Viscous Flow Calculations in Turbomachinery Channels

An implicit procedure based on the artificial compressibility formulation is presented for the numerical solution of the two-dimensional incompressible steady Navier-Stokes equations in the presence of large separated regions. Turbulence effects are accounted for by the Chien low Reynolds number form of the K-ε turbulence model and the Baldwin-Lomax algebraic expression for turbulent viscosity. The governing equations are written in conservative form and implicitly solved in fully coupled form using the approximate factorization technique. Preliminary tests were carried out in a laminar flow regime to check the accuracy and stability of the method in two-dimensional and cylindrical axisymmetric flow configurations. After testing in laminar and turbulent flow regimes and comparing the two turbulence models, the code was successfully applied to an actual gas turbine diffuser at low Mach numbers.