Experimental Studies on Swirling Flow in a Vertical Circular Tube

Swirling flows are related to the spiral motion in the tangential direction in addition to the axial and radial direction using several swirl generators. These type of flows are used in combustion chambers to improve flame stability, heat exchanger to enhance heat transfer coefficients, agricultural spraying machines and some vertical pipes to move slurries or transport of materials. However, only a few studies three dimensional velocity profiles in a vertical pipe have been reported. In this present paper, 3 dimension particle image velocimetry(PIV) technique was employed to measure the velocity profiles in water along a vertical circular pipe with Reynolds number from 6000 to 13,000. A tangential inlet condition was used as the swirl generator to produce the required flow. The velocities were measured with swirling flow in the water along the test section using the PIV technique.