Experimental Measurements of Flow-Averaged Toroidal Vortices in Buoyancy-Dominated Rotating Cavities

Abstract The flow structures and heat transfer within rotating cavities of aero-engine axial compressors influences the thermal expansion of the rotor discs, and consequently the blade-tip clearances. To investigate the flow field at the bore and lower cavity region, experimental measurements have been acquired in an engine representative test facility. Axial, tangential and radial velocities were measured using a miniature five-hole probe at a range of axial and radial positions. Time-averaged results from 28 tests carried out at non-dimensional parameters comparable to engine conditions: 1.3 × 104 ≤ Rez ≤ 8.2 ×104, 3.0 × 105 ≤ Reθ ≤ 3.2 × 106, 0.11 ≤ Ro ≤ 3.24, 0.14 ≤ βΔT ≤ 0.36 are presented in this paper. The axial and tangential velocity measurements conform to previous work, while the radial velocity component provides quantitative evidence of an asymmetric toroidal vortex in the cavity gap, biased towards the downstream disc. The vortex is characterised by the local vorticity and grows in strength and size as Rossby number increases above Ro = 0.34 to 1.63. The effect of βΔT on the vortex formation is negligible compared to the influence of the tangential Reynolds number as the local circulation is suppressed by the Coriolis forces at high rotational speeds. Both the tangential and radial velocity results suggest that as Ro is increased, the proportion of air that is radially ingested and expelled from a cavity decreases.