Lecture 1

Introduction
14.5 Release

Advanced Rotating Machinery

© 2012 ANSYS, Inc. June 18, 2013 1 Release 14.5

 Motivation for this Short Course
Flows within rotating systems occur frequently in science and
engineering applications…
Examples
• compressors and turbines
• fans and pumps
• rotating cavities, seals, and bearings
• mixing equipment
• fluid coupling devices and torque converters
• air motors
• marine and aircraft propellers
• and many more…

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) now plays a central role in the design
and analysis of these systems

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 Examples of Rotating Machinery

Multistage compressor HVAC blower unit

Wind turbines

Tube axial fan Multistage pump

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 Goals of the Training
Examine the four major classes of rotating machinery problems
– Single (rotating) reference frame (SRF)
– Multiple (rotating) reference frame (MRF)
– Mixing plane (MPM)
– Sliding mesh (SMM)
Present details on modeling rotating machinery problems with
the Fluent CFD solver
– Problem definition
– Model setup
– Solution process (steady-state and unsteady)
– Post-processing
Answer your questions!

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 Types of Rotating Machines
Turbomachinery
• Machines which add work to or extract work from a fluid
• Examples
– compressors, fans, pumps - add work to achieve a pressure rise in the
fluid
– turbines, windmills - extract work from fluid to produce power or
drive other machines
Mixing equipment
• Machines which are designed to mix fluid (and possibly solid) materials
for use in a chemical processing applications
• Example: industrial mixing tanks
Other Devices
• disk cavities and labyrinth seals in gas turbine engines
• electric motors
• disk drives
• rotating tires on automotive vehicles

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 Classification of Turbomachinery
Axial machines
• Flow through the machine is (in general) aligned with the axis of
rotation
• Examples: propellers, axial fans/compressors/turbines, swirlers
Centrifugal machines
• Flow through the machine is (in general) perpendicular to the
axis of rotation
• Examples: liquid pumps, centrifugal fans/compressors, radial
turbines
Mixed flow machines
• Flow through the machine is somewhere between axial and
centrifugal
• Example: mixed flow compressor or pump

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 Turbomachinery Classification Examples

Axial Compressor Centrifugal Pump Mixed Flow Pump

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 Rotating Machinery Systems
Rotating machines usually consist of multiple components to
facilitate the flow process in the system
Example: Liquid pump components
• Inlet duct – directs flow to the eye of the impeller
• Impeller – increases the pressure of the fluid
• Volute – collects and diffuses the flow
Example: Axial gas turbine compressor components
• Stator blade passage followed by a rotor blade passage stage
– Stator directs the flow into the rotor at an optimal flow angle
to facilitate maximum pressure rise in the rotor
• Full compressor will consist of several stages to achieve a desired
pressure increase multistage compressor

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 Multistage Turbomachine Example

stator

rotor

Inlet Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Outlet

Four stage turbine

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 Single Versus Multiple Component
Modeling
Single component systems can usually be modeled by referring the entire
domain to a Single Reference Frame (SRF) steady-state solution
If multiple components are required (e.g. additional blade rows, volutes,
baffles, struts, etc.), then a single frame of reference can not be used!
This leads to multiple domain models, where two or more fluid zones
are connected via interface boundaries
For Multiple Component Systems, three different modeling approaches are
available, depending on the level of interaction at the interface
boundaries:
• Multiple Reference Frames (MRF)
– Ignore interaction effects at the interfaces steady-state solution
• Mixing Plane Model (MPM)
– Ignore circumferential non-uniformities in the flow by averaging at the interfaces
steady-state solution
• Sliding Mesh Model (SMM)
– The cells in rotating fluid zones are moved relative to adjacent stationary zones
unsteady solution

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 Single Versus Multiple Component
Modeling

interface

Single Component Multiple Component

(blower wheel blade passage) (blower wheel + casing)

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 Summary
Single Reference Frame (SRF)
• Entire computational domain is referred to rotating reference frame
• Usually steady-state
Multiple Reference Frames (MRF)
• Selected regions of the domain are referred to rotating reference frames
• Ignore interaction effects steady-state
Mixing Plane Model (MPM)
• Influence of neighboring regions accounted for through use of a mixing
plane model at rotating/stationary domain interfaces
• Ignore circumferential non-uniformities in the flow steady-state
Sliding Mesh Model (SMM)
• Motion of specific regions accounted for by mesh motion algorithm
• Flow variables interpolated across a sliding interface
• Unsteady problem - can capture all interaction effects with complete
fidelity
Increasing complexity

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