Visualization and Analysis of Flow in an Offset Channel

This paper investigates flow characteristics for a benchmark experiment that is important for thermal hydraulic phenomena in nuclear power plant design. The flow visualization experiment is carried out for flow in a rectangular offset channel covering both the laminar and turbulent flow regimes. The Reynolds number, based on the inlet velocity and the height of the inlet channel, ranges from 25 to 4600. The offset channel is an idealized thermal hydraulic geometry. Duct flow expands in a rectangular chamber and exits to a duct that is offset from the entrance duct. The offset geometry creates zones of recirculation for thermal-hydraulic mixing. Flow patterns are visualized by a laser light sheet in the symmetry plane of the primary flow direction and in three cross-sectional planes. A charge-coupled device (CCD) images the flow field, simplifying the experimental process and subsequent image analyses. The flow pattern and size of the recirculation zones change dramatically with Reynolds number until the flow is fully turbulent. While the velocity field itself is predominantly two dimensional, it is shown that the walls of the chamber produce a fully three-dimensional flow that could not be predicted properly by a two-dimensional calculation. Quantitative measurements of particle pathlines from several images are superimposed to give a composite view of the velocity field at one of the Reynolds numbers examined.