Fig.10 The 3D waterfall of Reynolds stress components of all observing
fields from P1 to P5
Conclusions
In this paper, the turbulence statistics of the swirl flow in a
gas-liquid separator is investigated by the stereo PIV method. Five
observing regions across the swirl chamber are measured and analyzed.
The following conclusions can be made:
1. The evolution of turbulence field is closely related to the
development of the flow structure, namely the averaged velocity
profiles. Based on the analysis on the turbulent kinetic energy, the
turbulent intensity and Reynolds shear stresses, the turbulence field
can be in general divided into two zones.
2. All the turbulence quantities presents a decay characteristic from
the swirl vane to the recovery vane. The decay is partially due to the
wall friction and mostly stemming from the inner mixing of undeveloped
swirl flow in the first zone. The anisotropic behavior of the Reynolds
shear tensor is featured by the redistribution of the magnitude of each
component. In the first zone the radial component is dominant, while the
tangential component prevails.
3. A very interesting turbulence structure found in this study is the
evolution of the distribution pattern of turbulent quantities. In the
first zone, the turbulence is distributed in a single peak style.
However, the single peak is transited into double peak in the second
zone. The specialty is mainly ascribed to the appearance of the
counter-rotating vortex in the central zone of the swirl chamber.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No.11535009 and No. 11675105) for the financial support. In
addition, special appreciation was given to Miss. Ma Yanfei for her
generous help in this experimental work.