Study of turbulence models for calculating a strongly swirling flow in an abrupt expanding channel

In this paper, compared fundamentally different turbulence models for calculating a strongly swirling flow in an abrupt expanding pipe. This task is not only of great importance in practice, but also in theoretical terms. Because in such a flow a very complex anisotropic turbulence with recirculation zones arises and the study of the ongoing processes allows us to find an answer to many questions about turbulence. The flow under consideration has been well studied experimentally. Therefore, it is a very complex and interesting test problem for turbulence models. In the paper compared the numerical results of the one-parameter $\nu$t-92 model, the SSG/LRR-RSM-w2012 Reynolds stress method and the new two-fluid model. These models are very different from each other. Because the Boussinesq hypothesis is used in the one-parameter $\nu$t-92 model, in the SSG/LRR-RSM-w2012 model, its own equation is written for each stress, and for the new two-fluid model, the basis is a completely different approach to turbulence. A feature of the approach to turbulence for the new two-fluid model is that it allows one to obtain a closed system of equations. Comparison of these models is carried out not only by the correspondence of their results with experimental data, but also by the computational resources expended on the numerical implementation of these models. Therefore, in this work, for all models, the same technique was used to numerically calculate the turbulent swirling flow at the Reynolds number Re $=3\cdot 10^4$ and the swirl parameter $S_w=0.6$. In the paper showed that the new two-fluid model is effective for the study of turbulent flows, because has good accuracy in describing complex anisotropic turbulent flows and is simple enough for numerical implementation.