The Computation of Axi-Symmetric Rotor-Stator Flows Related to Cooling Passages of Electrical Generators

Abstract

The objectives of this exploratory study have been, first, to investigate the effectiveness of variants of the high-Re k-ε model in the present rotating flow - a practice widely used in industrial computations - and second, to examine the influence of swirl, multiple injection and exit, through a series of steady-state, two-dimensional-flow computations. The rationale of the 2-D simplification is rooted in the assumption that the present type of swirl, provoked by the rotating inner cylinder, will destabilise turbulence and will therefore tend to reduce circumferential variations. Consequently, the assumption of an axi-symmetric, i.e. two-dimensional flow, is not expected to cause serious differences between the computed and the actual flow behaviour...