Paper proposal for platform presentation

3D numerical analysis of the unsteady flow in a cylindrical flow regulator using Fluent
Patryk Wjtowicz and Magorzata Szlachta
Institute of Environmental Protection Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wybrzee S. Wyspiaskiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland Corresponding author: Patryk Wjtowicz, tel. +48 71 320 28 06, fax. +48 71 328 29 80, e-mail: patryk.wojtowicz@pwr.wroc.pl

Introduction Devices for flow regulation are usually placed in remote locations and harsh environments where their inspection and regular maintenance is difficult and costly. Nonetheless, they are important parts of the system and the failure of a regulation device in most cases can cause severe damage. The only answer to such strict requirements are hydrodynamic flow regulators: compact, extremely efficient (the range of the loss coefficient is from 3 to 368) and reliable in flow throttling and free from the common disadvantages of traditional devices such as pipe cross-section reduction, a power supply and moving mechanical parts. These devices are also known as vortex regulators and are used in urban storm and wastewater systems as a replacement for orifices, gate valves or throttling pipes. The hydrodynamic regulator is a solution for overloaded urban drainage systems where network retention can be employed. When combined with engineering facilities such as storage reservoirs, separators or storm overflows, they are irreplaceable devices for inflow division and outflow limitation from structures. This paper reports an experimental and numerical investigation on the wide range of innovative twin-chamber countercurrent hydrodynamic flow regulators. This research was driven by two goals the first was purely applicable and was aimed at the development of cheap, easy to manufacture and reliable vortex regulators, but still effective in throttling and regulating flow. To address this problem the analysis regarding the influence of the main geometric variables on the performance of flow regulators was presented. The second objective was aimed at better understanding the complex flow field and the collection of a data set useful for validating the CFD simulation. Materials and methods Measurements were made of the pressure drop across various designs of hydrodynamic flow regulators over a range of flow rates. The closed circuit system filled with tap water and with a recirculating pump was used for testing the flow regulators. The flow rate was measured with an Endress Hauser Promag 53W electromagnetic flow meter and controlled by a manually operated valve. The Wilo IL-E in-line centrifugal pump with integrated electronic speed control was used to recirculate water in the system. In order to stabilize and dampen the pressure fluctuations, a surge tank was incorporated into the system. The digital pressure gauge Aplisens APC-2000 ALW was used to measure pressure drop and pressures inside the chamber

of the tested devices. The ambient air and recirculating water temperature in two locations across the system were monitored by a thermocouple. The air core diameter and spray cone angle (measured 25 mm downstream from the exit orifice) were determined from photographs taken with a CCD camera after initial digital image processing (e.g. correction for light refraction). The models of cylindrical vortex throttles were fabricated in the laboratory scale. Schematics for a typical design of a twin-chamber cylindrical countercurrent hydrodynamic flow regulator as well as the construction of a laboratory scale model are shown in Fig. 1a and b. a) b)

Fig. 1. Countercurrent cylindrical flow regulator a) operational schematics b) bench-scale model.

Results and discussion Experimental study of hydrodynamic flow regulators Despite the apparent simplicity of the construction and straightforward operational principle, the internal confined vortex flow is very complex and had defied a complete solution both analytical and numerical for over 100 years. It is still not fully understood how the phenomena inside these devices affect their performance; that is why in most cases they are treated as a black box. The flow field inside the (vortex) chamber is highly turbulent, anisotropic and three-dimensional. The non-stationary features are also reported in literature (vortex breakdown, precessing vortex core PVC and boundary layer laminarization). To facilitate the design and application of these devices the influence of particular parameters must be first tested experimentally. In the present work the experimental tests were aided by both quantitative and qualitative numerical analyses. The tested regulators have a constant inlet diameter with a square cross section (20 x 20 mm) and chamber height (20 mm). These assumptions were based on previous work where it was found that increasing the relative vortex chamber height hc/din decreases the hydraulic resistance. In the models tested, the relative chamber height ratio was kept constant at hc/din = 1. Initial models were fabricated with circular inlets, but it was proven that square inlets were increasing the throttling effect. The effects of geometrical variables on the performance of the hydrodynamic flow regulators have been studied. The dimensional analysis using the Buckingham-Pi theorem was employed to reduce the number of variables and simplify experimental study. In this abstract, only the effect of the relative inter-chamber port size (dp/din) and Reynolds number will be

discussed while the full paper will contain a comprehensive analysis. The size of the port between the chambers of the countercurrent regulator affects its performance. Surprisingly, decreasing the port size decreases the throttling effect of the device up to the point when the second chamber is completely shut off. For this scenario the throttling effect suddenly increases which - in turn - decreases capacity significantly. Table 1 summarizes only selected experimental runs with geometrical parameters of the devices tested and their throttling efficiency expressed by a minor loss coefficient (or Euler number) and outflow coefficient . In total, the experimental research encompassed 110 runs for a wide range of geometrical parameters.
Table 1. Geometrical parameters and throttling efficiency of vortex flow regulators (selected experimental runs 1 to 10). din D1 D2 dout1 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 dout2 mm dout3 mm 10 10 10 10 20 20 20 20 20 10 dout4 dp (Eu) -

No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

mm mm mm mm 20 100 60 20 100 60 20 100 60 20 100 60 20 20 20 20 20 20 80 80 80 80 80 60 60 60 60 60 60 60

mm mm

20 41.14 0.1559 15 38.92 0.1603 10 37.36 0.1636 5 31.18 0.1791 20 23.27 0.2073 15 22.27 0.2119 10 21.65 0.2149 7.5 21.18 0.2173 5 22.27 0.2119 20 27.35 0.1912

Hydrodynamic flow regulators can operate in both single and twin-chamber mode. By closing outlets different operating schemes can also be distinguished. They differ in the number of active outlets and their arrangement. CFD modelling of hydrodynamic flow regulators For the verification of the CFD simulation apart from parameters such as pressure drop, flow rate, spray cone angle or air core diameter, pressure and velocity profiles inside the vortex chamber were obtained. For numerical analyses ANSYS Fluent 13 was used. Simulations were carried out using a 3D double precision, unsteady state and pressure-based (segregated) solver. The governing Navier Stokes equations were solved sequentially using iterative methods until defined values of convergence were met. An incompressible flow of water inside vortex flow regulators was simulated using the transient Reynolds Stress Model (RSM). As an initial input the results obtained from the converged solution for the steady state k- Realizable turbulence model were used. The PRESTO! scheme was used for pressure interpolation as it was proven to be useful for predicting a highly swirling flow field. The pressure was linked with velocity using the SIMPLE scheme.