CFD Simulation of Fractal-Shaped Orifices for Flow Measurement Improvement

Abstract

The effect of using fractal-shaped orifice as flow meters for enhancing flow measuring techniques and their effect on pressure drop and flow mixing properties from point of view of losses saving and future designing of measuring devices with higher accuracy has been investigated. In this frame, a numerical simulation has been used to study a turbulent flow through fractal-shaped orifices in pipes. Different fractal-shaped orifices; namely GEN-1, GEN-2, GEN-3 and GEN-4, have been constructed up to the forth iteration using a commercial CFD package. The studied pipe has a diameter of 0.14 m and a total length of 2.5 m. To validate the numerical simulation results, a direct comparison has been made with recently published experimental results for fractal-shaped orifice to illustrate the effect of the fractal-shaped on the pressure drop. Numerical results showed that the fractal shaped orifice has a significant effect on the flow mixing properties and on the pressure drop downstream a pipe owing to their edge self-similarity shapes.

Cavitation in Fractal Geometry Orifices

“…All these investigations have shown improved performance of fractal-shaped orifices in terms of pressure loss compared to one-hole orifice. Later a CFD study was performed by Elsaey et al [10] using the shapes from [8]. However no information is provided in above mentioned papers about the dynamics of the flow through fractalshaped orifices (i.e.…”

Comparison of single-hole and multi-hole orifice energy consumption

“…Proposed slotted orifice flow meter had lower pressure difference, faster pressure recovery, higher discharge coefficient, and substantially less sensitivity to upstream conditioning compared to SHO flow meter. Elsaey et al 15 studied fractal shaped orifice flow meter and its effects on flow mixing properties and pressure difference. Shaaban 16 proposed a new design, a ring installed downstream of the conventional orifice flow meter that reduces permanent pressure loss, increases discharge coefficient, and reduces required upstream lengths.…”

Integration of numerical and physical experiments to enhance student learning experience

“…For the same flow area, pressure drop of fractal was lower than the circular orifice. Elsaey et al simulated the flow through fractal orifices and found good comparison with the experimental data. These authors also found the pressure drop to be smaller than the standard circular orifice.…”