A coupled numerical/experimental investigation of a turbulent rotor-stator flow

International audienceTurbulent incompressible flows are studied both numerically and experimentally within an annular rotor-stator cavity of aspect ratio G=(b-a)/h=5 and radius ratio a/b=0.286 (where a and b are the inner and outer radii of the rotating disk and h the interdisk spacing). Besides its fundamental importance as a three-dimensional prototype flow, such flows are crude models of flows arising in many industrial devices, especially in turbomachinary ap-plications. Our aim is to investigate turbulent regimes at three Reynolds numbers up to one million (Ω the rotation speed of the rotor and ν the kinematic viscosity of the fluid) corresponding to different flow prop-erties as the rotation of the rotor is increased. Experimental measurements have been obtained using a laser Dop-pler anemometer (LDA) technique. Numerical modelling is based on a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) using a spectral vanishing viscosity (SVV) technique implemented in a Chebyshev-collocation Fourier-Galerkin pseudo-spectral code. As far as the authors are aware, LES of fully turbulent flow in an actual shrouded ro-tor-stator cavity have not been performed before. Turbulent quantities are shown to compare very favourably with experimental measurements and are shown of interest in understanding the physics of turbulent rotor-stator flows from transitional to turbulent regimes. Moreover, averaged results may provide target data for workers employing RANS schemes