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PAMM Proc. Appl. Math. Mech. 5, 567568 (2005) / DOI 10.1002/pamm.

200510260

Turbulent compressible uid ow computation in a male rotor-housing


gap of screw compressors
Jan Vimmr1
1
University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Department of Mechanics, Univerzitn 22, CZ306 14 Plzen, Czech Republic

This contribution is devoted to a turbulent compressible uid ow computation through a 2-D model of the male rotor-housing
gap in screw compressors. For the numerical solution of the nonlinear conservative system of the Favre-averaged Navier-
Stokes equations the cell-centred nite volume formulation of the explicit two-step TVD MacCormack scheme proposed by
Causon on a structured quadrilateral grid is used. The turbulent viscosity is calculated by using the algebraic Baldwin-Lomax
turbulence model which is implemented into the own developed numerical code.
2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

1 Introduction
The present work shall be another step of a longer term aim to understand the uid mechanical effects in screw-type machines.
Processes, which take place in the screw compressor work space and in the gaps on its boundaries, have a great inuence on
the compressor performance, especially with regard to its internal efciency. The knowledge of leakage ows in these gaps
enables to make reasonable estimates for the mass ow rate and to dene the loss of the medium. These complex clearance
ows are not sufciently described yet. During last year, the own numerical code for the laminar computation of the leakage
ow through the 2-D model of the male rotor-housing gap (the sealing gap between the stator and the head of the male rotor
tooth indicated as 5 in Fig. 1) in a screw compressor has been developed by the author, cf. [3]. It was assumed that the
male rotor did not move and that the leakage ow in this gap of 0.1 mm height, where the reference Reynolds number is
Re = 3900, could be laminar for the prescribed pressure ratio pinlet /poutlet = 2. But from the obtained results presented
in [3] it seems that this assumption of the laminar ow computation is not exactly correct.
Therefore the aim of this contribution is to include the effects of turbulence in a ow eld and to perform a turbulent
computation of a leakage ow through the male rotor-housing gap of 0.1 mm height for the same boundary conditions. The
gap is modeled by a 2-D computational domain R2 , Fig. 1, occupied by a calorically perfect gas, with the boundary
= I O WR WS , where I is the inlet and O the outlet section of the computational domain ,
WR and WS are impermeable walls corresponding to the head of the male rotor tooth and to the stator, respectively.

2 Mathematical model of a turbulent compressible uid ow


Let (0, T ) be a time interval. The mathematical model of a turbulent compressible Newtonian uid ow in 2-D is described
by the nonlinear system of the Favre-averaged Navier-Stokes (FANS) eqs. written in nondimensional conservative form as
2 2
w  F j (w) 1  F j (w)
I V
+ = in (0, T ) . (1)
t j=1
yj Re j=1 yj

The column vector w of conservative variables and the vectors F Ij (w) of inviscid and F Vj (w) of viscous uxes are given by
   
 T,
w = ,  v1 ,  v2 , E  + p)vj T ,
F Ij (w) =  vj ,  v1 vj + p 1j ,  v2 vj + p 2j , (E
 T
F Vj (w) = 0, 1j , 2j , 
1j v1 + 2j v2 qj , j = 1, 2 ,
where ij is Kronecker delta and the external volume forces are not considered in our case. The turbulent shear stresses
turb

ij vi vj are modeled by using the Boussinesq approximation, cf. [4], where the concept of a turbulent viscosity
t is introduced, and the turbulent heat ux vectors qj turb cp T vj are modeled by using a gradient approximation so that
     
lam turb vi vj 2 
vk lam turb t p

ij = ij + 
ij ( + t ) y j
+ yi 3 ij yk and q
 j = q
 j + q
 j 1 P r + P rt yj  , i, j = 1, 2 .
The constant turbulent Prandtl number P rt = 0.9 is often used for wall bounded ows. Assuming  a calorically perfect
gas, the static pressure is given by the equation of state p =  r T = ( 1)  cv T ( 1) E  1  vj vj , where
2
r = cp cv is the gas constant per unit mass, cp and cv are the specic heats at constant pressure and volume, respectively
and = 1.4 is Poissons constant. The laminar Prandtl number is P r = cp /k = 0.72, where k is thermal conductivity and
Re = ref uref lref /ref is the reference Reynolds number.
Corresponding author: e-mail: jvimmr@kme.zcu.cz, Phone: +420 377 632 314, Fax: +420 377 632 302
2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Section 13 568

3 Numerical method
To solve the nonlinear system of the FANS equations (1), the same numerical method (the cell-centred FV formulation of the
explicit two-step TVD MacCormack scheme proposed by Causon, cf. [1], on a structured grid) as for the laminar case is used,
cf. [2, 3], only the viscous coefcient is replaced by the sum of the molecular and turbulent viscosities. The turbulent viscosity
t is computed by using the algebraic Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model described in [4], which is mathematically simple and
its implementation into the own developed numerical code for the laminar ow computation is easy.

4 Numerical results and conclusions


For the turbulent compressible uid ow computation through the 2-D model of the male rotor-housing gap of 0.1 mm height,
Fig. 1, in a screw compressor, the same computational grid with 17068 quadrilateral cells as for the laminar ow computation
presented in [3] is used. The computational grid is rened in the directions normal to the solid walls. The leakage ow with
Re = 3900 is considered. At the inlet I , the stagnation pressure p01 = 1, the stagnation temperature T 01 = 1, the inlet
T
2  T
angle 1 , n = 0 and j=1 nj = 0, i = 1, 2 are prescribed. At the outlet O , the static pressure p2 = 0.5, n
ij = 0 and
2  
j=1
ij
nj = 0, i = 1, 2 are kept. On the solid walls WR and WS , the boundary conditions u  = 0, v = 0 and T = 0 n
are satised. n is the outward unit normal vector to the boundary.
The isolines of the Mach number and the velocity magnitude distribution in the male rotor-housing gap computed at time
t = 2.86 104 s are shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 3 displays the isolines of the static pressure plotted with step p = 3500 Pa and
the static pressure distribution along a middle streamline of the male rotor-housing gap.

0.0605
y [m]

0.06

0.0595

0.059
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4
x [m] x 10
3

Fig. 1 Frontal section of male-1 and female-2 rotors (left), computational model of the gap with a quadrilateral grid (right).

0.0605 1
0.8
y [m]

0.06
0.6
0.4
0.0595
0.2
0.059
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4
x [m] 3
x 10

Fig. 2 Isolines of the Mach number plotted with step M = 0.03 (left), velocity magnitude distribution in [m/s] (right).
5
x 10
2.2
5
x 10
2 2

0.0605 1.8

1.6
pressure [Pa]

1.5
y [m]

0.06 1.4

1.2
0.0595
1 1

0.8
0.059
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 0.6
x [m] 3 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4
x 10 x [m] 3
x 10

Fig. 3 Isolines of the static pressure in the gap (left), static pressure distribution along a middle streamline in [Pa] (right).

As a conclusion of this numerical testing it can be deduced that the leakage ow through this gap of 0.1 mm height for the
pressure ratio pinlet /poutlet = 2 is transonic Mmax 1.15 but without shock waves. The value m = 0.034 kg/ms of the
mass ow rate per unit width through the narrowest position (x = 0) of the 2-D model of the male rotor-housing gap was
determined. In the near future I would like to include the rotary motion of the male rotor to the computation.

101/03/P090 of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic.


Acknowledgements The contribution was supported by the grant GA CR

References
[1] D. M. Causon, High Resolution Finite Volume Schemes and Computational Aerodynamics, Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics
Vol. 24 (Vieweg, Braunschweig, 1989).
[2] J. Vimmr, in: Proceedings of the 19th Conference Computational Mechanics 2003, Hrad Nectiny, Czech Republic, 2003, p. 483.
[3] J. Vimmr, J. Proc. Appl. Math. Mech. 4, 454455 (2004).
[4] D. C. Wilcox, Turbulence Modeling for CFD, (DCW Industries, La Canada, California, 1993).

2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

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