Numerical Study of Flow Structure and Heat Transfer in Rotating Cavity with Axial Throughflow

To explore the flow and heat transfer rules in the rotating cavity, the unsteady numerical simulation of the axial throughflow rotating cavity was carried out. The calculated results were compared with the experimental value. The development process of flow instability was explored. The change law of flow structure and heat transfer characteristics of the disks with [ReΦ] were analyzed. The cyclonic circulation whose rotation direction is the same as the disk, caused by rotating create near the shroud, become bigger and compress the forced convection zone in the low radius area, finally expand to the whole cavity with increasing [ReΦ]. The results show that the number of vortex pair in the cavity is related to the intensity of the flow instability. The heat transfer intensity at upstream disk and high radius area of downstream disk increase with increasing rotational speed, while the heat transfer intensity at low radius area of downstream disk decreasing because of the decreasing of the impact effect. When the [ReΦ] increases to 4.94×105, the impact effect on the low radius area of downstream disk is reduced to negligible. © 2018, Editorial Department of Journal of Propulsion Technology. All right reserved.