Effect of Swirl on Pressure Recovery in Annular Diffusers

Abstract

Annular diffusers are likely to operate with varying amounts of swirl at the inlet. The work described in this paper is concerned mainly with an experimental investigation of subsonic turbulent swirling flows through annular diffusers having diverging hub and casing boundaries. The test facility was designed SO as to peImit different levels of inlet swirl. The static pressure distributions and the axial and tangential velocity profiles were measured with the help of a three-hole cobra probe suitably mounted at different cross sections along the diffuser length. The diffuser performance parameters such as static-pressure recovery, effectiveness, and the total pressure loss coefficient were then computed from the experimental observations. The behaviour of these parameters has been discussed to establish the effect of swirl. The presence of inlet swirl was found to increase the overall static-pressure recovery. A substantial increase in the pressure recovery occurred over the initial stages of diffusion and the gain was maintained thereafter. Improvement in effectiveness was more significant for otherwise stalled diffusers. Introduction of swirl was found to substantially reduce the chances of separation at the casing and to shift the stall from the casing to the hub for the stalled diffusers.