Introduction:
Ansys Fluent has been used to obtain flow solutions for idealized AguaClara flocculators and the question has always been asked by Professor Monroe Weber-Shirk, can we check if the solution is correct? PIV experimentation by Julia Schoen with a scale model of the flocculator and headloss and flowrate measurements in an AguaClara facility in Agalteca, Honduras by Sarah Long have shown that the pressure drop coefficient in flocculator simulations in Fluent, using the available turbulence models, are too high. The formulas governing turbulent kinetic energy dissipation and headloss are:
If the pressure drop coefficient is wrong in the simulation there is a good possibility the flocculation efficiencies anaylsed from Fluent as erroneous as well. The questions in Fluent introduced ideas about why Fluent had an erroneous solution for the flocculator. First, features in the flocculator were broken down into simple fluid flow features; the flocculator has a contraction and an expansion at the recirculation zone after the turn, and severe flow curvature around a baffle. Next, Fluent can be simulating one of these features of the flow incorrectly. This report is a study of different case studies comparing Fluent simulation with analytical and experimental information to test the correctness of Fluent's solution for different areas of the flow in the flocculator. A system of benchmark simulations and comparisons were conducted to assess the correctness Fluent's predictions for different features of the flow in the flocculator.
The first hypothesis is Fluent does not calculate streamline curvature into a contraction correctly. The discharge coefficient is derived from Bernoulli analysis on an orifice. The discharge coefficient is used as a flowrate measurement technique in pipes. The exact width of the vena contracta following an orifice is known in a fluid flow so the width of the orifice is used and the discharge coefficient contains the error of using the width of the orifice in the Bernoulli analysis. Fluid Mechanics by White has discharge coefficients for an orifice and an orifice matching the orifice, pipe diameter ratio on the graph in the textbook was simulated in Fluent and compared to textbook results. The orifice of β=0.6 simulated in Fluent at different Reynolds number yielded the following results: