Author(s)

Mizue Munekata, Keiichiro Kubo, Hiroyuki Yoshikawa

Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan.

The objective of this study is to experimentally visualize traveling vortices in the boundary layer on a rotating disk under orbital motion. The orbital radius is half of the disk’s diameter (200 mm) and the maximum speed of orbital motion is 500 revolutions per minute. The Reynolds number in the pure-rotation case is 2.77 × 105. The characteristics of two types of traveling vortices are visualized by a smoke-wire method. The first type is transition vortices. In the pure-rotation case, they arise at circumferentially equal intervals, and are not traveling but stationary relative to the rotational disk. The result of visualization of this type shows that the intervals between transient vortices change in a circumferential direction, or in an orbital radial direction, on the rotating disk under orbital motion. The second type is new arc-shaped vortices that correspond to low-frequency disturbances. As orbital speed increases, the radial traveling velocities of the low-frequency disturbances increase and the intervals between low-frequency disturbances decrease.

Rotating Disk, Orbital Motion, Boundary Transition, Flow Visualization, Hot-Wire

Munekata, M. , Kubo, K. and Yoshikawa, H. (2015) Visualization of Traveling Vortices in the Boundary Layer on a Rotating Disk under Orbital Motion. Open Journal of Fluid Dynamics, 5, 17-25. doi: 10.4236/ojfd.2015.51003.