Source-sink flow in a rotating cylinder

Abstract

A study axisymmetric source-sink flow of a viscous fluid in a rotating cylinder is simulated numerically. Source and sink are respectively the feed and discharge slits at the end plates of the cylinder. Compressibility of the fluid is taken into account in the form of density stratification in the radial direction. We take stream function-vorticity formulation and stability problem at high r.p.m. is overcome by using upwind difference scheme. The solution techniques for this finite difference equation are SOR and SIR (strongly lmplicit procedure) and the latter is found to be more efficient for this set of equations. Additionally, when using SIP, we adopted the method devised by Jacobs to correct the error resulting from artificial viscosity To verify the results of numerical simulation, a model cylinder was driven at an angular velocity of 200 - 500 r.p.m. The air to which paraffine mist is added as a trace particle is fed into the cylinder through the inlet slit at the upper end plate, and is whthdrawn through the outlet slits at the upper and lower plates. Valnes of axial and azimuthal velocity from the presence numerical simulation were compared with those from experiments.