Comparison of the effects of surface roughness and confinement on rotor–stator cavity flow

Results of a computational study are discussed which investigate roughness-induced and geometry-induced (confinement) effects on the steady-state velocity components in 3-D boundary-layer flow over the rotor disc in a rotor–stator flow configuration. It is found that, for the rotor–stator flow investigated, the roughness-induced effects are very similar to geometry-induced effects, both in nature and magnitude. The overall aim was to compare these two types of effects with corresponding roughness-induced effects in the von Kármán boundary-layer flow over a disc spinning freely in an unrestricted fluid environment. The research was conducted in the context of a programme investigating surface roughness as a means of laminar flow control for the development of new passive drag-reduction techniques. The goal was to establish whether it was possible unequivocally to distinguish between roughness-induced and geometry-induced effects on the boundary-layer flow above the rotor disc. The results obtained suggest that, for the type of system discussed here, it must be expected to be difficult to distinguish between these effects in experiments. The similarities regarding the nature and magnitude of results obtained from comparing predictions for three different computational modelling approaches indicate the required sensitivity of measurement technologies aiming to resolve the investigated effects in experimental studies.