DOI: 10.1615/TSFP2
EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SHEAR-DRIVEN FLOW IN A TOROID OF SQUARE CROSS-SECTION
ABSTRAKT
It is shown that the two-dimensional shear-driven flow in a plane square enclosure is a limiting case of the more general shear-driven flow that can be realized experimentally in a toroid of square cross-section. Visualization and calculations of the flow in a toroid reveal many of the features displayed by sheared fluids in finite-length parallelepipeds, as well as new findings. These include the appearance of Goertler vortices and flow unsteadiness as precursors for laminar to turbulent flow transition, and the occurrence of an oscillatory state of fluid motion not observed in parallelepipeds. Unlike the shear-driven flow in a parallelepiped, that in a toroid is devoid of contaminating end wall effects. Consequently, it represents a more general paradigm in fluid mechanics.