Benchmark experimental data for fully stalled wide-angled diffusers

Due to adverse pressure gradient along the diverging walls of wide-angled diffusers, the attached flow separates from one wall and remains attached permanently to the other wall in a process called stalling. Separated diffuser flows provide a classical case of pressure driven flow separation. Such flows present a very serious challenge to fluid dynamics modelers. This paper provides a data bank contribution for the streamwise mean velocity field and pressure recovery data in wide-angled diffusers. Turbulent mean flow measurements were carried out at Reynolds numbers between 1.07 x [10.sup.5] and 2.14 x [10.sup.5] based on inlet hydraulic diameter and centerline velocity for diffusers whose divergence angles were between 30 deg and 50 deg. The results presented provide a reliable validation data bank for computational fluid dynamics studies for pressure driven flow separation studies.