Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Characteristics of the pulsating flow and heat transfer in an elbow

tailpipe of a self-excited Helmholtz pulse combustor
Yanying Xu a,, Ming Zhai b,, Li Guo b, Peng Dong b, Jian Chen a, Zhi Wang a
a
Liaoning Key Laboratory of Aircraft Fire Explosion Control and Reliability Airworthiness Technology, Shenyang Aerospace University, Shenyang 110136, China
b
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

h i g h l i g h t s

A valveless Helmholtz pulse combustor with an elbow tailpipe was designed.

The pulsating flow in the elbow tailpipe was numerically simulated by FLUENT.

The mean velocity decrease with the velocity amplitude along the tailpipe.

The internal and external elbow pressure decrease along the tailpipe.

Periodical vortex shapes and positions contribute to heat transfer enhancement.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A valveless self-excited Helmholtz pulse combustor with an elbow tailpipe was designed. The pressures
Received 13 November 2015 along the tailpipe and the internal and external elbow section were measured. The pulsating flow in the
Revised 11 June 2016 elbow tailpipe was numerically simulated by FLUENT. Numerical simulation results show that the mean
Accepted 16 July 2016
velocity decrease with the velocity amplitude along the tailpipe. The mean and amplitude of
Available online 19 July 2016
area-averaged pressure and internal and external elbow pressure decrease along the tailpipe. The mean
and amplitude of the internal elbow pressure are less than those of the external elbow pressure. The sim-
Keywords:
ulation results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The mass-averaged velocity-reversing,
Self-excited Helmholtz pulse combustor
Pulsating flow
Dean vortex forming, shedding and reforming process and periodical Dean vortex shapes and vortex core
Elbow tailpipe positions contribute to convective heat transfer enhancement.
Numerical simulation 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Heat transfer

1. Introduction
Pulse combustion is a special combustion process driven by
combustion heat release coupling with the acoustic oscillation of
the structure of the combustor [13]. Pulse combustion is recog-
nized for its high combustion efficiency, high heat transfer rates,
and low pollutant emission compared with steady combustion
[46]. Many applications of pulse combustion have been proposed
including thrust generation, pressure gain, and fluid pumping, indi-
rect and direct heating of liquid or air, and so on [713]. Most of
them have been tried, and some are under development, and a
few are in use.
Although there are three types of pulse combustor, such as
Schmidt, Helmholtz and Rijke tubes [14,15], the most available
pulse combustor is the Helmholtz type. In most Helmholtz pulse
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: xyylwzj@163.com (Y. Xu), zhaiming@hit.edu.cn (M. Zhai).
combustors, one-way supply valves are used for reactants supply,
and the pressure difference across the one-way valve determines
the valves operation. The pulse combustors with valves will
reduce the stability and the operation power of pulse combustion,
and lead to a narrow range of adjustment. Richards et al. [16]
developed a Helmholtz thermal pulse combustor without any
one-way valves for pulse combustion. Pulse combustion was
self-excited even with steady reactants supply. Daw et al. [17] used
the model of Ref. to demonstrate that with the pulse combustor, a
bifurcation may lead to chaos. In et al. [18] maintained anticontrol
chaos in the system to prevent the system from a transition to
flame extinction. Bloom et al. [19] constructed a lumped parameter
model of pulse combustion which incorporates a valve submodel
exhibiting continuous mass reactant flow.
There have been many studies about pulsating flows and heat
transfer in a pipe [20,21]. Earlier studies suggested that at the same
Re number, the heat transfer coefficient of a pulsating flow no
matter turbulent or laminar was much higher than that of a steady

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.07.114
1359-4311/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
568 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580
Nomenclature
Letter symbols
cp constant pressure specific heat
E specific total energy
f frequency
h sensible enthalpy
I unit tensor
k thermal conductivity
L tailpipe length
M molecular weight
p static pressure
Pr Prandtl number
r radial position
Rg gas constant
R universal gas constant
t time
T temperature
flow, and there was the optimal frequency to achieve the maxi-
mum heat transfer rate [22,23]. Liewkongsataporn [24] investi-
gated the pulsating flows and heat transfer in a Helmholtz pulse
combustor straight tailpipe, which used the experimental data
from Sandia National Laboratories by Dec et al. [3,5]. The present
studies were mainly aimed at the straight pipe and pulsating lam-
inar flow. Papadopoulos and Vouros [25] presented direct numer-
ical simulations of sinusoidal pulsating turbulent flow at low
bulk Re numbers with high frequency in a straight pipe. Yan
et al. [26] analyzed the heat transfer behavior of pulsating turbu-
lent pipe flow in rolling motion. The effect of velocity oscillation
period on the heat transfer is more limited than the effect of Rey-
nolds number and oscillating velocity Reynolds number. Yuan et al.
[27] investigated theoretically the effects of wall thermal inertia on
heat transfer of pulsating laminar flow and obtained the effects of
the pulsation amplitude, frequency, the Prandtl number and the
wall heat capacity on heat transfer. Wantha [28] investigated the
amplitude, force frequency, Reynolds number and blockage ratio
of heat exchangers in pulsating airflows.
From what has been discussed above, there are few studies on
flows within a pulse combustor with an elbow tailpipe. Practically,
to increase the heat transfer surface and space of the tailpipes,
pulse combustor with elbow tailpipes are commonly used. Since
the pulsating flow in an elbow tailpipe is coupled with the struc-
ture of the tailpipe, the characteristics of the pulsating flow and
heat transfer will become more complex. The research on charac-
teristics of the pulsating flow and heat transfer in an elbow tailpipe
is very necessary. This paper designed a valveless self-excited
Helmholtz pulse combustor with continuous gas and air supply
that is similar to that of Richards et al. The objective is to investi-
gate the characteristics of the pulsating flow and heat transfer in a
90 elbow tailpipe of the self-excited pulse combustor, and explain
the reasons for the enhancement in heat transfer of elbow tailpipe.
2. Experimental facility and diagnostics
2.1. Experimental facility
The experimental setup with the instrumentation is shown in
Fig. 1. The combustor consists of a mixing chamber, a combustion
chamber, a 90 elbow tailpipe, a decoupling chamber and an
exhausting pipe. Air and propane are non-premixed and injected
into the mixing chamber separately in radial direction through
two groups of vertical orifices. The sizes of the orifices are deter-
mined by the flux value when the equivalence ratio of air and pro-
u axial velocity
!
v velocity vector
x axial distance along the tailpipe
Greek symbols
l dynamic viscosity
m kinematic viscosity
q density
s stress tensor
x radian frequency
Subscripts
A amplitude
aa area-averaged
ma mass-averaged
m mean or time-averaged
pane is approximately 1. Two pieces of quartz glass are set in the
end region of mixing chamber and the profile of the combustion
chamber, respectively, for observing the flame in the combustion
zone. Propane flows into the mixing chamber from a standard
gas cylinder, and the air is supplied by an air pump. The tailpipe
has a coaxial outer water cooling jacket which formed a counter-
flow heat exchanger with cooling water flowing through the annu-
lar space between the inner and outer tubes from the decoupling
chambers direction to the combustion chambers direction. The
elbow locates in the middle of the pipe, and the radii is 150 mm.
The inner diameter of the water cooling jacket is 60 mm with the
length of 1200 mm. Cooling water flows from the exit of the
tailpipe to the inlet of the tailpipe, forming a counter-flow heat
exchanger system.
2.2. Diagnostics
The diagnostics used in the experiment are mass flowmeters,
thermocouples, a digital thermometer, pressure transducers and a
flue gas analyzer. Scales of gas (propane) and air mass flowmeters
are 010 L/min and 0200 L/min, respectively. The positions of
temperature, pressure and flue gas measuring points are shown in
Fig. 2. Thermocouples are used to measure the temperatures of
the tailpipe entrance and exit of the exhaust gas and the inner
wall along the tailpipe. The digital thermometer is used to measure
the temperature of the inlet and outlet of the cooling water in
the water jacket. Pressure transducers measured the pressure
in the combustion chamber and along the tailpipe and to determine
the combustor frequency. The flue gas analyzer measured the com-
ponents content of the flue gas at the exit of the tailpipe and to
determine the total equivalence ratio and calculate the mean Re
in the tailpipe. The instantaneous signals of pressure and tempera-
ture are collected by the computer data acquisition system.
3. Numerical simulation
The flow and heat transfer characteristics of 90 elbow tailpipe
were simulated. A case with relatively high oscillation amplitude of
pressure and relatively low operation frequency was selected as
the base case. The mean mass flow rate was 3.4 g/s. Fig. 3 shows
the oscillation pressure shape in the combustion chamber. The
pattern of oscillation was assumed sinusoidal in the numerical
simulation. The pressure amplitude in the combustion chamber
was 10.316 kPa. The power spectrum of the pressure oscillation
with a frequency of 29.83 Hz is shown in Fig. 4. The reactants were
 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580 569

1500

Tailpipe with Water Jacket

ber
30
0 Cham
ion
ust tlet 800
150 o mb Ou
C a ter
W PT
P
b er P
T 10
ham
P P 0
gC
P
xin
T t
i P em nle
M yst t er I
nS
T
hel
l P
o Wa
siti
S T
P Decoupling Chamber
qui
ti on
ula T c
Ins T A
P D ata
T
PP

To Flue Gas Analyzer

3
32
Mass Flowmeter Mass Flowmeter
Regulator Regulator 4

508

Air
C3H8 Filter
Air from Pump

Fig. 1. The experimental setup with the instrumentation.

Fig. 2. Positions of measuring points (dimension: mm).

propane and air with the excessive air ratio of 1.38. The flue gas 3.1. Mathematical model and boundary conditions
from the combustion was assumed a complete reaction with
73.3% of nitrogen, 7.3% of water vapor, 6.1% of oxygen, and 13.3% The mathematical model consists of three basic conservation
of carbon dioxide on the mass basis. equations, a state equation, and a turbulence model.
570 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580

14 anisotropy near the wall and non-local pressure-strain effects.

12 The outstanding characteristic of the model is the velocity scale,
10 v 2 , instead of the turbulent kinetic energy, k, to calculate the tur-
8 bulent viscosity. The model is solving the following four transport
6
equations:
Standard k-e equations:
Pressure (kPa)

4
  
@ ! lt
2
qk r  qk v P  qe r  l rk 10
0 @t rk
-2   
@ ! C 0 P  C e2 q e lt
-4 qe r  qe v e1 r l re 11
-6
@t T re
-8 The v 2 transport equation:
-10   
@ ! e lt
qv 2 r  qv 2 v qkf  6qv 2 r  l rv 2
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Cycle @t k rk
12
Fig. 3. Pressure oscillation in the combustion chamber.
Elliptic relaxation equation:

 vk 5v
2 2 2
180000 P
f  L2 r2 f C 1  1 3 C2 k 13
160000 29.82605 T qk T
140000 The rate of turbulent energy production is
120000
P 2lt S2 14
Power

100000
! !
where S2 S : S, S 12 r v rv T .
80000
The time scale is
60000 !
0 a k
3=2
40000 T min T ; p p 15
20000 3 v 2Cl 2S2
0 The length scale is
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
"  1=4 #
Frequency (Hz) 0 v3
L C L max L ; C g 16
e
Fig. 4. Power spectrum of pressure in the combustion chamber.
 
k pv 0
Continuity equation: where T 0 max e;6 e , L min
k3=2
e ; p13 k3=2
p .
v 2 Cl 2
2S

@q ! Eddy viscosity:
r  q v 0 1
@t
lt qC l v 2 T 17
Momentum equation:
The constants of the model are
@ ! ! !
q v r  q v v rp r  s 2 a 0:6; C 1 1:4; C 2 0:3; C e1 1:4; C e2 1:9;
@t
! ! 2 ! C g 70; C l 0:22;
s lr v rv T  r  v I 3  q
3
C L 0:23; rk 1; re 1:3; C 0e1 C e1 1 0:045 k=v 2
Energy equation:
@ !
18
qE r  v qE p r  keff rT 4
@t The boundary conditions of turbulence parameters were
p v2 determined by turbulence intensity and hydraulic diameter. The
Eh 5
q 2 turbulence intensity was set to the default value of 10%. The turbu-
Z T lence intensity was configured to be 0.1% due to lower turbulence
h cp dT 6 levels at the tailpipe exit with the hydraulic diameter of 26 mm.
T ref
The inlet of the 90 elbow tailpipe was configured to the
c p lt
keff k 7 pressure-inlet, because it coincided with the actual condition.
Pr t The pressure oscillation in the combustion chamber can be
State equation for ideal gas: assumed sinusoidal. Therefore, the pressure-inlet condition can
p be simply written as a mean value plus a sine oscillating part:
q 8
Rg T pt pm pA sinxt 19
R
Rg 9 With this condition, at the inlet of the computational domain, the
M time-averaged pressure value Pm is 1350 Pa. Pressure amplitude PA
The v2-f model was selected for complex and strongly separated is 10,136 Pa according to Fig. 3. The flue gas temperature at the
flows that may occur during flow reversal and flow in the elbow inlet was 1228 K according to the average value of experimental
tailpipe. The model is taking into account the turbulence measurement data.
 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580 571

The pressure-outlet boundary condition was constant ambient 4. Results and discussion
pressure. The backflow temperature was regarded as the ambient
temperature (300 K). Oscillation shape variation of inlet mass flow rate was tracked
The boundary conditions at the wall of the tailpipe were sta- in the simulation. The iterative process ended when the oscillation
tionary and no-slip. The temperature of Zone 2 (flue gas and cool- waveform was stable. Fig. 6 shows ten stable cycles of the mass
ing water heat exchanger) was assumed to be uniform and flow rate at the inlet, and the time-averaged mass flow rate is
constant for simplification, and the temperature was set to 430 K. 3.4 g/s. For comparison, the mass-averaged and area-averaged
The rest of the wall temperature was set to no heat flux. velocity, pressure and temperature are defined by
R
qudA
uma R 20
3.2. Grid and numerical method qdA
R
udA
Since boundary conditions outside the tailpipe might influence uaa R 21
dA
the velocity profile at the tailpipe exit during flow reversal, the R
pqudA
computational domain was extended outside the tailpipe exit as pma R 22
showed in Fig. 5. Coordinates origin was located in the rotation qudA
R
center of the elbow. The mainstream inlet direction was coordinate pdA
paa R 23
axis Y. The mainstream exit direction was coordinate axis X, and h dA
was the polar angle. The inlet of the elbow was h = 90, and the exit R
T qudA
of the elbow was h = 0. The length of the elbow tailpipe was T ma R 24
qudA
1500 mm with a radius of r = 150 mm. For grid generation, the
computational domain was divided into eight zones. Among them, Fig. 7 shows the mass-averaged velocity oscillations at six posi-
hexahedral structured grids were generated in zone and , tions along the tailpipe mainstream direction. Velocity oscillations
and unstructured grids were generated in zone and . Since are periodically varied, and the pattern of the oscillations is sinu-
boundary layer is important to simulation, eight rows of cells (first soidal. The flue gas in the tailpipe flows back and the backflow time
row: 0.1 mm, factor: 1.2) were set for the boundary layer of the reaches the maximum at the exit, about 0.4 cycles. The mean and
tailpipe. The grid independence has been checked for sizes amplitude of mass-averaged velocities are shown in Table 1. The
(0.5 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and 4 mm) of the cells out of the boundary average velocity reaches the maximum at the inlet of the tailpipe
layer, and 1 mm was selected to generate the grid. The total grids and decreases gradually along the mainstream direction. The
were 868,753. velocity amplitude reaches the minimum at the inlet of the tailpipe
The numerical simulation was performed by the software FLU- and gradually increases along the mainstream direction. The tem-
ENT version 6.3. The grid was generated by the GAMBIT software perature is maximum at the inlet of the tailpipe, and the mean
version 2.3. The three-dimensional double-precision solver and velocity of the flue gas is maximum. The temperature decreases
the pressure-based implicit solution were adopted. SIMPLEC and gradually along the mainstream direction since convective heat
PISO were selected for steady and unsteady flows, respectively. transfer along the tailpipe surface. There are frictional resistance
The characteristic time step was 335 ls (there were 100 steps cal- and local resistance to the flow so that the mean velocity
culated for each cycle), and the maximum number of iterations decreases. The velocity amplitude gradually increases along the
allowed in each physical time step was 400. A user-defined func- mainstream direction.
tion file was used to define the pressure-inlet boundary condition Fig. 8 shows the area-averaged pressure oscillations at ten
for the flow. The 3D Q-criterion was defined as a custom field func- positions along the tailpipe mainstream direction. The pressure
tion for the identification of vortices. oscillations are similar to sine curves. The mean and amplitude

Fig. 5. Computational domain (dimension: mm).

572 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580

16 11
Exp.Mean
14 10
Exp.Amplitude
12 9
CFD.Amplitude
10 8
CFD.Mean
8 7
Mass Flow Rate (g/s)

Pressure (kPa)
6 6

4 5

2 4

0 3

-2 2

-4 1

-6 0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
-8 l/L
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Cycle Fig. 9. Mean and amplitude of area-averaged pressure along the tailpipe.

Fig. 6. Inlet mass flow rate in tailpipe (10 cycles).

100 8

Inlet Elbow inlet (In)

80 6 Elbow inlet (Ex)
y=-332mm
y=-182mm = 60 ( In)
60
Mass-averaged velocity (m/s)

x=182mm 4 = 60 ( Ex)
40 x=332mm
= 30 ( In)
2
Pressure (kPa)

Exit = 30 ( Ex)
20
Elbow exit (In)
0
0 Elbow exit (Ex)

-20 -2

-40 -4

-60 -6
-80
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 -8
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Cycle
Cycle
Fig. 7. Mass-averaged velocity oscillation of the tailpipe.
Fig. 10. Internal and external elbow pressure.

Table 1
Mean and amplitude of mass-averaged velocity of tailpipe section.
8
Position along Inlet y = 332 y = 182 x = 182 x = 332 Exit
the mainstream 7
direction
Mean (m/s) 21.55 19.85 17.28 10.28 9.22 7.08 6
Amplitude (m/s) 64.44 67.05 67.72 70.67 71.50 75.39 Exp.Amplitude( In)
5 Exp.Mean( In)
Pressure (kPa)

Exp.Amplitude( Ex)
12 4 Exp.Mean( Ex)
10 CFD.Amplitude( In)
Inlet 3 CFD.Mean( In)
8
y=-332 CFD.Amplitude( Ex)
6 2 CFD.Mean( Ex)
y=-182
4 = 90
Pressure (kPa)

1
2 = 60
0 = 30 0
0.40 0.42 0.44 0.46 0.48 0.50 0.52 0.54 0.56 0.58 0.60
-2 = 0
l/L
x=182
-4
x=332 Fig. 11. Mean and amplitude of pressure of internal and external elbow in radial
-6 direction.
Exit
-8
-10
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 of area-averaged pressure along the tailpipe are plotted in Fig. 9.
Cycle The mean and amplitude of area-averaged pressure are maximum
at the inlet of the tailpipe and decrease gradually along the main-
Fig. 8. Area-averaged pressure in the tailpipe. stream direction since there is the energy loss when flue gas flows.
 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580 573

The mean and amplitude of area-averaged pressure are the mini-
mum at the tailpipe exit. The results of the numerical simulation
agree with the experimental data.
Internal and external elbow pressure oscillations of the tailpipe
in the radial direction are shown in Fig. 10. Fig. 11 shows the mean
and amplitude of internal and external wall elbow pressure. The
mean and amplitude of internal elbow pressure are all less than
that of external elbow due to the effect of the curvature of the
elbow section on the flow. Influenced by the centrifugal force,
the flue gas tends to squeeze the external wall. The mean and
amplitude of internal and external elbow pressure decrease gradu-
ally along the mainstream direction. The results of the numerical
simulation are in good agreement with the experimental data.
Fig. 12 shows instantaneous velocity and temperature profiles
across the tailpipe at y = 332 mm, elbow inlet, elbow exit,
x = 332 mm and the tailpipe exit in the radial direction (Z = 0).
From Fig. 12(a) and (b), it can be seen that the profiles of velocity
and temperature are relatively flat away from the wall, which
behaves a turbulent pulsating flow. The profiles are almost not
affected by the elbow section. However, at the elbow inlet of the
tailpipe, there are overshoot velocities and temperatures in the
boundary layer as showed in Fig. 12(c) and (d). The temperature

120 1300

100 1200
0.125T 0.125T
0 0
80 1100
0.250T 0.250T
0 0
60 1000
0.375T 0.375T

Temperature (K)
0 0
Velocity (m/s)

40 0.500T 900 0.500T

0 0
20 0.625T 800 0.625T
0
0
0 0.750T 700 0.750T
0 0
0.875T 0.875T
-20 0 600 0
1.000T 1.000T
-40 0 500 0

-60 400
-14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
r (mm) r (mm)
(a) Instantaneous velocity profiles at y=-332mm (b) Instantaneous temperature profiles at y=-332mm

120 1100
100 1050
0.125T 1000
0 0.125T
80 950 0
0.250T
0 900 0.250T
60 0
0.375T 850
0 0.375T
Temperature (K)

40
Velocity (m/s)

0
0.500T 800
0 0.500T
20 750 0
0.625T
0 700 0.625T
0 0
0.750T 650
0 0.750T
-20 0
0.875T 600
0 0.875T
-40 550 0
1.000T
0 500 1.000T
-60 0
450
-80 400
-14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
r (mm) r (mm)
(c) Instantaneous velocity profiles at elbow inlet (d) Instantaneous temperature profiles at elbow inlet

120 950

100 900
0.125T 850 0.125T
80 0 0
0.250T 800 0.250T
60 0 0
0.375T 750 0.375T
0
0
Temperature (K)

40
Velocity (m/s)

0.500T 700 0.500T

0 0
20
0.625T 650 0.625T
0 0
0 600
0.750T 0.750T
0 0
-20 550
0.875T 0.875T
0 0
-40 500
1.000T 1.000T
0 0
-60 450

-80 400
-14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
r (mm) r (mm)

(e) Instantaneous velocity profiles at elbow exit (f) Instantaneous temperature profiles at elbow exit

Fig. 12. Instantaneous velocity and temperature profiles of tailpipe in radial direction (Z = 0).
574 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580

100 660
80 640
0.125T 620 0.125T
0 0
60
0.250T 600 0.250T
0 0
40 580
0.375T 0.375T

Temperature (K)
0
Velocity (m/s)

0
20 560
0.500T 0.500T
0 0
540
0 0.625T
0 520 0.625T
0
-20 0.750T
0 500 0.750T
0
-40 0.875T 480 0.875T
0 0
1.000T 460
-60 0 1.000T
0
440
-80 420
-14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 -14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
r (mm) r (mm)
(g) Instantaneous velocity profiles at x=332mm (h) Instantaneous temperature profiles at x=332mm

100 480

80 460
0.125T 0.125T
0 440 0
60
0.250T 0.250T
0 420 0
40 0.375T 0.375T
0 0
Temperature (K)
Velocity (m/s)

400
20 0.500T 0.500T
0 0
380
0 0.625T 0.625T
0 0
360
0.750T 0.750T
-20 0 0
340
0.875T 0.875T
0 0
-40 320
1.000T 1.000T
0 0
-60 300

-14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 280

-14 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
r (mm)
r (mm)
(i) Instantaneous velocity profiles at the tailpipe exit
(j) Instantaneous temperature profiles at the tailpipe exit

Fig. 12 (continued)

overshoots in the boundary layer are more apparent, which leads
to the decrease of the thickness of the thermal boundary layer.
The profiles of velocity and temperature have been affected by
the curvature of the elbow section. Fig. 12(e) and (f) shows the
same characteristics with (c) and (d). However, overshoot temper-
atures in the boundary layer are more evident. The difference of
internal and external elbow temperature is large, and the thermal
boundary layer thickness decreases significantly. There are still
obvious overshoot velocities and temperatures in the boundary
layer at x = 332 mm as showed in Fig. 12(g) and (h), which suggests
that the profiles of velocity and temperature are still affected by
the curvature of the elbow section. Fig. 12(i) and (j) shows that
the effects of curvature of the elbow section on profiles of velocity
and temperature are weakened. The temperature of the tailpipe
exit is greatly decreased, which indicates the effect of flow reversal
is significant.
Figs. 1316 are the instantaneous contours of vortices by Q-
criterion at the section of h = 90o, h = 60o, h = 30o and h = 0o in a
cycle respectively. It can be seen from Fig. 13, the flue gas flows
from internal to external elbow at (c), (d) and (e). The velocity
has a certain deflection but does not form a vortex at (b). There
is Dean vortex in (a), (f), (g) and (h), but the positions of the vortex
core are different. The symmetry of the vortex core appears at the
center of half of the section at 0.875T0, while the vortex core offsets
to the wall at 0.125T0, 0.75T0 and 1.0T0, which indicates there is
significant extended phenomenon of the vortex core. It experi-
enced vortex forming, shedding and reforming process in a cycle.
Figs. 14 and 15 show a variety of Dean vortexes form in a cycle.
However, the positions of the streamlines and vortex cores are dif-
ferent. Fig. 16 shows the instantaneous vortices at the section of
h = 0o and h = 90o are similar in a cycle. Dean vortex forming, shed-
ding and reforming process in a cycle enhance the disturbance
between the fluid and the wall. Thus, the convective heat transfer
between the flue gas and the tailpipe wall is enhanced. Besides,
cyclical changes in the Dean vortex also strengthen the disturbance
between the fluid and the wall, which also lead to the enhance-
ment of the convective heat transfer.
The center and mass-averaged temperature oscillations of the
cross section are plotted in Fig. 17. The center and mass average
temperature of the cross section are gradually decreased along
the tailpipe due to the wall heat transfer. The center temperature
of the cross section is much higher than the mass average temper-
ature upstream of the elbow section inlet. From Fig. 12(b), the tem-
perature is much lower near the wall than away from the wall, and
the density near the wall is much higher. Therefore, the mass-
averaged temperature of the cross section is lower than the center
temperature. The center temperature of the cross section is close to
the mass-averaged temperature after the elbow section exit.
Fig. 12(h) shows that there are overshoot temperatures near the
wall. The temperature of the external elbow is lower than that of
the internal wall. The center temperature of the cross section is
not maximum in the whole cross section. When the velocity is pos-
itive, the flue gas continuously flows from upstream to down-
stream, and the hot flue gas from further inside the tailpipe is
driven out of the tailpipe until the velocity changes direction again.
Therefore, the temperature reaches a local maximum, from higher-
 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580
(a) t=0.125T0 (b) t=0.250T0 (c) t=0.375T0 (d) t=0.500T0

(e) t=0.625T0 (f) t=0.750T0 (g) t=0.875T0 (h) t=1.000T0

Fig. 13. Contours at the section of h = 90o.

575
 576
Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580
(a) t=0.125T0 (b) t=0.250T0 (c) t=0.375T0 (d) t=0.500T0

(e) t=0.625T0 (f) t=0.750T0 (g) t=0.875T0 (h) t=1.000T0

Fig. 14. Contours at the section of h = 60o.
 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580
(a) t=0.125T0 (b) t=0.250T0 (c) t=0.375T0 (d ) t=0.500T0

(e) t=0.625T0 (f) t=0.750T0 (g) t=0.875T0 (h) t=1.000T0

Fig. 15. Contours at the section of h = 30o.

577
 578
Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580
(a) t=0.125T0 (b) t=0.250T0 (c) t=0.375T0 (d) t=0.500T0

(e) t=0.625T0 (f) t=0.750T0 (g) t=0.875T0 (h) t=1.000T0

Fig. 16. Contours at the section of h = 0o.
 Y. Xu et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 108 (2016) 567580 579

1300 1300
1200 1200

Mass-averaged Temperature(K)
1100 1100
1000 1000
Temperature (K)

900 Tailpipe Inlet 900 Tailpipe Inlet

y=-332mm y=-332mm
800 y=-182mm 800 y=-182mm
x=182mm x=182mm
700 700 x=332mm
x=332mm
600 Tailpipe Exie 600 Tailpipe Exie
500 500
400 400
300 300
200 200
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Cycle Time Cycle Time
(a) Temperature profiles at tailpipe centerline (b) Mass-averaged temperature profiles
Fig. 17. Centerline and mass-averaged temperature profiles.

temperature flue gas upstream. Fig. 17(b) shows there are sudden
drops in mass-averaged temperature and two extreme points
when the mass-averaged velocity oscillation changes direction
(Fig. 7). The sudden temperature drop shows the heat transfer
enhancement. It indicates that the heat transfer between the flue
gas and the wall is enhanced when mass-averaged velocity oscilla-
tion direction changes. At the tailpipe exit, the temperature is close
to the ambient level (300 K) for about half of a cycle, which shows
that the temperature is greatly influenced by the ambient air. The
influence scope is limited to a short distance of tailpipe exit.
The difference between the centerline and mass-averaged tem-
perature profiles is due to their definitions. The gradient of the
velocity profiles away from the wall is much smaller than that near
the wall. When velocity changes direction, the temperature near
wall contributes more to the mass-averaged temperature. Since
the temperature is much lower near the wall than away from the
wall, there are sudden drops in each mass-averaged temperature
profile except the exit due to the influence of the ambient air out
of the tailpipe. However, at the tailpipe center, when flue gas
begins to flow back, the centerline temperature is still high but
decreasing. Near the tailpipe exit, the centerline temperature
remains low as ambient air continues to flow in, and when the
velocity changes direction again, the ambient air flew in previously
are the first part to flow out of the tailpipe, so the centerline tem-
perature starts to increase until the flue gas from upstream reaches
maximum.
5. Conclusions
A self-excited Helmholtz pulse combustor with an elbow tail-
pipe experimental system was designed. The pressures along the
tailpipe and internal and external elbow pressure were measured.
The experimental measurement data was used for the initialization
of the numerical simulation. The CFD software package, FLUENT
was used for simulation. The numerical simulation results are in
good agreement with the experimental data.
The characteristics of the pulsating flow in the self-excited
Helmholtz pulse combustor elbow tailpipe are the decrease in
mean velocity with the increase in velocity amplitude along the
tailpipe. The velocity and temperature are affected by flow reversal
at the tailpipe exit, but the influence scope is limited to a short dis-
tance. The mean and amplitude of area-averaged pressure and
internal and external elbow pressure at the elbow section are
decreased along the tailpipe. The mean and amplitude of internal
elbow pressure are all less than that of the external elbow. The pro-
files of velocity and temperature are relatively flat away from the
wall upstream the inlet of the elbow section. There are overshoot
temperature and velocities in the boundary layer, especially the
overshoot temperatures, which lead to the decrease in thermal
boundary layer thickness and the enlarge the temperature
difference between internal and external elbow wall surface.
Mass-Averaged temperature drops sharply and appears two
extreme points when the direction of the mass-averaged velocity
oscillation changes. There are Dean vortexes at the elbow section.
However, the shapes of the vortex are various, and the positions of
the vortex core are different in a cycle. It experiences Dean vortex
forming, shedding and reforming process at inlet and exit of the
elbow section in a cycle, which is beneficial to heat transfer
enhancement.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51206032), China Postdoctoral
Science Foundation (Grant No. 2013M531037) and Heilongjiang
Postdoctoral Financial Assistance (Grant No. LBH-Z12101).
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