Large eddy simulations of isothermal confined swirling flow in an industrial gas-turbine

•We conduct a large eddy simulation of an industrial gas turbine.•The results are compared with measurements obtained under isothermal conditions.•The method reproduces the observed precessing vortex and central vortex cores.•The profiles of mean and rms velocities are found to be captured to a good accuracy.

The paper describes the results of a computational study of the strongly swirling isothermal flow in the combustion chamber of an industrial gas turbine. The flow field characteristics are computed using large eddy simulation in conjunction with a dynamic version of the Smagorinsky model for the sub-grid-scale stresses. Grid refinement studies demonstrate that the results are essentially grid independent. The LES results are compared with an extensive set of measurements and the agreement with these is overall good. The method is shown to be capable of reproducing the observed precessing vortex and central vortex cores and the profiles of mean and rms velocities are found to be captured to a good accuracy. The overall flow structure is shown to be virtually independent of Reynolds number.