Numerical and experimental study of swirling flow in a model combustor

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer Vol. 41; no. 11; pp. 1485,1493 - 1491,1497
• Main Authors: Xia, J.L., Yadigaroglu, G., Liu, Y.S., Schmidli, J., Smith, B.L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-06-1998; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Combustion chambers; Combustors; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Equipments for energy generation and conversion: thermal, electrical, mechanical energy, etc; Exact sciences and technology; Flow measurement; Furnaces. Firing chambers. Burners; General. Equipment design. General computation; Laser Doppler velocimeters; Mathematical models; Turbulent flow; Water; Numerical analysis; Combustion chamber; Swirling flow; Model study; Experimental study; Modeling
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/S0017-9310(97)00239-1

The present paper describes a numerical and experimental investigation of strongly swirling flow in a water model combustion chamber equipped with a swirler of special design. The turbulence models used for the numerical calculations are the standard κ—ε model, the RNG κ—ε model and a differential Reynolds stress model (DRSM). In the water model, local mean velocity components and normal stresses are measured using a laser Doppler anemometer. Comparison of numerical predictions against experimental data reveals the superiority of the DRSM over the standard and RNG κ—ε models. The DRSM captures all the major features of the swirling flow, while the other two models do not. For instance, both the experimental data and the DRSM predictions reveal complex, interesting flow behaviour: a corner recirculation zone, and a central toroidal recirculation zone connected to a central reverse zone, which persists all the way to the outlet of the chamber. However, the other two turbulence models predict that the swirling flow evolves into a solid-body-rotation-type flow downstream. The RNG κ—ε model gives very little improvement over the standard κ—ε model for the swirling flow case considered.