Validation of a partitioned fluid-structure interaction simulation for turbo machine rotors

ABSTRACT

A partitioned solution approach for the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations of turbo machine rotors is presented. The in-house developed boundary element method solver panMARE is used for the fluid simulation, while the structural side is treated with the commercial finite element method solver ANSYS. The generic in-house multiphysics coupling library comana is used for the management of the implicit coupling procedure. As the first example, the KRISO container ship propeller is considered. The simulation is validated for open water test conditions assuming a rigid propeller based on the thrust and torque coefficients. Simulation results for a flexible propeller in open water are also presented. In the second example, the validation of the FSI simulation is conducted for a multilayered flexible submersible mixer based on thrust and torque coefficients and local strains. The results show a good agreement between the simulations and the experimental data for both examples.

KEYWORDS:

• Propeller
• submersible mixer
• fluid-structure interaction
• finite element method
• boundary element method
• validation

Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank-Hendrik Wurm and Dr.-Ing. Andre Lass, University of Rostock, for providing the validation data and their support in the interpretation of the experimental and numerical results.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the DFG (German Science Foundation – Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) under the grant number DU 405/13-2, AB 112/12-2 and the project number 344826971.