Control of the Separation Flow in a Sudden Enlargement

In the present paper, an experimental and numerical investigation of fluid flow and heat transfer in the case of wall injection besides main flow through a circular sudden enlargement are studied. The injected flow is achieved through an annular slot placed around the inner side wall of the step. The static pressure variation along the sudden enlargement length is measured and calculated at different values of injection ratio (Q) and injection flow angles. The average heat transfer with Reynolds number (ReJ) of injected flow at different values of the inlet flow angle is obtained. The velocity, turbulent kinetic energy and temperature contours are presented in this study. Reynolds number of injected flow is varied between 320 and 840, Reynolds number of main flow is between 5895 and 8450 and the injection flow angles are 0o, 15o, 30o, 45o and 60o. In the injection case, the results indicate that, the pressure recovery coefficient increases by decreasing the injection ratio and increasing the flow angle. The average heat transfer coefficient increases as both injection Reynolds number and the injection flow angle increase. The numerical results showed that two recirculation zones generate behind the step between the injection flow and the main flow. The size of these recirculation zones decreases by increasing the injection flow rate. The turbulent kinetic energy increases within region between the recirculation zones and main zone also, it decays by injecting flow in the recirculation zone. The length for higher value of flow temperature decreases by injecting flow in the recirculation zone, and that length increases as the injection flow rate increases. The comparison between the experimental results and the numerical results gives good agreement using the k-ε model with Leschziner and Rodi correction.