Analysis of Total Head Loss in Various Configurations of Spiral Casing: A Numerical Study

Abstract

Numerical simulation of fluid flow through various configurations like decelerated, free vortex, accelerated and spiral casing with different aspect ratios (AR) based on cross section has been studied using finite element method. An explicit Eulerian velocity correction scheme has been deployed to solve the Reynolds averaged Navier-stokes equations. The simulations have been performed to describe the fluid flow in high Reynolds number (106) regime. A streamline upwind Petrov Galerkin technique has been used for discretising governing equations. The pressure distribution inside the spiral casing has been studied. Total head loss for all configurations with various aspect ratios is modeled using response surface approximation. Subsequently, unconstrained non-linear minimization method is implemented to obtain optimum spiral casing by minimizing the total head loss.