Simulations of Turbulent Flow between a Rotating and a Stationary Disk

Abstract

The main focus of this thesis is turbulent flow between a rotating and a stationary disk. The extension of the disks is assumed to be large enough to prevent the outer boundary conditions to influence the flow of the region of interest. This flow is driven by the shear between the disks, but an imbalance between centrifugal and pressure forces in the radial direction induce a radial cross-flow. The result is a complex three-dimensional flow where the direction of the mean flow varies with the axial position. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) and large eddy simulations (LES) have been used to investigate the flow. The simulations utilized a special set of quasi-periodic boundary conditions which allowed the use of a computational domain which captured only a section of the flow.