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3D-CFD Simulation of Confined Cross-Flow 
Injection Process Using Single Piston Pump 

 

Mohamed Elashmawy 

Mechanical Engineering Department 
University of Hail, Saudi Arabia and 

Engineering Science Department 
Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering 

Suez University, Suez, Egypt 
arafat_696@yahoo.com 

 

 

Abstract—Injection process into a confined cross flow is quite 
important for many applications including chemical engineering 
and water desalination technology. The aim of this study is to 
investigate the performance of the injection process into a 
confined cross-flow of a round pipe using a single piston injection 
pump. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis has been 
carried out to investigate the effect of the locations of the 
maximum velocity and minimum pressure on the confined cross-
flow process. The jet trajectory is analyzed and related to the 
injection pump shaft angle of rotation during the injection duty 
cycle by focusing on the maximum instant injection flow of the 
piston action. Results indicate a low effect of the jet trajectory 
within the range related to the injection pump operational 
conditions. Constant cross-flow was used and injection flow is 
altered to vary the jet to line flow ratio (QR). The maximum jet 
trajectory exhibits low penetration inside the cross-flow. The 
results showed three regions of the flow ratio effect zones with 
different behaviors. Results also showed that getting closer to the 
injection port causes a significant decrease on the locations of the 
maximum velocity and minimum pressure. 

Keywords- 3D-CFD; injection process; cross-flow; single piston 

I. INTRODUCTION  
Cross-flow Injection is an important process for many 

applications. Injection facility is essential plyer in this process. 
The most widely used type worldwide is the diaphragms pump 
type because of its simple and compact design with relatively 
low cost compared to other types. The disadvantage of this type 
is mainly due to its diaphragm material which subjected to 
intensive cyclic fatigue at certain points. Many researches 
focused on the performance and design of the diaphragm 
pumps. To minimize diaphragm fatigue, hydraulically actuated 
diaphragm pumps are usually used. Variable-speed drive is one 
of the controlling facilities used for such type. However using 
pneumatic diaphragm pumps is not sufficient to overcome the 
diaphragm material failure [1]. Low cost is the main advantage 
of this pump type from long time ago and still the main 
motivation for its attractiveness. For high pressure injection 
application piston injection pumps are adequate device. Some 
effort was done establishing a new injection concept based on 

line bleeding that is able to satisfy both high and low pressure 
requirements according to the pressure inside the line. The new 
concept requires no rotating parts having simple and compact 
design with very low cost [2, 3]. Injection process into cross-
flow enhances flow characteristics. Increasing the velocity of 
the cross-flow injection gradually reduces Reynolds number 
and some other parameters. Moreover the penetration of the jet 
in the cross-flow satisfies more than twice stronger and better 
mixing conditions than the jet in the co-flow case [4, 5]. The 
shear layer and vortices of the wake field near the wake region 
of the jet are very important to stabilize the chemical reaction 
and enhance the gas turbine performance [6]. Using multi-
lateral jets upstream from the exit of the nozzle helps to control 
the mixing field of the combustor [7]. When using two jets in 
cross-flow injection process, the two jets will merge into a 
single trajectory after mixed with the cross-flow. Two tandem 
jets have more potential than one jet to penetrate deeper in the 
cross-flow. The rear jet penetrates deeper than the front jet 
because of the front jet simply shielded it [8, 9]. A research was 
performed concerning a classification of the turbulent jet 
mechanics of a T-junction for cooling systems in power plants.  
Results provided optimum operating conditions of the T-
junction in a real field of Phoenix reactor showing the 
importance of a 90° bend component which enhances the 
mixing process mechanism. Furthermore a visualization test-rig 
system with three separated sections to enable each section to 
be visualized separately with the particle image velocimetry 
(PIV). Three mixing regions appear accompanied by maximum 
velocity fluctuations: (1) close to the jet boundary, (2) above 
the jet (along the cross-flow), and (3) near the wake 
downstream area above the jet. Region (3) is the strongest one 
which has a higher cycle thermal fatigue [10, 11]. A CFD 
simulation was performed based on the momentum ratio for T-
junctions with different angles. The cross-flow angle with 
injection direction significantly affected the velocity ratio and it 
is important for improving the design of piping systems [12]. In 
cases when the mixing process has laminar flow, the mixing 
process becomes difficult. The pulsation and geometry effect 
on the mixing process within a microchannel was 
experimentally and numerically investigated. The results show 
that the geometry of the mixing region strongly affects the 



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mixing quality. T and arrowed intersection geometries showed 
the best efficiency for the mixing process, while the single-
right angle intersection showed the worst mixing behavior. A 
mixing enhancement of 71.9% could be reached for the single-
right angle intersection when using flow pulsation while 153% 
mixing enhancement was reached by using a combination of 
flow pulsation and geometry effects [13]. Recently a research 
work studied the effect of the size of the pipe lines (cross-flow 
pipe) on the cross-flow injection characteristics showing the 
importance of this parameter on enhancing the injection 
process and the design of the pipelines. Results show that 
increasing pipeline size enhances injection pump dose by 
almost 3.24% at full pump displacement [14]. The aim of the 
current study is to predict the behavior of the locations of the 
maximum velocity and minimum static pressure within the 
injection process into a confined cross-flow. A computational 
fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed and related to the 
instantaneous injection flow rates of a single piston pump 
driven by circular cam action. This study is a further research 
effort to continue the experimental work performed before in 
[14].  

II. CFD CROSS-FLOW INJECTION SIMULATION 
The cross-flow injection behavior is analyzed using 3D-

CFD (ANSYS-Fluent). Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of 
the test section geometry. Both line flow (cross-flow) and 
injection flow (jet-flow) are water (isothermal mixing process). 
Water viscosity changes by 0.535% as the pressure change 
from 1 to 10 MPa [15]. It is convenient to use a constant 
viscosity and density of 1.003×10-3 Pa.s and 998.2 kg/m3 
respectively for both injection and cross-flow (injection) water 
streams. A constant line flow rate of 83.33×10-3 kg/s is used 
(similar to reference [14]). Reynolds numbers are 6612, 7157 
and 9918 for QR=0, 8.25% and 50% respectively. A standard k-
ɛ turbulent flow model is included. Table I shows the boundary 
conditions and the solution settings used for numerical solution 
operated by 3D-CFD (ANSYS-Fluent). Table II shows the 
mesh independence of the CFD, 1.2 mesh size was selected 
with accuracy of 0.013% which is accepted to reduce time of 
calculations (70154 nodes and 182012 elements). Figure 2 
shows the convergence curves of the iteration parameters of the 
numerical calculations. The convergence attained after 259 
iterations using hybrid initialization. Figure 3 shows the duty 
cycle of the single piston injection pump. The maximum 
indicating injection flow is 6.875×10-6 m3/s (594 L/day) and 
occurred at α=113o shaft angle. The duty cycle is occurred from 

0 to α=180o while from α=180o to α=360o injection duty 
stopped and suction duty started. 

 
Fig. 1.  Schematic diagram of the CDF test-section.  

TABLE I.  BOUNDARY CONDITION AND SOLUTION METHOD 

Boundary Conditions Solution Method (default) 

Water density 998.2 (kg/m3) Scheme Simple 

Water viscosity 
1.003×10-3 

kg/m.s 
Gradient 

Least square, 
cell based 

aInjection Inlet 
Water, (mass flow) 

6.875×10-3 kg/s Pressure Second order 

Line Inlet 
Water, (mass flow) 

83.333×10-3  
kg/s 

Momentum 
Second order 

upwind 
Outlet 

(Gauge Pressure) 
0 Pa 

Turbulent 
kinetic energy 

First order 
upwind 

Wall No slip 
Turbulent 

dissipation rate 
First order 

upwind 
a. Injection inlet varies according to QR (here is the value according to QR=8.25%; at α=113o). 

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
Results are based on steady flow in order to introduce an 

insight of the cross-flow injection process and look at the 
behavior of the injection in a confined cross-flow process, 
(JICCF) which is not experimentally performed in this work. 
Figure 4 shows the CFD velocity contours related to pump 
shaft angle (α) of Fig. 3. QR increased from zero to 8.25% with 
shaft angles from α=zero to α=113o then decreases to zero 
again from α=113o to α=180o. There are no injection occurred 
at α=zero and α=180o. Figure 5 shows the jet trajectory for 
various shaft angles. Increasing the flow ratio (jet velocity) 
increases the jet penetration ability (z-direction) and leads to a 
longer distance in the axial direction (x-direction) that is fully 
mixed with the cross-flow, causing a stronger wake behind the 
jet. In order to better understand the behavior of the JICCF, a 
3D-CFD study is performed for the maximum jet action case 
(QR=8.25%) occurring at shaft angle α =113o to evaluate how 
the velocity and static pressure behave along the axial flow 
(cross-flow stream) at 3-different radial distances (centerline, 
z/D=1.3 and z/D=0.3). 

TABLE II.  MESH INDEPENDENCE 

Element size 
(mm) Nodes Elements Iterations 

Maximum Velocity (m/s) Minimum Pressure (Pa) 

Centerline Z/D=0.3 Centerline Z/D=0.3 
2.0 25493 61649 300 0.53 0.66 59.66 -74.37 
1.8 30312 73711 350 0.53 0.78 60.37 -66.45 
1.6 38928 96489 400 0.54 0.77 57.46 -65.29 
1.4 49279 122914 500 0.53 0.76 57.42 -65.19 
1.2 70154 182012 259 0.53 0.83 57.81 a-77.29 
1.0 103511 270633 286 0.53 0.83 57.81 -77.30 
0.8 163841 455125 325 0.53 0.83 57.81 -77.30 

a. The error due to choosing 1.2 mm mesh size is 0.013%. 



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Fig. 2.  Convergence curves of the CFD iterations. 
 

Fig. 3.  Injection duty cycle of the single piston action. 

 

 
Fig. 4.  CFD velocity contours related to pump shaft angle (α) of Fig. 3. 

 

 
Fig. 5.  Jet trajectory of the confined cross-flow injection for 6-shaft 

angles of the VDRIP. 

 
Fig. 6.  Velocity magnitude distribution in the axial direction of the 

cross-flow, QR=8.25%. 

 
Fig. 7.  Position of the maximum velocity magnitude in the axial flow 

direction for a wide range of flow ratios (QR). 

Figure 6 shows the velocity magnitude distribution in the 
x-direction. Curves show a significant increase in the axial 
velocity directly after the injection port (x/D=0) followed by a 
significant decrease forming two peaks (maximum and 
minimum) at the pipe centerline. Three peaks appeared when 
getting closer to the jet port minimum; before injection, a 
maximum occurred directly after injection, and then a 
minimum occurred again after that. Figure 7 shows the effect 
of the flow ratio (QR) on the position of the maximum velocity 
magnitude along the x-direction where it is expected to have a 
wake region. A wider range of QR is studied in order to show 
the effect of QR on the position of the maximum velocity 
including the pump operational range (0-8.25%). The curves 
show three effect regions (similar to the three regions obtained 

Qmax= 6.875×10-6 m3/s
(594 L/day) @ α=113o



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by [11]). Region (1) is a very narrow region with a range of QR 
from 0 to almost 5% as maximum, wherein increasing the QR 
sharply increases the location of the maximum velocity to 
x/D=3.08, 1.92 and 0.87 for centerline, z/D= 1.3 and z/D=0.3 
respectively. In region (2), (QR=5%-30%) increasing the QR 
decreases the location of the maximum velocity to x/D=1.32, 
0.75 and 0.81 for centerline, z/D= 1.3 and z/D=0.3 respectively. 
In region (3), (QR>30%) QR has no significant effect. 
Moreover, getting closer to the jet port (z/D=1.3 and 0.3) 
decreases the location of the maximum velocity magnitude, 
indicating the strong effect of the jet action on the cross-flow 
stream. Figure 8 shows the distribution of the static pressure 
along the x-direction for three different z-levels. The same 
general behavior of Fig. 6 is obtained with slight differences in 
the location positions; the minimum static pressure is sharper 
and much closer to the jet portion. Similar behavior as in Fig. 
7 is obtained in Fig. 9, showing greater position ranges. In 
region (1), increasing the QR sharply increases the location of 
the minimum static pressures to x/D=7.9, 2 and 1.1 for 
centerline, z/D=1.3 and z/D=0.3 respectively. In region (2), 
increasing QR decreases the location of the minimum static 
pressures to x/D=1.32, 0.75 and 0.81 for centerline, z/D=1.3 
and z/D=0.3 respectively. In region (3), QR has no effect on the 
location of the minimum static pressure. It is observed that the 
same locations were obtained for the maximum velocity and 
minimum static pressure (Figs. 7 and 9) for z/D=1.3 and 0.3 
while the location increased for the minimum static pressure at 
the centerline.  Figure 10 shows JICCF velocity contours and 
vectors. A: shows the velocity contours at the x-z plane 
followed by five sectional views at different levels parallel to 
the x-y plane at z/D =0.3, 0.7, 1.3, 1.9, and 2.3 (centerline). 
The wake region is very clear at z/D=0.3, 0.7 and 1.3 
locations. B: shows velocity vectors similar to (A) focusing on 
the jet action region. C: shows the stream lines of the jet 
separated from the cross-flow focusing on the trajectory path 

of the jet action injected into the confined cross-flow; the 
performance of the jet trajectory shows low penetration inside 
the cross-flow (lower than the pipe centerline. D: shows the 
wake region and the two counter rotating vortex pairs 
occurring at x/D=1. E: shows a cross sectional view of the 
velocity contours. Eleven equally spaced positions are 
introduced to show the jet mixing propagation behavior. The 
results obtained by Fig. 10 (D) are consistence with the results 
obtained in [11,16,17]. Also the results obtained by Fig. 10 (B 
and C) are consistence with the results obtained in [12]. 

 
Fig. 8.  Static pressure distribution along the cross-flow pipe, 

QR=8.25%. 

 
Fig. 9.  Position of the minimum static pressure magnitude in the axial 
flow direction for a wide range of flow ratios (QR).  

 

 
Fig. 10.  CFD analysis at α = 113o (QR=8.25%); (A, B and C): velocity contours, vectors and streamlines along the pipeline flow direction, (D and E): 

velocity vectors and velocity contours across pipeline flow. 



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IV. CONCLUSIONS 
CFD analysis of the jet action into a confined cross-flow has 

been performed and related to instantaneous flow rates 
indicated by shaft angle variation of a single piston injection 
pump. The analysis also focused on the maximum indicated 
injection flow rate in the case when QR=8.25% at α=113o. The 
effect of the flow ratio (QR) on the position of the maximum 
velocity magnitude and minimum static pressure along the x-
direction is also studied. A wider range of QR is considered. 
The results obtained by the 3D-CFD analysis showed a 
relatively small injection trajectory impact on the cross-flow 
within the injection flow range of the operational conditions of 
83.33×10-6 m3/s line flow, 1.283×10-6 m3/s average injection 
flow and 6.875×10-6 m3/s maximum instant injection flow. All 
jet trajectory curves show low penetration inside the cross-
flow, and lay under the centerline of the pipeline. CDF results 
showed the 3-regions of the flow ratio effect on the maximum 
velocity locations along the x-direction (consistent with [11]). 
The first region is a very narrow region with a maximum 5% 
QR, the second region has QR = 5%-30%, and the third region 
has QR >30%. The same behave is obtained for the locations of 
the minimum static pressure. Getting closer to the injection 
centerline significantly decreases the location positions of the 
maximum velocity and the minimum static pressure. 
Increasing QR sharply increases the locations for the first 
region and decreases it for the second region while the third 
region indicates no significant effect. The results of the present 
study show that the locations of the maximum velocity and 
minimum static pressure are strongly related to QR. Indicating 
that the location parameter could be the key point for 
designers beside the values of the maximum velocity and 
minimum static pressure.   

Further research efforts are recommended including the 
following: 

 An experimental study of the same test section and 
parametric conditions is highly recommended validating 
the CFD results. 

 Using a user defined boundary (UDF) condition at the 
inlet would be more realistic. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

Acknowledgments are due to the Deanship of Scientific 
Research, University of Hail, KSA for funding and supporting 
this project with code (E5-ME 2014) and making it feasible. 

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