Real Gas Effects in Turbomachinery Flows: A CFD Model for Fast Computations

A numerical model was included in a three-dimensional viscous solver to account for real gas effects in the compressible Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. The behavior of real gases is reproduced by using gas property tables. The method consists of a local fitting of gas data to provide the thermodynamic property required by the solver in each solution step. This approach presents several characteristics which make it attractive as a design tool for industrial applications. First of all, the implementation of the method in the solver is simple and straightforward, since it does not require relevant changes in the solver structure. Moreover, it is based on a low-computational-cost algorithm, which prevents a considerable increase in the overall computational time. Finally, the approach is completely general, since it allows one to handle any type of gas, gas mixture or steam over a wide operative range. In this work a detailed description of the model is provided. In addition, some examples are presented in which the model is applied to the thermo-fluid-dynamic analysis of industrial turbomachines.