In this paper, the complex two-phase flow during oil-jet impingement on a rotating spur gear is investigated using the meshless smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. On the basis of a two-dimensional setup, a comparison of single-phase SPH to multiphase SPH simulations and the application of the volume of fluid method is drawn. The results of the different approaches are compared regarding the predicted flow phenomenology and computational effort. It is shown that the application of single-phase SPH is justified and that this approach is superior in computational time, enabling faster simulations. In the next step, a three-dimensional single-phase SPH setup is exploited to predict the flow phenomena during the impingement of an oil-jet on a spur gear for three different jet inclination angles. The oil’s flow phenomenology is described and the obtained resistance torque is presented. Thereby, a significant effect of the inclination angle on the oil spreading and splashing process as well as the resistance torque is identified.

Predictions of the primary breakup of fuel in realistic fuel spray nozzles for aero-engine combustors by means of the SPH method are presented. Based on simulations in 2D, novel insights into the fundamental effects of primary breakup are established by analyzing the dynamics of Lagrangian-coherent structures (LCSs). An in-house visualization and data exploration platform is used in order to retrieve fields of the finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) derived from the SPH predictions aiming at the identification of time resolved LCSs. The main focus of this paper is demonstrating the suitability of FTLE fields to capture and visualize the interaction between the gas and the fuel flow leading to liquid disintegration. Aiming for a convenient illustration at a high spatial resolution, the analysis is presented based on 2D datasets. However, the method and the conclusions can analoguosly be transferred to 3D. The FTLE fields of modified nozzle geometries are compared in order to highlight the influence of the nozzle geometry on primary breakup, which is a novel and unique approach for this industrial application. Modifications of the geometry are proposed which are capable of suppressing the formation of certain LCSs, leading to less fluctuation of the fuel flow emerging from the spray nozzle.

In this paper the complex two-phase flow during oil-jet impingement on a rotating spur gear is investigated using the meshless Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. A comparison of single-phase SPH to multi-phase SPH simulation and the application of the Volume of Fluid method on the basis of a two-dimensional setup is drawn. The results of the different approaches are compared regarding the predicted flow phenomenology and computational effort. It is shown that the application of single-phase SPH is justified and that this approach is superior in computational time, enabling faster simulations. In a next step, a three-dimensional single-phase SPH setup is exploited to predict the flow phenomena during the impingement of an oil-jet on a spur gear for various jet inclination angles. Thereby, a significant effect of the inclination angle on the oil spreading and splashing process is revealed. Finally, a qualitative comparison to an experimental high-speed image shows good accordance.

At the “Institut für Thermische Strömungsmaschinen” (ITS) a numerical method based on the the meshfree “Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics” (SPH) approach has been developed with the objective of computing primary breakup in the vicinity of fuel spray nozzles [1, 2]. In recent publications the successful application of the code to different flow problems is demonstrated [3, 4]. In this paper we present the first application of the method to investigate a simplified, but applied fuel spray nozzle geometry of the swirl cup design in 2D. The atomization process of Jet-A1 at ambient and at high pressure conditions is compared in terms of film flow development, mixing and spray characteristics. The influence of pressure is pointed out and quantified. The study demonstrates that the SPH method is a suitable toolbox for the analysis and the design of fuel spray nozzles. Unique analysis tools that are not available in grid-based CFD methods are presented and applied. Droplet distributions are extracted, which can be considered as possible input in subsequent Euler-Lagrange computations.