Progresses in Particle-Laden Flows Simulations in Multistage Turbomachinery With OpenFOAM

Numerical simulations of particle-laden flows have received growing attention in the last decade, due to the broad spectrum of industrial applications in which discrete phases prediction is of interest. Among these, ingestion of particles by turbomachinery is an area that is seeing vivid research and studies. The most common technique to tackle this kind of problem is the Eulerian–Lagrangian method, in which individual particles are tracked inside the domain. At the same time, in multistage turbomachinery simulation interfaces are needed to couple the flow solution in adjacent domains in relative motion. In this work, an open-source extension for Lagrangian simulations in multistage rotating machines is presented in the foam-extend environment. First, a thorough discussion of the implementation is presented, with particular emphasis on particle passage through general grid interfaces (GGI) and mixing planes. Moreover, a mass-conservative particle redistribution technique is described, as such a property is requested at interfaces between multiple reference frame (MRF). The peculiarities of the algorithm are then shown in a relevant test case. Eventually, three turbomachinery applications are presented, with growing complexity, to show the capabilities of the numerical code in real-life applications. Simulation results in terms of erosion and impacts on aerodynamic surfaces are also presented as examples of possible parameters of interest in particle-laden flow computations.