Investigation of uniformity and pressure recovery in turning diffuser by means of baffles

Turning diffuser is an engineering device that is widely used in the industry to reduce the flow velocity as well as changing the direction of the flow. Having a curvature shape causes its performance to decrease in terms of pressure recovery (C,) and flow uniformity (0,). Therefore, this study pres...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Noh@Seth, Nur Hazirah
Format: Thesis
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/3725/
http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/3725/1/NUR_HAZIRAH_BINTI_NOH_@_SETH_1.pdf
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Summary:Turning diffuser is an engineering device that is widely used in the industry to reduce the flow velocity as well as changing the direction of the flow. Having a curvature shape causes its performance to decrease in terms of pressure recovery (C,) and flow uniformity (0,). Therefore, this study presents the works in designing baffle to be installed into the turning diffuser with area ratio of AW2.16 to improve the flow uniformity and pressure recovery. It also aims to investigate the mechanism of flow structure and pressure recovery in turning diffusers by means of turning baffles. The results with varying inflow Reynolds number (Re,,,) between 5.786E+04 - 1.775E+05 have been experimentally tested and compared with previous study. Particle image velocimetxy (PIV) was used to determine the flow uniformity. On the other hand, digital manometer provides the average static pressure of the inlet and outlet of turning diffuser. The best produced pressure recovery of %=0.526 were recorded when the system were operated at the highest Reynolds number tested Rem=1.775E+05. This result shows an improvement up to 54.625% deviation from previous study with Cp=0.239. The flow uniformity also shows an improvement of 47.127% deviation from previous study at the same Re, with 0,=3.235 as compared to previous study ou=6.12. However, the flow structure between baffles is not quite visible due to limitations of fog generator and camera position. Upon improvement of flow uniformity and pressure recovery, it is believed that turning diffuser performance could be improved with installing bafiles.