Flow Past a Circular Cylinder: A Comparison Between RANS and Hybrid Turbulence Models for a Low Reynolds Number

Author(s):  
Filipe S. Pereira ◽  
Guilherme Vaz ◽  
Luís Eça

Several offshore applications deal with highly unsteady and detached flows, dominated by three dimensional effects. On such conditions, the usage of scale-resolving simulation (SRS) turbulence models has increased due to the well-known limitations of common RANS models. However, some of these offshore applications, such as flows past cylinders or raisers, present highly complex non-turbulent phenomena which, if not properly resolved, may pollute the outcome of any turbulence model. Therefore, it is crucial to mimic the flow conditions of the problem, the physical settings, and fulfil the numerical requirements of such problems to obtain reliable and accurate predictions. This paper assesses RANS and hybrid turbulence models, focusing on the dependence of the numerical predictions on the physical settings. To this end, the flow past a circular cylinder at a Reynolds number of 3900 is simulated using RANS, DDES and XLES models. The obtained results reveal a large dependence on the grid spatial resolution and physical settings, in particular on the computational domain width and boundary conditions. A substantial improvement of RANS predictions is found when a 3D computational domain is used. As expected, the hybrid models, DDES and XLES, lead to a better agreement with the experiments.

2017 ◽  
Vol 832 ◽  
pp. 170-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyi Jiang ◽  
Liang Cheng

The Strouhal–Reynolds number ($St{-}Re$) relationship for flow past a circular cylinder in the low $Re$ range of $Re\leqslant 1000$ is investigated through two- (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) direct numerical simulations (DNS). An improved method is proposed for the determination of the separating velocity and the wake width to allow for a better estimation of the wake Strouhal number $St^{\ast }$. For $Re$ in the extended laminar regime calculated by 2D DNS, the $St^{\ast }$ values are found to be more uniform than the original $St$ for the 2D flow. It is also found that the $St^{\ast }$ values for the 2D and 3D flows agree well in the laminar regime of $Re$ up to approximately 270. In addition, uniform $St^{\ast }$ values are also obtained for different mode A and mode B flow structures triggered artificially by using different cylinder span lengths in DNS. It is demonstrated that the drop in $St$ (with respect to its 2D counterpart) with the development of different 3D wake structures is due to the decrease in the separating velocity and the increase in the wake width for a 3D flow, rather than the existence of a particular wake structure such as pure mode A or vortex dislocation. However, as the wake flow becomes increasingly turbulent with further increase in $Re$, the $St^{\ast }$ value for the 3D flow increases gradually and deviates from its 2D counterpart, since for turbulent 3D flows the vortex shedding frequency scales on a length smaller than the wake width.


2013 ◽  
Vol 736 ◽  
pp. 414-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Ueda ◽  
T. Kida ◽  
M. Iguchi

AbstractThe long-time viscous flow about two identical rotating circular cylinders in a side-by-side arrangement is investigated using an adaptive numerical scheme based on the vortex method. The Stokes solution of the steady flow about the two-cylinder cluster produces a uniform stream in the far field, which is the so-called Jeffery’s paradox. The present work first addresses the validation of the vortex method for a low-Reynolds-number computation. The unsteady flow past an abruptly started purely rotating circular cylinder is therefore computed and compared with an exact solution to the Navier–Stokes equations. The steady state is then found to be obtained for $t\gg 1$ with ${\mathit{Re}}_{\omega } {r}^{2} \ll t$, where the characteristic length and velocity are respectively normalized with the radius ${a}_{1} $ of the circular cylinder and the circumferential velocity ${\Omega }_{1} {a}_{1} $. Then, the influence of the Reynolds number ${\mathit{Re}}_{\omega } = { a}_{1}^{2} {\Omega }_{1} / \nu $ about the two-cylinder cluster is investigated in the range $0. 125\leqslant {\mathit{Re}}_{\omega } \leqslant 40$. The convection influence forms a pair of circulations (called self-induced closed streamlines) ahead of the cylinders to alter the symmetry of the streamline whereas the low-Reynolds-number computation (${\mathit{Re}}_{\omega } = 0. 125$) reaches the steady regime in a proper inner domain. The self-induced closed streamline is formed at far field due to the boundary condition being zero at infinity. When the two-cylinder cluster is immersed in a uniform flow, which is equivalent to Jeffery’s solution, the streamline behaves like excellent Jeffery’s flow at ${\mathit{Re}}_{\omega } = 1. 25$ (although the drag force is almost zero). On the other hand, the influence of the gap spacing between the cylinders is also investigated and it is shown that there are two kinds of flow regimes including Jeffery’s flow. At a proper distance from the cylinders, the self-induced far-field velocity, which is almost equivalent to Jeffery’s solution, is successfully observed in a two-cylinder arrangement.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Kaiping ◽  
Zhou Jingjun ◽  
Min Jingxin ◽  
Zhang Guang

A ventilated cavity was investigated using three-dimensional numerical simulation and cavitation water tunnel experiments under the condition of low Froude number. A two-fluid multiphase flow model was adopted in numerical predictions. The drag between the different phases and gravitational effect, as well as the compressibility of gas, was considered in the numerical simulations. By comparing the ventilated coefficient computational results of three different turbulence models with the Epshtein formula, the shear-stress-transport turbulence model was finally employed. The phenomenon of double-vortex tube gas-leakage was observed in both numerical simulations and experiments. Based on the validity of the numerical method, the change law of the lift coefficient on the afterbody was given by numerical predictions and accorded well with experimental results. The cause for the appearance of an abrupt increase in lift was difficult to get from experiments for the hard measurement, whereas the numerical simulations provided some supplements to analyze the reasons. The distribution of lift coefficient on the afterbody had important significance to the design of underwater vehicles.


2012 ◽  
Vol 232 ◽  
pp. 471-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Zhao ◽  
Chao Yan

The flow past a circular cylinder at a subcritical Reynolds number 3900 was simulated by the method of detached-eddy simulation (DES). The objective of this present work is not to investigate the physical phenomena of the flow but to study modeling as well as numerical aspects which influence the quality of DES solutions in detail. Firstly, four typical spanwise lengths are chosen and the results are systematically compared. The trend of DES results along the span increment is different from previous large-eddy simulation (LES) investigation. A wider spanwise length does not necessary improve the results. Then, the influence of mesh resolution is studied and found that both too coarse and over refined grids will deteriorate the performance of DES. Finally, different orders of numerical schemes are applied in the inviscid fluxes and the viscous terms. The discrepancies among different schemes are found tiny. However, the instantaneous flow structures produced by 5th order WENO with 4th order central differencing scheme are more abundant than the others. That is, for the time-averaged quantities, the second-order accurate schemes are effective enough, whereas the higher-order accurate methods are needed to resolve the transient characteristics of the flow.


2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Rapley ◽  
Carol Eastwick ◽  
Kathy Simmons

This article looks at a modification of Taylor–Couette flow, presenting a numerical investigation of the flow around a shrouded rotating cone, with and without throughflow, using the commercial computational fluid dynamics code FLUENT 6.2 and FLUENT 6.3. The effects of varying the cone vertex angle and the gap width on the torque seen by the rotating cone are considered, as well as the effect of a forced throughflow. The performance of various turbulence models are considered, as well as the ability of common wall treatments/functions to capture the near-wall behavior. Close agreement is found between the numerical predictions and previous experimental work, carried out by Yamada and Ito (1979, “Frictional Resistance of Enclosed Rotating Cones With Superposed Throughflow,” ASME J. Fluids Eng., 101, pp. 259–264; 1975, “On the Frictional Resistance of Enclosed Rotating Cones (1st Report, Frictional Moment and Observation of Flow With a Smooth Surface),” Bull. JSME, 18, pp. 1026–1034; 1976, “On the Frictional Resistance of Enclosed Rotating Cones (2nd Report, Effects of Surface Roughness),” Bull. JSME, 19, pp. 943–950). Limitations in the models are considered, and comparisons between two-dimensional axisymmetric models and three-dimensional models are made, with the three-dimensional models showing greater accuracy. The work leads to a methodology for modeling similar flow conditions to Taylor–Couette.


Author(s):  
Saravana Kumar Lakshmanan ◽  
Alok Mishra ◽  
Ashoke De

Accurate laminar-turbulent prediction is very much important to understand the complete performance characteristics of any airfoil which operates at low and medium Reynolds number. In this article, a numerical study has been performed over two different thick airfoils operating at low Reynolds number using k-ω SST, k-kl-ω and Spalart-Allmaras (SA) RANS models. The unsteady two dimensional (2D) simulations are performed over NACA 0021 and NACA 65-021 at Re 120,000 for a range of angle of attacks. The performances of these models are assessed through aerodynamic lift, drag and pressure coefficients. To obtain better comparison, the simulated results are compared with the experimental measurements and XFOIL results as well. In this present study, it is found that the k-kl-ω transition model is capable of predicting correct lift, drag coefficient and separation bubble as reported in experiments. At high angles of attack, this model fails to predict performance variables accurately. The SA and SST models are fail to predict laminar separation bubble. However, At high angle of attack, SA model shows better predictions compared to k-kl-ω and k-ω SST models.


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