Laminar flow in the gap between two rotating parallel frictional plates in hydro-viscous drive

The velocity,pressure and temperature distributions of the flow in the gap between hydro-viscous drive friction disks are the key parameters in the design of hydro-viscous drive and angular velocity controller.In the previous works dealing with the flow in the gap between disks in hydro-viscous drive,few authors considered the effect of Coriolis force on the flow.The object of this work is to investigate the flow with consideration of the effects of centrifugal force,Coriolis force and variable viscosity.A simplified mathematical model based on steady and laminar flow is presented.An approximate solution to the simplified mathematical model is obtained by using the iteration method assuming that the fluid viscosity remains constant.Then the model considering the effect of variable viscosity is solved by means of computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT.Numerical results of the flow are obtained.It is found that radial velocity profile diverges from the ideal parabolic curve due to inertial forces and tangential velocity profile is nonlinear due to Coriolis force,and pressure has two possible solution branches.In addition,it is found that variable viscosity plays an important role on pressure profiles which are significantly different from those of fluid with constant viscosity.The experimental device designed for this work consists of two disks,and one of them is fixed.Experimental pressure and temperature of the flow within test rig are obtained.It is shown that the trend of numerical results is in agreement with that of experimental ones.The research provides a theoretical foundation for hydro-viscous drive design.