Numerical Turbulent Flow Analysis through a Rotational Heat Recovery System

Abstract

Herein, hydrodynamic analysis from a large-eddy simulation in Couette–Taylor–Poiseuille (CTP) geometry is numerically investigated. The present geometry is inspired by a previous experimental work in which heat transport phenomena were investigated in a heat recovery system devoted to a rotary kiln facility. The streamwise and spanwise components of the velocity and the Reynolds stress tensor are firstly validated using an experimental benchmark. The effect of the axial flow rates is studied at a fixed rotational velocity. It is shown that the streamwise velocity component damps the vortex flow organization known in Couette–Taylor (CT) flow. The bulk region and its wall footprint are therefore characterized by various methods (spectral and statistical analysis, Q-criterion). It is shown that the turbulent kinetic energy of the streamwise component in the near-wall region is augmented leading to a multi-scale nature of turbulence.