Numerical investigation of flow characteristics in internally flowing pipes with varying roughness and helical angles of vortex generators

Abstract

In this study, the turbulent behavior inside a pipe containing an aluminum helical vortex generator plate was investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods, considering different plate roughness and helical angle values. Accordingly, numerical analyses of velocity and pressure distributions for a liquid flow with a constant inlet velocity of 0.5 m/s and four different helical angles were performed and compared in a computer software. To observe the effects of the roughness values of the metal plate on flow behavior, analyses were conducted for three different roughness values for each helical angle and the results were compared and interpreted. As a result of the study, the combination of a roughness value of 0.04 and a helical angle of 0° led to the highest pressure and velocity values, while the same roughness value combined with a 270° helical angle resulted in the lowest pressure and velocity values. Detailed analysis showed that helical angles (90° and 180°) presented moderate pressure and velocity values, indicating a non-linear relationship between helical angle and flow characteristics. The results demonstrate that optimizing the helical angle and roughness is crucial for enhancing the efficiency of vortex generators. This way, a design will be developed to prevent performance degradation in industrial applications that require flow efficiency and pressure management.