PIV study of vortexing during draining from square tanks

The flow field in square tanks with various corner roundings is studied to investigate drain flow characteristics. An attempt is made to understand the mechanism of flow field responsible for vortex suppression by the different radius of rounding at the corner. For this purpose, flow visualization studies using particle image velocimetry are employed to determine the flow patterns in a square tank. Results are obtained for no draining and with draining experiments. The flow field is visualized both in horizontal and vertical planes. The results reveal that the secondary vortices formed at the corners are responsible for vortex suppression.