Computational Investigation of Torque on Coaxial Rotating Cones

This article looks at a modification of Taylor–Couette flow, presenting a numerical investigation of the flow around a shrouded rotating cone, with and without throughflow, using the commercial computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT 6.2 and FLUENT 6.3. The effects of varying the cone vertex angle and the gap width on the torque seen by the rotating cone are considered, as well as the effect of a forced throughflow. The performance of various turbulence models are considered, as well as the ability of common wall treatments/functions to capture the near-wall behavior. Close agreement is found between the numerical predictions and previous experimental work, carried out by Yamada and Ito (1979, “Frictional Resistance of Enclosed Rotating Cones With Superposed Throughflow,” ASME J. Fluids Eng., 101, pp. 259–264; 1975, “On the Frictional Resistance of Enclosed Rotating Cones (1st Report, Frictional Moment and Observation of Flow With a Smooth Surface),” Bull. JSME, 18, pp. 1026–1034; 1976, “On the Frictional Resistance of Enclosed Rotating Cones (2nd Report, Effects of Surface Roughness),” Bull. JSME, 19, pp. 943–950). Limitations in the models are considered, and comparisons between two-dimensional axisymmetric models and three-dimensional models are made, with the three-dimensional models showing greater accuracy. The work leads to a methodology for modeling similar flow conditions to Taylor–Couette.