Experimental and Numerical Investigation of the Turbulent Flow in a Ribbed Serpentine

A numerical and experimental investigation of the turbulent flow inside a multiple-leg serpentine with oblique ribs is presented. Simulations and measurements have been carried out using two techniques: the immersed boundary (IB) approach for the numerical predictions and the magnetic resonance velocimetry (MRV) for the experiments. Both approaches achieve very high resolutions: up to 40 million grid cells are used in the simulations and about 2.5 million single-point velocities are collected in the measurements. Both techniques are very fast and have a very short turnaround time. Comparison of results are presented for the three velocity components at different sections within the passage to illustrate the strong three-dimensionality of the flow. Experimental data obtained using particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to validate the IB and MRV techniques.

G. Iaccarino, G. Kalitzin, C. J. Elkins. Exprimental and Numerical investigation of the Turbulent flow in a Ribbed Serpentine. Annual Research Briefs, Center for Turbulence Research, 2003.