Experimental and numerical investigation of the flow in rotating diverging channels

Abstract

This paper reports on an experimental and numerical study at low Reynolds number in order to evaluate the influence of the Coriolis forces on the flow in radial rotating channels. Operating conditions correspond to the flow in radial impellers for micro gasturbine applications. A comparison of detailed flow measurements with CFD results indicates that Navier Stokes solvers with standard k-ω and SST turbulence models predict the flow surprisingly well and that no extra corrections for Coriolis forces are required at these operating conditions