TSINGHUA SOENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ISSN 1007-0214 10/21 pp697 -701

Volume 8, Number 6, December 2003

Parallel Simulation of 3-D Turbul ent Flow Through

Hydraulic Machinery"

xu Yu (1~ ~), WU Yulin ( ~.L.~*-) * *

Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Abstract: Parallel calculational methods were used to analyze incorrpressible turbulent flow through hydrauli c
machinery. Two parallel methods were used to si mulate the complex flow fi e1d. The space decorrposition
method divides the computational dorrain into several sub-ranges. Parall eI discrete event simulation divides
the whole task into several parts according to their functi ons. The simulation results were corrpared with the
serial simulation results and parti cle image velocimetry (PIV) experimental results. The results give the
distribution and configuration of the complex vortices and illustrate the effectiveness of the parallel algorithms
for numerical simulation of turbulent flows.

Key words: parall eI simulation; hydrauli c machinery; particle image vel ocimetry (PIV); turbulent flow;
vortices

so as to select the best configuration for model

Introduction
Traditionally, design and development of hydraulic
machinery like tur bine runners rely heavily on
physical model testing, which is costly, time
co nsum ing and difficul t . Com pu tational metho ds
provide a number of advantages as a supplemental
tool to model testing. In the last decade, rapid
progress has been made in computer hardware and
computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Advanced
methods have been developed, especially for
turbulent flow analyses and flow visualizatio n,
which enable optimization of the flow patterns at
both design and off-design 0 perating conditions.
The tur bulent flow behavior must be thoroughly
understood to improve performance and efficiency.
The rapid advancements of computer capability and
computational fluid dynamics in recent years have
made 3-D flow analysis practical. A ccurate and
reliable numerical procedures can often guide
designers to identify and avoid potential difficulties
Received: 2002-D4-22; revised: 2002-D5-30
* Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (N o. 50176022)
* * To w hom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: yulinwu@163bj.com;
Tel: 86-10-62782187
testing.
The present work used the Tsinghua TongFang
( THT F ) 'Explore 108" cluster computer with
eigh t no des and a 1 OO-NI B fast ethernet
connection. Each node has dual Pentium III
500MHz CPUs, 256MB SDRAM ECC memory,
and an SCSI Ultra2 4.5 GB hard disk.
The system used Solaris and Linux operating
systems, and used MPI1. 2 as the message-passing
interface[1,2]. The whole system had a peak
performance of 16 G FLOPS.
The Reynolds time-averaged N avier-Stokes
equations and the standard k-E model were solved
using the SIM PLEC algorithm [3] with body-fitted
coor dimat es [4] and a stag gere d d sys t em to
g rt
calculate the v elo city and pres sure dis tribu tio ns.
T he results for 3-D turbulent flow s were displayed
by using a commercial software, Tecplot (version
7. 5). The simulation results are useful not only
for analyz ing the fluid mechanics but als 0 for
analyzing the geometric design.
1 Governing Equations
F or steady single-phase tur bulent flow of an
incompressible Newtonian fluid with an angular
velocity, w the continuity and momentum
e qu at io ns c an be w ri t ten as
 698 Tsinghua Science and Technology , December 2003, 8(6): 697 - 701

E x + Fy + c. = S ( 1)
where (x, y, z) represent the Cartesian coordinates
2 Parallel Methods
and Two parallel methods were considered in the
Pu Pv . I proced ure[5, 6] . T h e space d ecomp os ition
n u merrca ..
Puu - P effUx Pvu- peffpy method divides the computational domain into n
E= F=
Puv - peffVx Pvv - peffVy sub-ranges. The parallel discrete event simulation
Puw - peffW x Pv W - peffW y divides the whole task into several parts according
to their functions[7]. Figure 1 illustrates the sub-
Pw ranges used for the space decomposition method
Pw u- peffUz

..
G= and Fig. 2 shows how the problem was divided for
Pw V - peffVz the parallel discrete sim ulation method.
Pw W - peffW z .
p ,., ,., ~ II II oil .. II

.
:.

. . .....
...
;
o

. ..
us) x + i u effV x) y + (p Eff W x ) z -
( P Eff + 2 PWu
s= ( P Eff Uy ) x + (PeffV y ) y + (p EffW y ) z - * + 2 Pilll '
P: :.
:

iJ'+l
: Rank=2
:
P; :...........................................................
:.
~ :

( P eff Uz) x + (p EffVz) y + (p effW z) z - P; : i-1 j i.j i+1 j ;

'

:. ..; '. : Rank=1

where P is the total pressure, which is equal to : ij-1 ;
the static pressure P plus the centrifugal force; : :
Pav and Pilll are the Corio lis force components; ~ - :

and r is the radius. Equation (1) was then ;. ; Rank=O

trans fo rmed to a general cur vilinear coord inat e
sy stem (~, '7, 'Q used for the calculation.
:.
................ _- .
..
For turbulent flow computations, the standard Fig. 1 Space decomposition
k- turbulence model has been employed to predict
the turbulent eddy viscosity, pt. T he turbulent Initialize
kinetic energy equation, the k equation, and a
turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate equation,
the E equation, ar[:
~[Pujk -
QXj
fJ + fJ~
CTk]
ok] = P(pk - )
QXjJ
(2)

o~JpUj- [fJ + ~ ~J = P ~ (CLpk - C2f:)

( 3)
where xj (j = 1, 2, 3) represent coordinates x, y,
and z; ut represent the three velocity components; Fig. 2 Discrete simulation method
and pk is the turbulent kinetic energy production
terms defined as [ ~ Each of these two methods has its own merits
u, QUi QUj QUi and weaknesses. T he first method is suitable for
k= - - + - -.
P P QXj QXi QXj almost all kinds of problems and its communication
The turbulent model constants are: Cp = 0.09, costs are rather small, but if the computational
Cl= 1.44, C2= 1. 92, CTk= 1.0, CTE= 1. 3. domain is very complicated or irregular, it is very
The effective viscosity, PEff, is equal to the difficult to balance the load. The second method is
molecular viscosity plus the turbulent eddy not affected by a complex domain and is very
viscosity, simple and int uit ive, but it is lim ited by the
P Eff = P + P t ( 4) number of functions and the communication costs
With the standard k-E turbulent model, u, was are larger than those of the first method.
determined using This work used both methods for the parallel
k2 s imulation'{ . T he first method was used to
Pt= PC p E ( 5) simulate turbulent flow through a pump-turbine
Equations ( 1), (2) and (3) form a closed set of runner (pump mode) with the results compared to
nonlinear partial deferential equations governing those of a serial simulation. The second metho d
the turbulent fluid motion. was used to simulate flow through a model pump
xu Yu (1~ 1') et al: Parallel Simulation of 3-D Turbulent Flow Through . 699

sump with the results compared to particle image the suction side (along the K direction of the grid
velocimetry (PIV) measurements. The speed-up system), projected onto the meridian planes.
ratio and the efficiency of the first method were
higher than those of the second method.

3 Results and Discussion

3. 1 Simulation of flow through a pump-turbine
runner
Since the computational domain IS not very
complicated, the turbulent flow through a pump-
turbine runner in the pump mode was computed
num erically using the space decompo sition
method. The runner and the computational
domain, which only include the flow passage
between two blade surfaces of the runner, are
shown in Figs. 3 and 4. In the domain, the nodes
along the I direction were from the dom ain inlet to Fig. 5 Pressure distribution on surfaces from the
pressure side to suction side (unit: m water
the outlet, extending from the leading edge to the
column. Lrn water colmnn= 9980Pa)
trailing edge of the runner blades. T he nodes along
the J direction were from the back disc to the front The results show that along the runner, the
disc of the ru nn er. The nodes along K direction pressure increases from the runner inlet to the
were from the pressure side to the suction side of outlet and from the blade suction side to the
the blade. pressure side. In the flow near the inlet, the
pressure variation is caused mainly by centrifugal
acceleration with the pressure varying
approximately relative to the radius. The pressure
variation later in the flow is caused mainly by
Coriolis acceleration as the relative velocity
Increases (show n in Fig. 6). This effeet IS more
significant on the pressure side.

Fig. 3 Dlustration of the reverse pmnp-turbine runner

Fig. 4 Illustration of the computational domain

The parameters in the reverse runner were:

runner diameter is 0.49m, blade number is 7,
outlet height is 0.0496m, inlet diameter is
0.254 m, ro tational speed n n = 1000 r/ m in, and
3
discharge Q11= 0.22 m / s.
T his set of conditions is below the design point.
Figure 5 show s the pressure distributions through
the runner on surfaces from the pressure side to
Fig. 6 Relative velocity distribution on surfaces from
near the pressure side to near the suction side
(unit: mls)
The relative v elo city vecto rs near the leading
edges in Fig. 7 show that there is no reverse flow
in the passage near the leading edge.
 700
Fig.7 Relative velocity vectors on surfaces from near
the pressure side to near the suction side near
the leading edges
Figure 8 shows the velocity momentum
distribution on surfaces from near the pressure side
to near the suction side. T he velocity momentum
inside the runner increases from its inlet to the
outlet with a variation throughout the flow
passage.
Fig. 8 Absolute velocity momentum contours on
surfaces from near the pressure side to near
the suction side (unit: m water column)
T he results show that the flow in the runner
below the design point is still smooth. T he results
of the parallel simulation are almost the same as
those of the serial simulation[9], but for the same
convergence criterion, the parallel simulation
needs 10% - 15% m ore iterations than the serial
sim ulation, partly because the transfer of the
boundary influence is slower in the parallel
sim ulat ion .
In the analysis, the computational domain was
divided into 6 sub-ranges, so the analysis used 6
processors. The performance of the parallel
Tsinghua Science and Technology , December 2003, 8(6): 697 - 701
simulation was compared with that of the serial
simulation on a single processor using the speed-up
ratio, S p, the efficiency, E p , and p for proces sors
given by
S p= Tol T p= 2. 84 and
Ep= Splp X 100%= 2. 84/6XI00%= 47.3%,
w here To is the tim e for the serial algorithm on a
single processor.
3.2 Simulation of flow through a pmnp smnp
The intake model used in the analysis was shown
3
in Fig. 9. The flow r ate at inlet A was 1. 08 m I
3/min.
min. The flow rate at inlet B was 1. 32m
3/min.
The pump outlet flow rate was 2. 40m
Figure 9 shows that the computational domain
was very com plicated. The load could not be easily
balanced using the space decomposition method.
For this complex geometry, the discrete event
method was used.
The co mputatio nal res ult s show 3-D v ortices in
the computational domain that are very difficult to
illustrate here. One way to visualize the flow
clear ly is to plot '~treamlines" using only the
. com ponents In
veI0 CIty . t he ch osen panes
I [10,11] .
Figure 10 show s the vortex in the corner at the
intersection of the back wall and the side-wall and
one attached to the back wall between the back
wall and the intake pipe. T he results agree well
with the PIV results. T he asymmetry of the
calculat ed flow is eviden t.
Fig ure 11 s ho w s t he 3-D velocity dist rib u tion
parallel to the back wall. T he general trends of the
numerical simulation and the PIV experiment are
similar. The speed-up ratio, Sp, and efficiency,
E p, for this calculation with 6 processors are
S p = T 01 T p = 2. 28,
E; = Splp X 100% = 2.2816 X 100% = 38%.
The speed-up ratio and the efficiency of the
second method were smaller than those for the first
method because of the increased communication
costs with the second method.
4 Conel usions
Two parallel calculational methods were used to
analyze incompressible turbulent flow in complex
geometries. The results illustrate the flow
conditions including the distribution and structure
of the complex vortices. The results of the parallel
simulation agree well with the results of the serial
simulation and the experimental results. However,
xu Yu (1~ 1') et al: Parallel Simulation of 3-D Turbulent Flow Through . 701

2500

160 180

o
00

o 0
o oo:::t
oo:::t N
350
454
o
00

tP 129.8

o
oo
oo:::t

00
-I---~-oo:::t
N

Fig. 9 Intake model configuration (unit: mm)

-.-- U
3.0 .-- V
.. ... ... -.6.-W

. ....
- 'Y- Speed
2.0 ... " " ......
........ -

" .. . .-.,: ......

.
.... T "T-.
~ ......
E 1.0
...-..... ..
-.... - ... ... ...

'g
..... ...

~ 0.0
..
.................

- 1.0

L.......o---L
..... .........L. ......... ~..---..........---L
: : I-a ._ -1 :
.-..
...................~""'---""------'-_
......

(a) Simulation results o 40 80

120 160 200
X/nun
(a) Simulation results
u
3.0 v
-.&- w
" "........... ... " --.- Speed
2.0
-

~ ....-,,-T . . ..." I-I

g
..
1.0 .-.- ." :~T-..... "._": A.- ... ~.... ... 1:1 :1-'1

.~ 0.0
'U
:
-.t.
-.,. 6- t a-a-.- -

.-.-.-.
.._ -: -a a-a-a -.

> -1.0 ---.-. .-.. -t

-2.0
o 0 40 80 120 160 200
X/rrm
(b) PIV experiment results (b) Experimental results
Fig. 10 Streamlines and vectors on a plane parallel to Fig. 11 The 3-D velocity distribution parallel to the
the bottom (x-y plane)
back wall

the speed -up ratio and the efficiency are no t design analysis of turbulent flow In complex
satisfactory, mainly because of the large g eomet ries .
communication costs for the parallel methods.
These methods are useful for the engineering (To be continued on page 707)
TAf\X3 Xiaoqiang ( J! BJt~~) et al: Accural)' Analysis and Calibration of Gantry
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