Numerical study of axisymmetric vortex breakdown in an annulus (Q678909)

In recent years, many studies of the vortex breakdown phenomenon in a cylindrical container with a rotating endwall have been performed. Both steady and oscillatory axisymmetric flows in such a geometry were explored, and excellent agreement between the experiment and numerical results was obtained. In spite of the fact that different explanations of this complex phenomenon have been proposed, the physical mechanism responsible for the appearance of vortex breakdown in such a geometry does not seem to be precisely understood. Although the nature of vortex breakdown is generally believed to be inviscid, in confined geometries (such as that of the container) the role of viscous effects on the formation of the separation bubble cannot be completely disregarded. In this paper the steady axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations describing the flow in a cylindrical container and in an annulus with one or two rotating endwalls are solved by the continuation method. The unsteady flow regime is obtained from steady solution by following the temporal development of a small axisymmetric disturbance introduced into the initial conditions for either full or linearized system of equations. By variation of the boundary condition for vorticity at the axis, the transition of the flow in a conventional container to that in an annulus with infinitesimal inner radius is continuously followed; the flow in the latter case is found to differ only insignificantly from that in the container. By further continuation using the ratio of the inner to the outer radius, the flow patterns in an annulus are obtained. An annulus with the stress-free (slip) boundary condition at the inner wall is also considered in order to examine the influence of viscous effects on the formation of separation bubble. While for the solid inner cylinder the recirculation region turned out to persist even at very large values of the radii ratio, the stress-free condition imposed at this boundary leads to vanishing of the separation bubble already at relatively small values of the radii ratio. The transition to unsteady motion is compared with the results for a cylindrical container.