An elliptic blending differential flux model for natural, mixed and forced convection

International audienceSeveral modifications are introduced to the Elliptic Blending Differential Flux Model proposed by Shin et al. (2008) to account for the influence of wall blockage on the turbulent heat flux. These modifications are introduced in order to reproduce, in association with the most recent version of the EB-RSM, the full range of regimes, from forced to natural convection, without any case-specific modification. The interest of the new model is demonstrated using analytical arguments, a priori tests and computations in channel flows in the different convection regimes, as well as in a differentially heated cavity

Development of a Large-Eddy-Simulation approach for free surface complex flows

Water Qualit

Development of a Large-Eddy-Simulation approach with Telemac-3D

Water Qualit

Adaptive wall treatment for the elliptic blending Reynolds stress model

International audienceWall functions are widely used in CFD in order to significantly reduce the computational cost compared to so called Low-Reynolds number formulations. They are, however, particularly restrictive in terms of meshing as they require the first calculation point to fall into the logarithmic region. Industrial simulations of internal flows, such as the ones encountered in nuclear applications, are particularly challenging due to their inherent complexity that makes it difficult to satisfy those conditions everywhere.The present study focuses on a new algebraic adaptive wall treatment for the Elliptic Blending Reynolds Stress Model (EB-RSM) by extending some of those recently proposed approaches. Blending functions that ensure a correct asymptotic behaviour at the wall for the velocity and the turbulent variables are introduced and boundary conditions are prescribed at the first near-wall cell. The approach shows very promising results on fully developed channel flows, comparable to what is obtained using a numerical integration down to the wall

Extension to various thermal boundary conditions of the elliptic blending model for the turbulent heat flux and the temperature variance

International audienceA new formulation of the model used in the near-wall region for the turbulent heat flux is developed, in order to extend the Elliptic Blending Differential Flux Model of Dehoux et al., Int. J. Heat Fluid Fl. (2017), to various boundary conditions for the temperature: imposed wall-temperature, imposed heat flux or Conjugate Heat Transfer (CHT). The new model is developed on a theoretical basis in order to satisfy the near-wall budget of the turbulent heat flux and, consequently, its asymptotic behavior in the vicinity of the wall, which is crucial for the correct prediction of heat transfer between the fluid and the wall. The models of the different terms are derived using Taylor series expansions and comparisons with recent direct numerical simulation data of channel flows with various boundary conditions. A priori tests show that this methodology makes it possible to drastically improve the physical representation of the wall/turbulence interaction. This new differential flux model relies on the thermal-to-mechanical timescale ratio which depends on the thermal boundary condition at the wall. The key element entering this ratio is ε θ , the dissipation rate of the temperature variance θ 2. Thus, a new near-wall model for this dissipation rate is proposed, in the framework of the second-moment closure based on the elliptic-blending strategy. The computations carried out in order to validate the new differential flux model demonstrate the very satisfactory prediction of heat transfer in the forced convection regime for all kinds of thermal boundary condition

Accumulation and transport of microbial-size particles in a pressure protected model burn unit: CFD simulations and experimental evidence

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Controlling airborne contamination is of major importance in burn units because of the high susceptibility of burned patients to infections and the unique environmental conditions that can accentuate the infection risk. In particular the required elevated temperatures in the patient room can create thermal convection flows which can transport airborne contaminates throughout the unit. In order to estimate this risk and optimize the design of an intensive care room intended to host severely burned patients, we have relied on a computational fluid dynamic methodology (CFD).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The study was carried out in 4 steps: i) patient room design, ii) CFD simulations of patient room design to model air flows throughout the patient room, adjacent anterooms and the corridor, iii) construction of a prototype room and subsequent experimental studies to characterize its performance iv) qualitative comparison of the tendencies between CFD prediction and experimental results. The Electricité De France (EDF) open-source software <it>Code_Saturne</it>^®(<url>http://www.code-saturne.org</url>) was used and CFD simulations were conducted with an hexahedral mesh containing about 300 000 computational cells. The computational domain included the treatment room and two anterooms including equipment, staff and patient. Experiments with inert aerosol particles followed by time-resolved particle counting were conducted in the prototype room for comparison with the CFD observations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that thermal convection can create contaminated zones near the ceiling of the room, which can subsequently lead to contaminate transfer in adjacent rooms. Experimental confirmation of these phenomena agreed well with CFD predictions and showed that particles greater than one micron (i.e. bacterial or fungal spore sizes) can be influenced by these thermally induced flows. When the temperature difference between rooms was 7°C, a significant contamination transfer was observed to enter into the positive pressure room when the access door was opened, while 2°C had little effect. Based on these findings the constructed burn unit was outfitted with supplemental air exhaust ducts over the doors to compensate for the thermal convective flows.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>CFD simulations proved to be a particularly useful tool for the design and optimization of a burn unit treatment room. Our results, which have been confirmed qualitatively by experimental investigation, stressed that airborne transfer of microbial size particles via thermal convection flows are able to bypass the protective overpressure in the patient room, which can represent a potential risk of cross contamination between rooms in protected environments.</p

Numerical simulations of flow and heat transfer in a wall-bounded pin matrix

International audienceA detailed computational study was performed for the case of a wall-bounded pin-fin-array in a staggered arrangement, representative of industrial configurations designed to enhance heat transfer. In order to evaluate the level of turbulence modelling necessary to accurately reproduce the flow physics at three (3) different Reynolds numbers (3, 000, 10, 000 and 30, 000), four models were selected: two eddy-viscosity URANS models (k-ω-SST and φ-model), an Elliptic Blending Reynolds-stress model (EB-RSM) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES). Global comparisons for the pressure loss coefficients and average Nusselt numbers were performed with available experimental data which are relevant for industrial applications. Further detailed comparisons of the velocity fields, turbulence quantities and local Nusselt numbers revealed that the correct prediction of the characteristics of the flow is closely related to the ability of the turbulence model to reproduce the large-scale unsteadiness in the wake of the pins, which is at the origin of the intense mixing of momentum and heat. Eddy-viscosity-based turbulence models have difficulties to develop such an unsteadiness, in particular around the first few rows of pins, which leads to a severe underestimation of the Nusselt number. In contrast, LES and EB-RSM are able to predict the unsteady motion of the flow and heat transfer in a satisfactory manner