UCLA

A large eddy simulation of an enclosed annular rotor stator cavity is presented. The

geometry is characterized by a large aspect ratio G = (b-a)/h = 18.32 and a small radius

ratio a/b = 0.152, where a and b are the inner and outer radii of the rotating disk and h is

the interdisk spacing. The rotation rate ω under consideration is equivalent to the rotational

Reynolds number Re = ω b^{2 /ν= 9.5x104 , where ν is the kinematic viscosity.}

The main objective of this study is to correctly simulate the rotor stator cavity using a low

order numerical scheme on unstructured grids. The numerical simulations were run on the

software AVBP developed by the Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientific. The results were compared to the experimental results obtained by Sebastien Poncet of Universit é Aix-Marseille. Two large eddy simulations techniques were used: the Smagorinsky and Wall-adapting local eddy-viscosity models. The simulations were run on three set of grids, each with a different cell resolution-14, 35 and 50- along the thickness of the system. Results from each mesh show a good qualitative agreement of the mean velocity field with Poncet's experimental results. It was found that the Samgorinsky model to be more appropriate for this configuration.