Stereo-PIV measurements of turbulent swirling flow inside a pipe

Stereo-PIV is used to map turbulent strongly swirling flow inside a pipe connected to a closed recirculating system with a transparent test section of 0.6 m in length and a pipe diameter of 0.041 m. The Perspex pipe was immersed inside a water trough to reduce the effects of refraction. The working fluid was water and the Reynolds number based on the bulk average velocity inside the pipe and pipe diameter was equal to 14,450. The turbulent flow proceeds in the downstream direction and interacts with a circular disk. The measurements include instantaneous velocity vector fields and radial profiles of the mean axial, radial and tangential components of the velocity in the regions between the swirler exit and circular disk and around this later. The results for mean axial velocity show a symmetric behavior with a minimum reverse flow velocity along the centerline. As the flow developed along the pipe’s length, the intensity of the reversed flow was reduced and the intensity of the swirl decays. The mean tangential velocity exhibits a Rankine-vortex distribution and reached its maximum around half of the pipe’s radius. As the flow approaches the disk, the flow reaches stagnation and a complex flow pattern of vortices is formed. The PIV results are contrasted with LDV measurements of mean axial and tangential velocity. Good agreement is shown over the mean velocity profiles.