Experimental investigations of ow through conical diusers with

and without wake type velocity distortions at inlet

N.V. Mahalakshmi
a,
*
, G. Krithiga
a
, S. Sandhya
a
, J. Vikraman
b
, V. Ganesan
c
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai 600 025, Tamil Nadu, India
b
Department of Manufacturing Engineering, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai 600 025, Tamil Nadu, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India
Received 19 September 2006; received in revised form 22 February 2007; accepted 26 February 2007
Abstract
Diusers play a vital role in many uid machines to convert kinetic energy into pressure energy. The eld of application of diusers is
very wide and diusers are used in gas turbines, pumps, fans, wind tunnels, water tunnels and many other uid ow systems. This paper
discusses the results of ow through straight conical diusers of half-cone angles 5 and 7 with steady uniform velocity of ow and wake
type distorted ow at inlet. The wake type distortion at inlet was produced by a streamlined body and a blu body. A low speed wind
tunnel was used for the experiments and the diusers were fabricated from cast aluminium blocks. The mean velocity and the turbulence
parameters were measured using a constant temperature hot-wire anemometer.
2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Diusers; Blu body; Streamlined body; Wakes; Reynolds stresses
1. Introduction
Diusers play a vital role in many uid machines to con-
vert kinetic energy into pressure energy. The eciency of
this conversion process is important as it aects the overall
performance of the machine. The pressure recovery, which
is the measure of performance of diusers, depends on
many geometrical and dynamical parameters. Some geo-
metrical parameters that govern the performance of a dif-
fuser are inlet length and size of the duct, area ratio of
the diuser, angle of expansion, length of the diuser,
shape of the exit duct with free or submerged discharge
conditions, etc. The dynamical parameters are inlet velocity
prole, boundary layer parameters, Reynolds number,
Mach number and so on. In the present work, two param-
eters namely inlet velocity prole and the geometry of the
diuser were selected in order to study their eects on the
ow structure and performance of conical diusers. For
this purpose, three types of inlet conditions namely a ow
without wake, ows with a shallow wake and with a deep
wake were considered. In the rst case only boundary layer
distortions were produced. The wake type distortions were
produced by center bodies namely a streamlined body and
a blu body. Two straight conical diusers of half-cone
angles 5 and 7 were selected and investigated.
Considerable amount of experimental investigations has
been done on conical diusers. Welsh [1] studied ow con-
trol in wide angled conical diusers. He used star type ow
control device and concluded that the geometry of a star
ow device necessary to improve the performance and ow
stability in wide angled conical diusers was sensitive to the
diuser inlet conditions. Shimizu et al. [2] studied the eect
of dierent types of inlet velocity proles on the perfor-
mance of straight conical diusers. Homan and Gonzalez
[3] found that increasing the inlet turbulence intensity
increased pressure recovery of the diuser. Okwuobi and
Azad [4] reported that in a conical diuser with a fully devel-
oped ow at entry, the spectra proles and characteristics
0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.expthermusci.2007.02.008
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 44 22203263; fax: +91 44 22351991.
E-mail address: nvmal2001@yahoo.co.in (N.V. Mahalakshmi).
www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
were very similar to those reported for pipe ows and the
magnitude of energy convective diusion due to kinetic
and pressure eects were comparable with that of energy
production. Ubertini and Desideri [5] determined the ow
development in terms of the mean and uctuating compo-
nents of the velocity and turbulence dissipating eddy length
scales in annular exhaust diuser. In another study [6], they
investigated the eect of struts on the pressure recovery of
industrial gas turbine exhaust diuser. They concluded that
pressure recovery in the diuser with strut was 1020%
lower than that of the diuser without strut. Azad and Kas-
sab [7] examined experimentally the turbulent ow in a con-
ical diuser with 8 total angle and found that the core
region in the nal outlet region has higher turbulence activ-
ity resulting from focusing of high ejecting uid crossing
over the axis.
Studies have been carried out in conical diuser ow
with distortions. Dean and Senoo [8] investigated the inu-
ence of temporal variations in the inlet velocity prole to a
vane less diuser and concluded that the total pressure loss
in the diuser may be less for distorted inlet ow than for
undistorted inlet ow. Rao [9] studied the eect of radial
splitters in wide angle conical diuser with large area ratio
and found that splitter opex provided with a circular disc
whose area and location inuence the maximum pressure
recovery. Senoo and Nishi [10] conducted experiments with
vortex generator and found that vortex generators pre-
vented the ow from separation in a conical diuser up
to a divergence angle of 16 and the pressure recovery coef-
cient was approximately equal to that of the conventional
best conical diuser. Bragg and Suk [11] used two predic-
tion procedures namely a momentum separation theory
and a nite dierence method to predict the velocity prole
in a turbulent wake behind a single cylinder and a row of
arbitrarily spaced and sized cylinders in adverse pressure
gradient conditions. Nakumura et al. [12] studied the eect
of asymmetric uniform shear inlet ow on performance of
various conical diusers and found that the performance
was decreased with an increased shear in the inlet ow
and the reduction rate was maximum for optimum diuser
geometry for a uniform inlet ow without shear.
A few computational studies have also been carried out
in diusers in general. Baskharone [13] analyzed swirling
ow eld in annular diusers using nite-element method.
His method was applicable to moderately separating ows,
which are typically associated with o-design performance
of diusers in gas turbines. Armeld and Fletcher [14] ana-
lyzed the swirl eect in a conical diuser using Reynolds
stress and ke models. Singh et al. [15] have carried out
CFD studies using FLUENT code in annular diusers with
dierent geometries but having same inlet cone angle. They
reported that performance of annular diuser having paral-
lel diverging hub and casing was improved on the introduc-
tion of swirl. The optimum swirl angle was between 20
and 30. They found that further increase in swirl degraded
the performance of diusers.
The aim of this paper is to determine the ow and
boundary layer development in conical diusers with
steady uniform ow and wake type distorted ow at entry
to the diuser.
2. Experimental setup
A schematic representation of the test rig is shown in
Fig. 1. The experiments were carried out in a blower dri-
ven, low speed wind tunnel. The wind tunnel consists of
a settling chamber with lters and a belt-mouthed nozzle
giving a low turbulence level (0.6% at 30 m/s) ow. The
ow at the exit of the nozzle could be changed by a suitable
throttle control. With the help of this, the mass ow rate
could be altered. Air was made to diuse through the holes
before it enters the settling chamber, so that ow uctua-
tion could be minimized to a large extent. A number of ne
meshes were placed suitably in the settling chamber to
reduce the turbulence level. The settling chamber is of
dimension 1 m 1 m 2 m. A contraction of 0.19 m length
with a contraction ration of 36:1 was designed according to
DIN standards and tted at the exit of the settling cham-
Nomenclature
b wake half-width
CPR coecient of pressure recovery
C
f
skin friction coecient
k turbulent kinetic energy
L axial length of the diuser
LES large eddy simulation
M Mach number
Re Reynolds number
U streamwise component of mean velocity
U
0
local free stream velocity
U average velocity
U
ref
velocity at the reference station (inlet station)
u, v velocity in x and y directions
u
c
velocity at the wake centre line
u, v, w velocity uctuations in the x, y and z directions
u
0
, v
0
, w
0
RMS values of velocity uctuations in the x, y
and z directions
X distance measured from the inlet along the dif-
fuser axis
Y distance measured from the axis to the wall of
the diuser
x, y co-ordinate axes
q density
134 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
ber. The outer diameter of the nozzle is 57 mm (see Plate.
1).
The conical diusers that were used for the experiment
have a common inlet diameter and length of 57 mm and
300 mm, respectively. Diusers having half-cone angles of
5 and 7 have been selected for investigations (Plate 2).
The entry length, the pipe to hold the center bodies and
the diuser are shown in Fig. 2. The diuser is connected
to a pipe of 57 mm diameter and 83 mm length. This pipe
is used to hold the centre bodies in position. The entry pipe
is of diameter 57 mm and of length 500 mm. The diuser
exit is provided with exit pipe of length 200 mm. The dius-
ers and exit pipes were fabricated by casting out of alumin-
ium blocks and then machined to the desired size in a low
speed lathe. Thirteen measurement stations, including the
inlet, designated as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L
and M are established along the axis of the diusers by
suitable drilling of holes to insert probes. The distance of
these stations, X, measured from the inlet to the diuser
is given in Table 1 along with the lengths normalized with
reference to the length, L (300 mm) of the diuser. The
location of various measuring stations is represented in
Fig. 3.
Figs. 4a and b show the two types of the centre bodies
namely a blu body and a streamlined body used for pro-
ducing wake type distortions in the velocity at inlet. These
centre bodies were machined from stainless steel rods and
Plate 1. Experimental setup.
Plate 2. Diusers.
Fig. 1. Wind tunnel set up.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 135
welded with three small diameter struts 120 apart and the
struts were welded to a ange of 57 mm diameter to match
the inlet diuser and for the purpose of easy assembly by
means of bolts and nuts (Plates 3 and 4).
The traversing system shown in Fig. 5 is a mechanical
traversing and rotating device designed for use with
DANTEC hot-wire anemometers. The primary functions
of the unit are to move around the probe and rotate it
around the probe axis. The ow parameters have been
measured using dierent instruments. Static pressure recov-
ery coecient (CPR) is dened as:
CPR P
x
P
i
=q
i
;
where P
x
is the average static pressure at a station, P
i
is the
average static pressure at the diuser inlet and q
i
is the dy-
namic head.
The average static pressure (CPR) is found out by tra-
versing the pressure probe across that station, at an inter-
val of 2 mm. The static pressure measurements are made
relative to the atmospheric pressure exposing one of the
leads of the manometer to the atmosphere. Mean velocity,
turbulent normal stresses and turbulent shear stresses are
measured by two independent hot wire measurements.
The hot-wire probe used is DISA 55P11 single wire probe
of 5 lm diameter and 1.25 mm length, made of platinum
coated with tungsten. The probe is connected to a DISA
56C17 constant temperature anemometer and the line dia-
gram of the system used is shown in Fig. 6a. An overheat
ratio of 0.8 is taken for operation. The anemometer is lin-
earised using a DISA 56N21 lineariser. Cross wires are
used for the measurement of Reynolds stresses. The cross
wire probes used are DISA X-probes of type 55P61 with a
wire length of 1.25 mm and a wire separation of 2 mm.
The two wires are of nearly equal sensitivity and only
new probes are used in the experiments. The two wires
of the X-probe are individually connected to two constant
temperature anemometers as illustrated in Fig. 6b. All the
Reynolds stresses are measured by placing the X-probe in
both the planes. The details of the measurement tech-
niques are explained by Mahalakshmi [16].
Fig. 2. Diuser assembly.
Table 1
Various measuring stations
Station A B C D E F G H I J K L M
X/L 0 0.08 0.17 0.25 0.33 0.42 0.5 0.58 0.67 0.75 0.83 0.92 1.00
Fig. 3. Location of various measuring stations.
136 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
Plate 3. Streamlined body.
Plate 4. Blu body. Fig. 5. Traversing mechanism.
Fig. 4. Geometry of center bodies.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 137
2.1. Uncertainty analysis
The uncertainty in measurements is expressed in the fol-
lowing way: Consider a variable X
i
, which has a known
uncertainty dx
i
. The variable and its uncertainty are
expressed as
X
i
X
i
dx
i
say; odds20 : 1;
where X
i
is the arithmetic mean of the measured values and
dx
i
is evaluated based on standard deviation, the number of
samples and the condence level. In a single sample exper-
iment, let the result R be a function of n independent vari-
ables and it may be represented as
R RX
1
; X
2
; X
3
; . . . ; X
n
:
The uncertainty in R if only one of the measurements, say,
X
i
has error:
dR
Xi

dR
dX
i
_ _
dX
i
:
When several variables are involved in the function R, the
combined uncertainty is given by the root mean square
method (see [17])
Further, if R X
a
1
X
b
2
X
c
3
; . . . ; X
m
n
dR

N
i1
oR
oX
i
dX
i
_ _
2
_ _
1=2
; 1
dR
R
a
dX
1
X
1
_ _
2
b
dX
2
X
2
_ _
2
m
dX
n
X
n
_ _
2
_ _1
2
: 2
The uncertainties in the present measurements are calcu-
lated as follows:
(1) Mean velocity:
The mean velocity is given by the expression
U

2DPRT
0
g
P
a

: 3
The uncertainty in mean velocity is calculated using Eq. (2)
dR
R
_ _
u

1
2
dDp
Dp
_ _
2

dP
a
P
a
_ _
2

dT
a
T
a
_ _
2
_ _1
2
: 4
Typical values considered for various quantities are listed
below:
h = 6.16 mm H
2
O dh = 0.05 mm H
2
O
T
a
= 33 C dT
a
= 0.05 C
P
a
= 764.5 mmHg dP
a
= 0.127 mmHg
q = 1.165 kg/m
3
dq = 0.0116 kg/m
3
From Eq. (2)
dR
R
_ _
u

1
2
0:05
6:16
_ _
2

0:0116
1:165
_ _
2

0:05
33
_ _
2

0:127
764:5
_ _
2
_ _1
2
0:00648 0:648%:
Hence, the uncertainty in the mean velocity measurements
U is 0.65%.
(2) Turbulence uctuation u
0
:
u
0
U

e
A
e
B

2
_
E
A
E
B

; 5
where E
A
and E
B
are the mean voltages from sensors A and
B of the X-wire, e
A
and e
B
are the instantaneous values of
the uctuating voltages from sensors A and B. In the pres-
ent measurements, E
A
% E
B
and let E be equal to either E
A
or E
B
. Then, the expression reduces to
u
0
U

e
A
e
B

2
_
2E
: 6
Following Eq. (2),
dR
R
_ _
u
0

1
2
d

e
A
e
B

2
_

e
A
e
B

2
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
2

dE
E
_ _
2
_

_
_

_
1
2
: 7
Fig. 6. Hotwire system connections.
138 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
Typical values in the present measurements are:
dE 0:05 V;
E 6:94 V;
d

e
A
e
B

2
_
0:012 V;

e
A
e
B

2
_
0:292 V;
Fig. 7. Velocity prole at various stations in 5 diuser.
Fig. 8. Velocity prole at various stations in 7 diuser.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 139
dR
R
_ _
u
0

1
2
0:012
0:292
_ _
2

0:05
6:94
_ _
2
_ _1
2
0:0209:
That is, the uncertainty in the measurement of the turbu-
lent uctuation u
0
is 2.09% with odds 20 to 1.
(3) Turbulent uctuation v
0
:
u
0
U
f
1
k

e
A
e
B

2
_
E
A
E
B

; 8
where
f
1
k
1 k
2
1 3k
2
4k
4
_ _
1
2
: 9
In the present measurements, E
A
% E
B
and let E be equal
to either E
A
or E
B
. Then, the expression for v
0
reduces to
u
0
U
f
1
k

e
A
e
B

2
_
2E
: 10
Following Eq. (2),
dR
R
_ _
v
0

1
2
df
1
k
f
1
k
_ _
2

e
A
e
B

2
_

e
A
e
B

2
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
2

dE
E
_ _
2
_

_
_

_
1
2
:
11
Typical values in the present measurement (20:1 odds) are:
dE 0:05 V; E 6:94 V;
d

e
A
e
B

2
_
0:01 V;

e
A
e
B

2
_
0:23 V;
df
1
k 0:008; f
1
k 1:083;
dR
R
_ _
v
0

1
2
0:008
1:083
_ _
2

0:01
0:23
_ _
2

0:05
6:94
_ _
2
_ _1
2
0:0225:
Hence, the uncertainty in measurement of the turbulent
uctuation v
0
is 2.25% with odds 20 to 1.
(4) Turbulent uctuation w
0
:
This is obtained by pacing the X-wire probe in the XZ
plane and by using the same expression as that for v
0
.
Hence the uncertainty in the measurement of the turbulent
uctuation w
0
is also 2.25% with odds 20 to 1.
3. Results and discussion
In order to study the inuence of inlet conditions on the
ow and turbulent parameters, three dierent types of ow
at inlet have been experimentally investigated.
(i) The rst one is a straight ow, which consists of only
boundary layer type of distortions near the wall.
(ii) The second one is the ow with a streamlined centre
body with a wake type distortion at inlet in addition
to the distortion due to wall boundary layer. In this
case, the wake produced by the streamlined body is
a shallow one. Here, at the rear stagnation point,
the streamlines do not separate but merge with the
ow near the axis.
(iii) The third one is the ow with wake generated by a
blu body. In this case, there will be separation near
the tail end of the body. The blu body produces a
Fig. 9. Wake notation.
Fig. 10. Variation of wake half-width and relative wake depth in 5
diuser with stream lined body.
140 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
deep wake, i.e., the defect velocity is more than that
of a streamlined body wake.
These centre bodies were kept at 3 mm upstream of the
diuser inlet.
3.1. Mean velocity proles
A study of mean velocity proles at various downstream
sections of a diuser is very important because it reveals the
performance and the eectiveness of the diuser in convert-
ing the kinetic energy into pressure energy. In this region
very close to the wall of the diusers, the mean velocity is
aected by the boundary layer development. In the central
core region the presence of a wake produced by a central
body in the upstream of the diuser inlet will produce
velocity decit. If wake is not present, then the mean veloc-
ity prole will be distorted only by the boundary layer.
Figs. 7 and 8 show the measured mean velocity proles
at dierent axial stations of the diuser having half-cone
angles 5 and 7, respectively. The mean velocity and the
cross stream distance across the station are normalized
with the mass averaged velocity U and the radius of the dif-
fuser Y(N), respectively, at a given station. The general
trend of ow with the centre bodies is the eect of these
bodies in creating a wake in the immediate downstream
and the progressive decrease of wake velocity defect as
the ow traverses through the length of the diuser.
Fig. 7 shows the radial distribution of axial velocity at
various downstream stations [AL] in the case of 5 diuser
for the three cases under consideration: ow without a cen-
tre body, ow with a streamlined body and ow with a
blu body at inlet. The normalized velocity distribution
brings out the eect of velocity distortion at the inlet. It
is seen that for the ow without any centre body at inlet,
the ow distortion is only due to boundary layer develop-
ment. It may be seen that initially (station A) the boundary
layer thickness which is about 20% (Y/Y(N) = 0.8) has
grown to 55% (station L).
Two dierent situations arise for the ow with stream-
lined body and blu body at the inlet. In the case of stream-
lined body, due to the presence of shallow wake, the
boundary layer prevents wake decay and causes a wake
growth. In the case of blu body, the reverse happens as
the wake is deep. The ow is accelerated in the region
between the blu body and the diuser and hence the wake
slows down the growth of the boundary layer.
Further, a close look at the velocity proles reveals the
following features. Compared to the ow without the cen-
tre body, the centerline mean velocity is smaller at all cross
sections for the ow with streamlined body and blu body.
At inlet (station A) in Fig. 7a the velocity prole for the
ow with streamlined body has a shallow wake in the cen-
Fig. 11. Variation of wake half-width and relative wake depth in 5
diuser with blu body.
Fig. 12. Variation of wake half-width and relative wake depth in 7
diuser with streamlined body.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 141
tral region and also the distortion due to boundary layer
near the wall. However, the wake of streamlined body
decays rapidly in the downstream and at the last station
the memory of the wake has almost been lost. The wake
of blu body is very deep at the inlet and owing to the
predominant blockage eect higher mean velocities are pre-
vailing in the region between the diuser wall and the blu
body. Due to this reason, the boundary layer at inlet is
quite thin compared to the other two cases i.e. without cen-
tre body and with streamlined body. The width of the wake
and the maximum defect velocity are more for the blu
body than those for the streamlined body at inlet. In this
case also the wake decay is reasonably rapid in the down-
stream direction. The presence of the blu body wake is
seen even at the last station with a dip of velocity prole
near the axis.
The mean velocity proles for the three cases of ow for
the 7 diuser are given in Fig. 8. It is observed from
Fig. 8a and b, that from the station G onwards the ow
without centre body has a maximum velocity at the axis
showing the fully developed boundary layer. At station J
(area ratio: 3.88) the shape factor is found to be 3.91.
Therefore from station J onwards, the ow tends to
become elliptic. By the use of tuft probe at the exit of the
diuser it is found that the ow separation is incipient near
the wall from the utter of tuft. However, there is no cate-
gorical indication of ow separation and hence it may be
argued that partially parabolic ow situation exists in the
7 diuser. In case of the streamlined body, even though
the wake is shallow at the inlet, it is clearly distinct even
at the last station. Further, from station G onwards there
is only a slight dierence between the blu body and the
streamlined body wakes in terms of defect velocities. These
trends are due to the eect of area ratio and the increased
adverse pressure gradient in the wake development.
3.2. Wake half-width and relative wake depth (RWD)
The wake geometry is characterized by the wake half-
width, dened from the mean velocity distribution in the
wake region. The wake half-width b corresponds to the
location where the wake defect velocity w is equal to half
of the maximum defect velocity w
0
which occurs at the cen-
ter of the diuser axis. The wake notation is shown in
Fig. 15. Variation of pressure recovery coecient in 7 diuser.
Fig. 14. Variation of pressure recovery coecient in 5 diuser.
Fig. 13. Variation of wake half-width and relative wake depth in 7
diuser with blu body.
142 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
Fig. 9. The relative wake depth (RWD) is the ratio of the
maximum defect velocity w
0
to the local free stream veloc-
ity U
0
. The RWD gives an idea as to how far from the dif-
fuser entry, the wake persists. The wake half-width is a
measure of the spreading of the wake with increase in dis-
tance in the stream-wise direction. It also gives an idea of
the extent of the ow occupied by the wake.
Figs. 10 and 11 show the variation of wake half-width
and RWD for the streamlined body and blu-body,
respectively. In the case of the streamlined body, the wake
half-width increases up to a distance of X/L = 0.17 and
remains constant until X/L = 0.42 and decreases thereaf-
ter till the last station. This is due to the spreading
of the wake, which is not rapid in the initial part of the
Fig. 16. Distribution of turbulence levels in 5 diuser at X/L = 0.0: (a) without centre body Station A; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 143
diuser. The RWD decreases with increase in distance.
This indicates that the wake has been decayed. A deep
wake is seen in the case of blu-body in 5diuser as seen
from Fig. 11a. The wake half-width increases in the rst
part of the diuser and then decreases till the exit. The
RWD decreases with increase in distance as seen from
Fig. 10b. From Figs. 10 and 11, it can be seen that in
both the cases, the wake has decayed.
Figs. 12 and 13 show the decay of wakes in 7 diuser
for the streamlined body and blu body. With streamlined
body, the RWD decreases up to X/L = 0.33 and then
increases up to X/L = 0.5 and then decreases till the last
station. This indicates that the wake actually grows rather
than decay under large pressure gradient. This behavior
has been reported by Hill et al. [18] and Stevens et al.
[19]. They reported that the wake grows or decays depend-
Fig. 17. Distribution of turbulence levels in 5 diuser at X/L = 0.17: (a) without centre body Station C; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
144 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
ing on the relative values of the pressure and the shear
forces. A considerably large pressure gradient is required
for RWD and wake depth to increase even though the
wakes are thin.
It is seen from Fig. 12 that despite the high initial
adverse pressure gradient due to high level of mixing, the
wake has decayed rapidly in the initial part of the diuser.
The wake has grown from X/L = 0.33 to X/L = 0.5. This is
due to high pressure gradient. However, the wake has
decayed towards the exit of the diuser.
In case of blu body, the RWD decreases till X/
L = 0.08 and then remains constant between X/L = 0.08
and X/L = 0.17 and then decreases rapidly. This is due
to the deep wake and the adverse pressure gradient, which
Fig. 18. Distribution of turbulence levels in 5 diuser at X/L = 0.33: (a) without centre body Station E; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 145
has arrested the wake decay. However, from X/L = 0.25
to X/L = 0.5, the decay rate is slow and thereafter it
decreases rapidly. Therefore, it is concluded that in case
of 7 diuser, the eect of the adverse pressure gradient
on the wake is seen and there is an interaction between
the boundary layer (because of adverse pressure gradient)
and wake.
3.3. Coecient of pressure recovery
The coecient of pressure recovery in 5 and 7 diusers
with three dierent inlet conditions is shown in Figs. 14 and
15, respectively. It is observed from these gures that there
is a marginal increase in pressure recovery in the case of
ow with streamlined body when compared to ow with-
Fig. 19. Distribution of turbulence levels in 5 diuser at X/L = 0.5: (a) without centre body Station G; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
146 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
out centre body and ow with blu body for the 5 diuser.
It shows that inlet velocity distortion has some eect on
pressure recovery. However, when the ow tends towards
partially parabolic (i.e. in 7 diuser) the eect is nullied
due to higher adverse pressure gradient. This may be attrib-
uted to the following: there is interaction between bound-
ary layer and the wake. Also the increase in pressure loss
coecient in the presence of wake is quite small, as
reported by Stevens et al. [20]. Therefore, all the three cases
show almost same pressure recovery. It is to be noted that
the coecient of pressure recovery is higher at the exit in
the case of 7 diuser compared to 5 diuser. This is to
be expected because of higher area ratio.
3.4. Turbulence parameters in the diusers
In general, the RMS values of uctuating velocities,
namely, u
0
, v
0
and w
0
are normalized with the free stream
Fig. 20. Distribution of turbulence levels in 5 diuser at X/L = 0.67: (a) without centre body Station I; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 147
velocity U
ref
at the reference station A. In the turbulence
level plots in the X-axis the distance (R(N) r) is normal-
ized with R(N).
The distribution of u
0
, v
0
and w
0
for the three types of
ows is shown in Figs. 1629.
Figs. 16a22a show the distribution of u
0
, v
0
and w
0
for
the ow in 5 diuser without centre body. The maximum
value of u
0
in the boundary layer region varies from about
6% to 7.6%. The corresponding variations for v
0
and w
0
are
from about 4.3% to 5.8% and from about 4.2% to 6%,
respectively.
It is also seen from these gures that in general the rela-
tion u
0
> w
0
> v
0
is valid in the boundary layer region. The
reason for this trend can be explained as follows: since the
boundary of the diuser wall is at rest, the v uctuations
vanish everywhere in the wall.
Fig. 21. Distribution of turbulence levels in 5 diuser at X/L = 0.83: (a) without centre body Station K; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
148 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
This condition is achieved by replacing the wall with an
exactly identically uctuating eld of image vorticity
beneath the wall, which cancels the normal component of
velocity at the location of the wall. But this image eld of
vorticity does nothing to suppress the tangential velocity
uctuations. Therefore v
0
< u
0
and w
0
. This means that
whenever v uctuations occur, they bring uid particles
with high streamwise velocity nearer to the wall or lower
speed uid particles from the wall. This will cause u
0
to
be greater than w
0
. Therefore, u
0
> w
0
> v
0
is valid in the
boundary layer region. This observation is in conformity
with Willmarth [21].
It may also be noticed from the above gures that the
distributions of u
0
, v
0
and w
0
in the boundary layer region
Fig. 22. Distribution of turbulence levels in 5 diuser at X/L = 1.0: (a) without centre body Station M; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 149
show a peak very close to the wall near the diuser inlet,
the peak gets shifted away from the wall with distance in
the stream wise direction clearly indicating the growth of
the boundary layer. Similar trend is also reported in the lit-
erature [4].
Figs. 16b22b show the distributions of u
0
, v
0
and w
0
for
5 with streamlined body. The general remarks made for the
case without centre body are also valid here. The maximum
value of u
0
in the boundary layer region at station Ais about
6.8%. The peak value in the boundary layer increases in the
stream wise direction and its value at station M is 7.2%. The
peak of w
0
in the boundary layer decreases from 6.2% to
5.6%. In this case also, the trend u
0
> w
0
> v
0
is found to
be valid in the boundary layer region. The peak values of
u
0
, v
0
and w
0
is also found to shift away from the wall in
the streamwise direction. The levels of turbulence intensities
in the wake region are higher than those in the boundary
layer region at station A, but the values of the intensities
decrease rapidly with increase in distance in the streamwise
direction. Generally, the relation u
0
> w
0
> v
0
is found to be
Fig. 23. Distribution of turbulence levels in 7 diuser at X/L = 0.0: (a) without centre body Station A; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
150 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
valid in the wake region also from station A to I. However,
at stations K and M both the uctuations are almost having
the same value in the wake region.
The relative magnitudes of three normal stresses are par-
ticularly noteworthy in the case of ow in 5 diuser with
blu body. From Fig. 16c it is seen that in the portion of
the shear layer near the wall, w
0
> u
0
> v
0
. This is dierent
from the situation observed in other two causes, where
u
0
> w
0
> v
0
. With increase in distance in the stream wise
direction, however, the trend becomes u
0
> w
0
> v
0
. These
changes in the degree of anisotropy of the turbulence are
likely to be due to the formation of vortices behind the blu
body. The same trend has been observed in the 7 diuser
with blu body also.
In the wake region at station A, the level of uctuations
of u
0
is greater than w
0
. The level of uctuation of v
0
has the
least value. The peak values of turbulence correspond
to the point at which the mean velocity gradient has the
Fig. 24. Distribution of turbulence levels in 7 diuser at X/L = 0.17: (a) without centre body Station C; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 151
maximum value. From station C onwards the trend in the
wake region is u
0
> v
0
> w
0
. In the boundary layer region,
the presence of the wall makes the v uctuation vanish at
the wall. This boundary condition is not applicable for
the wake, and therefore there is no such constraint for
the v uctuation in the wake region. Since the v uctuation
brings uid particle possessing larger momentum from the
outer region to the centre of the wake, the u uctuation
exceeds the v uctuation. In general the relation u
0
> v
0
> w
0
is valid in the wake region. The levels of uctuations
increase with increase in distance in the streamwise direc-
tion. From Figs. 16c22c it is seen that the levels of uctu-
ations u
0
, v
0
and w
0
are almost constant across the diuser
except the region close to the wall.
Fig. 25. Distribution of turbulence levels in 7 diuser at X/L = 0.33: (a) without centre body Station E; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
152 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
The distributions of u
0
, v
0
and w
0
are shown for the three
cases of ow for the 7 diuser in Figs. 2329. From Figs.
23a to 29a which is for ow without centre body it is seen
that the maximum value of u
0
is about 6.2% at station A
and increased to about 8% at the station I. At stations K
and M the levels of u
0
are constant except in the wall
region. The maximum value of v
0
is about 4.6% at station
A and increased to 6.5% at station M which remains con-
stant across the diuser. The corresponding variation of
w
0
is from 2.8% to 6.5%. As in the previous cases, the peak
value of uctuation developed very close to the wall near
the diuser inlet shifts away from the wall on the stream-
wise direction. But at the last two stations K and M, their
values remain constant across the diuser. The relation
Fig. 26. Distribution of turbulence levels in 7 diuser at X/L = 0.5: (a) without centre body Station G; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 153
u
0
> w
0
> v
0
is found to be generally valid in the boundary
layer region for this case also.
From Figs. 23b to 29b which are for streamlined body,
it is seen that the relation u
0
> w
0
> v
0
is valid only in the
boundary layer region from stations A to K. It is seen
that u
0
is more than v
0
and w
0
in the last station M
(Fig. 29b). The values of v
0
and w
0
are equal at this sta-
tion. At station A in the wake regions u
0
and w
0
are nearly
equal. From station E onwards v
0
and w
0
are almost
equal. In case of ow with blu body (Figs. 23c29c) at
inlet the relation w
0
> u
0
> v
0
is valid only in the boundary
region as in the case of 5 diuser with blu body. In the
wake region, the relation u
0
> v
0
> w
0
is found to be gen-
erally valid.
Fig. 27. Distribution of turbulence levels in 7 diuser at X/L = 0.67: (a) without centre body Station I; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
154 N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157
4. Conclusion
In many applications where diusers are used, especially
in turbo-machines, the presence of center bodies ahead of
the diuser inlet produces wake-type central velocity dis-
tortion along with the boundary layer type of distortion
near the walls. The presence of wake at the inlet causes a
streamline curvature in the central core of the diuser
and greatly aects its performance. From the present study,
it can be concluded that for the 5 diuser, there is a mar-
ginal increase in pressure recovery with the presence of cen-
ter bodies. However, for the 7 diuser, in the case of the
streamline body, the wake has actually grown under
adverse pressure gradient conditions since the wake is thin.
In the case of the blu body, the wake decay rate is arrested
due to the interaction between boundary layer and wake.
Fig. 28. Distribution of turbulence levels in 7 diuser at X/L = 0.83: (a) without centre body Station K; (b) with streamlined body; (c) with blu body.
N.V. Mahalakshmi et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2007) 133157 155
Hence the pressure recovery is not aected when there is
wake at the diuser inlet.
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