Time-Resolved Stereo PIV Measurements of Flow Fields Inside a Rotating Cavity

Abstract

This paper describes the experimental and numerical results of flow fields inside a rotor-stator rotating cavity. The rotational speeds and the axial throughflow are varied as experimental conditions. In the experiment, 3-components velocity vectors on the r–θ and r–z sections are obtained by a stereo dynamic PIV system to understand complex flow fields in detail such as flow structure and unsteadiness. A large eddy simulation (LES) is also carried out to confirm the analytical capability for the rotating cavity and to complement the understanding of the flow field. From the results, axisymmetric steady flow fields are observed under high Rossby number conditions, while several vortices are captured in the cavity in the r – θ section under low Rossby number conditions. The visualization results with seeding tracers for PIV show the flow structure of flow fields. LES can predict the flow field of the experimental result and the behavior of vortices which are varied as to the change of Ro conditions.