cases:case072

Turbulent Pipe Flow with Swirl


Water flows along a straight pipe are considered with two types of swirl: “wall jet” (WJ hereafter) and “concentrated vortex” (CV hereafter), as shown in figure 1. These names are based on the initial conditions of the measurement series.

The pipe diameter is \(D=70\) mm, and the pipe wall is hydraulically smooth.

For each of the initial conditions WJ and CV, two Reynolds numbers have been considered: \(Re_D=50,000\) and \(300,000\), based on the bulk velocity (measured with a magnetic flowmeter) and on the pipe diameter \(D=70\) mm.

Profiles of mean velocity and Reynolds stresses have been measured at a number of streamwise locations up to \(x/D\) of 75 or greater.

Flow configurationsFig. 1: Flow configurations

The data have been obtained with a 2-component laser-Doppler system, the fluids being water. The total velocity vector and Reynolds stress tensor have been obtained by performing three measurements in each point, with the laser-Doppler system aligned under three different angles within the azimuthal plane, i.e. the plane perpendicular to the pipe axis. See chapters 3 and 4 of Steenbergen (1995).

The data contain profiles of mean velocities and Reynolds stresses at a number of streamwise locations for each flow case.

Sample plots of selected quantities are available.

All data are presented in nondimensional form: mean velocities are scaled with the bulk velocity, Reynolds stresses are scaled with the bulk velocity squared. Radial positions (measured from the pipe axis) are scaled with the pipe radius \(R\), while the axial positions of the measurement planes are scaled with the pipe diameter \(D\). The data are expressed in a cylindrical coordinate system, with the velocity components into the axial, azimuthal and radial direction denoted by \(U\), \(W\) and \(V\), respectively.

The filenames consist of 6 or 8 characters, and the extension .dat. The 6 or 8 characters have the following meaning:

1: type of initial condition: “w” = WJ, “c” = CV
2: Reynolds number \(Re_D\): “5” = 50,000; “3” = 300,000
3: quantity: “m” = mean velocity; “r” = Reynolds stress
4..6: distance from reference plane, expressed in \(x/D\) (times 10)
7..8: Optional. Reference to angle of traversing line, for data not taken on the horizontal plane.

For example, file c5r043.dat contains the Reynolds stresses at \(x/D=4.3\), for the “concentrated vortex” at a Reynolds number of 300,000. The file named w5m552a1.dat refers to the “wall jet”, \(Re_D=50,000\), \(x/D=55.2\), mean velocities, measured along a line under angle with the horizontal direction (positive in the anticlockwise sense), referred to as a1 in the table below. The following non-zero angles of the traversing lines have been used:

name a1 a2 a3 a4 a5
angle (o) 5 -65 17 -73 -67

A few of the mean velocity files contain additional data points in a denser grid, see fig. 5.5 of Steenbergen (1995). These points have been placed below the columns of the other data points in the files. grid.

The data can be downloaded as compressed archives from the links below, or as individual files.

Concentrated Vortex Case
\(Re=50,000\) \(Re=300,000\)
Location Mean velocity Reynolds stresses Mean velocity Reynolds stresses
\(x/D=4.3\) c5m043.dat c5r043.dat c3m043.dat c3r043.dat
\(x/D=7.7\) c5m077.dat c5r077.dat c3m077.dat c3r077.dat
\(x/D=11.5\) c5m115.dat c5r115.dat c3m115.dat c3r115.dat
\(x/D=21.3\) c5m213.dat c5r213.dat c3m213.dat c3r213.dat
\(x/D=28.1\) c5m281.dat c5r281.dat c3m281.dat c3r281.dat
\(x/D=34.9\) c5m349.dat c5r349.dat c3m349.dat c3r349.dat
\(x/D=48.5\) c5m485.dat c5r485.dat c3m485.dat c3r485.dat
\(x/D=75.6\) c5m756.dat c5r756.dat c3m756.dat c3r756.dat
Wall Jet Case
\(Re=50,000\) \(Re=300,000\)
Location Mean velocity Reynolds stresses Mean velocity Reynolds stresses
\(x/D=4.4\) w5m044.dat w5r044.dat w3m044.dat w3r044.dat
\(x/D=7.6\) w5m076.dat w3m076.dat w3r044.dat
\(x/D=9.6\) w5m096.dat w5r096.dat w3m096.dat w3r096.dat
\(x/D=14.5\) w5m145.dat w5r145.dat w3m145.dat w3r145.dat
\(x/D=28.1\) w5m281.dat w5r281.dat w3m281.dat w3r281.dat
\(x/D=28.1\), \(\theta=-65^o\) w3m281a2.dat w3r281a2.dat
\(x/D=55.2\), \(\theta=5^o\) w5m552a1.dat w5r552a1.dat
\(x/D=55.2\), \(\theta=17^o\) w3m552a3.dat w3r552a3.dat
\(x/D=55.2\), \(\theta=-73^o\) w3m552a4.dat w3r552a4.dat
\(x/D=96.0\) w5m960.dat w5r960.dat w3m960.dat w3r960.dat
\(x/D=96.0\), \(\theta=-67^o\) w3m960a5.dat w3r960a5.dat
  1. Steenbergen, W. (1995). Turbulent pipe flow with swirl. PhD Thesis, Eindhoven University of Technology.

Indexed data:

case072 (dbcase, confined_flow)
case072
titleTurbulent pipe flow with swirl
authorSteenbergen
year1995
typeEXP
flow_tagaxisymmetric, swirl, constant_cross_section