Numerical Analysis of Turbulent Flow Along an Abruptly Rotated Cylinder

Abstract

A parabolic system of equations governing turbulent, incompressible fluid motion along a stationary cylinder fitted with a rotating aft-section is solved with an implicit finite-difference algorithm. The mean flow is steady, axisymmetric, and characterized by abrupt skewing of the boundary layer. The equations of mean motion are closed with an eddy viscosity model based on Cebeci’s axisymmetric formulation. The analysis is compared with the experimental results of Bissonnette and Mellor, who have obtained data for ratios of cylinder wall speed to free-stream speed equal to 0.936 and 1.800. Predicted components of wall shear stress agree with the experimental values within the uncertainty associated with the experiment, and early boundary-layer development is predicted reasonably well. However, the analysis fails to predict the experimentally observed acceleration of the mean, axial flow.