ECCOMAS 2024

Spatio-Temporal Analysis of the Structures in High-Pressure Transcritical Fluid Flows

  • Barea, Guillem (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC))
  • Jofre, Lluís (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC))

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A novel approach to achieve microconfined turbulence based on operating under high-pressure transcritical conditions has been recently proposed. The main feature of this type of fluids is their pseudo-boiling line, which separates gas-like and liquid-like regions where the hybrid thermodynamic properties favor turbulent flow regimes[1]. Such fluids find applications in various areas, including gas turbines or water-cooled reactors for the energy industry, and advanced liquid rocket engines in aerospace engineering. The computational study of these flow systems is highly demanding when resolving all the physical scales using direct numerical simulation (DNS) approaches. In this regard, the use of advanced data-driven model-order reduction techniques can help decrease the dimensionality of the problem by, first, performing a modal analysis study capable of identifying the most meaningful spatiotemporal structures within the fluid flow and, later, model those structures by means of low-order representations. Therefore, this work conducts a modal analysis across four high-pressure transcritical fluid different cases (laminar/turbulent regimes) to unravel the flow structures governing the system. Utilizing high-fidelity DNS data, the study employs model-order reduction techniques to extract spatial (POD) and temporal (DMD) modes, offering meaningful insights into the pseudo-boiling regions of the cases under examination. This research, thus, will contribute to a deeper understanding of microconfined turbulence and model-order reduction methods for high-pressure transcritical fluid flows. [1] G. Barea, N. Masclans and L. Jofre, Multiscale flow topologies in microconfined high-pressure transcritical turbulence. Phys. Rev. Fluids, Vol. 8, pp. 054608, 2023.