CFD modeling and analysis of an axial-flow turbomachine

D. Brzozowski
M.S. Essay, The Johns Hopkins University
October 2004
Baltimore MD

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this project was to investigate several turbulence modeling techniques for the complex unsteady flow inside an axial turbopump, for which an extensive experimental database is available for comparison.  First, unsteady RANS simulations were conducted using the commercial software FLUENT.  A deterministic stress model was evaluated as a less costly alternative (to unsteady RANS) for modeling the passage average flow field.  All computational results were compared to experimental data taken at the JHU Axial Turbomachine Facility.  The Reynolds Stress transport model and RNG k-ε model were both successful in reproducing the major qualitative features of the unsteady flow field.  The standard k-ε model over-predicted the turbulent kinetic energy by about an order of magnitude in nearly the entire flow-field.  The deterministic stress model was successful in predicting the general structure of the stress distributions, but they were much weaker in magnitude than the experimentally observed values.

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