DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMANCE TESTING OF A FORCED VORTEX EQUIPMENT FOR USE IN THE FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY

Abstract

The study of fluid flow phenomenon is a very important one in the education of engineering students and one of the equipment that can help in doing this is the forced vortex equipment. This equipment has been designed and constructed to verify the turbulent flow caused by fluid rotation at constant angular velocity. Results obtained showed a parabolic profile of liquid surface in the equipment, which confirmed the type of equation of pressure head normally developed in a forced vortex. The Reynolds number obtained at the flow between minimum and maximum speeds of the impeller (268949 and 462256 respectively) were much greater than 4000 above which flow is turbulent, which also confirmed the turbulence of forced vortex flow. Performance test with the equipment also indicates its average efficiency of 99.18 % as analytical values of pressure head at maximum impeller speed deviated from the experimental values only in the range 0.63 to 1.27 % and at minimum impeller speed, deviation is in the range 0.27 to 1.37 %.