Measurements of flow characteristics in a confined vortex flow

A study of air flow patterns by hot‐wire anemometry is reported for a vortex chamber consisting of an upper cylindrical section 122 cm in diameter and 61 cm high and a conical bottom section 122 cm high. Quantitative data are presented for flow angles, profiles of mean tangential and axial velocities, and radial distributions of tangential and axial intensities of turbulence as a function of air entrance velocities of 1.6, 2.4 and 3.2 m/s, and axial distance from the top of the chamber. In general, the quantitative results confirm the theoretical predictions and the experimental trends reported in the literature. In particular, they fully support the conclusion that the flow pattern is relatively insensitive to the entrance volumetric flow rate. A generalized correlation is presented for the axial velocity distribution. Preliminary correlations are also presented for the tangential velocity distributions in the core and in the annular region of the vortex near the wall. These were found to be functions of the axial location and of the air entrance velocity.