Development of a low-noise cooling fan for an alternator using numerical and doe methods

An alternator, which converts mechanical rotational energy into electrical energy, is an important component of a vehicle. Alternators operate over a broad range of rotational speeds, typically from 3,000 RPM to 18,000 RPM, which demands a cooling fan producing sufficient airflow, ideally with a minimum of noise. In the current study, an optimized alternator-cooling fan was developed through a linked DOE(Design OF Experiment) process and numerical analysis. The SC/Tetra and FlowNoise S/W programs were used to calculate flow rates and noise levels, respectively, for the newly developed fan. Compared with original model, the numerical results predicted a 3 dBA noise reduction; the measured reduction was 4 dBA.     

Numerical modeling of ground response during diaphragm wall construction

Construction of diaphragm wall panels may cause considerable stress changes in heavily overconsolidated soil deposits and can induce substantial ground movement. The 3D Lagrangian method was adopted to model the mechanical response of ground, including horizontal normal stress and shear stress, lateral ground displacement and vertical ground surface settlement, during the slurry trenching and concreting of diaphragm wall panels. Numerical results show that slurry trenching leads to horizontal stress relief of ground, reducing the horizontal stress of the ground from initial K0 pressure to hydrostatic betonite pressure. Wet concrete pressure lies between the hydrostatic bentonite pressure and the initial K0 pressure, so it can compensate partially the horizontal stress loss of the ground adjacent to the trench and thus reduce the lateral movement of the trench face as well as the vertical settlement of the ground surface.     

Efficient calculation of slamming pressures on ships in irregular seas

An efficient method for calculation of the slamming pressures on ship hulls in irregular waves is presented and validated for a 290-m cruise ship. Nonlinear strip theory was used to calculate the ship–wave relative motions. The relative vertical and roll velocities for a slamming event were input to the slamming calculation program, which used a two-dimensional boundary element method (BEM) based on the generalized 2D Wagner formulation presented by Zhao et al. To improve the calculation efficiency, the method was divided into two separate steps. In the first step, the velocity potentials were calculated for unit relative velocities between the section and the water. In the next step, these precalculated velocity potentials were used together with the real relative velocities experienced in a seaway to calculate the slamming pressure and total slamming force on the section. This saved considerable computer time for slamming calculations in irregular waves, without significant loss of accuracy. The calculated slamming pressures on the bow flare of the cruise ship agreed quite well with the measured values, at least for time windows in which the calculated and experimental ship motions agreed well. A simplified method for calculation of the instantaneous peak pressure on each ship section in irregular waves is also presented. The method was used to identify slamming events to be analyzed with the more refined 2D BEM method, but comparisons with measured values indicate that the method may also be used for a quick quantitative assessment of the maximum slamming pressures.     

框架四叉树的自主水下航行器追踪动态目标研究

An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) must use an algorithm to plan its path to distant, mobile offshore objects. Because of the uneven distribution of obstacles in the real world, the efficiency of the algorithm decreases if the global environment is represented by regular grids with all of them at the highest resolution. The framed quadtree data structure is able to more efficiently represent the environment. When planning the path, the dynamic object is expressed instead as several static objects which are used by the path planner to update the path. By taking account of the characteristics of the framed quadtree, objects can be projected on the frame nodes to increase the precision of the path. Analysis and simulations showed the proposed planner could increase efficiency while improving the ability of the AUV to follow an object.     

溃坝模拟的光滑粒子流体动力学方法及其粘性特性

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is a Lagrangian meshless particle method. It is one of the best method for simulating violent free surface flows in fluids and solving large fluid deformations. Dam breaking is a typical example of these problems. The basis of SPH was reviewed, including some techniques for governing equation resolution, such as the stepping method and the boundary handling method. Then numerical results of a dam breaking simulation were discussed, and the benefits of concepts like artificial viscosity and position correction were analyzed in detail. When compared with dam breaking simulated by the volume of fluid (VOF) method, the wave profile generated by SPH had good agreement, but the pressure had only reasonable agreement. Improving pressure results is clearly an important next step for research.     

二维水翼型空化流的数值计算

In order to predict the effects of cavitation on a hydrofoil, the state equations of the cavitation model were combined with a linear viscous turbulent method for mixed fluids in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLUENT to simulate steady cavitating flow. At a fixed attack angle, pressure distributions and volume fractions of vapor at different cavitation numbers were simulated, and the results on foil sections agreed well with experimental data. In addition, at the various cavitation numbers, the vapor fractions at different attack angles were also predicted. The vapor region moved towards the front of the airfoil and the length of the cavity grew with increased attack angle. The results show that this method of applying FLUENT to simulate cavitation is reliable.     

经验模式能量在脉动信号分析中的应用

After an aerial object enters the water, physical changes to sounds in the water caused by the accompanying bubbles are quite complex. As a result, traditional signal analyzing methods cannot identify the real physical object. In view of this situation, a novel method for analyzing the sounds caused by an aerial object’s entry into water was proposed. This method analyzes the vibrational mode of the bubbles by using empitical mode decomposition. Experimental results showed that this method can efficiently remove noise and extract the broadband pulse signal and low-frequency fluctuating signal, producing an accurate resolution of entry time and frequency. This shows the improved performance of the proposed method.     

溃坝问题的数值仿真和实验

In this paper, two novel numerical computation methods are introduced which have been recently developed at Research Institute for Applied Mechanics ( RIAM ), Kyushu University, for strongly nonlinear wave-body interaction problems, such as ship motions in rough seas and resulting green-water impact on deck. The first method is the CIP-based Cartesian grid method, in which the free surface flow is treated as a multi-phase flow which is solved using a Cartesian grid. The second method is the MPS method, which is a so-called particle method and hence no grid is used. The features and calculation procedures of these numerical methods are described. One validation computation against a newly conducted experiment on a dam break problem, which is also described in this paper, is presented.     

中速三体船型PCC的可行性研究

In the present paper, a new trimaran Pure Car Carrier (PCC) is proposed and a feasibility study on the ship is carried out. In this study, first, the effective horse power (EHP)/car of the PCC running in still water is predicted. By comparing the predicted EHP/car with that of a conventional mono-hull PCC, it is found that the trimaran PCC is superior to the conventional mono-hull PCC at rather higher speed. As ship speed increases, the reduction of the resistance of the trimaran is bigger. It is also found that at common service speed of PCCs, the EHP/car of a small PCC is lower than that of a conventional PCC. Secondly, the optimal L/B of a main-hull of the trimaran PCC in still water is determined. The optimal L/B of the main-hull varies with ship speed and size because the wave resistance decreases but the frictional resistance increases as L/B of the hull increases. As ship size increases, the optimal L/B of the main-hull of the trimaran PCC decreases.     

强风下有帆商船航行性能的研究

Ships which have large structures above water surface, such as pure car carriers (PCCs) and container vessels, have large speed reduction by wind pressure. In the present study, the running speed of a large PCC with two or more sails for using wind power is simulated. The simulated results demonstrate that the ship can keep a constant service speed even in winds of 20m/s except head and bow winds. This sail system can shorten annual average navigation time by about 4 hours per voyage.