Study of the Dynamic and Thermal Behaviors of an Air Flow in a T-Bifurcation

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical and experimental study of a turbulent flow of air in a T-bifurcation. This configuration corresponds to a stator containing radial vents oriented vertically to the rotor–stator air gap in electrical machines. Our analysis focuses on the local convective heat transfer over the internal surface of the vents under a turbulent mass flow rate. To model the cooling installation in this region, computational fluid dynamics simulations and an experiment using particle image velocimetry (PIV) are performed. The resulting flow generally produces recirculation zones in various channels. The effect of the flow ratio and diameter of the bifurcation on the dynamic and thermal behavior of the flow is also examined. In this study, we apply a numerical approach based on the k–ω shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model (using the commercial software, “comsolmultiphysics”) to numerically solve the Navier–Stokes equations and energy equation of the system under consideration. We describe the different hypotheses necessary to formulate the equations governing the problem, initial conditions, and boundary condition. The velocity in the bifurcation calculated using the simulation is compared with that obtained by the experiment and it reveals a good agreement. The effect of the branch diameter of the bifurcation and flow ratio on the heat transfer is specifically analyzed in this research work.