Application of Laser Velocimetry for Characterization of Confined Swirling Flow

A two-component LDV was used in a cold flow dump combustor model to obtain detailed mean and turbulence data for both swirling and nonswirling inlet flows. Large samples were collected to resolve the second and third-order products of turbulent fluctuations with good accuracy. Particle interarrival time weighting was used to remove velocity bias from the data. The swirling flows, with and without vortex breakdown, exhibited significantly different mean flow and turbulent field behavior. A numerical scheme with the k–ε closure model was used to predict the flow fields. Comparison of the numerical and experimental results showed that the k–ε turbulence model is inadequate in representing the complex turbulent structure of confined swirling flows.