Experimental and Computational Investigation of Rayleigh-Bénard Flow in the Rotating Cavities of a Core Compressor

Abstract

This paper presents new experimental measurements, at conditions representative of an aero engine, of heat transfer from the inner peripheral surface (shroud) of a rotating cavity. The results are taken from the University of Sussex Multiple Cavity Rig, which is designed to be similar to a gas turbine high pressure compressor internal air system. The shroud Nusselt numbers are shown to be dependent on the shroud Grashof number and insensitive to throughflow axial Reynolds number. The magnitude of the shroud Nusselt numbers are consistent with accepted correlations for turbulent free convection from a horizontal plate, yet show a trend (gradient of Nusselt to Grashof numbers) that is similar to laminar free convection. A supporting high-resolution 3D unsteady RANS simulation was conducted to investigate the cavity flow structure with particular attention paid to the near shroud region. This demonstrated flow structures that are consistent with published work but also show the existence of a type of Rayleigh-Bénard flow that manifests as a series of streaks that propagate along the periphery of the cavity. These structures can be found in the literature albeit in different circumstances. Whilst these streaks have been shown in the simulation their existence cannot be ratified without experimental confirmation.