Investigations of Buoyancy Effects in Sealed Rotating Cavity at different Operating Conditions

Abstract

This work presents the effects of rotationally-induced buoyancy parameter on the fluid flow and heat transfer in an asymmetrical heated sealed rotating cavity system for the range of rotational Reynolds numbers5.26×105 ≤Re≤3.11×106 . These effects are predicted through the ANSYS Fluent commercial code, by adopting an axisymmetric two dimensional solver. Two turbulence models, the low Reynolds number k-ε and the Reynolds stress models are provoked for these predictions. Predictions of both the models illustrate the essential features of the heated sealed rotating cavity system. Computed flow structures show the recirculating vortices of fluid which dominated the outer part of the rotating disc space. The strength of these vortices increased at higher rotational speed. The significant effects of rotational Reynolds numbers are also observed on temperature distribution and the heat fluxes on the hot and cold disc, which are increased on the higher rotational Reynolds number. A comparison of the heat fluxes on the hot disc showed a good level of agreement with the measurements, whereas the cold disc heat fluxes are under estimated.