Pergamon Press

P r i n t e d in the United S t a t e s

LETTERS IN HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER

Vol. I, pp. 131 - 138, 1974

APPLICATION OF THE ENERGY-DISSIPATION MODEL OF TURBULENCE

TO THE CALCULATION OF FLOW NEAR A SPINNING DISC

B.E. Launder and B . I . Sharma

Department o f Mechanical E n g i n e e r i n g
I m p e r i a l C o l l e g e o f S c i e n c e and T echnol ogy, London SW7 2BX
( C o m m u n i c a t e d by D.B. Spalding and J. Ho Whitelaw)

Introduction
In t h e l a s t few y e a r s a number o f models o f t u r b u l e n t h e a t and momentum
t r a n s p o r t have been d e v e l o p e d i n which t h e e f f e c t i v e t r a n s p o r t c o e f f i c i e n t s
are r e l a t e d to local values of c e r t a i n t u r b u l e n t c o r r e l a t i o n s ;

these correla-

t i o n s a r e computed s i m u l t a n e o u s l y w i t h t h e mean f i e l d v a r i a b l e s .
t h i s kind a c h i e v e s i g n i f i c a n t l y

greater breadth of applicability

p l e r approaches bas e d on mean-flow q u a n t i t i e s

alone.

Models o f
t han do sim-

One o f t h e more s u c c e s s -

f u l o f t h e s e newer approaches i s t h e e n e r g y - d i s s i p a t i o n model d e v e l o p e d by

Jones and Launder ( 1 , 2 ) .

Its o r i g i n a t o r s applied i t to the c a l c u l a t i o n of

numerous boundary l a y e r flows w i t h s e v e r e streamwise p r e s s u r e g r a d i e n t or s u r f a c e mass t r a n s f e r .

No a p p l i c a t i o n s have been r e p o r t e d , however, o f i t s use

t o p r e d i c t s w i r l i n g f l o w s , an

omission t h a t t h e p r e s e n t n o t e r e m e d i e s .

The

flow c o n s i d e r e d ( t h a t g e n e r a t e d by a r o t a t i n g d i s c i n a q u i e s c e n t atmosphere)
p r o d u c e s v e r y high g r a d i e n t s o f s w i r l v e l o c i t y i n t h e v i c i n i t y

of the disc

which i n t u r n b r i n g s t o prominence terms i n t h e k i n e t i c e n e r g y and d i s s i p a t i o n

e q u a t i o n s t h a t have f o r m e r l y been a b s e n t o r o f o n l y small i m p o r t a n c e .

This

a p p l i c a t i o n t h u s p r o v i d e s a t e s t o f t h e g e n e r a l i t y o f t h e model f o r an important class of f l u i d flows.

The T u r b u l e n c e Model
The t u r b u l e n t t r a n s p o r t c o e f f i c i e n t s
f o l l o w i n g system o f d i f f e r e n t i a l

UT and r T a r e o b t a i n e d from t h e

and a u x i l i a r y e q u a t i o n s ;

131

explanation of the

132

B.]E. L a u n d e r and B . I .

o r i g i n of the equations is provided in r e f s

Sharma

Vol. 1, No. 2

(1,2).

Turbulent viscosity:

UT = cp pk2/e

(1)

T u r b u l e n t t he r m a l o r
mass d i f f u s i v i t y
:

FT = PT/0.9p

(23

( i . e . T u r b u l e n t P r a n d t l / S c h m i d t number = 0.9)
Turbulence k i n e t i c energy equation:

(3)

- pe - zU

Turbulence energy dissipation equation:

pU

+ pV

where

and

2.o

8y

8y

+ ~T

(4)

0 . 0 9 exp [ - 3 . 4 / ( 1

c2

1.92 [1.0 - 0.3 expC-R2T)]

RT

0k2/pE, the turbulent Reynolds number.

(S)

+ RT/50)2]

(6)

The other empirical coefficients take the following uniform values:

cI =

1.44;

ok = 1 . 0 ;

~E = 1 . 3 .

The independent variables r and y are respectively the radial distance from
the disc axis and the normal distance from the disc surface.
ing velocities are U and V;

The correspond-

V@ denotes the circumferential velocity.

All

other notation is the same as in ref (1,2).

The above system of equations differ from that in (1) and (2) in two
respects:

Vol. I, No. Z

(i)

SPINNING

DISC

133

Extra source terms involving gradients of (Vo/r) appear in the equations

for k and c.

Their appearance is due to the conversion of the cartesian-

tensor from of these equations to the present coordinate frame.

The 7 are

not ad hoc terms.

(ii)

The Reynolds number functions c

slightly different.

and c 2 and the coefficient c I are

This is the result of an overall reoptimisation of

coefficients reported in (3).

50

We repeated the computation of some of the

50

ERIAN [6] R = 9 9 3 x l o 5
40

-\
k

3O

3O

2O

20

y~

IO

02

4
06
Ve/T~

08

12

iO

UITo~

Fig. i
Turbulent flow velocity profiles near a spinning disc

flows studied in (1,2) with the present coefficients:

there were no sig-

nificant differences in the results from those originally reported.

Solution of Equations
The above system of equations have been solved simultaneously with
that governing the mean flow:

i.e. the radial and angular momentum equa-

tions, the continuity equation and (for problems of heat or mass diffusion)

134

B.E.

L a u n d e r and B.I.

t h e e n t h a l p y o r chemical s p e c i e s e q u a t i o n .

Sharma

The mean-flow e q u a t i o n s a r e gi ven

i n t h e Appendix t o g e t h e r with t h e boundary c o n d i t i o n s .

g i v e n in ( 4 ) .

Vol. 1, No. 2

The p r e c i s e form i s

The n u m e r i c a l s o l v i n g scheme used i n b a s i c a l l y t h e P a t a n k a r -

Spalding (5) p r o c e d u r e m o d i f i e d f o r t h e i n c l u s i o n o f s w i r l as o u t l i n e d i n
(4 ).

S e v e n t y nodes were used t o span t h e boundary l a y e r w i t h a s u b s t a n t i a l

c o n c e n t r a t i o n v e r y n e a r t h e wall ( t h i s i s about 60% more t han a r e needed t o

obtain grid-independent results

when t h e m i x i n g - l e n g t h model i s u s e d ) .

The

forward s t e p used was t y p i c a l l y

15% o f t h e boundary l a y e r t h i c k n e s s l e a d i n g

t o computer times p e r run o f about 50 s on a CDC 6600 computer.

Discussion of Results
Some p r e d i c t e d c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s
w i t h e x p e r i m e n t a l d a t a in F i g s .
tial

velocity profiles

of the rotating-disc

1-3.

flow a r e compared

The c a l c u l a t e d r a d i a l and c i r c u m f e r e n -

a r e s e e n , from F i g. 1 t o be c l o s e l y in agreement with

Erian's

(6) e x p e r i m e n t a l d a t a .

shown:

a l t h o u g h h e r e agreement with experi m ent i s a l s o r e a s o n a b l y s a t i s f a c -

tory, the radial velocity falls

to the t u r b u l e n t v i s c o s i t y

--

The m i x i n g - l e n g t h r e s u l t s

to zero f a s t e r

falling

than e x p e r i m e n t s u g g e s t s due

t o zero t oo q u i c k l y n e a r t h e o u t e r edge.

THEODORSEN
KREITH
[7]

[8]

MLH
K-E:

CM
O.OI

0002

I
IO

from (4) a r e a l s o

I
IO

1"2 ~ / v

Fig. 2
Torque coefficient for spinning disc

Vol. 1 No. 2

SPINNING

The c o r r e s p o n d i n g v a r i a t i o n
i s shown in F i g . 2.

DISC

135

of torque coefficient

w i t h Reynolds number

The Reynolds number a t which t r a n s i t i o n

o c c u r s must be

p r o v i d e d (when t h e r a d i a l d i s t a n c e i s so small t h a t t h e s p i n Reynolds number

i s l e s s th an R e t r a n s t h e flow i s t a k e n as l am i nar and o n l y t h e mean flow
equations are solved).

Following our p r a c t i c e i n (4) we have adopted t h e

v a l u e o f R etr an s t h a t seemed t o be s u g g e s t e d by any p a r t i c u l a r

apparatus; not

surprisingly there is a significant variation in Retran s from one apparatus

to another due presumably to minor variations in geometry and in surface finish.

The predicted variation of torque coefficient with Reynolds number is

closely in line with the measured behaviour, the line representing predicted
behaviour falling roughly mid-way between the data of Kreith (7) and Theodorsen
and Regier (8).
Heat and mass transfer predictions are shown in Fig. 3.

There is

extremely close agreement with Cobb's measured mean Nusselt numbers over the
full range of the experiments; the data of McComas lie about 7% below this.
Agreement with the naphthalene diffusion data of Tien (ii) and Kreith (12)
is not quite as satisfactory, however.

While there is close agreement with

experiment for spin Reynolds numbers up to 4 x 105 , beyond this the data
rise progressively faster than the predictions indicate.

The same kind of

discrepancies were noted in (4) where the mixing length hypothesis was used.
It does not seem possible to identify the cause of the disagreement in the
absence of measured profiles of species concentration near the disc.
McCOMAS [9}
COBB
[IO]

~ , /
~ /

X U /

K I~EITH

[12]

/
/

,C
0"=24
Nu
o$"

ER)

o x''O'"
i O2 - -

MLH

/o /

K -

...W-"

, ,r]lll

I
I0 5

T2c~/ ",,;

I i Illli

i0 6

Fig. 3
Heat and mass transfer from a disc rotating in still air

136

B.E.

L a u n d e r and B.I. S h a r m a

Vol. i, No. 2

Conclusion
The main conclusion is that the k~E model of turbulence, which had
been devised (1,2) specifically to predict certain low-Reynolds-number phenomena in boundary layers and duct flows, has been found to predict accurately
the flow, heat and mass transfer in the neighbourhood of a rotating disc.
The result is of significance to the problem of predicting convective heat
transfer rates in turbine discs.

Acknowledgement
This r e s e a r c h has been s u p p o r t e d by t h e S c i e n c e Research Council t h r o u g h
Grant No. B/RG/1863.
References
1.

W.P. Jones and B.E. Launder, I n t . J . Heat Mass T r a n s f e r , 15, 301 (1972).

2.

W.P. Jones and B.E. Launder, I n t . J . Heat Mass T r a n s f e r , 16, I l l 9

3.

B.E. Launder, A. Morse, W. Rodi and D.B. S p a l d i n g , Langley Free Shear

Flows C o n f e r e n c e , NASA SP-321 (1972).

4.

M.L. K o o s i n l i n , B.E. Launder and B . I . Sharma, J . Heat T r a n s f e r , 96, 204

(1974).

5.

S.V. P a t a n k a r and D.B. S p a l d i n g , Heat and Mass T r a n s f e r i n Boundary L a y e r s ,

I n t e r t e x t Books, London (1970).

6.

F.F. E r i a n and Y.H. Tong, The P h y s i c s o f F l u i d s , 12, 2588 (1971).

7.

F. K r e i t h , Pr oc . Heat T r a n s f e r and F l u i d Mech. I n s t .

8.

T. Theodorsen and A. R e g i e r , NACA Rep. 793 (1944).

9.

S.T. McComas and J . P . H a r t n e t t ,

FC 7.7 (1970).

(1973).

S t a n f o r d (1966).

4th I n t . C o n f e r e n c e , Heat T r a n s f e r 3,

I 0 . C. Cobb and 0.A. Saunder s , Pr oc . Roy. Soc. A236, 343 (1956).

11. C.L. Tien and D.T. Campbell, J . F l u i d Mech. 17, 105 (1963).
12. F. K r e i t h , J . H . T a y l o r and J . P . Chong, J. Heat T r a n s f e r , 9__$5(1959).

Vol. i, No. 2

SPINNING

DISC

137

Appendix
The following is the system of mean-flow conservation equations solved
simultaneously with equations (1-61 describing the turbulence quantities.
Streamwise momentum:

au
pu ~

au

+pv

a--f

~y

(~ + ~T)

(A1)

+ p ~--

Angular momentum:

oU

a rV 0

3 rV 0
ar

pV

ay

ray

3 (n + n T)

Ty

(A2)

Enthalpy or s p e c i e s mass f r a c t i o n ():

pU

~a@

pv

a@
a-f =

r1 aa y

Ir (r + r T)

3@
~f 3

(A3)

Boundary conditions are applied at the disc surface (y=O) and beyond
the edge of the boundary layer (y=y~) as follows:
y = O:

U = k = ~ = O;

V 0 = mr;

y = y : U = k = e = V 0 = O;

= CW

= .