Numerical Simulation of an Air-Core Vortex and Its Suppression at an Intake Using OpenFOAM
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Date
2020-10-26
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Fluids
Abstract
: A common challenge faced by engineers in the hydraulic industry is the formation of
free surface vortices at pump and power intakes. This undesirable phenomenon which sometimes
entrains air could result in several operational problems: noise, vibration, cavitation, surging,
structural damage to turbines and pumps, energy losses, efficiency losses, etc. This paper investigates
the numerical simulation of an experimentally observed air-core vortex at an intake using the
LTSInterFoam solver in OpenFOAM. The solver uses local time-stepping integration. In simulating
the air-core vortex, the standard k − ε, realizable k − ε, renormalization group (RNG) k − ε and the
shear stress transport (SST) k − ω models were used. The free surface was modelled using the volume
of fluid (VOF) model. The simulation was validated using a set of analytical models and experimental
data. The SST k − ω model provided the best results compared to the other turbulence models.
The study was extended to simulate the effect of installing an anti-vortex device on the formation
of a free surface vortex. The LTSInterFoam solver proved to be a reliable solver for the steady state
simulation of a free surface vortex in OpenFOAM
Description
Keywords
intake, air-core vortex, LTSInterFoam, OpenFOAM, volume of fluid (VOF), Robert Andoh, Eric Antwi Ofosu, ACE: Energy and Environmental Sustainability