Flows over a spinning disc at incidence

Flows over a disc are studied in a wind tunnel over incidence angles between $0^\circ \text { and }36^\circ$, a Reynolds number of $2.7 \times 10^4$ and rotational speed ratios of $0\unicode{x2013}10$. Smoke-wire visualization, particle image velocimetry and hot-film anemometry are employed. Two vortex shedding modes originating from the upstream surface of the disc are observed. The first is dominant at incidence angles up to ${\sim }21^\circ$. Beyond $21^\circ$, the second mode dominates. It appears as a soliton on the vortices and has a shedding frequency nearly twice that of the first at the highest incidence angle. The Strouhal number monotonically increases with incidence angle from approximately 0.2 to 0.4. Spectral analysis of the hot-film measurements confirms the findings from flow visualization experiments. Flows over the spinning disc generally mimic the stationary disc flows; however, centrifugal forces lead to cross-stream instability features that may be attributed to spiral wave instabilities intrinsic to the boundary layers in rotating flows. Velocity measurements are used to construct streamline patterns to compare with the smoke streaklines. The unsteadiness of the flows results in large variances. Mean strain rates are extracted from velocity data, where the fixed disc case at normal incidence compares well with theoretical predictions. The unsteady boundary layer thickness over the fixed disc, however, is approximately twice that predicted by theory for steady flow, stemming from the dominance of large unsteady vortices. Limited comparisons are made of the Strouhal numbers from experiments and numerical calculations in the literature.