Large Eddy Simulation and experimentation in an enclosed rotor-stator flow

Abstract

Comparisons between Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and velocity measurements have been performed for the turbulent flow in a real shrouded rotor-stator configuration. To investigate turbulent flow regimes, Séverac et al.(2006) have developed a stabilization technique, called SVV (Spectral Vanishing Viscosity), which exhibits the properties of preserving the spectral accuracy of the approximation used in direct numerical simulation (DNS). Thus, numerical results and experimental data have been favourably compared for a large range of the rotational Reynolds number 10^5<= Re=Omega_b^2/nu <=10^6 in an annular cavity of curvature parameter Rm=(b+a)/(b-a)=1.8 and of aspect ratio G=(b-a)/h=5, where a and b are respectively the inner and outer radii of the rotating disk and h is the interdisk spacing. Coherent vortices have been identified numerically in both boundary layers using the Q-criterion of Hunt et al. (1988).