On the Development of a Novel Approach in Modelling of Turbulent Pulsating Flows

Unsteady flows in which the bulk or free-stream velocity varies with time arise in many engineering systems / natural environment. Examples of applications and the challenges that they pose are highlighted in numerous recent publications include: i) The pulsatile blood flows in carotid and coronary arteries, for example, where a majority of atherosclerosis is observed; ii) The transient events at a nuclear power plant during various hypothetical fault conditions are the most vulnerable conditions which impose severe constraints on plant operations. The project will establish a new approach in study pulsating flow which will fundamentally change how unsteady turbulent flow is perceived leading to fundamental improvements in: a) understanding of pulsating flows; b) simulations of unsteady flows using turbulence modelling, b) turbulent flow control and the way that the unsteady friction models are formulated. This will result in improved: predictive capability of a blood periodic transient flow; drag reduction that utilises pulsating flows, safety and economy of nuclear reactors; efficiency of turbomachinery and wind turbines, water resources efficiency and protection of coasts. Moreover, the projects will result a high-fidelity, high-scalability in-house CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) package which will support future collaborations. A comprehensive programme of numerical simulations will be conducted to study the flow at wide range of pulsating parameters and Reynolds numbers. An in-house DNS (direct numerical simulations) / LES (large eddy simulations) package will be used to investigate detailed flow structure and turbulence statistics for the flow. Results of the cases associated with pulsatile blood flows in arteries, will be analysed against experimental data provided by the Translational Biomedical Research Centre, University of Bristol, who will act as the project partner to the research.