Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 June 2016
A combined experimental and theoretical study has been made of radial compressible flow without swirl between parallel discs when the fluid velocity is everywhere subsonic. It constitutes an extension of a previous analysis, wherein the flow was considered to be incompressible.
A similarity solution for the radial pressure distribution is shown to be possible only in special cases where certain terms in the equations of motion can be neglected. Approximate solutions are obtained for the laminar and the turbulent radial pressure distributions, using an integral momentum method. Both theories agree well with experiment. The critical Reynolds number for reverse transition is found to be approximately the same as that for incompressible flow in radial channels and circular pipes. The radial pressure level for compressible radial flow between parallel discs is found to be less than that for incompressible flow at the same mass-flow rate. The non-linear form, in pressure, of the compressible solution can be shown to account for this result.
This paper is abstracted from the author' Ph.D. thesis presented to McGill University, Canada, in 1963.