The Effect of Nonuniform Inlet Conditions on Annular Diffusers

Most practical diffusers have complex 3D geometries and may have highly disturbed inlet flows. The performance of diffusers designed for optimum pressure recovery is governed by flow separation which can be very sensitive to inlet perturbations. We are examining the effect of upstream disturbances on the performance of practical annular diffusers. Experiments are conducted in an annular diffuser sector containing a single NACA 0015 airfoil shaped support strut. Three component, time averaged velocities are measured using magnetic resonance velocimetry and static pressure data are measured with conventional wall taps. We are testing four inlet conditions: a uniform velocity profile with thin boundary layers and relatively low turbulence intensity, a similar case with higher turbulence levels, a mean profile with uniform velocity except for a high velocity wall jet at the outer radius, and a nonuniform profile in which the mean velocity decreases with increasing radius. Generally, the results show that the diffuser acts to increase flow distortion. For the case with the radial velocity gradient, passing through the diffuser strongly increases the velocity gradient. The wall jet on the outer (diffusing) wall eliminates flow separation resulting in higher pressure recovery and thicker wall boundary layers on the other three walls. Interestingly, the separated wake of the support strut closes more rapidly for the case with the radial velocity gradient.