Measurements and prediction of fully developed turbulent flow in an equilateral triangular duct

Abstract

Fully developed air-flows through an equilateral triangular duct of 12·7 cm sides were investigated over a Reynolds number range of 53 000 to 107 000. Based on equivalent hydraulic diameter, friction factors were found to be about 6% lower than for pipe flow. Mean axial velocity distributions near the wall were describable by the inner law of the wall (when based on local wall shear stress) but the constants differ slightly from those for pipe flow. As expected, the secondary flow pattern was found to consist of six counter-rotating cells bounded by the corner bisectors. Maximum secondary velocities of about 1 ½% of the bulk velocity were observed. The effects of secondary currents were evident in the cross-sectional distributions of mean axial velocity, wall shear stress and Reynolds stresses, and very prominent in the turbulent kinetic energy distribution. For the flow prediction, the vorticity production terms were expressed by modelling the Reynolds stresses in the plane of the cross-section in terms of gradients in the mean axial velocity and a geometrically calculated turbulence length scale. The experimental and predicted characteristics of the flow are shown to be in good agreement.