Precise measurements of torque in von Karman swirling flow driven by a bladed disk

Mukherjee, Aryesh; Lukaschuk, Sergei; Burnishev, Yuri; Falkovich, Gregory; Steinberg, Victor

Abstract

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Scrupulous measurements and detailed data analysis of the torque in a swirling turbulent flow driven by counter-rotating bladed disks reveal an apparent breaking of the law of similarity. Potentially, such breakdown could arise from several possible factors, including dependence on dimensionless numbers other than Re or velocity coupling to other fields such as temperature. However, careful redesign and calibration of the experiment showed that this unexpected result was due to background errors caused by minute misalignments which lead to a noisy and irreproducible torque signal at low rotation speeds and prevented correct background subtraction normally ascribed to frictional losses. An important lesson to be learnt is that multiple minute misalignments can nonlinearly couple to the torque signal and provide a dc offset that cannot be removed by averaging. That offset can cause the observed divergence of the friction coefficient (Formula presented.) from its constant value observed in the turbulent regime. By significant modifications of the setup and conducting the experiment with one bladed disk and precisely aligned the disk, torque meter and motor shaft, we are able to conduct precise measurements close to the expected resolution at small torques at low rotation speeds and to confirm the similarity law in a wide range of Re, in particular, in low viscosity fluids.

Citation

Mukherjee, A., Lukaschuk, S., Burnishev, Y., Falkovich, G., & Steinberg, V. (2018). Precise measurements of torque in von Karman swirling flow driven by a bladed disk. Journal of Turbulence, 19(8), 647-663. https://doi.org/10.1080/14685248.2018.1494833

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 21, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Jul 12, 2018
• Publication Date: Aug 3, 2018
• Deposit Date: Sep 7, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 13, 2019
• Journal: Journal of Turbulence
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-5248
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 8
• Pages: 647-663
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14685248.2018.1494833
• Keywords: Swirling flow; Bladed disk; Precise torque measurements
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/940553
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14685248.2018.1494833
• Contract Date: Sep 7, 2018