CFD analysis of conical diffuser under swirl flow inlet conditions using turbulence models

Abstract

Diffuser are used to maximize static pressure recovery in flow systems such as turbo-machines, turbine exit, duct flows, aircraft engine inlets, closed circuit wind tunnels etc. Many of turbo-machines has swirl flow at inlet which requires thorough investigation to predict fluid flow parameters like velocity, pressure and mass flow. The current research investigates the conical diffuser subjected to swirl flow inlet conditions using Computational Fluid Dynamics. Different cone angles of diffuser are considered for analysis i.e. 10°, 20° and 30°. The CAD model of diffuser is developed using Creo 2.0 software and CFD analysis is conducted using RNG k-epsilon turbulence models using ANSYS CFX software. The results generated from CFD analysis has thrown light on effect of diffuser cone angles with respect to outlet pressure, velocity and turbulence kinetic energy. The research shows that cone angle has significant effect on static pressure recovery of diffusers.