Flowfield characteristics of a confined highly swirling turbulent flow

  • S. A. Ahmed*
  • , A. Z. Al-Gami
  • , K. B. Abidogun
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Measurements of the three components of mean velocities, and its turbulence statistics have been made at different axial locations in a model of a dump combustor. A two-component argon-ion laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) system in the backscatter mode has been employed to obtain simultaneous two component velocity measurements extending from wall-to-wall and covering the horizontal and vertical planes. Understanding the mixing of confined highly swirling flow is of great importance to many industrial applications; especially, gas turbines and modern liquid-fuel ramjet combustors. The objectives are to provide systematic data about the flow, to understand its physics and provide benchmark data for comparisons with numerical predictions, thus guiding the formulation of these models applicable to confined turbulent swirling flows. The measurements showed that the radial velocity component has large values (i.e., of the same order of magnitude of the axial and swirl components) in the near field region. Comprehensive and detailed data showed that a large central recirculation region close from the dump plane extends beyond the last measurement station (i.e., four combustor-diameters). The detailed analysis showed that high velocity gradients and also high turbulence activities prevail (i.e., they are common for this type of flow and the current set of data confirms these findings), and most of the mixing takes place in the shear layers; especially in the near field region.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)323-334
Number of pages12
JournalCanadian Aeronautics and Space Journal
Volume45
Issue number4
StatePublished - Dec 1999

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Space and Planetary Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Flowfield characteristics of a confined highly swirling turbulent flow'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this