Investigations of swirling flows of liquids through rotating vortex chambers

An analytical solution is developed for the problem of swirling flows in a rotating vortex chamber, and the solution is verified by some experimental results. The growth of the laminar boundary layer of a viscous liquid at the top and bottom surfaces of a cylindrical vortex chamber at high swirl is determined with the aid of boundary layer momentum integral equations. This solution is applied to predicting the discharge coefficient at high swirl. A similar solution is also obtained for medium swirl. In the experimental part, a unique method using two immiscible liquids was adopted to measure the core flow and the radial velocity distribution over a wide range of swirl conditions. Generally good agreement between theoretical and experimental results was obtained.