Assessment of the Performances of RANS Models for Simulating Swirling Flows in a Can-Combustor

The paper presents an assessment of the performances of RANS turbulence models for simulating turbulent swirling can-combustor flows with different inlet swirl intensities (i.e. S=0.4 and S=0.81). The predictions compared against published experimental data reveal that the eddy-viscosity models can not show the central recirculation zone in the case of a weakly swirling flow. However, although they reveal the existence of this region in a strongly swirling flow, they are incapable of predicting its correct size. On the other hand, the Reynolds stress models are able to predict the corner and the central recirculation zones in both flow cases. The predictions of turbulence intensities by using the realizable k-ε and the SST k-ω are comparable to those of the Reynolds stress closures. The shear stresses are not well predicted by all the tested models. Both the eddy-viscosity and the Reynolds stress closures show relatively less approximation errors in the weakly swirling flow.