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The objectives of this paper are to pursue an accurate numerical method of unsteady cavitating flow at a reasonable calculation cost and investigate the unsteady cavitating flow characteristics of a centrifugal pump. Firstly, the cavitating flow simulations of a centrifugal pump were performed using the partially-averaged Navier–Stokes (PANS) turbulence model and its improved model to evaluate the numerical methods based on experimental data. Compared with the experimental results, the improved PANS turbulence model can better predict the cavitating flows in the pump and has better applicability. Further, the unsteady cavitating flow characteristics of the centrifugal pump, such as the vapour volume fraction, the cavitation-vortex dynamics and the pressure and head fluctuations, were simulated by improved PANS model and discussed. The liquid flow vortex at the end of the cavitation in the impeller is an important reason for the periodic change of the cavitation shape. The periodic change of cavity volume has a certain impact on the pressure pulsation in the impeller and the pump head. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vortices generated at the open end of a planar shock tube are numerically simulated using the AUSM+ scheme. This scheme is known to have low numerical dissipation and therefore is suitable for capturing unsteady vortex motion. However, this low numerical dissipation can also cause oscillations in the vorticity field. Numerical experiments presented here highlight the effect of numerical dissipation on the simulated vortex, as well as the role played by turbulence models. Two turbulence models - the shear-stress-transport (SST) and its modified version for unsteady flows (SST-SAS) - are employed to observe the effect of including turbulence models in such complex flows where the vortex has an embedded shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]