Measurement of the mean flow field in a smooth rotating channel with coriolis and buoyancy effects

The mean flow field in a smooth rotating channel was measured by particle image velocimetry (PIV) under the effect of buoyancy force. In the experiments, the Reynolds number, based on the channel hydraulic diameter (D) and the bulk mean velocity (U_m), is 10,000, and the rotation numbers are 0, 0.13, 0.26, 0.39, and 0.52, respectively. The four channel walls are heated with indium tin oxide (ITO) heater glass, making the density ratio (d.r.) about 0.1 and the maximum value of buoyancy number up to 0.27. The mean flow field was simulated on a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction at the position of 3.5 < X/ D < 6.5, where X is along the mean flow direction. The effect of Coriolis force and buoyancy force on the mean flow was taken into consideration in the current work. The results show that the Coriolis force pushes the mean flow to the trailing side, making the asymmetry of the mean flow with that in the static conditions. On the leading surface, due to the effect of buoyancy force, the mean flow field changes considerably. Comparing with the case without buoyancy force, separated flow was captured by PIV on the leading side in the case with buoyancy force. More details of the flow field will be presented in this work.