An Efficient Numerical Method for Pressure Loss Investigation in an Oil/Air Separator with Metal Foam in an Aero-Engine

Lifen Zhang, Xiaoxue Zhang and Zhenxia Liu
Additional contact information
Lifen Zhang: School of Power and Energy, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Xiaoxue Zhang: School of Power and Energy, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Zhenxia Liu: School of Power and Energy, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: An efficient method of simulating pressure loss in a separator with metal foam is reported. In this method, a metal foam is modeled as a porous media having homogenized permeability and inertial resistance coefficients. The permeability and inertial resistance coefficients were obtained by a numerical method that was validated by experimental data from a literature. Then the pressure drop in the separator with metal foam replaced by porous media was efficiently simulated under different working conditions, and the results were analyzed. It was found that the porous media had a great effect on the pressure drop in the separator. As pores per inch (PPI) and rotating speed increase and porosity decreases, the pressure drop of the separator increases. The results indicate that replacing metal foam by porous media is effective and simulating the pressure drop is feasible and effective in a separator with metal foam.

Keywords: metal foam; separator; body-centered cubic (BCC); porous media; porosity; PPI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/2/346/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/2/346/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:2:p:346-:d:307281

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().