Investigation of Complex Flow Driven by Corotating Disks Mounted in a Non-Axisymmetric Enclosure An Attempt towards the Visualization of the Secondary Flow in the Disk-Normal Planes and Measurement of Velocity Field in the Shroud Opening Area

Abstract

We report on the investigation of complex behavior of a rotating flow driven by a pair of corotating disks mounted in a non-axisymmetric enclosure. The flow simulates the fluid flow in hard disk drives (HDD) used as information storage device. In the present study, we made attempts to visualize the secondary flow in planes perpendicular to the disks and to measure the velocity fields in the planes parallel to the disks in the shroudopening area. For the experiments, we used a transparent HDD model equipped with a refractive index matched working fluid. The experiments were performed at two different Reynolds numbers and angles of the arm insertion. The flow visualization revealed vortical motions of the flow in the planes perpendicular to the disks. The velocity fields were obtained based on particle-image analysis in the shroud opening. The results exhibit highly threedimensional and unsteady behavior of the flow in the shroud-opening area.