TURBULENT SWIRLING FLOW IN SHORT CYLINDRICAL CHAMBERS

Turbulent swirling flow in a short closed cylindrical chamber has been measured with laser Doppler anemometry. The swirl was generated by a rotating roughened disk and measured during steady and transient conditions with a smooth disk. The velocity and turbulence fields were found to be strongly dependent on swirl Reynolds numbers (in the range 0.3 x 10(6) < OMEGAR2/v < 0.6 x 10(6)) and on chamber length-to-diameter ratio (in the range 0.1 less-than-or-equal-to L/D less-than-or-equal-to 0.5). With a roughened disk the flow was nearly independent of Reynolds number though still strongly dependent on chamber length-to-diameter ratio.