• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.38 no.9
• /
• pp.731-737
• /
• 2014

A vortex chamber is a simple device that separates compressed gas into a high-temperature stream and a low-temperature stream. It is increasing in popularity as a next-generation heat exchanger, but the flow physics associated with it is not yet well understood. In the present study, both experimental and numerical analyses were performed to investigate the temperature separation phenomenon inside the vortex chamber. Static pressures and temperatures were measured using high-sensitivity pressure transducers and thermocouples, respectively. Computational fluid dynamics was applied to simulate 3D unsteady compressible flows. The simulation results showed that the temperature separation is strongly dependent on the diameter of the vortex chamber and the supply pressure at the inlet ports, where the latter is closely related to the viscous work. The previous concept of a pressure gradient wave may not be a reasoning for temperature separation phenomenon inside the vortex chamber.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.395-405
• /
• 2004

The filling pattern and an adaptive grid refinement based on the finite element method and Eulerian mesh advancement approach have been developed to analyze incompressible transient viscous flow with free surfaces. The governing equation for flow analysis is Navier-Stokes equation including inertia and gravity effects. The mixed FE formulation and predictor-corrector method are used effectively for unsteady numerical simulation. The flow front surface and the volume inflow rate are calculated using the filling pattern technique to select an adequate pattern among four filling patterns at each triangular control volume. By adaptive grid refinement, the new flow field that renders better prediction in flow surface shape is generated and the velocity field at the flow front part is calculated more exactly. In this domain the elements in the surface region are made finer than those in the remaining regions for more efficient computation. Using the proposed numerical technique, the collapse of a water dam has been analyzed to predict flow phenomenon of fluid and the predicted front positions with respect to time have been compared with the reported experimental results.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.29 no.5 s.236
• /
• pp.568-576
• /
• 2005

A 3-D finite element model combined with a volume tracking method is presented in this work to simulate the mold filling for casting processes. Especially, the analysis involves an adaptive grid method that is created under a criterion of element categorization of filling states and locations in the total region at each time step. By using an adaptive grid wherein the elements, finer than those in internal and external regions, are distributed at the surface region through refinement and coarsening procedures, a more efficient analysis of transient fluid flow with free surface is achieved. Adaptive grid based on VOF method is developed in tetrahedral element system. Through a 3-D analysis of the benchmark test of the casting process, the efficiency of the proposed adaptive grid method is verified. Developed FE code is applied to a typical industrial part of the casting process such as aluminum road wheel.