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Sabnis, Jayant S.

Publications and source records attributed to Sabnis, Jayant S..

Navier-Stokes analysis of an oxidizer turbine blade with tip clearance

The Gas Generator Oxidizer Turbine (GGOT) Blade is being analyzed by various investigators under the NASA MSFC sponsored Turbine Stage Technology Team design effort. The present work concentrates on the tip clearance region flow and associated losses; however, flow details for the passage region are also obtained in the simulations. The present calculations simulate the rotor blade row in a rotating reference frame with the appropriate coriolis and centrifugal acceleration terms included in the momentum equation. The upstream computational boundary is located about one axial chord from the blade leading edge. The boundary conditions at this location were determined by using a Euler analysis without the vanes to obtain approximately the same flow profiles at the rotor as were obtained with the Euler stage analysis including the vanes. Inflow boundary layer profiles are then constructed assuming the skin friction coefficient at both the hub and the casing. The downstream computational boundary is located about one axial chord from the blade trailing edge, and the circumferentially averaged static pressure at this location was also obtained from the Euler analysis. Results were obtained for the 3-D baseline GGOT geometry at the full scale design Reynolds number. Details of the clearance region flow behavior and blade pressure distributions were computed. The spanwise variation in blade loading distributions are shown, and circumferentially averaged spanwise distributions of total pressure, total temperature, Mach number, and flow angle are shown at several axial stations. The spanwise variation of relative total pressure loss shows a region of high loss in the region near the casing. Particle traces in the near tip region show vortical behavior of the fluid which passes through the clearance region and exits at the downstream edge of the gap.

Gibeling, Howard J.↗

Computation of the flow field in a centrifugal impeller with splitter blades

To support the design effort of the Space Transportation Main Engine (STME) Fuel Pump Stage, viscous flow calculations were performed in a centrifugal impeller with splitter blades. These calculations were carried out with a Navier-Stokes solver (MINT), which employs a linearized block-implicit Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) procedure to iteratively solve a finite difference form of the system of conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy in body-fitted coordinates. A computational grid was generated algebraically for the 'channel' between two main blades of the impeller and extended both upstream of the impeller inlet and downstream of the impeller exit so that the appropriate boundary conditions could be applied. The results of the calculations show that although the overall level of flow distortion near the impeller exit is not very large, there is a noticeable difference between the flow patterns in the two 'passages' (one passage between the pressure side of the splitter blade and the suction side of the next full blade).

Dejong, Frederik J.↗

Simulation of cryogenic liquid flows with vapor bubbles

Liquid flows in rocket engine components (such as bearings, seals, and pumps) often involve the formation of vapor bubbles due to local superheating of the fluid (either boiling or cavitation). Under the present effort, an analysis has been developed for liquid flows with vapor bubbles, based on a combined Eulerian-Lagrangian technique, in which the continuous (liquid) phase is treated by solving a system of Eulerian conservation equations, while the discrete (vapor bubble) phase is dealt with by integrating Lagrangian equations of motion in computational coordinates. Vapor bubbles of changing size can be accommodated easily by this analysis, and models for the simulation of bubble formation, growth, and motion have been included. The effect of bubble motion and other bubble processes on the continuous (liquid) phase has been accounted for by appropriate bubble mass, momentum, and energy interchange source terms in the Eulerian conservation equations. To demonstrate the viability of the resulting procedure, the cavitating flow of liquid oxygen through a simplified model of a labyrinth seal has been successfully calculated.

De Jong, Frederik J.↗

A combined Eulerian-Lagrangian two-phase flow analysis of SSME HPOTP nozzle plug trajectories. I - Methodology

A computer code has been developed for the analysis of SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engine) HPOTP (High Pressure Oxidizer Turbo Pump) nozzle plug trajectories in the turnaround duct downstream of the turbine. The algorithm is based on a combined Eulerian-Lagrangian analysis originally developed for the study of two-phase flows. The Lagrangian part of this analysis has been enhanced to include three-dimensional particle motion and the effect of particle-wall collisions in complex geometries (with a large number of boundaries). The sensitivity of the nozzle plug trajectories to a variety of parameters has been determined, via the qualitative analysis of a select number of computed trajectories. The results of extensive parametric studies have been reported in a companion paper.

De Jong, Frederik J.↗

Computation of two-phase shear-layer flow using an Eulerian-Lagrangian analysis

A combined Eulerian-Lagrangian analysis which combines a linearized block implicit Navier-Stokes analysis for the continuous phase with a Lagrangian analysis for the discrete phase has been utilized to simulate a two-phase shear-layer flow in a two-dimensional channel flow configuration. The motion of the particles is tracked in computational coordinate space, resulting in improved computational efficiency, and interphase coupling terms for the Eulerian analysis are computed from the instantaneous distribution of the particles rather than the trajectory information. The use of the implicit Navier-Stokes analysis for the continuous phase has made it possible to efficiently use a highly stretched mesh. A low Reynolds number form of the k-epsilon turbulence model was used with near-wall resolution, thus eliminating the need to use the 'wall-function' approach. The streamwise velocity profiles for the continuous and the discrete phases have been compared with experimental data for two test cases.

Sabnis, Jayant S.↗

Solid rocket motor aft field joint flow field analysis

An efficient Navier-Stokes analysis was successfully applied to simulate the complex flow field in the vicinity of a slot in a solid rocket motor with segment joints. The capability of the computer code to resolve the flow near solid surfaces without using a wall function assumption was demonstrated. In view of the complex nature of the flow field in the vicinity of the slot, this approach is considered essential. The results obtained from these calculations provide valuable design information, which would otherwise be extremely difficult to obtain. The results of the axisymmetric calculations indicate the presence of a region of reversed axial flow at the aft-edge of the slot and show the over-pressure in the slot to be only about 10 psi. The results of the asymmetric calculations indicate that a pressure asymmetry more than two diameters downstream of the slot has no noticeable effect on the flow field in the slot. They also indicate that the circumferential pressure differential caused in the slot due to failure of a 15 deg section of the castable inhibitor will be approximately 1 psi.

Sabnis, Jayant S.↗