Numerical study of turbulent flow in eccentric annular pipe

An eccentric annular duct is a prototype element in many applications, for example in close-packed tubular heat exchangers and coolant channels of nuclear reactors. From a fundamental viewpoint, turbulent flow in eccentric annular ducts is an ideal model for investigating inhomogeneous turbulence. It is also a convenient model to study the laminar and turbulent interface and may serve as a test case for turbulence modelling of flows with partly turbulent regimes. Based on the approach of direct numerical simulation, numerical investigations of turbulent flow in eccentric annular pipes are carried out in this thesis. We first investigated the case of fully turbulent flow. A detailed statistical analysis of turbulent flow and heat transfer was performed. Simulation results, such as friction factors, mean velocity profiles and the secondary-motion pattern, are in overall qualitative and quantitative agreement with the existing experimental data. The components of the Reynolds stress tensor, temperature-velocity correlations and some others were obtained for the first time for such kind of a flow. The study of the partly turbulent flow case was then carried out. Three approaches for detecting interfaces between laminar and turbulent regimes in partly turbulent flow in rotating eccentric pipes were compared and discussed. Positions of laminar-turbulent and turbulent-laminar interfaces obtained from profiles of perturbation enstrophy are the same as those obtained from production terms of enstrophy. Using patterns of streaks defined by wall shear stresses to determine the locations of interfaces showed similar results. The growth rate of a small disturbance in partly turbulent flow case was also analyzed. Small perturbations were introduced into the initial flow field in two different ways. Both cases show that the global growth rate of the small disturbance normalized by the global viscous time scale is constant. This constant value is in a good agreement with that obtained in channel flows and tube flows. A new approach was proposed to distinguish the interface between laminar and turbulent flow by introducing the global and local disturbance growth rate

Thermal oscillations in rat kidneys: an infrared imaging study

A high-resolution infrared (IR) camera was used to assess rhythmicity in localized renal blood flow, including the extent of regions containing nephrons with spontaneous oscillations in their individual blood flow. The IR imaging was able to follow changes in rat renal perfusion during baseline conditions, during occlusion of the main renal artery and during the administration of either saline or papaverine. Concurrent recordings were made of tubular pressure in superficial nephrons. Spontaneous vascular oscillations centred around 0.02–0.05 Hz and approximately 0.01 Hz could be detected reproducibly by IR imaging. Their spectral characteristics and their response to papaverine were in line with tubular pressure measurements. The intensity of and synchrony between thermal signals from different local areas of the kidney may allow, after surgical exposure, non-invasive imaging of functional clusters involved in renal cortical blood flow. Through visualization of the spatial extent of thermal oscillations, IR imaging holds promise in assessing kidney autoregulatory mechanisms

The Influence of Winding Location in Flux-Switching Permanent-Magnet Machines

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of winding location on back electromotive force (EMF) and armature inductance in flux-switching permanent-magnet (FSPM) machines. To obtain an analytical solution, a double-stator-pitch model is built based on the equivalent magnetic circuit method. Then, the open-circuit characteristics in FSPM machines with different winding layouts are analyzed by both the analytical model and finite-element-analysis method. The analysis reveals that winding inductance is easier influenced by the winding location than the permanent-magnet flux linkage and corresponding back EMF. Finally, the analytical and finite-element predictions are verified by experimental results

Analytical Model of Modular Spoke-Type Permanent Magnet Machines for In-Wheel Traction Applications

This paper proposes an analytical model of modular spoke-type permanent magnet (MSTPM) machines based on air-gap field modulation (AFM) theory. Firstly, a fundamental AFM model of open-circuit MSTPM machines is introduced. The open-circuit air-gap field of MSTPM machines is determined by three fundamental elements including the primitive magnetizing magnetomotive force (MMF) produced by permanent magnet (PM), and two modulators which consist of stator and rotor permeance. The analytical MMF excited by PM (PM-MMF) can be calculated by using magnetic circuit method, while the stator and rotor permeance models are developed based on relative permeance (RP) method. Thereafter, a general model is proposed to calculate the open-circuit back electromotive force (EMF) of MSTPM machines. Further, the winding inductance model is established on the basis of equivalent magnetic circuit method and RP model. Finally, the machine performance is predicted by the analytical model, and verified by both finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental results

Turbulent flow and heat transfer in eccentric annulus

Published versio

Thermal Model Approach to the YASA Machine for In-Wheel Traction Applications

The axial-flux permanent magnet (AFPM) machines with yokeless and segmented armature (YASA) topology are suitable for in-wheel traction systems due to the high power density and efficiency. To guarantee the reliable operation of the YASA machines, an accurate thermal analysis should be undertaken in detail during the electrical machine design phase. The technical contribution of this paper is to establish a detailed thermal analysis model of the YASA machine by the lumped parameter thermal network (LPTN) method. Compared with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method and the finite element (FE) method, the LPTN method can obtain an accurate temperature distribution with low time consumption. Firstly, the LPTN model of each component of the YASA machine is constructed with technical details. Secondly, the losses of the YASA machine are obtained by the electromagnetic FE analysis. Then, the temperature distribution of the machine can be calculated by the LPTN model and loss information. Finally, a prototype of the YASA machine is manufactured and its temperature distribution under different operating conditions is tested by TT-K-30 thermocouple temperature sensors. The experimental data matches the LPTN results well

An improved Kriging surrogate model method with high robustness for electrical machine optimization

This article presents a highly robust optimization method for electrical machines, taking the uncertain tolerances of machine manufacturing into account. Different from the traditional multi-objective optimization methods based on Kriging surrogate model, two genetic algorithm (GA) models with disparate sampling principles are used here to release heavy computational burden and to improve prediction accuracy. One is adding the final optimization result of GA as the samples into the initial surrogate model, while the other one is adding the samples from the optimization process for the initial surrogate model. A 12-slot 14-pole interior permanent magnet synchronous machine (IPMSM) is used for the case study, and two GA models are compared. Furthermore, the proposed robust optimization method is compared with a deterministic optimization method to demonstrate its superiority, and its effectiveness is verified by prototype tests.</p