Paper 25: Vortex Flow in a Cylinder

The swirling flow inside certain types of internal combustion engine depends in a complex way on a large number of variables. The steady flow of air through a cylinder, which reproduces the main features of an induction swirl engine cylinder, has been investigated. The pressure drop across the inlet ports, the port inclination, and the port opening were varied independently while other variables were held constant. For each condition, tangential velocities were measured and axial velocity directions observed over cross-sections of the cylinder. The results have been compared with a simplified hypothesis of R. S. Benson and with theories of the Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube.