Assignment 1

Introduction
In this report, flow past a cylinder is studied numerically on Ansys fluent using the ICEM structured
meshing on 2D domain. Five different cases of which 3 were isothermal laminar and turbulent cases
while other 2 is the cases of heat transfer. The main purpose is studying the flow separation and it
causes and effect of various parameters here Re and temperature on the flow.

Additionally, two more cases are included with Re=20 isothermal and Re=100 Heat transfer case and all
the cases are compared.

S. No. Cases Re Flow condition Heat transfer

1 Case 1 1 laminar isothermal
2 Case 2 100 laminar isothermal
3 Case 3 1x106 turbulent isothermal
4 Case 4 20 laminar heat transfer
5 Case 5 1x106 turbulent heat transfer
Geometry:
Ansys Design Module is used to draw the geometric model for the follow with the following dimensions:
The resulting model is as follow:

Meshing:
ICEM meshing module is used with blocking strategy for structured meshing and then it is converted
into unstructured as required by Ansys fluent. Quadrilateral elements with O-grid is used to capture to
profile of cylinder with dens meshing near the surface and downstream of the cylinder to capture the
flow and gradient of flow properly. Total number of elements is 45426 with minimum skewness of 0.56
and aspect ratio of 0.1.

Material properties:
Different material properties is used for each case as shown below while the remaining two cases is use
the properties of case 2 and case 4 respectively.

Variable Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5

Density (kg/m3) 1 10 100 1 100
Viscosity (kg/m.s) 0.01 0.001 0.00001 0.00001 0.00001

Boundary conditions:
The left face is used as inlet and the right face is act as outlet and top and bottom faces are act as wall
while cylinder has boundary conditions of no slip conditions while in isothermal case the cylinder has
same wall temperature as that of domain which is 20 deg C while in the case of heat transfer the
cylinder wall temperature is increased to 100 deg C

Boundary Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5

conditions
Reynolds number 1 100 1x106 20 1x106
Velocity 1 1 10 0.02 10
Models Laminar Laminar SST K-Omega Laminar SST K-Omega
Simple discretization technique with second order equations are used in the solution with the residual of
0.001 and iterations number of 2000.

Solutions:
Iteration Vs Convergence for all the cases are shown below while the reference value is taken from the
inlet and initialization is also done at inlet.

Case 1 Case 1

Case 3 Case 4

Case 5
Results:
The Coefficient of pressure over the curve of cylinder is plotted and compared as shown in following
graphs. As we can see the change in pressure is decreased with increased in Reynolds number. As large
Reynold number reduced the adverse pressure gradient which is the main cause of the separation here.

Case 1 : Pressure Coefficient at cylinder surface

12
10
Pressure Coefficient

8
6
4
2
0
-2 0 0 0 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
-4
-6
Curve

Case 2 : Pressure Coefficient at cylinder surface

1.5
Pressure Coefficient

0.5

0
0 0 0 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
-0.5

-1
Curve
 Case 3 : Pressure Coefficient at cylinder surface
1.5
1

Pressure Coefficient
0.5
0
0 0 0 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
-0.5
-1
-1.5
-2
Curve

Further Case 1,2 and 3 is also compared using the skin friction coefficient distribution on curve of the
cylinder as shown below. The skin-friction coefficient is representative of the wall shear-stress change
over the cylinder wall. At the front of the cylinder, the friction coefficient is very close to zero in value
due to the stagnation point where the velocity of the flow is stagnated. The friction coefficient increases
as the flow accelerates around the cylinder surface:

Case 1 : Skin Friction Coefficient vs. Curve Length

10
9
Skin Friction Coefficient

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0 0 0 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
Curve length

Case 2: Skin Friction Coefficient vs. Curve Length

0.45
0.4
Skin Friction Coefficient

0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0 0 0 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
Curve length
 Case 3 : Skin Friction Coefficient vs. Curve Length
0.01

Skin Friction Coefficient

0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0
0
0
0 0 0 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
Curve length

The velocity vector profiles of first 3 cases are also generated to see the separation point and it causes
as we can see the case 1 doesn’t have the separation as the flow have enough viscous forces to avoid
separation while in the case of 2 and 3 there were separation while the separation point location
decrease with Reynolds number

Velocity and pressure contours of case 1,2 and 3 are also extracted to study the flow

Case 1 Case 2

Case 3

Velocity and pressure contours of the case 1,2 and 3 are also extracted to study the flow over the
cylinder:
 Velocity Contours of Case 1 Velocity Contours of Case 2

Case 2

Velocity Contours of Case 3

Pressure Contours of Case 1 Pressure Contours of Case 2

 While in the heat transfer through convection is studied in case 4 and 5 and are compared by plotting
the temperature contours of each which are as follows. It can be observed that the heat transfer is
greater in the case 5 as compared to case 4 as can be observed by surface temperature.

Reviewed Questions:
 .The adverse pressure gradient downstream of the cylinder cause the separation of flow over
the cylinder as flow velocity reduces after the flow pass the nearly half of the cylinder and it
cause the increase in pressure and as flow occur from high pressure to low pressure an adverse
gradient is created which ultimately lead to separation of flow
 At Re=1, friction drag is dominating the flow because as there is no separation of flow, so the
pressure gradient is nearly zero around it.
Temperature Contours of Case 4 Temperature Contours of Case 5
 Case 1 with Re=1 has the smallest difference in pressure between the downstream and
upstream of the flow because there is no separation of flow as flow has not enough kinetic
energy to produce adverse pressure gradient while flowing over the cylinder.
 The value of coefficient of skin friction increases with increase in velocity around the cylinder as
the shear stress on the surface increases which is trying to resist the flow ultimately reach is
peak at max velocity. It increases or decreasing value represent the shear stress induced by the
surface and depend upon the incoming velocity property of fluid and surface roughness.
 We identify the flow separation as where the shear stress or coefficient of skin friction become
zero after the increases except the front where first stagnant point occurs.
 During the study of Case 4 and 5 it is found that the heat transfer is greater in the turbulent flow
as it has the lower thermal gradient around the cylinder.

Exploratory Questions:
1. The isothermal case for Re=20 is performed and compared with Re=100 the following are the
graphs of skin friction. In Re=20 represent that the pressure gradient is started to develop, and
separation is about to happen and is represented in the graph of pressure gradient:
 Exploratory
Exploratory
Case
Case 2: question
2 :Skin
Pressure
question
Friction: Pressure
Coefficient
:Skin Coefficient
Coefficient
Friction Curveat
at Coefficient
vs.
cylinder cylinder
surface
Length
vs. Curve
Length
surface
1.5
6 0.45
3
5 0.41
Skin Friction Coefficient
Coefficient
Friction Coefficient

0.35 2
Pressure Coefficient

4 0.3
0.5
1
3 0.25
SkinPressure

0.2
0 0
1400
160 2 0.15 0
120 0 0.01
100 80 0.01600.01 400.01 20
0.01 0.02
0 0.02
0.1 -1
1 -0.5
0.05
-2
0 -10
0 00 0 0 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
0 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02
Curve -3
Curvelength
Curve length
Curve

Temperature Contours of Re=100 Temperature Contours of Re=20

2.

The case for Re=100 is performed and compared with Re=20, the contours of heat transfer are
shown below as it can clearly proof that the heat transfer is increase with increase in the Re and
thermal boundary layer reduces with increase in the Reynolds number:
 3. The total pressure and static pressure for two different cases with Re of 20 and 1x10 6 are
compared and it is obvious that the total pressure at high Re have the dynamic head greater
than lower Re while the static contours are different due to the flow separation.

Static Pressure Contours of Re=20 Static Pressure Contours of Re=1x106

Total Pressure Contours of Re=20 Total Pressure Contours of Re=1x106