Vortex rope mitigation with azimuthal perturbations: A numerical study

Abstract

A novel method to mitigate the rotating vortex rope is investigated numerically on a propeller turbine using ANSYS CFX. Pulsating momentum is injected in a horizontal plane in the diffuser cone from four evenly spaced jets. Three mitigation strategies are tested; M1 in which the momentum is injected perpendicular to the axial flow direction, M2, which exhibit a 12 degree angle against the tangential velocity in the diffuser cone, and finally M3, which exhibit the same horizontal angle as M2 but at a 15 % higher flow rate. It is shown that mitigation attempts M1, M2 and M3 decrease the amplitude of the rotating mode by 51%,96% and 97%, respectively. The amplitude of the plunging mode, on the other hand, increase for all mitigation attempts. However, the amplitude of the plunging mode of the unperturbed RVR is an order of magnitude smaller than the rotating mode, and thus, the overall amplitude of the pressure fluctuations in the diffuser decreases significantly. The more efficient mitigation using attempt M2 and M3 are explained using velocity contour in the diffuser cone, which show that the RVR is significantly reduced downstream of the injection plane in between injections, which is not the case for attempt M1.