ME 808

Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics

Final Exam

Flow over cylinder is a fundamental fluid mechanics problem of practical importance. The flow field over
the cylinder is symmetric at low values of Reynold number. As the Reynold number increases, flow begins
to separate behind the cylinder causing vortex shedding which is an unsteady phenomenon. We can either
apply a steady state or unsteady (transient) solution to capture these effects. Drag forces acting on the walls
of the cylinder are highly dependent on the Reynold number.

For external flow, the transition from laminar regime to turbulent regime occurs at Re ≈ 3 × 105. However,
the very complex structure of vortex shedding deserves special mention; the relation between the behavior
of the flow and the Reynolds number is shown at Figure:

Figure 1
This study demonstrates that the drag forces on the cylinder depend on the Reynold number. Additionally,
plot of velocity, pressure contours and stream traces will be visualized.

Initial Mesh Structure:

Figure 2
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Since we plot the mesh, near the cylinder blocks mesh sizes increases dramatically which causes the
inappropriate results. Therefore, it is inevitably to increase the mesh density near the cylinder blocks. To do
that it is recommend to use user guide or blockMesh grading calculation application.

Final mesh struction for whole domain and vicinity of the circle:

Figure 3

Figure 4
On the walls and downstream the cylinder it is necessary to have a high refined mesh. It will allow the user
to compute the drag coefficient and to observe the von Karman street both with high accuracy. However, if
the simulation is too much time-consuming or it is done with a Reynolds number such that no vortices are
generated, it is recommended to reduce the refinement of the mesh.The next two figures show the mesh
parameters and mesh, respectively. As it is shown in the mesh, the density is increased vicinity of the
cylinder. Mesh information and mesh quality is shown below.

Figure 5
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 Figure 6
As our mesh is applied to the geometry, some files has to be rearranged in order to keep Co number below 1.
So our controlDict file is modified also for plotting the forces results. File is shown below.

Figure 7

For the stability of Co number deltaT can be modified.

In order to plot forces, some functions must be added

to the controlDict file which is shown on the right
Figure 8. Here, force and force coefficients functions
written separately. (Iref: diameter of the cylinder, Aref:
cross-section of the cylinder.)

Figure 8

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 There is no change in the fvSolution file, but for the
fvSchemes file there is small change in the time schemes
and interpolation schemes.

For interpolation schemes default option linear is changed

with limitedLinear phi 1.0. (ψ=1 for best convergence, ψ=0
for best accuracy).Additionally, time scheme is changed to
backward(Second order, implicit) from Euler. (See
OpenFoam User Guide).

To reach Re 100, kinematic viscosity (nu) which is in the

transportProperties file, set to 0.01.

Figure 9

Before running the simulation boundary conditions must be modified. At this case, B.C. for velocity and
pressure is given below:

Figure 10 : Velocity Figure 11:Pressure

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After running simulation, in the main folder, controlDict file generates a folder under the name of post
processing. In that folder, there are two folder which includes forces and coefficients file. For
coefficient.dat, the first column represents time, the second, third and fourth one introduces drag, lift and
moment coefficient, respectively. Force.dat file is quite complicated. However, using a script convert this
“dat “ file in to “txt “file so that to it is possible to plot this data using Excel.

Result for simulation Re=100, u=1 m/s;

Figure 12 : Velocity contour at final time

Figure 13: Pressure contour at final time

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Figure 14: Velocity stream traces at final time

Figure 15: Drag Coefficients

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 Figure 16: Drag Forces

Figure 17: Lift Coefficients

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 Figure 18: Lift Forces

Forward Step Case:

Figure 19
The geometry of this case is in the figure. We performs this case for inlet Mach numbers of 0.5, 0.8, 1.2 and
2. Other parameters remain the same.
In order to change Mach number, it is changed simply inlet parameters in the U file under the 0 folder.

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 In this case mach number set to be 0.5. As mentioned before
other parameters remain the same.

In order to generate mesh, blockmesh command is used for this case.

Figure 20

Figure 21

Simulation run with rhoCentralFoam, which is a compressible solver, for 15 seconds. Here are the results:

Figure 22 : Pressure contour for M=0.5 at final time

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Figure 23: Pressure contour for M=0.8 at final time

Figure 24: Pressure contour for M=1.2 at final time

Figure 25: Pressure contour for M=2 at final time

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 Figure 26: Pressure contour for M=0.5 at 1(left) and 5(right) sec.

Figure 27: Pressure contour for M=0.8 at 1(left) and 5(right) sec.

Figure 28: Pressure contour for M=1.2 at 1(left) and 5(right) sec.

Figure 29: Pressure contour for M=2 at 1(left) and 5(right) sec.

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Figure 30: Velocity contour for M=0.5 at 3 sec.

Figure 31: Velocity contour for M=0.8 at 3 sec.

Figure 32: Velocity contour for M=1.2 at 3 sec.

Figure 33: Velocity contour for M=2 at 3 sec.

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 Figure 34 : Converge Criteria
For this case we will measure convergence in time using velocity. To do this I picked a point approximately
half way between the inlet and above the obstacle and plotted the velocity over time.

RhoCentralFoam uses VanLeer limiter for interpolation schemes. This limiter provides good behavior about
shock capturing and oscillation free pressure fields. It can be stated that rhoCentralFoam performs better for
supersonic flow simulations.

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References

1. OpenFoam User Guide, 2015

2. OpenFoam Guide For Beginners, Universitat Politecnica De Catalunya

3. https://curiosityfluids.wordpress.com/2016/03/28/mach-1-5-flow-over-23-degree-wedge-
rhocentralfoam/

4. High Speed Flow Simulation Using OpenFoam, Luis F. Gutiérrez Marcantonia , José P. Tamagnoa,
and Sergio A. Elaskara,

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