Effects of System Rotation on the Performance of Two-Dimensional Diffusers

Abstract

Experiments with incompressible flow are reported concerning the effects of Coriolis acceleration on flow separation and on separated flow in plane-wall diffusers of rectangular cross section. The diffusers were rotated about an axis perpendicular to the plane of the nearly two-dimensional flow in order to simulate some features of the blade-to-blade flow distribution in the radial portion of the centrifugal impeller. Various stall regimes are mapped on coordinates of rotation number and diffuser area ratio (at fixed wall length). Diffuser pressure-recovery coefficient is reported as a function of area ratio and rotation number. These data demonstrate that, by suppressing turbulent mixing and shear stress in the suction-side boundary layers, the Coriolis acceleration field greatly enhances the tendency for stall to appear in a diffuser. This effect causes a corresponding reduction in the throat-to-exit pressure recovery as compared to that of nonrotating diffusers of the same geometry and inlet flow blockage.