Effect of Shaft Rotation, Hole and Annulus Geometry on the Discharge Behavior Through Rotating Radial Holes

Abstract

This paper reports on various effects on the flow through rotating radial holes (centrifugal, centripetal) in conjunction with the geometries of hole and surrounding annuli. The aerodynamic behavior of radial rotating holes is different from the one of axial and stationary holes due to the presence of centrifugal and Coriolis forces acting in the main flow direction. Furthermore, the geometry of the inlet and outlet region is often influencing the separation behavior of the flow at the holes. To investigate the flow phenomena and the discharge behavior of these radial holes in detail, an existing test rig containing two independently rotating shafts (co- and counter rotating) was used. Experimental and numerical investigations have been performed for both flow directions through the radial holes (centripetal and centrifugal), for different hole geometries (oblong holes and round holes), inlet types (rounded and sharp), length to diameter ratios (variation of either length or diameter) and gap widths between inner and outer shaft. For each of these geometrical variations flow properties have been varied such as pressure ratio across the holes, incident Mach number and rotational speed of both shafts. To enable large parametric studies and grid independency studies an optimization model with completely automatic grid generation, CFD simulation and post-processing has been set up. As a main result of the current studies it was found, that the shaft to hole diameter is another parameter of interest for the flow behavior through shaft holes. For a centripetal flow through the shaft holes and a decreasing inner gap width, the discharge coefficient was observed to increase initially before it drops significantly. In addition, measurements of centripetal flow though oblong holes revealed higher discharge coefficient in comparison with round holes and equal length to diameter ratio.