Turbulence model comparison for a surface vortex simulation

A pump intake can have an important impact on a pump operation due to production of strong unsteady vortices which may cause air intake problems. Constructing a pump sump model and experimental testing is expensive, therefore numerical simulations are expected to help or even replace the experimental testing in the future. In order to understand and eventually be able to predict such surface vortices numerically, a vortex in a small chamber was simulated. A benefit of such isolated vortex test case is small number of elements in computational mesh, compared to the whole pump intake, and a controlled testing environment. For a small chamber vortex simulation, various turbulence model simulations as well as laminar and Euler simulations were evaluated. The results indicate that the SAS-CC turbulence model might be a good choice for a simulation of a pump intake. Time step increase had a moderate influence on SAS-CC results.