The vortex street flow meter is an instrument that measures a flow rate in the pipe line by measuring the frequency of vortex streets in the wake of a vortex generator located perpendicular to the flow direction in the pipe line. When Reynolds number reaches a specific value in the pipe line through which fluid runs, alternate vortex street occurs in the wake of the vortex generator and the generating frequency of this vortex street is in proportion to flow velocity. Therefore, the generating frequency is used for prediction of flow rate. The frequency depends on the type of generator.
The vortex street flowmeter has good accuracy and stability in flow measurement, but they are not widely used for low flow rate due to the small vortex frequency signal when the diameter of a pipe line is small or flow rate is low. In industrial pipe lines, flows with Re below 2×104 are often found, so in such cases, the vortex street flowmeter cannot guarantee measurement accuracy.
Compared to other types of vortex generators, a triangular prism-shaped vortex generator is now used in most vortex street flowmeters because it is easier to make and has better stability in vortex separation.
Jong Ji Song, a researcher at the Faculty of Mechanical Science and Technology, has solved and optimized hydrodynamic problems arising in the design of a triangular prism-shaped vortex generator available in the low discharge domain with minimum pressure loss.
First, he analyzed the influence of the structural parameters of the vortex generator such as thickness and width on the vortex generation and fluid flow by CFD simulation of the vortex flow around the triangular prism-shaped vortex generator. As a result, he found that with great thickness, the vortex generator easily generates vortex but has large flow resistance, and its great width is not good for generation of vortex and its narrow width cannot guarantee the stability of vortex. Next, on the basis of this analysis of the vortex generation and the flow loss in the pipe line, he determined the structural parameters of the triangular prism-shaped vortex generator available in the low discharge domain by optimization with BP neural network and genetic algorithm.
The proposed CFD simulation method and the optimization of structural parameters can also be applied in the design of vortex generators of any shape.
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