Lift and Drag on a Rotating

Cylinder
Stephen Montgomery

Presentation 1 - 27Feb2019
Problem 3
• Consider a cylinder rotating in clockwise direction at angular
velocities 50 and 100rpm (2 different cases) and a incompressible
fluid velocity viz. air is in the range U0 = 1m/s and 100m/s the
arrangement is as shown below.
1. Find Fluid flow field for both angular velocities of cylinder.
2. Find Lift and Drag coefficients and compare it with Theoretical
values.
3. Comment on the results qualitatively.
Additional assumptions for Problem 3
• 10 CM Diameter Cylinder
• Reynolds number suggests laminar flow for a static cylinder at 1 m/s air
velocity
• Not counting rotating cylinder effects
• 100 m/s flow is turbulent
• Air is the fluid
Cases
• Case 1: 50 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S fluid velocity
• Case 2: 50 RPM cylinder rotation and 100 M/S fluid velocity
• Case 3: 100 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S fluid velocity
• Case 4: 100 RPM cylinder rotation and 100 M/S fluid velocity
Common assumptions for all cases
• Geometry
• Mesh
• Setup
• Solution
• Results
Common assumptions for all cases
• Geometry setup
• 1x1x1 meter cube
• 10 cm cylinder
• Cylinder length is infinite
• Extends from end to end with symmetry
on top and bottom
• Finding hole center X= .48m, Z = .48m
Common assumptions for all cases
• Meshing
• Element size was set to .02m
• Inflation on cylinder
Common assumptions for all cases
• Setup
• Incompressible fluid, air
• Constant density
Common assumptions for all cases
• Setup
• Boundary Conditions
• Blue inlet face is perpendicular to X-Axis
• Yellow symmetry condition top and bottom
• Red pressure outlet condition on all other faces
Common assumptions for all cases
• Setup
• Rotating Cylinder Wall
• Absolute rotation on cyl wall
• Plug in Coordinates from geometry
• 5.23599 radian/sec = 50 RPM
• 10.472 rad/sec = 100 RPM
• +Y Axis rotation from geometry
Common assumptions for all cases
• Setup
• Model
• K-epsilon for all
• Improved continuity residuals
even at low speed & rpm cases
• Solver suggested “Realizable”
Common assumptions for all cases
• Theoretical Equation for Lift (Kutta-Joukowski or Kutta-Zhukovsky)
• Refer to section 7.3 Ideal Flow – Construction of Elementary Flows in Two Dimensions
• Superimpose stream functions for
• Horizontal Uniform Stream (Provides the free stream flow)
• Doublet (Provides the flow around a static cylinder)
• Vortex (Provides the flow from rotating the cylinder)
• Find the equation of velocity from the addition of the stream functions
• Use Bernoulli equation to convert velocity to pressure
• Integrate pressure along surface normal – then dot the vector in the free stream velocity direction to
find lift
• Equation 7.40 contains the equation for Lift
• L/l = pUR
• L = Lift per unit length
• l = unit length
• p = density of fluid
• U = Free stream velocity
• R = Circulation = U_Theta/(2*pi*r)
Common assumptions for all cases
• Lift Theory
Common assumptions for all cases
• Theoretical Equation for Drag
• Kutta-Joukowski is a theory for inviscid flow
• Drag force = 0 for inviscid flow
Case 1: 50 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S
fluid velocity
• Residuals
• Most meshes did
not go below 1e-04
• Continuity never went
below 1e-02
Case 1: 50 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S
fluid velocity
• Velocity vectors
• Boundary layer
• Flips direction
• Cylinder edge velocity
• 0.523599 M/S
Case 1: 50 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S
fluid velocity
• Lift 0.0284 N in Z (1.021 N in Theory)
• Drag 0.0455 N in X (0 N Theory)
Case 1: 50 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S
fluid velocity
• Fluid Velocity
Case 1: 50 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S
fluid velocity
• Stream Lines
Case 2: 50 RPM cylinder rotation and 100 M/S
fluid velocity
• 256.8N Drag
• 22.6N Lift
• 102.1 N in Theory
Case 3: 100 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S
fluid velocity
• 0.045 N Drag
• 0.056 N Lift
• 2.04 N In Theory
Case 3: 100 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S
fluid velocity
• Streamlines
Case 3: 100 RPM cylinder rotation and 1 M/S
fluid velocity
• Velocity
Case 4: 100 RPM cylinder rotation and 100
M/S fluid velocity
• 23.9 N Lift in –Z
• 204.2 N in Theory
• 262 N Drag
Case 4: 100 RPM cylinder rotation and 100
M/S fluid velocity
• Velocity Field
Case 4: 100 RPM cylinder rotation and 100
M/S fluid velocity
• Streamlines
Comments, Conclusion & Next steps
• The 3D mesh used about 500,000 nodes while the limit for ansys academic
is 512,000. There is not much room to improve results for these 3D cases
• Using a 2D Mesh would have increased the accuracy with minimal sacrifice to the
results
• The flow is clearly viscous but I am unable to find a theory to deal with this
& the drag associated with it
• D'Alembert's Paradox: In fluid dynamics, d'Alembert's paradox (or
the hydrodynamic paradox) is a contradiction reached in 1752 by French
mathematician Jean le Rond d'Alembert.[1] D'Alembert proved that –
for incompressible and inviscid potential flow – the drag force is zero on a body
moving with constant velocity relative to the fluid. (Wikipedia)
• Increasing the length of the fluid area behind the cylinder should improve
results by capturing turbulent effects in the field
Comments, Conclusion & Next steps
• Using the K-E model and using 0 for viscosity in the fluid material
setup caused an error at the solution
• Does inviscid flow work for turbulent models?
• Symmetry not possible due to the rotational nature of the cylinder
• Uneven velocity distribution across the whole surface
• Can not improve on number of nodes this way