A numerical exploration of secondary separation in starting flow around a flat plate by the discrete vortex model

In the present work, a further numerical simulation of the starting flow around a flat plate normal to the direction of motion in a uniform fluid has been made by means of the discrete vortex method. The secondary separation occurring at rear surface of the plate is explored, and predicted approximately using Thwait's method. The calculated results show that in the early stages of the flow secondary separation does occur. The evolution of flow field, the vortex growing process and the characteristics of secondary vortices have been described. The time dependent drag coefficients, the vorticity shed from the edges and rear surface, and the separation positions are calculated as well as the distributions of velocity and pressure on the plate. In the case of flow normal to the plate, the calculated secondary vortices are weak. Their existence will change the local velocity distributions and affect pressure distributions. However, the effect on drag coefficient is negligible.     

Interaction of a heavy fluid flow in a channel with a transverse jet barrier

An experimental and numerical analysis of the interaction between a plane horizontal water flow in a rectangular channel (free water current) and a plane thin water jet (water jet curtain) is presented; the jet flows out vertically from either a slot nozzle in the bottom of the channel or the crest of a rigid spillway at a velocity appreciably (several times) greater than the water velocity in the channel. Numerical calculations were carried out using the STAR-CD software package preliminarily tested against the experimental data obtained. The dependence of the water level in the channel at a certain distance ahead of the jet barrier on the main jet parameters and the water flow rate in the horizontal channel is studied. It is found that in the region of the interface between the flows both steady and unsteady (self-oscillatory) flow patterns can be realized. Steady stream/jet interaction patterns of the “ejection” and “ejection-spillway” types are distinguished and a criterion separating these regimes is obtained. The notion of a rigid spillway equivalent to a jet curtain is introduced and an approximate dependence of its height on the relevant parameters of the problem is derived. The possibility of effectively controlling the water level ahead of a rigid spillway with a sharp edge by means of a plane water jet flowing from its crest is investigated. The boundary of transition to self-oscillation interaction patterns in the region of the flow interface is determined. The structure of these flows and a possible mechanism of their generation are described. Within the framework of the inviscid incompressible fluid model in the approximate formulation for a “thin” jet, an analytical dependence of the greatest possible depth of a reservoir filled with a heavy fluid at rest and screened by a vertical jet barrier on the jet parameters is obtained.     

Influence of distributed addition of a polymer solution on the characteristics of a turbulent boundary layer

The motion of a plate in the presence of distributed addition of a polymer solution is studied on the basis of a system of partial differential equations. The calculations take into account the influence of the additives on the coefficients of molecular and turbulent viscosity and diffusion. The influence of the concentration and rate of injection of the polymer solution on the profiles of the tangential frictional stress, the averaged velocity, and the local and total frictional drag coefficients is analyzed. The results of calculations are compared with data on the drag of a plate when a polymer solution is injected near its leading edge.     

Flow of a viscous fluid around a sphere of finite radius

We consider the stead y flow of a viscous fluid around a sphere of finiteradius in non-linear formulation. The equations of motion are written in non-dimensional terms. We seek their solution as the expansion of the unknown stream function in a series of powers of the Reynolds number, the coefficients of which are polynomials in associated Legendre functions of the first kind. Recurrence relations are given for the sequential determination of all coefficients. The velocity and pressure fields are determined. The drag is calculated. Numerical calculations are carried out.     

Hydroelastic stability of a rectangular plate interacting with a layer of ideal flowing fluid

The three-dimensional formulation of the problem on the natural vibrations and stability of an elastic plate which interacts with a quiescent or flowing fluid is represented and a finite element algorithm of its numerical implementation is proposed. The governing equations, which describe vortex-free ideal fluid dynamics in the case of small perturbations, are written in terms of the perturbation velocity potential and transformed using the Bubnov–Galerkin method. The plate strains are determined on the basis of the Timoshenko theory. The variational principle of virtual displacements which takes into account the work done by inertial forces and the hydrodynamic pressure is used for the mathematical formulation of the dynamic problem of elastic structure. The solution of the problem is reduced to calculations and an analysis of complex eigenvalues of a coupled system of two equations. The effect of the fluid layer height on the eigenfrequencies and the critical velocities of the loss of stability is estimated numerically. It is shown that there exist different types of instability determined by combinations of the kinematic boundary conditions prescribed at the plate edges.     

Effect of anisotropic resistance characteristic on boundary-layer transitional flow

It is observed that the feather surface exhibits anisotropic resistances for the streamwise and spanwise flows. To obtain a qualitative understanding about the effect of this anisotropic resistance feature of surface on the boundary-layer transitional flow over a flat plate, a simple phenomenological model for the anisotropic resistance is established in this paper. By means of the large eddy simulation (LES) with high-order accurate finite difference method, the numerical investigations are conducted. The numerical results show that with the spanwise resistance hindering the formation of vortexes, the transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow can be delayed, and turbulence is weakened when the flow becomes fully turbulent, which leads to significant drag reduction for the plate. On the contrary, the streamwise resistance renders the flow less stable, which leads to the earlier transition and enhances turbulence in the turbulent region, causing a drag increase for the plate. Thus, it is indicated that a surface with large resistance for spanwise flow and small resistance for streamwise flow can achieve significant drag reduction. The present results highlight the anisotropic resistance characteristic near the feather surface for drag reduction, and shed a light on the study of bird’s efficient flight.     

Temporal and spatial transients in turbulent boundary layer flow over an oscillating wall

Direct numerical simulations have been performed to study the effect of an oscillating segment of the wall on a turbulent boundary layer flow. Two different oscillation amplitudes with equal oscillation period have been used, which allows a direct comparison between a relatively weak and strong forcing of the flow. The weaker forcing results in 18% drag reduction while the stronger forcing, with twice the amplitude, yields 29% drag reduction. The downstream development of the drag reduction is compared with earlier simulations and experiments. In addition, a simulation with identical oscillation parameters as in previous numerical and experimental investigations allows for an estimation of the effect of the Reynolds number on the drag reduction.Reductions in the Reynolds stresses and the important role that the edge of the Stokes layer has is explained.An estimation of the idealized power consumption shows that a positive energy budget is only possible for the weaker wall velocity case.Spatial and temporal transients are investigated and a transformation between spatial and temporal coordinates via a convection velocity is shown to facilitate a comparison between the two transients in a consistent manner. The streamwise shear exhibits a similar monotonic behavior in the spatial and temporal transients, while the non-monotinic temporal transient of the longitudinal Reynolds stress has no counterpart in the spatial development. Furthermore, the evolution in time of the spanwise Reynolds stress is very similar to previously reported channel flow data.The instantaneous spanwise velocity profile (only averaged in the homogeneous spanwise direction) will for the first time be presented from a boundary layer over an oscillating wall, and comparisons with the analytical solution to the laminar Navier–Stokes equations show very good agreement.     

Oscillating plate temperature effects on a flow past an infinite vertical porous plate with constant suction and embedded in a porous medium

 An approximate solution to the problem of flow of a viscous incompressible dissipative fluid past an infinite vertical porous plate embedded in a porous medium is presented here. The plate temperature is assumed to be oscillating about a constant mean temperature. Mean velocity and mean temperature, the transient velocity and temperature profiles are shown graphically. The mean skin-friction and the mean rate of heat transfer are also shown graphically. The expressions for the amplitude and the phase of the skin-friction and the rate of heat transfer are derived and their numerical values are listed in Tables. The effects of different parameters governing the unsteady flow are discussed. Received on 23 November 1998     

Ignition of a gas in a boundary layer at a heated plate

The problem of the ignition of a moving homogeneous gaseous combustible mixture in a boundary layer along a heated flat semiinfinite plate is one of the main problems of the ignition of a combustible mixture in a flow (for example, [1]). The formulation of the problem includes the two-dimensional equations of motion and the equations of the transfer of heat and of the reacting substance, written taking a chemical reaction into consideration, as well as boundary conditions, and should lead to determination of the steady-state fields of the concentration and the temperature and, by the same token, of the position of the combustion zone. Different approximate numerical solutions of the problem were analyzed in [1–5]. One of the most important characteristics of the process is the length of the ignition, i.e., the distance from the edge of the plate to the point at which, thanks to the intrinsic chemical heat evolution in the gas, the heat flux from the plate to the gas becomes equal to zero. In the present work, for the case of large values of the activation energy of the chemical reaction and a sufficiently great temperature difference between the wall and the flow, an approximate expression is obtained for the length of the ignition.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 142–148, September–October, 1977.The authors thank V. M. Shevtsov for his aid in making the calculations.     

Lighthill transpiration velocity revisited: An exact formulation

The Lighthill transpiration-velocity correction is commonly used in the analysis of viscous flows of aeronautical interest, in order to take into account the perturbation to the potential flow caused by the presence of the vorticity in the boundary layer. This correction consists of considering the boundary as a permeable surface from which the fluid flows through the boundary surface, with a velocity (named the transpiration velocity) determined on the basis of the local boundary-layer characteristics. Here, we use a new potential-vorticity decomposition in order to derive an exact representation of the effects of the vorticity on the external flow. The relationship between approximate transpiration-velocity representation and the exact one presented here is analyzed: it is shown that, under typical boundary-layer assumptions, the new representation reduces to that by Lighthill, except for a corrective field term. Finally, in order to quantify, in a simple case, the contribution of the corrective terms which arise in the new formulation, we examine, as a numerical test case, the problem of an attached boundary-layer flow over a flat plate: the numerical results indicate that the corrective term is negligible for Reynolds numbers above 10⁴.A preliminary version of this paper was presented at VI Convegno Italiano di Meccanica Computazionale, Brescia, Italy, October 1991.     

Two-dimensional unsteady flow around a waving plate in wall effects

A new method of nonlinear formulation is presented to analyze the two-dimensional incompressible flow around a flexible plate waving near a rigid wall. A system of differential and integral equations is solved for the velocity field and the wake vortex. A nonlinear unsteady Kutta condition is imposed at the trailing edge in order to treat the case of large amplitude and fast oscillation accurately. The shed vortex sheet is discretized and approximated by a large number of vortex filaments, and their movements are visualized by numerical computation. The lift, thrust, power input and hydrodynamic efficiency are computed for various values of the distance of the waving plate from the wall.     

Drag reduction of a nonnewtonian fluid by fluid injection on a moving wall

Summary A boundary layer problem of a nonnewtonian fluid flow with fluid injection on a semi-infinite flat plate whose surface moves with a constant velocity in the opposite direction to that of the uniform mainstream is analyzed. Concluding similarity equations are solved numerically to show the dependence of the problem to the velocity ratio λ of the plate to uniform flow and to the injection velocity parameter C. The critical values of λ and C for each nonnewtonian power-law index n are obtained, and their significance in drag reduction is discussed. Received 26 August 1997; accepted for publication 21 October 1998     

Influence of curvature on drag reduction by opposition control in turbulent flow along a thin cylinder

Opposition controlled fully developed turbulent flow along a thin cylinder is analyzed by means of direct numerical simulations. The influence of cylinder curvature on the skin-friction drag reduction effect by the classical opposition control (i.e., the radial velocity control) is investigated. The curvature of the cylinder affects the uncontrolled flow statistics; for instance, skin-friction coefficient increases while Reynolds shear stress (RSS) and turbulent intensity decrease. However, the control effect in the case of a small curvature is similar to that in channel flow. When the curvature is large, the maximum drag reduction rate decreased. However, the optimal location of the detection plane is the same as that in a flat plate. Further, the drag reduction effect is achieved even on a high detection plane where the drag increases in the flat plate. Although a difference in the drag reduction effect can be observed with a change in the curvature, its mechanism considered in this analysis based on the transport of the Reynolds stress is similar to that of the flat plate.     

A combined analytical–numerical method for treating corner singularities in viscous flow predictions

A combined analytical–numerical method based on a matching asymptotic algorithm is proposed for treating angular (sharp corner or wedge) singularities in the numerical solution of the Navier–Stokes equations. We adopt an asymptotic solution for the local flow around the angular points based on the Stokes flow approximation and a numerical solution for the global flow outside the singular regions using a finite‐volume method. The coefficients involved in the analytical solution are iteratively updated by matching both solutions in a small region where the Stokes flow approximation holds. Moreover, an error analysis is derived for this method, which serves as a guideline for the practical implementation. The present method is applied to treat the leading‐edge singularity of a semi‐infinite plate. The effect of various influencing factors related to the implementation are evaluated with the help of numerical experiments. The investigation showed that the accuracy of the numerical solution for the flow around the leading edge can be significantly improved with the present method. The results of the numerical experiments support the error analysis and show the desired properties of the new algorithm, i.e. accuracy, robustness and efficiency. Based on the numerical results for the leading‐edge singularity, the validity of various classical approximate models for the flow, such as the Stokes approximation, the inviscid flow model and the boundary layer theory of varying orders are examined. Although the methodology proposed was evaluated for the leading‐edge problem, it is generally applicable to all kinds of angular singularities and all kinds of finite‐discretization methods. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unsteady viscous flow over a grooved wall: A comparison of two numerical methods

A numerical study is made of the unsteady two-dimensional laminar flow of an incompressible fluid over a periodically grooved wall. Two independent finite difference techniques are employed. One is based on the vorticity-stream function and the other on the vorticity-velocity (i.e. induction law) formulation. The fluid motion is initiated impulsively from rest and is assumed to be spatially periodic in the streamwise direction. The numerical formulations are derived in detail. The generation of vorticity at the solid surface is modelled differently in the two approaches, and this is found to play an important role in determining the surface pressure distribution and the drag coefficient. The flow field is examined during the early transient phase of development, during which the greatest changes occur. Results are presented for a moderate Reynolds number (based on groove depth) equal to 100. It is found that the vorticity-stream function approach does not produce a spatially periodic wall pressure distribution, and therefore global conservation of total vorticity is not achieved. This results in substantial errors in the predictions for the drag coefficient. These deficiencies are not found in the results obtained by the vorticity-velocity formulation.     

On the polynomial approximation of boundary-layer flow profiles

The behaviour of the polynomial approximation to the boundary layer velocity profile is investigated. Various orders of polynomials and 4 different schemes of “reasonable” boundary conditions are examined for applicability as approximate solutions to the Blasius flow over a flat plate. A variational formulation, based upon the local potential is used to obtain the solution. It is found that the best and most consistent results are obtained when a symmetric distribution of auxiliary boundary conditions on the wall and outer edge of the boundary layer is used. The 6th order polynomial of this type, for example, already gives a wall friction factor within 0.5% of the exact solution.     

Wave action on a movable plate immersed into a fluid. Physical and numerical experiments

The effect of the motion of a rigid inclined plate immersed into a fluid counter incident waves is studied both experimentally and numerically. In the wave water channel experiments the velocity of a trolley with a plate running freely on rails is determined as a function of the wave parameters, the immersion depth, the angle of inclination, and the plate dimensions. The interaction between the traveling waves and the plate having a single translational degree of freedom along the horizontal axis is numerically calculated in the time-dependent, two-dimensional formulation. The dependence of the upwave motion effect on the parameters varied in the full-scale experiment is analyzed. In the numerical experiment a regime of the downwave plate motion at a constant high velocity is found to exist. The channel bottom effect is estimated and the behavior of the plate with a flap is studied.