TY - JOUR
TI - Experimental investigations of flow through wide angle conical diffusers with uniform flow and swirl type velocity distortions at inlet
AU - Hemalatha Arumugam
AU - Mahalakshmi Nainarkuppam Venkatesan
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2018
VL - 22
IS - 6
SP - 2571
EP - 2581
PT - Article
AB - Swirl is a tangential velocity component of the fluid flow and is often  present in the conical diffuser as a result of rotating machinery in the  upstream section. The present experimental work is dedicated to study the  effect of moderate swirl on wide angle conical diffuser performance and flow  development. The experiments were performed in a low-speed open circuit wind  tunnel. There are two different diffusers having a cone angle of 14° (with  area ratio 3.0) and 20° (with area ratio 4.2) were selected for this  investigation. The flow parameters have been measured using DANTEC DYNAMICS  make constant temperature hot-wire anemometer (CTA). The results showed that  the moderate swirl can significantly improve the stalled diffuser (20° cone  angle) performance; however, it has a little effect on the diffuser (14°cone  angle) having incipient turbulent boundary layer separation. It was confirmed  that the introduction of moderate swirl reduces the chances of flow  separation in wide angle conical diffusers.