The side-ported rotary engine is a potential alternative to the reciprocating engine because of its favorable performance at low speed. The performance of side-ported rotary engines is strongly influenced by the flow field in the combustion chamber. In this study, an optical side-ported rotary engine test-bed was built and Ply was employed to measure the flow field in the rotor housing central plane. From experiment results, a counterclockwise swirl was detected in the rotor housing central plane. Meanwhile, a three-dimensional dynamic mesh and turbulent flow model was integrated and simulated using the Fluent CFD software. The three-dimensional dynamic simulation model was validated by comparison with experimental results. In addition, the effect of three major parameters on the flow field in the combustion chamber, namely rotating speed, intake pressure and intake angle were numerically investigated. The results show that a swirl forms in the middle and front of the combustion chamber during the intake stroke under low rotating speed. This is in line with the swirl detected in the rotor housing central plane though the PIV experiment at 600 rpm. Furthermore, the flow field, volume coefficient and average turbulence kinetic energy in the combustion chamber were studied in detail by varying rotating speed, intake pressure and intake angle. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.