Swirl flow in annular geometry with varying cross-section

Abstract

Swirling gas flow is an important topic of research that helps in the design of rockets, atomizers,and gas turbine combustors. In the present work, swirl flow inside annular geometries with constant and varying cross-sectional areas are examined using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Effects of changing the flow and geometric parameters on the swirl behaviour were studied. Reynolds number was found to increase the swirl number in straight and diverging cross-sectional geometries while no significant effect of Reynolds number was observed in converging cross-sectional geometry. Radius ratio, defined as the ratio of the inner to the outer radius of the annular geometry, was found to have a significant effect on the swirl number. Decreasing the radius ratio, in straight and diverging annular geometry decreases the swirl number, however, an opposite trend was observed in the case of converging annular geometry due to significant increase in axial velocity as a result of reduced cross-sectional area. Increasing the swirler vane angle increased the swirl number. At higher vane angles of 60° and 70°, a recirculation zone is developed near the exit of the swirler. Using small cone angles was found to lower the swirl decay rate in converging and diverging nozzles.