Reducing building energy consumption is a significant challenge and is one of the most important research areas worldwide. Insulation will help to keep the building’s desired temperature by reducing the heat flow. Additionally, proper insulation can provide an extended period of comfort, leading to reduced building energy requirements. Encapsulated air is the major aspect of most thermal insulation materials. Low thermal conductivity is a good characteristic of thermal insulation materials. Aerogel has low thermal conductivity, so it is suitable for glazing and insulation purposes. This research paper investigates the effectiveness of aerogel as an insulation material in buildings by incorporating a translucent aerogel-glazing system in the window and aerogel insulation in the wall of a building. Experimental investigation of a 10 mm thick aerogel blanket surrounded box was conducted to assess its performance. Additionally, a CFD simulation was conducted, and the results of temperature... [more]

The Archimedes screw turbine (AST) is the most sustainable mini-hydropower extraction method that offers number of economic, social, and environmental advantages. Nowadays, many researchers are interested in AST development as it is considered a new technology. Currently, a lot of researchers are conducting experimental testing of the screws, comparing their reliability with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analyses. Almost all of them are lab-scale testing models that claiming an average 80% efficiency for low pitch angles. In the case of a real site with a small inclination angle, the length of the screw is large enough to cause severe problems, specially related to bending of the screw. Therefore, this research was conducted to analyze the CFD flow field in a real site-scale AST with the maximum possible inclination of 45 degrees. In addition, the design was done without the upper and lower reservoir as it was conceived as a run-of-river flow system. The simulated real scale AST re... [more]

A comfortable wind environment favors the sustainable development of urban residential districts and public health. However, the rapid growth of high-rise urban residential districts leads to low wind velocity environments in summer. This study examines the influence of enclosure boundary patterns and lift-up design on the wind environment and proposes an optimization strategy to improve the low wind velocity environment in residential districts in summer. A typical residential district in Hangzhou was selected; the average wind velocity, calm wind zone ratio and comfortable wind zone ratio were selected as the evaluation indexes. The wind environment for different enclosure boundary patterns and lift-up designs were obtained via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results indicate that the pedestrian wind environment is greatly improved in residential districts by reducing the height/width of the enclosure boundary, increasing the permeability rate and adopting a lift-... [more]

Air-cooled battery thermal management system (BTMS) technology is commonly used to control the temperature distribution of the battery pack in an electric vehicle. In this study, parallel plates are introduced to improve the cooling efficiency of the BTMS, which can change the airflow distribution of the battery pack. Firstly, the effect of the number of parallel plates on the cooling performance of the BTMS is investigated; within the acceptable range of power consumption loss, the model with two parallel plates shows the best cooling efficiency, and Tmax and ΔTmax are reduced by 2.42 and 3.46 K, respectively. Then, the influences of the length and height of parallel plates are studied; the optimal values for length and height are 1.5 and 30 mm, respectively. Finally, the conclusions drawn above are used to design three optimization schemes for the model with four parallel plates; the cooling efficiency of the battery pack can be improved efficiently, which illustrates the feasibility... [more]

Gas turbines are expected to play a key role in the energy production scenario in the future, and the introduction of carbon-free fuels is fundamental for the development of a sustainable energy mix. The development of a reliable numerical model is thus fundamental in order to support the design changes required for the burners. This paper presents the results of a numerical investigation on a turbulent, diffusive, combustion test case, with the purpose of identifying the best compromise between accuracy and computational cost, in the perspective of the model application in real, more complex, geometries. Referring to a test case has two main advantages. First, a rather simple geometry can be considered, still retaining a few peculiar flow features, such as recirculation vortices and shear layers, which are typical of real applications. Second, the experimental setup is much more detailed than in the case of real turbines, allowing a thorough model validation to be performed. In this p... [more]

Within a broader national project aimed at the hybridization of a standard city car (the 998 cc Mitsubishi-derived gasoline engine of the Smart W451), our team tackled the problem of improving the supercharger performance and response. The originally conceived design innovation was that of eliminating the mechanical connection between the compressor and the turbine. In the course of the study, it turned out that it is also possible to modify both components to extract extra power from the engine and to use it to recharge the battery pack. This required a redesign of both compressor and turbine. First, the initial configuration was analyzed on the basis of the design data provided by the manufacturer. Then, a preliminary performance assessment of the turbocharged engine allowed us to identify three “typical” operating points that could be used to properly redesign the turbomachinery. It was decided to maintain the radial configuration for both turbine and compressor, but to redesign the... [more]

This paper describes an ejector model for the prediction of on-design performance under available conditions. This is a direct method of calculating the optimal ejector performance (entrainment ratio or ER) without the need for iterative methods, which have been conventionally used. The values of three ejector efficiencies used to account for losses in the ejector are calculated by using a systematic approach (by employing CFD analysis) rather than the hit and trial method. Both experimental and analytical data from literature are used to validate the presented analytical model with good agreement for on-design performance. R245fa working fluid has been used for low-grade heat applications, and Engineering Equation Solver (EES) has been employed for simulating the proposed model. The presented model is suitable for integration with any thermal system model and its optimization because of its direct, non-iterative methodology. This model is a non-dimensional model and therefore requires... [more]

This paper is focused on the guide vane cascade as one of the most crucial stationary sub-systems of the hydraulic turbine, which needs to provide efficient inflow hydraulic conditions to the runner. The guide vanes direct the flow from the spiral casing and the stay vanes towards the runner, regulating the desired discharge. A parametric design tool with normalized geometrical constraints was created in MATLAB, suitable for generating guide vane cascade geometries for Francis turbines. The goal is to determine the limits of these constraints, which will lead to future faster prediction of initial guide vane configurations in the turbine optimal operating region. Several geometries are developed using preliminary design data of the turbine and are investigated using CFD simulations close to the best efficiency point (BEP) of the turbine. This research is part of the Horizon-2020—HydroFlex project led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), focusing on the developm... [more]

This paper presents the effect of cavity-based injection in an axisymmetric supersonic combustor using numerical investigation. An axisymmetric cavity-based angled and transverse injections in a circular scramjet combustor are studied. A three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier−Stokes (RANS) equation along with the k-ω shear-stress transport (SST) turbulence model and species transport equations are considered for the reacting flow studies. The numerical results of the non-reacting flow studies are validated with the available experimental data and are in good agreement with it. The performance of the injection system is analyzed based on the parameters like wall pressures, combustion efficiency, and total pressure loss of the scramjet combustor. The transverse injection upstream of the cavity and at the bottom wall of the cavity in a supersonic flow field creates a strong shock train in the cavity region that enhances complete combustion of hydrogen-air in the cavity region compared... [more]

This paper demonstrates the procedure of blade adjustment in a Kaplan-type water turbine, based on calculations of the flow system. The geometrical adjustment of a twisted blade with varying chord length is described in the study. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was used to characterise aerofoil and turbine performance. Furthermore, two turbines, with a different number of blades, were designed, manufactured, and tested experimentally. The numerical model results were then compared with the experimental data. The studies were carried out with different rotational velocities and different stator blade incidence angles. The paper shows a comparison of the turbine efficiencies that were assessed, using numerical and experimental methods, of a flow system with four- and five-bladed rotors. The numerical model results matched up well with those of the experimental study. The efficiency of the proposed turbines reached up to 72% and 84% for four-bladed and five-bladed designs, re... [more]

A detailed study of lithium-related topics in the IFMIF-DONES facility is currently being promoted and supported within the EUROfusion action, paying attention to different pivotal aspects including lithium flow stability and the monitoring and extraction of impurities. The resistivity meter is a device able to monitor online non-metallic impurities (mainly nitrogen) in flowing lithium. It relies on the variation of the electric resistivity produced by dissolved anions: the higher the concentration of impurities in lithium, the higher the resistivity measured. The current configuration of the resistivity meter has shown different measuring issues during its operation. All these issues reduce the accuracy of the measurements performed with this instrument and introduce relevant noise affecting the resistance value. This paper proposes different upgrades, supported by CFD simulations, to optimize lithium flow conditions and to reduce measurement problems. Owing to these upgrades, a new d... [more]

This research presents a validation methodology for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) assessments of rooftop wind regime in urban environments. A case study is carried out at the Donadeo Innovation Centre for Engineering building at the University of Alberta campus. A numerical assessment of rooftop wind regime around buildings of the University of Alberta North campus has been performed by using 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier−Stokes equations, on a large-scale high-resolution grid using the ANSYS CFX code. Two methods of standard deviation (SDM) and average (AM) were introduced to compare the numerical results with the corresponding measurements. The standard deviation method showed slightly better agreements between the numerical results and measurements compared to the average method, by showing the average wind speed errors of 10.8% and 17.7%, and wind direction deviation of 8.4° and 12.3°, for incident winds from East and South, respectively. However, the average error betwee... [more]

The efficiency requirements for hydraulic pumps applied in automatic transmissions in future generations of automobiles will increase continuously. In addition, the pumps must be able to cope with multiphase flows to a certain extent. Given this background, a balanced vane pump (BVP), an internal gear pump (IGP) and a three-dimensional geared tumbling multi chamber (TMC) pump are analyzed and compared by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach with ANSYS CFX and TwinMesh. Furthermore, test bench measurements are conducted to obtain experimental data to validate the numerical results. The obtained numerical results show a reasonable agreement with the experimental data. In the first CFD setup, the conveying characteristics of the pumps with pure oil regarding volumetric efficiencies, cavitation onset and pressure ripple are compared. Both the IGP and the BVP show high volumetric efficiencies and low pressure ripples whereas the TMC shows a weaker performance regarding these object... [more]

The efficiency of tunnels systems is often evaluated using numerical simulations. This concerns both to normal and emergency mode of tunnel systems operation. Therefore the safety level of tunnel users may depend on the quality of numerical models being built. The most often studied areas cover the researches on natural and forced airflows in the normal mode and on fire development and smoke spreading in the emergency mode as well as modeling of fan operation. Thus, many software packages implementing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are applied here. Despite the available software is recognized as reliable, the problem arises because the built numerical models should be validated at least partially with experimental data. There is a shortage of experimental data from real tunnels due to high costs and many organizational or formal difficulties. Some researchers use data from scaled experiments, but this leads to problems connected with scaling. The paper presents the application of... [more]

To investigate the optimum layouts of small vertical-axis wind turbines, a two-dimensional analysis of dynamic fluid body interaction is performed via computational fluid dynamics for a rotor pair in various configurations. The rotational speed of each turbine rotor (diameter: D = 50 mm) varies based on the equation of motion. First, the dependence of rotor performance on the gap distance (gap) between two rotors is investigated. For parallel layouts, counter-down (CD) layouts with blades moving downwind in the gap region yield a higher mean power than counter-up (CU) layouts with blades moving upwind in the gap region. CD layouts with gap/D = 0.5−1.0 yield a maximum average power that is 23% higher than that of an isolated single rotor. Assuming isotropic bidirectional wind speed, co-rotating (CO) layouts with the same rotational direction are superior to the combination of CD and CU layouts regardless of the gap distance. For tandem layouts, the inverse-rotation (IR) configuration sh... [more]

Predicting building air change rates is a challenge for designers seeking to deal with natural ventilation, a more and more popular passive strategy. Among the methods available for this task, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) appears the most compelling, in ascending use. However, CFD simulations require a range of settings and skills that inhibit its wide application. With the primary goal of providing a pragmatic CFD application to promote wind-driven ventilation assessments at the design phase, this paper presents a study that investigates natural ventilation integrating 3D parametric modeling and CFD. From pre- to post-processing, the workflow addresses all simulation steps: geometry and weather definition, including incident wind directions, a model set up, control, results’ edition, and visualization. Both indoor air velocities and air change rates (ACH) were calculated within the procedure, which used a test house and air measurements as a reference. The study explores alterna... [more]

Simultaneous satisfaction of both thermal and visual comfort in buildings may be a challenging task. Therefore, this paper suggests a comprehensive framework for the building energy optimization process integrating computational fluid dynamics (CFD) daylight simulations. A building energy simulation tool, IDA Indoor Climate and Energy (IDA-ICE), was coupled with three open-source tools including GenOpt, OpenFOAM, and Radiance. In the optimization phase, several design variables i.e., building envelope properties, fenestration parameters, and Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system set points, were selected to minimize the total building energy use and simultaneously improve thermal and visual comfort. Two different scenarios were investigated for retrofitting of a generic office building located in Oslo, Norway. In the first scenario a constant air volume (CAV) ventilation system with a local radiator in each zone was used, while an all-air system equipped with a demand... [more]

In this paper the multi-phenomena deflagration model is used to simulate deflagrative combustion of several fuel−air mixtures in various scale closed vessels. The experimental transient pressure of methane−air, ethane−air, and propane−air deflagrations in vessels of volume 0.02 m3, 1 m3, and 6 m3 were simulated. The model includes key mechanisms affecting propagation of premixed flame front: the dependence of laminar burning velocity of concentration, pressure, and temperature; the effect of preferential diffusion in the corrugated flame front or leading point concept; turbulence generated by flame front itself or Karlovitz turbulence; increase of the flame front area with flame radius by fractals; and turbulence in the unburned mixture. Laminar velocity dependence on concentration, pressure, and temperature were calculated using CANTERA software. Various scale and geometry of used vessels induces various combustion mechanism. Simulations allow insight into the dominating mechanism. Th... [more]

The design of a racing car needs several aerodynamic design steps in order to achieve high performance. Each component has an aerodynamic interaction with the others and high performance requires a good match between them. The front wing is undoubtedly one of the main components to determine car performance with a strong interaction with the downstream components. The Gurney Flap (GF) is a small appendix perpendicular to the pressure side of the front wing at the trailing edge that can dramatically improve the front wing performance. In the literature, the performance of a GF on a single profile is well documented, while in this paper the GF mounted on the front wing of a racing car has been investigated and the interactions through the 3D flow structures are discussed. The global drag and downforce performance on the main components of the vehicle have been examined by comparing the cases with and without a GF. The GF increases the downforce by about 24% compared to a limited increase... [more]

The results of numerical investigations of heat transfer and pressure drops in a channel with 30° helical micro-fins are presented. The main aim of the analysis is to examine the influence of the height of the micro-fins on the heat-flow characteristics of the channel. For the tested pipe with a diameter of 12 mm, the micro-fin height varies within the range of 0.05−0.40 mm (with 0.05 mm steps), which is equal to 0.4−3.3% of its diameter. The analysis was performed for a turbulent flow, within the range of Reynolds numbers 10,000−100,000. The working fluid is water with an average temperature of 298 K. For each tested geometry, the characteristics of the friction factor f(Re) and the Nusselt number Nu(Re) are shown in the graphs. The highest values of Nusselt numbers and friction factors were obtained for pipes with the micro-fins H = 0.30 mm and H = 0.35 mm. A large discrepancy is observed in the friction factors f(Re) calculated from the theoretical relationships (for the irregular r... [more]

Combustion is the most commonly used technology to produce energy from biomass; nevertheless, there are still thermal efficiency problems in current biomass combustion furnaces and a lack of knowledge about the properties of residual biomasses that could be used as fuels. Aiming to contribute to knowledge of the potential of residual biomass for energy generation, this work reports on the implementation of a 2D computational model to study the combustion performance of several solid biomass fuels, and its application in the analysis of Lippia origanoides bagasse combustion. The model uses an Eulerian−Lagrangian approach; in the continuous phase, governing equations are solved, and in the dispersed phase, particles are tracked and the mass, momentum, species and energy transfer between the phases are calculated. The model was validated against experimental data from a combustor fueled by three biomasses: wood pellets, olive stone and almond shell. The results show deviations of less tha... [more]

Refinement of the performance of a fully constrained oscillating-foil turbine is carried out via the addition of passive double Gurney flaps. Flaps ranging from hGF=0.005c to 0.075c are added at the trailing edge of the NACA 0015 blade of turbines operating in high-efficiency regimes without leading-edge vortex shedding (LEVS). Performance improvements are determined using 2D numerical simulations with an unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier−Stokes (URANS) approach. Based on a recent study of the double Gurney flaps on stationary foils, instantaneous power-extraction coefficients are analyzed and modifications of the foil’s kinematics are tested in order to fully benefit from the Gurney flaps’ performance improvements. Modifications to the pivot point location of the foil, to the pitch-heave phase, and to the pitching amplitude of the turbine are considered. Improvements are found for all turbine cases studied, including some of the previously optimal cases reported in the literature. The... [more]

The ongoing pandemic has driven the attention of both policy makers and professionals of the building sector towards the need for proper ventilation of the indoor environment. Despite accurate ventilation control only being available with mechanical ventilation systems, in several countries worldwide the renovation of indoor air relies mainly on natural solutions. In this context, in the design of new or renovated buildings, conventional natural ventilation rates are typically assumed to be in agreement with available technical standards, sometimes regardless of the actual external conditions. For instance, local wind speed and direction, as well as buoyancy-driven air displacements, are not considered, even if they can significantly affect the ventilation efficacy for the designed buildings. Moreover, the local outdoor temperature and the presence of pollutants are rarely accounted for, even though they can represent interesting inputs not only for naturally ventilated buildings but a... [more]

To achieve high efficiency and low degradation of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC), it is necessary to maintain an appropriate level of humidification in the fuel cell membrane. Thus, membrane humidifiers are typically used in PEMFC systems. Parameter studies are important to evaluate membrane humidifiers under various operating conditions to reduce the amount of physical tests. However, simulative studies are computationally expensive when using detailed models. To reduce the computational cost, surrogate models are set up. In our study, a 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a hollow fibre membrane humidifier is presented and validated using measurement data. Based on the results of the validated CFD model, a surrogate model of the humidifier is constructed using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) in combination with different interpolation methods. To evaluate the surrogate models, their results are compared against reference solutions from the CFD model. Our res... [more]

Hydrogen can play a key role in the gradual transition towards a full decarbonization of the combustion sector, e.g., in power generation. Despite the advantages related to the use of this carbon-free fuel, there are still several challenging technical issues that must be addressed such as the thermoacoustic instability triggered by hydrogen. Given that burners are usually designed to work with methane or other fossil fuels, it is important to investigate their thermoacoustic behavior when fueled by hydrogen. In this framework, the present work aims to propose a methodology which combines Computational Fluid Dynamics CFD (3D Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)) and Finite Element Method (FEM) approaches in order to investigate the fluid dynamic and the thermoacoustic behavior introduced by hydrogen in a burner (a lab-scale bluff body stabilized burner) designed to work with methane. The case of CH4-air mixture was used for the validation against experimental results and benchmark CF... [more]