Swirling flow in a conical diffuser generated with rotor-stator interaction

Application Challenge AC6-14 © copyright ERCOFTAC 2024

Introduction

Confined turbulent swirling flows are encountered in many industrial applications, such as hydraulic turbines, gas turbine combustors and internal combustion engines. The flow patterns associated with turbulent swirling flows are vortex-dominated and have long been of interest to scientists and engineers. The goal of the study on which this AC is based has been to understand and control the naturally occurring phenomena. The knowledge can be applied to increase the turbulent convection in heat and mass transfer applications \cite{Javadi2015}, or to reduce unwanted pressure pulsations in e.g. hydro power systems \cite{Javadi2015c}. The present test case primarily relates to the flow in water turbines. The numerical results reported here are based on the work published in \cite{Javadi2015c}.