Investigation of unsteady phenomena in rotor/stator cavities using Large Eddy Simulation

This thesis provides a numerical and theoretical investigation of transitional and turbulent enclosed rotating flows, with a focus on the formation of macroscopic coherent flow structures. The underlying processes are strongly threedimensional due to the presence of boundary layers on the discs and on the walls of the outer (resp. inner) cylindrical shroud (resp. shaft). The complexity of these flows poses a great challenge in fundamental research however the present work is also of importance for industrial rotating machinery, from hard-drives to space engines turbopumps - the design issues of the latter being behind the motivation for this thesis. The present work consists of two major investigations. First, industrial cavities are modeled by smooth rotor/stator cavities and therein the dominant flow dynamics is investigated. For the experimental campaigns on industrial machinery revealed dangerous unsteady phenomena within the cavities, the emphasis is put on the reproduction and monitoring of unsteady pressure fluctuations within the smooth cavities. Then, the LES of three configurations of real industrial turbines are conducted to study in situ the pressure fluctuations and apply the diagnostics already vetted on academic problems

Topological Data Analysis for numerical method comparisons of 2D turbulent flows

International audienc

Etude des phénomènes instationnaires dans les cavités rotor/stator par Simulation aux Grandes Echelles

Ce manuscrit présente une étude couplée, numérique et théorique, portant sur les écoulements tournants transitionnels et turbulents. L'accent y est mis sur la formation de structures macroscopiques cohérentes au sein de l'écoulement, générées par des procédés rendus fortement tri-dimensionnels par la présence des couches limites sur les disques et le long des parois cylindriques extérieure (carter) et/ou intérieure (moyeu). La complexité de ces écoulements pose de véritables difficultés en recherche fondamentale mais les résultats de ces travaux ont aussi une importance non négligeable pour les machines industrielles tournantes, depuis les disque-durs jusqu'aux turbopompes spatiales, la conception de ces dernières étant la motivation première pour ces travaux de thèse. Ce travail peut être divisé en deux sous-parties. Dans un premier temps, les cavités industrielles sont modélisées par de simples cavités rotor/stator lisses pour y étudier la dynamique de l'écoulement. Comme les campagnes expérimentales sur les machines industrielles ont révélé de dangereux phénomènes instationnaires en leur sein, l'accent est mis sur l'obtention et l'étude des fluctuations de pression dans les écoulements modèles. Ensuite, les SGE de trois configurations de turbine industrielle réelle sont réalisées pour étudier les fluctuations de pression in situ et appliquer les diagnostiques éprouvés sur les géométries modèles.This thesis provides a numerical and theoretical investigation of transitional and turbulent enclosed rotating flows, with a focus on the formation of macroscopic coherent flow structures. The underlying processes are strongly threedimensional due to the presence of boundary layers on the discs and on the walls of the outer (resp. inner) cylindrical shroud (resp. shaft). The complexity of these flows poses a great challenge in fundamental research however the present work is also of importance for industrial rotating machinery, from hard-drives to space engines turbopumps - the design issues of the latter being behind the motivation for this thesis. The present work consists of two major investigations. First, industrial cavities are modeled by smooth rotor/stator cavities and therein the dominant flow dynamics is investigated. For the experimental campaigns on industrial machinery revealed dangerous unsteady phenomena within the cavities, the emphasis is put on the reproduction and monitoring of unsteady pressure fluctuations within the smooth cavities. Then, the LES of three configurations of real industrial turbines are conducted to study in situ the pressure fluctuations and apply the diagnostics already vetted on academic problems

Immersed boundaries in hypersonic flows with considerations about high-order for LES simulations

International audienc

Immersed boundaries in hypersonic flows with considerations about high-order for LES simulations

International audienc

Topological Analysis of High Velocity Turbulent Flow

International audienceIn order to guarantee the performances of complex systems, the CEA is driving large numerical simulations in various fields such as thermomechanics, electromagnetism and aerodynamics. Due to the size of the problems and the use of High Performance Computing approaches, large and complex datasets need to be explored to understand the physical phenomena. This paper focuses on the exploration of a compressible turbulent 2D flow, to better understand the flight behavior of an object. Topological data analysis (TDA) is used to improve understanding and avoid costly traditional methods such as 3D modal decomposition algorithms or highly technical hydrody-namic stability codes. The attention is put on the large eddies shed behind a cylinder hit by a crossflow. Thanks to TDA the tracking of the eddies, the identification of their origin and the evolution of their amplitude with the downstream distance are facilitated

topological analysis of ensembles of hydrodynamic turbulent flows. An experimental study

This application paper presents a comprehensive experimental evaluation of the suitability of Topological Data Analysis (TDA) for the quantitative comparison of turbulent flows. Specifically, our study documents the usage of the persistence diagram of the maxima of flow enstrophy (an established vorticity indicator), for the topological representation of 180 ensemble members, generated by a coarse sampling of the parameter space of five numerical solvers. We document five main hypotheses reported by domain experts, describing their expectations regarding the variability of the flows generated by the distinct solver configurations. We contribute three evaluation protocols to assess the validation of the above hypotheses by two comparison measures: (i) a standard distance used in scientific imaging (the $L_2$ norm) and (ii) an established topological distance between persistence diagrams (the $L_2$-Wasserstein metric). Extensive experiments on the input ensemble demonstrate the superiority of the topological distance (ii) to report as close to each other flows which are expected to be similar by domain experts, due to the configuration of their vortices. Overall, the insights reported by our study bring an experimental evidence of the suitability of TDA for representing and comparing turbulent flows, thereby providing to the fluid dynamics community confidence for its usage in future work. Also, our flow data and evaluation protocols provide to the TDA community an application-approved benchmark for the evaluation and design of further topological distances

Topological Data Analysis for numerical method comparisons of 2D turbulent flows

International audienc

Topological Analysis of Ensembles of Hydrodynamic Turbulent Flows An Experimental Study

International audienc

High fidelity simulation of hypersonic streaks instabilities and transition

International audienc