Pump intake structure design is one area where physical models still remain as the only acceptable method that can provide reliable engineering results. Ensuring the amount of turbulence, entrained ...air vortices, and swirl are kept within acceptable limits requires site-specific, expensive, and time-consuming physical model studies. This study aims to investigate the viability of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) as an alternative tool for pump intake design thus reducing the need for extensive physical experiments. In this study, a transient multiphase simulation of a 530 mm wide rectangular intake sump housing a 116 m3/h pump is presented. The flow conditions, vortex formation and inlet swirl are compared to an existing 1:10 reduced scaled physical model test. For the baseline test, the predicted surface and submerged vortices agreed well with those observed in the physical model. Both the physical model test and the numerical model showed that the initial geometry of the pump sump is unacceptable as per ANSI/HI 9.8 criteria. Strong type 2 to type 3 submerged vortices were observed at the floor of the pump and behind the pump. Consequently, numerical simulations of proposed sump design modification are further investigated. Two CFD models with different fillet-splitter designs are evaluated and compared based on the vortex formation and swirl. In the study, it was seen that a trident-shaped splitter design was able to prevent flow separation and vortex suppression as compared to a cross-baffle design based on ANSI/HI 9.8. CFD results for the cross-baffle design showed that backwall and floor vortices were still present and additional turbulence was observed due to the cross-flow caused by the geometry. Conversely, CFD results for the trident-shaped fillet-splitter design showed stable flow and minimized the floor and wall vortices previously observed in the first two models.
In ogee spillway, the released flood water from crest to toe possesses a high amount of kinetic energy causing scour and erosion on the spillway structure. The dam projects normally have a stilling ...basin as an energy dissipater which has specific energy dissipation limitations. The stepped spillway is a better option to minimize kinetic energy along the chute and safely discharge water in the river domain. The Khadakwasla dam is situated in Pune, Maharashtra (India), and has scouring and erosion issues on the chute of ogee spillway and on the stilling basin. The present study develops a physical hydraulic model for the dam spillway with steps, plain and slotted roller bucket as per IS Code 6934 (1998) and IS Code 7365 (2010). Experiments were performed at heads of 4m (low head) and 6m (high head) on the developed physical models, namely on the plain and slotted roller bucket model for the ogee spillway and the plain and slotted roller bucket model for the stepped spillway. It was found that the plain roller bucket of ogee spillway dissipates 81.26% of energy at the low head, whereas the stepped spillway with slotted roller bucket dissipates the 83.86% of the energy at the high head.
The selection of instrumentation for data acquisition in physical model studies depends on type and resolution of data to be recorded, time frame of the model study, available instrumentation ...alternatives, availability of skilled personnel and overall budget of the model study. The available instrumentation for recording bed levels or three-dimensional information on geometry of a physical model range from simple manual gauges to sophisticated laser or acoustic sensors. In this study, Structure from Motion (SfM) technique was applied, on three physical model studies of different scales and study objectives, as a cheap, quicker, easy to use and satisfactorily precise alternative for recording 3D point data in form of colour coded dense point cloud representing the model geometry especially the river bed levels in the model. The accuracy of 3D point cloud generated with SfM technique were also assessed by comparing with data obtained from manual measurement using conventional surveying technique in the models and the results were found to be very promising.
The ongoing digitalization of the energy sector, which will make a large amount of data available, should not be viewed as a passive ICT application for energy technology or a threat to ...thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, in the light of the competition triggered by data mining and machine learning techniques. These new technologies must be posed on solid bases for the representation of energy systems and fluid machinery. Therefore, mathematical modelling is still relevant and its importance cannot be underestimated. The aim of this Special Issue was to collect contributions about mathematical modelling of energy systems and fluid machinery in order to build and consolidate the base of this knowledge.
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