The numerical solution of the laminar flow in a constricted channel at moderately high Reynolds number using Newton iteration

The numerical solution of the flow in a stepped channel constricted to half its width has been obtained for Reynolds numbers up to 2000 using Newton's iteration to solve the ensuing algebraic system. In order to avoid high-frequency errors, a locally fine grid is effected near the corner by transformation of the independent variables. The results predict a downstream recirculation region, observed in experiments but not found in earlier numerical calculations. The inclusion of the Dennis–Hudson upwinding, added for stability in SOR methods, whilst giving the same characteristics of the flow, is less accurate by at least an order of magnitude.     

Numerical solution of two-layer,two-dimensional tidal flow in a boundary-fitted orthogonal curvilinear co-ordinate system

A new two-layer, two-dimensional mathematical model employing a finite difference method based on numerically generated boundary-fitted orthogonal co-ordinates and a grid ‘block’ technique for unsteady boundary problems is developed which can be used to simulate flows with density stratification in a natural water-body with complicated topography. In the model the turbulent exchange across the interface is treated empirically and a time-splitting finite difference method with two fractional steps is employed to solve the governing equations. The model is calibrated and verified by comparing the computational results with data measured in Tolo Harbour, Hong Kong. The simulation results mimie the field measurements very closely. The computation shows that the model reproduces the two-layer, two-dimensional tidal flow with density stratification in Tolo Harbour very well. The computed velocity hodographs show that the tidal circulations at various positions in each layer have different patterns and that the features of the patterns are independent of the tidal type except for their scales. The computed Lagrangian pathlines show that the tidal excursion is dependent on the tidal type, especially in the inner harbour and side-coves.     

The numerical solution of the unsteady natural convection flow in a square cavity at high Rayleigh number using SADI method

The unsteady natural convection flow in a square cavity at high Rayleigh number Ra=10 ⁷ and 2×10 ⁷ has been computed using cubic spline integration. The required solutions to the two dimensional Navier-Stokes and energy equations have been obtained using two alternate numerical formulations on non-uniform grids. The main features of the transient flow have been briefly discussed. The results obtained by using the present method are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions ^[1,2].The steady state results have been compared with accurate solutions presented recently for Ra=10 ⁷.     

Wall-modeled large eddy simulation of turbulent channel flow at high Reynolds number using the von Karman length scale

The von Karman length scale is able to reflect the size of the local turbulence structure. However, it is not suitable for the near wall region of wall-bounded flows, for its value is almost infinite there. In the present study, a simple and novel length scale combining the wall distance and the von Karman length scale is proposed by introducing a structural function. The new length scale becomes the von Karman length scale once local unsteady structures are detected. The proposed method is adopted in a series of turbulent channel flows at different Reynolds numbers. The results show that the proposed length scale with the structural function can precisely simulate turbulence at high Reynolds numbers, even with a coarse grid resolution.     

Coherent and turbulent process analysis in the flow past a circular cylinder at high Reynolds number

This article presents an experimental study of the turbulent flow past a circular cylinder at high Reynolds number by means of advanced optical measurements techniques. Following previous studies using standard PIV and stereoscopic PIV (3C PIV), TRPIV and 3C-TRPIV have been employed in low subsonic wind tunnel environment. The database consisting of statistical and time-dependent fields aims at providing a physical analysis of the coherent and turbulent part, as well as a proper basis for validation and improvement of recent turbulence modelling approaches for strongly detached flow at high Reynolds number. As the nonlinear interaction between the coherent and turbulent dynamics have to be taken into account in a model, particular attention is paid to a decomposition of the flow into a coherent and a turbulent part, and to the analysis of their dynamics. This is achieved both using phase averaging and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition. For phase averaging, the two first POD coefficients are used for the evaluation of the vortex shedding phase angle. Furthermore, selected results of a Detached Eddy Simulation which had been validated by means of the experiment, are also presented to contribute to the physical analysis. The present study's experimental data resolved in space and time allow the confirmation of the conditional averaging for the turbulent stresses evaluation, by alleviating their overestimation due to phase jitter that occurs between the trigger signal and the velocity, when the phase angle is determined from a wall pressure signal. A more accurate physical analysis of the flow is achieved, particularly regarding the occurrence of irregular vortex shedding.     

Shock-vortex shear-layer interaction in the transonic flow around a supercritical airfoil at high Reynolds number in buffet conditions

This paper provides a conceptual analysis and a computational model for how the unsteady ‘buffeting’ phenomenon develops in transonic, low incidence flow around a supercritical aerofoil, the OAT15A, at Reynolds number of 3.3 million. It is shown how a low-frequency buffet mode is amplified in the shock-wave region and then develops upstream and downstream interaction with the alternating von Kármán eddies in the wake past the trailing-edge as well as with the shear-layer, Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices. These interactions are tracked by wavelet analysis, autoregressive (AR) modelling and by Proper Orthogonal Decomposition. The frequency modulation of the trailing-edge instability modes is shown in the spectra and in the wall-pressure fluctuations. The amplitude modulation of the buffet and von Kármán modes has been also quantified by POD analysis. The thinning of the shear layers, both at the outer edge of the turbulent boundary layers and the wake, caused by an ‘eddy-blocking’ mechanism is modelled by stochastic forcing of the turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation, by small-scale straining of the higher-order POD modes. The benefits from thinning the shear-layers by taking into account the interfacial dynamics are clearly shown in the velocity profiles, and wall pressure distribution in comparison with the experimental data.     

General considerations of numerical stability and accuracy in inviscid,compressible flow calculations employing primitive variables

The numerical stability of a number of computation schemes currently used for three-dimensional, inviscid, compressible flow is analysed using one-dimensional Fourier analysis. Whereas Reference 1 analysed schemes which were modified to render them amenable to simple analysis, the present work analyses the stability of schemes as actually used by Highton,³ Ahrabian,¹ Denton² and Spalding.⁶ The use of current values of the variables as they become available is shown to bring a general improvement to stability margin. The manner of damping introduced by the time marching formulation is shown to be deleterious to modifications which reduce truncation error. Staggered grid schemes can be formulated to second order accuracy with better stability margin than the corresponding first order scheme. While unstaggered grid schemes can be formulated to second order error and remain stable, their stability margin becomes very small. Agreement of the theory with numerical experiments continues to be of a high order for both one and three-dimensional disturbances.     

Obtaining phase averaged turbulence properties in the near wake of a circular cylinder at high Reynolds number using POD

The flow past a circular cylinder at high Reynolds number is studied by means of PIV, 3C-PIV and Time-Resolved PIV techniques. One of the goals of this study was to allow comparisons with numerical simulations on a domain identical to that of the experiment. For this reason, the cylinder was placed in a confined environment, with a high blockage and a low aspect ratio, thereby allowing computations on a mesh of reasonable size, and avoiding “infinite conditions”. This paper deals with the decomposition of the flow in a coherent and random parts. To this aim, phase averaged quantities were first obtained using the wall pressure signal on the cylinder as a trigger signal. This was achieved using both conditional sampling and LSE with similar results. This decomposition is then analysed using the Time Resolved PIV measurements, as well as by comparison of the contributions of the organised and turbulent fluctuations to the time-independent Reynolds stress tensor with those estimated from velocity spectra by interpolation and integration of the continuous part. In agreement with other studies, it is found that the contribution of the turbulent motion is overestimated as a result of the occurence of phase jitter between the trigger and velocity signal. A POD analysis was then performed to extract the coherent motion and to compare this decomposition with that obtained by phase averaging. Similarly to the phase averaging, the POD allows the decomposition of the time-independent stress tensor as the sum of two contributions corresponding to the first N modes, and the rest of the modes. This decomposition is then analysed by comparing these contributions to those obtained from the velocity spectra, according to the value N chosen. It is found that these contributions are strongly dependent on N, and the contribution of the first modes greatly overestimate the coherent motion if N is too large. In order to obtain a good decomposition of the flow in coherent and random parts, the difficulty in this case lies in the choice of the modes. Finally, the POD coefficients of the first two modes are used instead of the pressure signal to determine the phase of the vortex shedding, and the phase averaging is reconsidered. It is found that the phase averaged vortices are less smeared by the averaging process, the turbulent stresses better follow the evolution of the vortices, and the contributions of both coherent and turbulent fluctuations are found to agree well with those evaluated from the velocity spectra. This enhancement is obtained because the phase angle is determined directly from the velocity fields to be averaged, thereby reducing the phase-jitter effect. A comparison with a detached eddy simulation is also briefly shown and demonstrates the high level of agreement obtainable between simulation and experiment, as well as confirming the enhancement of the phase averaging using this procedure.     

The improvement of numerical modeling in the solution of incompressible viscous flow problems using finite element method based on spherical Hankel shape functions

In this paper, the finite element method with new spherical Hankel shape functions is developed for simulating 2‐dimensional incompressible viscous fluid problems. In order to approximate the hydrodynamic variables, the finite element method based on new shape functions is reformulated. The governing equations are the Navier‐Stokes equations solved by the finite element method with the classic Lagrange and spherical Hankel shape functions. The new shape functions are derived using the first and second kinds of Bessel functions. In addition, these functions have properties such as piecewise continuity. For the enrichment of Hankel radial basis functions, polynomial terms are added to the functional expansion that only employs spherical Hankel radial basis functions in the approximation. In addition, the participation of spherical Bessel function fields has enhanced the robustness and efficiency of the interpolation. To demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of these shape functions, 4 benchmark tests in fluid mechanics are considered. Then, the present model results are compared with the classic finite element results and available analytical and numerical solutions. The results show that the proposed method, even with less number of elements, is more accurate than the classic finite element method.     

The effect of the Reynolds number on the Reynolds stresses and vorticity in a turbulent far-wake

Using two orthogonal arrays of 16 X-wires, eight in the (x,y)-plane and eight in the (x,z)-plane, the effect of the Reynolds number in a turbulent plane far-wake has been investigated for two values of Re_θ (based on the free stream velocity and the momentum thickness), i.e. 1350 and 4600. It is observed that as the Reynolds number increases the magnitudes of the measured Reynolds stresses increase, as does the size of two-point vorticity correlation iso-contours. Discernible differences are also observed in probability density function, spectra and three-dimensional topologies. The Reynolds number dependence seems to vanish when Re_θ5000.     

Phase-averaged measurements of the turbulence properties in the near wake of a circular cylinder at high Reynolds number by 2C-PIV and 3C-PIV

The near wake of a circular cylinder at high Reynolds number is investigated by means of 2D-PIV and stereoscopic PIV. Phase-averaged measurements of the instantaneous fields have been performed. The linear stochastic estimation (LSE) has been adapted to estimate the phase-averaged quantities. This avoids the long time acquisition and the large storage needed for phase averaging. A good comparison is achieved between the results of the conditional sampling and those of LSE. Therefore, the estimation has been applied to the three-component datas and allowed evaluation of the whole phase-averaged turbulent stress tensor.     

Measurement of instantaneous velocity and surface topography in the wake of a cylinder at low Reynolds number

A technique capable of simultaneous measurement of free-surface topography and velocity vector field data is presented. This technique offers substantial benefits of both reduced complexity and enhanced accuracy over all other techniques known to offer the same measurements. The flow behind a circular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers is measured using this technique. The velocity and vorticity fields as well as Strouhal number closely match the expected results. The free-surface topography, which can be related to the pressure field, exhibits an intimate relationship to the vorticity field.     

The numerical solution of Stokes flow in a domain with re-entrant boundaries by the boundary element method

Numerical solutions are presented for two-dimensional low Reynolds number flow in a rotating tank with stationary barriers. The boundary element method is employed, assuming straight panels and quadratic source distribution. The feasibility of repositioning the nodes as a way to minimize the error is explored. A stretching parameter places smaller elements near the re-entrant regions. Elementary error analysis shows uniform improvement in the solution with stretching. The changing eddy pattern for different numbers and sizes of the barriers is compared with experimental results.     

Parallel ILU preconditioning,a priori pivoting and segregation of variables for iterative solution of the mixed finite element formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations

A parallel ILU preconditioning algorithm for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations has been designed, implemented and tested. The computational mesh is divided into N subdomains which are processed in parallel in different processors. During ILU factorization, matrices and vectors associated with the nodes on the interface between the subdomains are communicated to the equation matrices to the adjacent subdomain. The bases for the parallel algorithm are an appropriate node ordering scheme and a segregation of velocity and pressure degrees of freedom. The inner nodes of the subdomain are numbered first and then the nodes on the interface between the subdomains. To avoid division by zero during the ILU factorization, the equations corresponding to the velocity degrees of freedom are assembled first in the global equation matrix, followed by the equations corresponding to the pressure degrees of freedom. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Void fraction measurement of bubble and slug flow in a small channel using the multivision technique

Using the multivision technique, a new void fraction measurement method was developed for bubble and slug flow in a small channel. The multivision system was developed to obtain images of the two-phase flow in two perpendicular directions. The obtained images were processed—using image segmentation, image subtraction, Canny edge detection, binarization, and hole filling—to extract the phase boundaries and information about the bubble or slug parameters. With the extracted information, a new void fraction measurement model was developed and used to determine the void fraction of the two-phase flow. The proposed method was validated experimentally in horizontal and vertical channels with different inner diameters of 2.1, 2.9, and 4.0 mm. The proposed method of measuring the void fraction has better performance than the methods that use images acquired in only one direction, with a maximum absolute difference between the measured and reference values of less than 6%.