impeller and the moving fluid. The principal objective is to evaluate the near-wall solution approaches that are typically used to deal with the flow in the boundary layer for the large-eddy simulation (LES) of a centrifugal pump impeller. Three near-wall solution approaches -the wall-function approach, the wall-resolved approach and the hybrid Reynolds averaged Navier-Stoke (RANS) and LES approach - are tested. The simulation results are compared with experimental results conducted through particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) and laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). It is found that the wall-function approach is more sparing of computational resources, while the other two approaches have the important advantage of providing highly accurate boundary layer flow prediction. The hybrid RANS/LES approach is suitable for predicting steady-flow features, such as time-averaged velocities and hydraulic losses. Despite the fact that the wall-resolved approach is expensive in terms of computing resources, it exhibits a strong ability to capture a small-scale vortex and predict instantaneous velocity in the near-wall region in the impeller. The wall-resolved approach is thus recommended for the transient simulation of flows in centrifugal pump impellers.
ISSN:1994-2060
1997-003X
DOI:10.1080/19942060.2016.1189362