Fluid flow simulations of a vane separator

Abstract

In this work, the fluid flow in a vane separator is simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Detailed measurements of air flow inside a single passage in a vane separator have earlier been presented (Jøsang and Melaaen, 2000). The simulations cover various turbulence models (k-ε and RSM turbulence models), near wall treatments, numerical schemes and structured grid as well as unstructured grid simulations. Earlier simulations show that a proper matching between the grid and the near wall treatment is important. However, most important is the effect of the two different numerical schemes together with the turbulence models. The selected numerical schemes are two different first order schemes (the power law scheme and the first order upwind scheme) and the higher order QUICK scheme. Normally, the highest order scheme is asssumed to produce the most accurate result, but in the present work the combination of the best turbulence model (RSM) and QUICK gave the worst result. Most of the other combinations gave good predicted flow fields, although some deviations exist for the prediction of the recirculation zones.