Computational investigation of turbulent jet impinging onto rotating disk

Abstract

PurposeThe main purpose of the paper is the validation of a broad range of RANS turbulence models, for the prediction of flow and heat transfer, for a broad range of boundary conditions and geometrical configurations, for this class of problems.Design/methodology/approachTwo‐ and three‐dimensional computations are performed using a general‐purpose CFD code based on a finite volume method and a pressure‐correction formulation. Special attention is paid to achieve a high numerical accuracy by applying second order discretization schemes and stringent convergence criteria, as well as performing sensitivity studies with respect to the grid resolution, computational domain size and boundary conditions. Results are assessed by comparing the predictions with the measurements available in the literature.FindingsA rather unsatisfactory performance of the Reynolds stress model is observed, in general, although the contrary has been expected in this rotating flow, exhibiting a predominantly non‐isotropic turbulence structure. The best overall agreement with the experiments is obtained by the k‐ω model, where the SST model is also observed to provide a quite good performance, which is close to that of the k‐ω model, for most of the investigated cases.Originality/valueTo date, computational investigation of turbulent jet impinging on to “rotating” disk has not received much attention. To the best of the authors' knowledge, a thorough numerical analysis of the generic problem comparable with present study has not yet been attempted.