Investigation of the diffuser flow quality in an icing research windtunnel

Abstract

In this paper, the flow in the diffuser section of the Icing Research Tunnel at the NASA Lewis Research Center is both numerically and experimentally investigated. To accomplish the numerical portion of the work, and existing computer code is utilised. The code, known as PARC3D, is based on the Beam-Warming algorithm applied to the strong conservation law form of the complete Navier-Stokes equations. Following a brief description of the diffuser geometry, the measured flow characteristics are described. A brief discussion of the code work is also provided. The flow measurements show a highly nonuniform velocity profile across the diffuser exit with boundary-layer growth more prevalent near the centres of the walls rather than in the corners of the diffuser. Predicted velocity profiles at the centreline are similar to those measured; however, the code did not accurately predict the boundary-layer behaviour near the corners.