Turbulent flow past a transverse cavity with inclined side walls. 1. Flow structure

The process of vortex formation in a cavity with inclined walls, which has a moderate aspect ratio, is experimentally studied, and the distribution of pressure coefficients is measured. The angle of inclination of the side walls ϕ is varied from 30 to 90°. It is found that the flow in the cavity becomes unstable in the range of inclination angles ϕ = 60–70°. Flow reconstruction occurs, which substantially alters the surface-temperature and static-pressure distributions. Large changes in these characteristics and their nonuniform distributions for these angles are observed across the cavity on its frontal wall and on the bottom. For small angles (ϕ = 30 and 45°), the pressure on the rear wall drastically increases, which leads to a small increase in pressure averaged over the entire cavity surface. __________ Translated from PrikladnayaMekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 47, No. 5, pp. 68–76, September–October, 2006.