FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION OF THREE‐DIMENSIONAL TURBULENT FLOW WITH DECAYING SWIRL
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
ISSN: 0961-5539
Article publication date: 1 June 1993
Abstract
A finite element based numerical model is employed to obtain isothermal and heat transfer predictions for the case of turbulent flow with a decaying swirl component in a stationary circular pipe. An assessment is made on the quality of predictions based on the choice of turbulence modelling technique adopted to close the governing equations. In the present work the one‐equation, two‐equation and algebraic Reynolds stress turbulence models are employed. For the confined flow problem investigated, accurate prediction of the near‐wall conditions is essential. This is particularly the case for confined swirling flow where the variation of variables near the wall is often somewhat greater than encountered in pure axial flow. A finite element based near‐wall model is employed as an alternative to conventional techniques such as the use of the standard logarithmic functions. Of significance is the fact that flow predictions based on the use of the unidimensional finite element techniques are closer to experiment compared to the wall function based solutions for a given turbulence model. As expected, improvements in the flow predictions directly contribute to improved simulation of the thermal aspects of the problem.
Keywords
Citation
CASEY, M.R., KONG, L., TAYLOR, C. and MEDWELL, J.O. (1993), "FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION OF THREE‐DIMENSIONAL TURBULENT FLOW WITH DECAYING SWIRL", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 3 No. 6, pp. 545-564. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb017547
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 1993, MCB UP Limited