Laser Doppler velocimeter measurements to characterize turbulence in a constriction with sharp and rounded inlets

Abstract

An important ingredient for successfully understanding and predicting turbulent flow behavior is an accurate characterization of the turbulence. While several models are available, it is not clear which turbulence model is appropriate for flow in a constriction geometry. To answer this question, experimental results were obtained using a laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) and compared to predictions using three turbulence models in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code for two constrictions. Experimental results indicate that a small amount of rounding at the constriction inlet can have a significant effect on the velocity and turbulent kinetic energy distributions in the throat.