Browsing by Author "Peters, Christian Dietrich"

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    Aerodynamic damping of an oscillating fan blade: Numerical fluid structure interaction analysis
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Peters, Christian Dietrich; Els, D. N. J.; Van der Spuy, S. J.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The thesis’ main objective is to determine the dynamic flow phenomena that dampen a fan blade’s oscillation amplitude using numerical fluid structure interaction (FSI) simulations. The observed flow effects include the formation and shedding of leading edge vortices, downwash and the added mass effect. Leading edge vortices are a major damping contributor and are dependent on the blade’s effective angle of attack. The aim of the thesis is to find a suitable method that is capable of simulating the aerodynamic damping of an axial fan used in an air cooled condenser unit. Therefore, three different numerical models are used to perform the FSI simulation and are compared according to their accuracy, robustness and computational cost. The aerodynamic damping of an oscillating fan blade was experimentally investigated by Basson (2015) and his results are used to validate the three numerical models. The three methods used are a mesh-based FSI simulation, a simplified one dimensional beam model coupled with a heuristic flow model and a meshless FSI simulation. The mesh based and meshless FSI simulations are both suitable for modelling the entire air cooled condenser fan unit, whereas the simplified 1D beam model is incapable of doing so.