Radial Turbulent Flow Between Parallel Plates

Abstract

A laboratory investigation was conducted to study the mean flow characteristics of radial turbulent flow. The fluid—air in this case—is supplied from a pipe at the center and spreads out radially between two parallel plates separated by a small distance. The distribution of pressure and shear stress on the front plate and the velocity at different radial distances from the center has been studied. The velocity distribution has been analyzed in a manner similar to that for radial wall jets—with appropriate velocity and length scales to get similarity profiles. The information obtained enables one to predict the velocity if the discharge and geometric characteristics of the flow configuration are known.