Numerical Simulation of Laminar Confined Radial Flow Between Parallel Circular Discs

Abstract

In this work, a fluid jet is issued axially from a short, circular nozzle and then fed radially outward through the clearance of two parallel circular discs. The disc assembly was considered fully submerged within a fluid in a horizontal plane. Axisymmetric computational domain is chosen for the analysis considering steady, laminar flow. The numerical simulation is carried out by an in-house CFD code developed following the finite volume method and SIMPLER algorithm. The effects of flow rate and channel dimensions are analyzed to understand the characteristics of submerged radial flow. It is found that the flow field consists of several features like toroidal recirculation, annular separation bubble and flow reattachment, which are strongly influenced by the clearance between the two parallel discs and the flow rate.