Observation of Flow in a Ring Inlet Chamber

1979 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Merkli ◽  
M. P. Escudier

We present the results of visualization and quantitative measurements of the flow in a simplified model ring chamber of the type used in axial-flow turbomachinery (see Fig. 1) to distribute flow entering a machine radially to the blading. The observations reveal that above a critical Reynolds number the flow swirls circumferentially around the ring chamber. The device then performs much like a vortex valve, a strong vortex being created in the exit tube beyond the center body. It is shown that the pressure loss in this case can be calculated fairly well using an analysis similar to that of Binnie and Hookings [1]. The exit-tube vortex is also responsible for the occurrence of a piercing whistling sound the frequency of which can be estimated using Vonnegut’s [2] theory for the vortex whistle. Observations are also presented for the symmetric flow situation which occurs at subcritical Reynolds numbers and for the case where swirl in the ring chamber is prevented by a baffle.

Author(s):  
Majid Nabavi ◽  
Luc Mongeau

In this study, two-dimensional laminar incompressible and turbulent compressible flow through the planar diffuser (gradual expansion) for different divergence half angles of the diffuser (θ), and different Reynolds numbers (Re) was numerically studied. The effects of θ on the critical Reynolds number at which the onset of asymmetric flow is observed, were investigated. In the laminar flow regime, it was observed that for every values of θ, there is a critical Re beyond which the flow is asymmetric. However, in the turbulent flow regime, for θ ≥ 20°, even at low Reynolds number the flow is asymmetric. Only for θ ≤ 10°, symmetric flow was observed below a critical Re.


2000 ◽  
Vol 411 ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. ROSS ETHIER ◽  
SUJATA PRAKASH ◽  
DAVID A. STEINMAN ◽  
RICHARD L. LEASK ◽  
GREGORY G. COUCH ◽  
...  

Numerical and experimental techniques were used to study the physics of flow separation for steady internal flow in a 45° junction geometry, such as that observed between two pipes or between the downstream end of a bypass graft and an artery. The three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations were solved using a validated finite element code, and complementary experiments were performed using the photochromic dye tracer technique. Inlet Reynolds numbers in the range 250 to 1650 were considered. An adaptive mesh refinement approach was adopted to ensure grid-independent solutions. Good agreement was observed between the numerical results and the experimentally measured velocity fields; however, the wall shear stress agreement was less satisfactory. Just distal to the ‘toe’ of the junction, axial flow separation was observed for all Reynolds numbers greater than 250. Further downstream (approximately 1.3 diameters from the toe), the axial flow again separated for Re [ges ] 450. The location and structure of axial flow separation in this geometry is controlled by secondary flows, which at sufficiently high Re create free stagnation points on the model symmetry plane. In fact, separation in this flow is best explained by a secondary flow boundary layer collision model, analogous to that proposed for flow in the entry region of a curved tube. Novel features of this flow include axial flow separation at modest Re (as compared to flow in a curved tube, where separation occurs only at much higher Re), and the existence and interaction of two distinct three-dimensional separation zones.


Author(s):  
Francine Battaglia ◽  
George Papadopoulos

The effect of three-dimensionality on low Reynolds number flows past a symmetric sudden expansion in a channel was investigated. The geometric expansion ratio of in the current study was 2:1 and the aspect ratio was 6:1. Both experimental velocity measurements and two- and three-dimensional simulations for the flow along the centerplane of the rectangular duct are presented for Reynolds numbers in the range of 150 to 600. Comparison of the two-dimensional simulations with the experiments revealed that the simulations fail to capture completely the total expansion effect on the flow, which couples both geometric and hydrodynamic effects. To properly do so requires the definition of an effective expansion ratio, which is the ratio of the downstream and upstream hydraulic diameters and is therefore a function of both the expansion and aspect ratios. When the two-dimensional geometry was consistent with the effective expansion ratio, the new results agreed well with the three-dimensional simulations and the experiments. Furthermore, in the range of Reynolds numbers investigated, the laminar flow through the expansion underwent a symmetry-breaking bifurcation. The critical Reynolds number evaluated from the experiments and the simulations was compared to other values reported in the literature. Overall, side-wall proximity was found to enhance flow stability, helping to sustain laminar flow symmetry to higher Reynolds numbers in comparison to nominally two-dimensional double-expansion geometries. Lastly, and most importantly, when the logarithm of the critical Reynolds number from all these studies was plotted against the reciprocal of the effective expansion ratio, a linear trend emerged that uniquely captured the bifurcation dynamics of all symmetric double-sided planar expansions.


1978 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. H. Alvi ◽  
K. Sridharan ◽  
N. S. Lakshmana Rao

Loss characteristics of sharp-edged orifices, quadrant-edged orifices for varying edge radii, and nozzles are studied for Reynolds numbers less than 10,000 for β ratios from 0.2 to 0.8. The results may be reliably extrapolated to higher Reynolds numbers. Presentation of losses as a percentage of meter pressure differential shows that the flow can be identified into fully laminar regime, critical Reynolds number regime, relaminarization regime, and turbulent flow regime. An integrated picture of variation of parameters such as discharge coefficient, loss coefficient, settling length, pressure recovery length, and center line velocity confirms this classification.


2015 ◽  
pp. 157-168
Author(s):  
Natasa Lukic ◽  
Predrag Tekic ◽  
Jelena Radjenovic ◽  
Ivana Sijacki

The present study is concerned with two-sided lid-driven incompressible flow in rectangular, deep cavities applying lattice Boltzmann method. After validating the code for the square cavity, solutions for cavities with an aspect ratio 1.5 and 4 were obtained for the Reynolds numbers of 100, 400, 1000 and 3200. The influence of the Reynolds number and aspect ratio on the flow pattern and on the characteristics of vortices inside the cavity was studied. Symmetric flow pattern was obtained for all investigated cases. The middle of the cavity is mostly influenced by the increase in the aspect ratio. Critical aspect ratio, at which the birth of a primary vortex in the middle of the cavity takes place, was determined to be between 2.7 and 2.725.


2002 ◽  
Vol 459 ◽  
pp. 371-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. OLENDRARU ◽  
A. SELLIER

The effects of viscosity on the instability properties of the Batchelor vortex are investigated. The characteristics of spatially amplified branches are first documented in the convectively unstable regime for different values of the swirl parameter q and the co-flow parameter a at several Reynolds numbers Re. The absolute–convective instability transition curves, determined by the Briggs–Bers zero-group velocity criterion, are delineated in the (a, q)-parameter plane as a function of Re. The azimuthal wavenumber m of the critical transitional mode is found to depend on the magnitude of the swirl q and on the jet (a > −0.5) or wake (a < −0.5) nature of the axial flow. At large Reynolds numbers, the inviscid results of Olendraru et al. (1999) are recovered. As the Reynolds number decreases, the pocket of absolute instability in the (a, q)-plane is found to shrink gradually. At Re = 667; the critical transitional modes for swirling jets are m = −2 or m = −3 and absolute instability prevails at moderate swirl values even in the absence of counterflow. For higher swirl levels, the bending mode m = −1 becomes critical. The results are in good overall agreement with those obtained by Delbende et al. (1998) at the same Reynolds number. However, a bending (m = +1) viscous mode is found to partake in the outer absolute–convective instability transition for jets at very low positive levels of swirl. This asymmetric branch is the spatial counterpart of the temporal viscous mode isolated by Khorrami (1991) and Mayer & Powell (1992). At Re = 100, the critical transitional mode for swirling jets is m = −2 at moderate and high swirl values and, in order to trigger an absolute instability, a slight counterflow is always required. A bending (m = +1) viscous mode again becomes critical at very low swirl values. For wakes (a < −0.5) the critical transitional mode is always found to be the bending mode m = −1, whatever the Reynolds number. However, above q = 1.5, near-neutral centre modes are found to define a tongue of weak absolute instability in the (a, q)-plane. Such modes had been analytically predicted by Stewartson & Brown (1985) in a strictly temporal inviscid framework.


1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hidesada Kanda

Abstract A conceptual model was constructed for the problem of determining in circular pipes the conditions under which the transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs, so that it becomes possible to calculate the minimum critical Reynolds number. Up until now this problem has been investigated by stability theory with disturbances at the pipe inlet. However, the minimum critical Reynolds number has not yet been obtained theoretically. Hence, the author took up the problem directly from many previous experimental investigations and found that (i) plots of the transition length versus the Reynolds number show that the transition occurs in the entrance region under the condition of a natural disturbance, and (ii) plots of the critical Reynolds number versus the ratio of bellmouth diameter to the pipe diamter show that with larger shapes of bellmouths, laminar flow will persist to higher Reynolds numbers. The problem is thus defined clearly as: Under the condition of an ordinary disturbance, the transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs in the entrance region of a straight circular pipe, then the Reynolds number takes a minimum value of about 2000.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlton Campbell ◽  
Michael G. Olsen ◽  
R. Dennis Vigil

Optical-based experiments were carried out using the immiscible pair of liquids hexane and water in a vertically oriented Taylor–Couette reactor operated in a semibatch mode. The dispersed droplet phase (hexane) was continually fed and removed from the reactor in a closed loop setup. The continuous water phase did not enter or exit the annular gap. Four distinct flow patterns were observed including (1) a pseudo-homogenous dispersion, (2) a weakly banded regime, (3) a horizontally banded dispersion, and (4) a helical flow regime. These flow patterns can be organized into a two-dimensional regime map using the azimuthal and axial Reynolds numbers as axes. In addition, the dispersed phase holdup was found to increase monotonically with both the azimuthal and axial Reynolds numbers. The experimental observations can be explained in the context of a competition between the buoyancy-driven axial flow of hexane droplets and the wall-driven vortex flow of the continuous water phase.


2015 ◽  
Vol 813-814 ◽  
pp. 652-657
Author(s):  
Seranthian Ramanathan ◽  
M.R. Thansekhar ◽  
P. Rajesh Kanna ◽  
S. Shankara Narayanan

A 3-Dimensional fluid flow over the sudden expansion region of a horizontal duct for various Reynolds numbers have been studied by using the CFD Software package ANSYS Workbench Fluent v 13.0. The expansion ratio and aspect ratio for the sudden expansion are taken as 2.5 and 4 respectively. This work deals with the finding of critical Reynolds number for a fluid and also the length of re-attachments on stepped walls at various Reynolds numbers for the same fluid. The simulation is carried out in sudden expansion for Reynolds number ranging from 200 to 4000. The variations of local Nusselt number along the stepped walls of the sudden expansion are presented with the heat flux of 35 W/m2 on the stepped walls. Also, the plots of pressure coefficient (Cp) along the stepped walls for different Reynolds numbers are presented in this work.


1980 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Scha¨ffler

The general effect of Reynolds Number on axial flow compressors operating over a sufficiently wide range is described and illustrated by experimental data for four multistage axial compressors. The wide operating range of military aircraft engines leads in the back stages of high pressure ratio compression systems to three distinctly different regimes of operation, characterized by the boundary layer conditions of the cascade flow: • laminar separation, • turbulent attached flow with hydraulically smooth blade surface, • turbulent attached flow with hydraulically rough blade surface. Two “critical” Reynolds Numbers are defined, the “lower critical Reynolds Number” below which laminar separation occurs with a definite steepening of the efficiency/Reynolds Number relation and an “upper critical Reynolds Number” above which the blade surface behaves hydraulically rough, resulting in an efficiency independant of Reynolds Number. The permissible blade surface roughness for hydraulically smooth boundary layer conditions in modern high pressure ratio compression systems is derived from experimental data achieved with blades produced by grinding, electrochemical machining and forging. A correlation between the effect of technical roughness and sand type roughness is given. The potential loss of efficiency in the back end of compression systems due to excessive blade roughness is derived from experimental results. The repeatedly experienced different sensitivity of front and back stages towards laminar separation in the low Reynolds Number regime is explained by boundary layer calculations as a Mach Number effect on blade pressure distribution, i.e. transonic versus subsonic flow.


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