Numerical Predictions of Early Stage Turbulence in Oscillatory Flow across Parallel-Plate Heat Exchangers of a Thermoacoustic System

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 7; no. 7; p. 673
• Main Authors: Mohd Saat, Fatimah, Jaworski, Artur
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 30-06-2017
• Subjects: Amplitudes; Asymmetry; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer applications; Experimental data; Experiments; Fluid dynamics; Fluid flow; Heat exchangers; Heat flux; Heat transfer; Hydrodynamics; K-omega turbulence model; Numerical analysis; Numerical prediction; Oscillating flow; oscillatory flow; parallel-plate heat exchanger; Plate heat exchangers; Predictions; Reynolds number; standing wave; Temperature gradients; thermoacoustic system; Thermoacoustics; Thickness; transition; Turbulence; Turbulence models; Turbulent flow; Two dimensional models; Velocity; Velocity distribution; Vorticity
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app7070673

This work focuses on the predictions of turbulent transition in oscillatory flow subjected to temperature gradients, which often occurs within heat exchangers of thermoacoustic devices. A two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed in ANSYS FLUENT and validated using the earlier experimental data. Four drive ratios (defined as maximum pressure amplitude to mean pressure) were investigated: 0.30%, 0.45%, 0.65% and 0.83%. It has been found that the introduction of the turbulence model at a drive ratio as low as 0.45% improves the predictions of flow structure compared to experiments, which indicates that turbulent transition may occur at much smaller flow amplitudes than previously thought. In the current investigation, the critical Reynolds number based on the thickness of Stokes’ layer falls in the range between 70 and 100. The models tested included four variants of the RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes) equations: k-ε, k-ω, shear-stress-transport (SST)-k-ω and transition-SST, the laminar model being used as a reference. Discussions are based on velocity profiles, vorticity plots, viscous dissipation and the resulting heat transfer and their comparison with experimental results. The SST-k-ω turbulence model and, in some cases, transition-SST provide the best fit of the velocity profile between numerical and experimental data (the value of the introduced metric measuring the deviation of the CFD velocity profiles from experiment is up to 43% lower than for the laminar model) and also give the best match in terms of calculated heat flux. The viscous dissipation also increases with an increase of the drive ratio. The results suggest that turbulence should be considered when designing thermoacoustic devices even in low-amplitude regimes in order to improve the performance predictions of thermoacoustic systems.