Experimental investigations of flow through conical diffusers with and without wake type velocity distortions at inlet

Diffusers play a vital role in many fluid machines to convert kinetic energy into pressure energy. The field of application of diffusers is very wide and diffusers are used in gas turbines, pumps, fans, wind tunnels, water tunnels and many other fluid flow systems. This paper discusses the results of flow through straight conical diffusers of half-cone angles 5° and 7° with steady uniform velocity of flow and wake type distorted flow at inlet. The wake type distortion at inlet was produced by a streamlined body and a bluff body. A low speed wind tunnel was used for the experiments and the diffusers were fabricated from cast aluminium blocks. The mean velocity and the turbulence parameters were measured using a constant temperature hot-wire anemometer.