International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127

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International Journal of Thermal Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijts

Laminar momentum and heat transfer phenomena of power-law

dilatant fluids around an asymmetrically confined cylinder
Sudheer Bijjam a, Amit Dhiman b, *, Vandana Gautam b
a
CYIENT Ltd., Hyderabad 500032, India
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee 247667, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present study focuses on the flow across an asymmetrically confined (heated) cylinder in a channel
Received 13 September 2013 for fluids obeying Ostwald-de Wale (power-law) equation for the settings: Reynolds number (Re) ¼ 1
Received in revised form e40, power-law index (n) ¼ 1e1.8, gap ratio (g) ¼ 0.375e1, blockage ratio (b) ¼ 0.2e0.5 and Prandtl
15 September 2014
number (Pr) ¼ 1e50. Total drag coefficient and its individual components have been analyzed as a
Accepted 23 September 2014
Available online 21 October 2014
function of Re, b, g and n. The overall drag coefficient was found to increase with blockage and behavior
of fluid, while it drops gradually for increasing Re. The asymmetrical configuration is seen to mitigate the
overall as well as individual drag coefficients. The surface heat transfer coefficient in the form of average
Keywords:
Dilatant fluids
Nusselt number and the Colburn heat transfer jh factor has been thoroughly discussed. Heat transfer rate
Asymmetrical cylinder is found to increase with increasing Reynolds number and wall confinement, while increasing dilatant
Blockage ratio behavior impedes the same. As expected, heat transfer results have been reconciled in a single curve by
Drag way of the Colburn jh factor. The jh factor is found higher for the symmetric case as compared to the
Nusselt number asymmetric case.
Colburn heat transfer factor © 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
Streamline and isotherm contours

1. Introduction experimental study involved perturbation of steady flow to record

The phenomena of flow and heat transfer around a circular
cylinder are a conventional problem in fluid mechanics, and the
problem also embodies an idealization of many practical flows.
Typical examples include flow around pipes in tubular heat ex-
changers, instrumentation probes, in hot-wire anemometry, flow
past dividers in polymer processing, piping installations, offshore
cylindrical drilling rigs and others. Extensive investigation in the
form of experimental, analytical and different numerical methods
has been carried out in the past for Newtonian fluids with respect
to various aspects of this flow configuration [1e3].
In literature, researchers give sufficient insight into the sym-
metric wall confinement effects around a circular cylinder on mo-
mentum and heat transfer. Chen et al. [4] experimentally studied
the formation of steady twin vortices behind the confined cylinder.
It has been found that the first appearance of the vortices is not
associated with a bifurcation of the full dynamical problem, but
probably bifurcation of a restricted kinematical problem. The
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 9410329605 (mobile), þ91 1332 285890
(office).
E-mail addresses: dhimuamit@rediffmail.com, amitdfch@iitr.ernet.in, amitdfch@
iitr.ac.in (A. Dhiman).
time dependent motions. For a fixed blockage (b ¼ d/H) in the range
0.1e0.95, the perturbations were found to die away at low Reynolds
number (Re), but above critical Reynolds number disturbance
settled to periodic motion. Anagnostopoulos et al. [5] studied the
same flow configuration at a constant Re of 106 and demonstrated
the effect of b on the wake characteristics for b ¼ 0.05, 0.15 and 0.25.
After that, Sahin and Owens [6] notably studied the wall effects on
flow characteristics for a range of blockage ratios 0.1 < b < 0.9, and
0 < Re  280, mainly focusing on stability and transition from
symmetric vortex shedding to asymmetric vortex shedding. Chak-
raborty et al. [7] also studied the wall effects, but for a wider range
of b (0.05e0.65) and for 0.1  Re  200. This study primarily
established the effect of Re and b on drag coefficient and recircu-
lation zones. Afterward, Ben Richou et al. [8] extended the scope of
study to a different range of b (0.01e0.6) and Re (104e1). They
calculated the drag force exerted on a circular cylinder due to
Poiseuille flow at low Re. They showed how pressure term prevails
over the viscosity term in the lubrication regime. Their findings can
be utilized in determining the translatory velocity at which a force-
free cylindrical body would move perpendicularly to its axis
midway between two planar walls in Poiseuille flow. Later, Bharti
et al. [9] studied the wall effects on drag coefficient for the varying
ranges of 1  Re  40, 0.2  n  1.9, 0.25  b  0.91 and concluded

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2014.09.015
1290-0729/© 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
Nomenclature
CD total drag coefficient
CDF friction drag coefficient
CDP pressure drag coefficient
CL lift coefficient
Cp heat capacity, J/kg K
d diameter of a cylinder, m
ex, ey unit vectors
f body force, N/m3
FD total drag force per unit length of the cylinder, N/m
FDF frictional component of total drag force per unit length
of cylinder, N/m
FDP pressure component of total drag force per unit length
of cylinder, N/m
FL lift force per unit length of the cylinder, N/m
h local heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K
h average heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K
H height of the channel, m
I2 second variant of the rate of the strain tensor, s2
jh Colburn heat transfer factor
k thermal conductivity, W/m K
Ld downstream length, m
Lu upstream length, m
m power-law consistency index, Pa sn
n flow behavior index
nx x-component of the direction vector
ny y-component of the direction vector
that, for a fixed value of the blockage ratio, the drag coefficient
increases as the shear-thickening tendency (n > 1) increases, and
vice-versa for shear-thinning behavior (n < 1). Subsequently, Bharti
et al. [10] illustrated the effects of Re (1e40), n (0.2e1.8) and b (0.25
and 0.625) on the heat transfer for varying Prandtl numbers
(1  Pr  100) in the steady regime. They reported that the heat
transfer is enhanced with increasing degree of shear-thinning
behavior. Similarly, decreasing the value of the blockage ratio
further enhances the heat transfer rate as the fluid behavior
changes from Newtonian to dilatant fluids. Hussam et al. [11]
numerically studied the effect of wall confinement (0.1e0.4) on
fluid flow and heat transfer from a heated circular cylinder to liquid
metal (Pr ¼ 0.022) flowing in a rectangular duct under the influence
of a strong magnetic field for Re ranging from 50 to 3000. They
demonstrated critical Reynolds number increasing with increasing
blockage ratio for the flow past a confined cylinder damped by a
transverse magnetic field. Recently, Bijjam and Dhiman [12]
investigated the symmetrical confinement for the momentum
transfer in the ranges 50  Re  150, 0.4  n  1.8 and b ¼ 0.25. The
shear-thinning behavior was reported to yield a decreasing value of
time-averaged drag coefficient than Newtonian fluid and the
behavior was opposite for dilatant fluids. The role of wall confine-
ment across a symmetrically confined cylinder between two par-
allel walls has also been examined by Rao et al. [13] for the Re range
40e140 for both shear-thinning and shear-thickening behaviors
(0.4  n  1.8). For shear-thickening fluids, the flow remains steady
for Re < 140 at b ¼ 0.5, while for lower blockage (b) ¼ 0.25, 0.34 this
transition is observed somewhere in the range 50  Re  100. The
similar configuration has been studied analytically for different
blockage ratios (0.2  b  0.8) by Khan et al. [14] to investigate its
effect on heat transfer. The modified von KarmanePohlhausen
method is incorporated to solve integral boundary layer mo-
mentum equation. Outside the boundary layer, potential flow exists
111
ns direction vector normal to the surface of the cylinder
NuL local Nusselt number
Nu average Nusselt number
p pressure, Pa
Pr Prandtl number
Re Reynolds number
T temperature, K
Tw temperature at the surface of the cylinder, K
T∞ temperature at the channel inlet, K
Uavg average velocity of the fluid at inlet, m/s
Ux x-component of the velocity, m/s
Uy y-component of the velocity, m/s
x stream-wise coordinate, m
y transverse coordinate, m
Greek symbols
b blockage ratio (¼d/H)
D minimum distance from the surface of the cylinder to
the nearest wall, m
g gap ratio
h viscosity, Pa s
q angular displacement from the front stagnation (q ¼ 0),
degrees
r density of the fluid, kg/m3
s stress tensor
t shear stress, Pa
tx, ty x- and y-components of the shear stress, Pa
ε strain tensor
and the velocity is obtained by the method of images. They further
extended their work into non-Newtonian fluids [15]. They found
that shear-thinning fluids offer less skin friction and higher heat
transfer coefficients than shear-thickening fluids. Unlike above
studies, for Newtonian fluids at b ¼ 0.66, Semin et al. [16] con-
ducted experimental and numerical analysis on a tethered cylinder
for explaining the stability studies. They have found a new regime
(characteristic of a blockage effect) called confined induced vibra-
tion (CIV) which is visible prior to the regime, vertex induced vi-
bration (VIV). The onset of this new regime has been described
using a Von der Pol model in terms of a supercritical Hopf bifur-
cation depicting the free oscillations. Subsequently, Fani and Gal-
laire [17] worked on the similar conditions at different confinement
regions. They reported a CIV periodic unstable mode at higher
blockage ratios but a steady diverging instability at a moderate
confinement region.
The next phase of investigation after symmetrical confine-
ment is devoted to analysis of flow and heat transfer over
asymmetric positioning of a circular cylinder in the confined
channel. Further, the kinematic flow behavior of the power-law
fluids across an asymmetrically confined circular cylinder be-
tween two rectilinear parallel walls is different from that of its
symmetrical orientation due to the change of interaction be-
tween the wall boundary layer and the wake at the rear part of
the obstacle. In this field of research, Zovatto and Pedrizzetti [18]
demonstrated the effects of placement of a cylinder in a plane
channel on the pattern of vortex shedding and showed that the
interaction between the cylinder wake and the wall boundary
layer results in delay in the onset of vortex shedding when cyl-
inder is placed closer to one wall. The transition from a steady
flow to periodic vortex shedding regime has been analyzed for
Re  1600. They also calculated lift and drag coefficients for a
range of gap parameter (D/d) between 0 and 2; whereas, b was
112 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
kept fixed at 0.2. Later, Mettu et al. [19] studied the flow behavior
of Newtonian fluids for combined effect of blockage and asym-
metrical positioning of a cylinder within the channel. The above
study is based on the belief that two-dimensional (2-D) kine-
matics can be considered up to Re ¼ 500 in the case of asym-
metric orientation of the cylinder. Reason being, enhanced
stability of the wake owing to dissimilar interaction between
wall boundary layer and wake, thereby delaying the vortex
shedding phenomena as the circular cylinder approaches one
particular wall. Nirmalkar and Chhabra [20] extended their study
to shear-thinning fluids (0.3  n  1) for 0.1  Re  100,
1  Pr  100, 0.2  b  0.4 and 0.25  g  1. They reported that
increase in asymmetry caused deteriorating effect on heat
transfer due to the ineffective recirculation mechanism and high
apparent viscosity of shear layers above of the cylinder, but this
effect was suppressed and the enhancement in heat transfer was
achieved as shear-thinning behavior increases. Recently, Hussam
and Sheard [21] studied Re, b and gap ratio effects on the heat
transfer phenomenon, when a circular cylinder placed in a
channel with an electrically conductive fluid, and the heat
transfer takes place from the channel walls to the fluid. They
have considered comparatively high Re (100e3000) and
b ranging from 0.1 to 0.4 and reported an optimum position (gap
ratio) at which, it enhances about 50% of heat transfer as
compared to the symmetric position of the cylinder.
Our motivations to pursue the present analysis are one; the
literature is devoid of knowledge about momentum and heat
transfer behavior for shear-thickening or dilatant fluids for a
confined circular cylinder in a plane channel. Though shear-
thickening fluids are comparatively less ubiquitous than shear-
thinning fluids, it is important to analyze the physics of their flow
and heat transfer. The dilatant behavior (i.e., increase of viscosity by
increasing shear rate) present in mono-dispersion and poly-
dispersion concentrated solutions which are usually processed in
food, polymer and ceramic units at low Reynolds numbers [22e27].
Second, in industrial applications due to space or design consid-
erations it is not always possible to have cylindrical structures in
the center stage. Due to this, we have interested to know how the
asymmetric position effects the flow behavior change from New-
tonian to shear-thickening fluids. Similarly, it is essential to know
how this positioning of the cylinder effects drag and heat transfer
around the circular cylinder compared to symmetrical positioning
of the cylinder. This clearly justifies the exploration of this area of
research. In view of above practical significance, this work is
devoted to study the momentum and heat transfer phenomena
from an asymmetrically confined circular cylinder at low Reynolds
numbers range, 1  Re  40; flow behavior index, 1  n  1.8;
blockage ratio, 0.2  b  0.5; gap ratio, 0.375  g  1 for Prandtl
numbers (Pr) ¼ 1 and 50.
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of a channel confined flow over a circular cylinder in
the asymmetric configuration.
2. Problem description
The present flow system is approximated by considering the 2-
D, incompressible, Poiseuille flow of power-law fluids over an
infinitely long cylinder (of diameter d) confined asymmetrically by
two parallel plane solid adiabatic walls, as shown schematically in
Fig. 1. The position of the cylinder in the channel is denoted by the
gap ratio (g), which is defined here as D/(H/2  d/2). The value of g
is equal to 1 when the cylinder is placed symmetrically between the
plane walls, and 0 when it touches one of the walls. The cylinder is
located at 10d and 40d from inlet and outlet, respectively, which are
sufficient to obtain domain independent results [9,12,13,19,20,28].
As the length of the cylinder in the neutral direction is assumed to
be infinitely long, end effects are insignificant, thereby implies that
there is no flow in the neutral direction and that no flow variables
depend upon z-coordinate. This statement can be justified as,
though three-dimensional wake instabilities can disturb 2-D flows,
they generally occur at much higher Reynolds number (Re  180)
compared to here [29]. Though observation is made for Newtonian
unbounded flow conditions, it validates the present analysis at low
Reynolds numbers (Re ¼ 1e40) from literature considering shear-
thickening fluids and wall effects [6,9,10,19,28]. The oncoming
fluid at temperature T∞ exchanges energy with the isothermal
cylinder whose surface is maintained at a constant temperature
Tw (>T∞). The temperature difference between the surface of the
cylinder and the surrounding streaming liquid DT (¼Tw  T∞) is
kept low (z2 K) so that appreciable variation of the thermo-
physical properties of the fluid (notably density, viscosity, power-
law parameters and heat capacity) with temperature could be
neglected. Thus, the thermo-physical properties of the streaming
liquid are assumed to be independent of the temperature;
furthermore, the viscous dissipation effects are also assumed to be
negligible as Brinkman number is assumed to be very small. At
constant transport properties, these two assumptions lead to the
decoupling of the thermal energy equation from the momentum
equation, but at the same time they also confine the applicability of
the present model to the situations where the temperature differ-
ence is not too significant and for moderate viscosity and/or
shearing rates.
The governing equations for this flow system are written as
follows [23,30]:
Continuity equation : V$U ¼ 0 (1)
Momentum equation : rðU$VU  f Þ  V$s ¼ 0 (2)
Thermal energy equation : rCp ðU$VTÞ  kV2 T ¼ 0 (3)
where r, U, f, T, s are density, velocity (Ux and Uy components in
Cartesian coordinates), body force, fluid temperature and stress
tensor, respectively. The stress tensor (s), which is the sum of the
isotropic pressure (p) and the deviatoric stress tensor (t), is given as
s ¼ pI þ t.
The rheological equation of state for incompressible fluids is
given by:
t ¼ 2hε ðUÞ
where the components of the rate of strain tensor ε(U), are given
by:
ðVUÞ þ ðVUÞT
εðUÞ ¼
2
For a power-law fluid, the viscosity (h) is given by:
 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127 113

 ðn1Þ
I 2
FD
h¼m 2 CD ¼ ¼ CDF þ CDP
2 ð1=2ÞrUavg
2 d

where I2 is the second invariant of the rate of strain tensor, which is The individual drag coefficients (CDF and CDP) are calculated by
given as I2 ¼ 2ðε2xx þ ε2yy þ ε2xy þ ε2yx Þ. The components of the rate of using the following definitions:
strain tensor are related to the velocity components in Cartesian
coordinates by the following relationships: FDP FDF
CDP ¼ and CDF ¼

 ð1=2ÞrUavg
2 d ð1=2ÞrUavg
2 d
vUx vUy 1 vUx vUy
εxx ¼ ; εyy ¼ and εxy ¼ εyx ¼ þ :
vx vy 2 vy vx  The lift force exerted on the bluff body arises due to the asym-
The appropriate boundary conditions for this flow system can be metrical orientation of the cylinder. Each wall exerts a repulsive
written as follows (Fig. 1): force on the cylinder; symmetry nullifies the net lift, while
Inlet boundary at AD: The power-law fluid is assumed to enter asymmetry induces a net positive lift in the y-direction (due to
the inlet plane with a fully developed velocity profile and at the free greater effect of lower wall in the present case, for instance). The
stream temperature (T∞) [9], lift coefficient (CL) is a direct measure of this force even if the
flow is steady and is calculated by using the following definition.

 "
  #
2n þ 1 
 2y ðnþ1Þ=n
Ux ¼ Uavg 1  1   ð0  y  HÞ; FL
nþ1 H CL ¼
ð1=2ÞrUavg
2 d
Uy ¼ 0 and T ¼ T∞
(4)  The surface averaged Nusselt number ðNu ¼ hd=kÞ is calculated as:
Outflow boundary at BC: The zero diffusion flux condition for all
variables is implemented at the outlet boundary. This implies that Z2p
1
the conditions of the out flow plane are extrapolated from within the Nu ¼ NuL dq
2p
domain and have no impact on the upstream flow. The extrapolation 0
procedure used by Ansys updates the outflow velocity and pressure
in a manner that is consistent with the fully developed flow where the local Nusselt number (NuL) on the surface of the cylinder
assumption, when there is no area change at the outflow boundary. and the unit vector normal to the surface of the cylinder (ns) are
The homogeneous Neumann condition is given as: evaluated as:

vUx vUy vT hd vT xex þ yey

¼ 0; ¼ 0 and ¼0 NuL ¼ ¼ and ns ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ¼ nx ex þ ny ey
vx vx vx k vns x2 þ y 2
Walls AB and CD: The usual no-slip condition is applied at the
adiabatic confining walls, i.e., where ex and ey are the x- and y-components of the unit vector,
respectively.
vT The average Nusselt number can be used in process engineering
Ux ¼ 0; Uy ¼ 0 and ¼0 design calculations to estimate the heat transfer rate from an
vy
isothermal cylinder. A dimensional analysis of the field equations
On the circular cylinder surface: At the surface of the cylinder, no- and the boundary conditions suggest the average Nusselt number
slip boundary condition is applied and the cylinder is at a constant to be a function of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers, power-law in-
temperature of Tw, dex, gap ratio and blockage ratio.

Ux ¼ 0; Uy ¼ 0 and T ¼ Tw
3. Numerical methodology
The numerical computations have been carried out in the full
domain, because of the asymmetric placement of the cylinder in a This numerical study has been carried out using a finite volume
channel over the range of Re, Pr, g and n used in this work. The method based commercial package Ansys Fluent. In this work, the
numerical solution of governing equations (Eqs. (1)e(3)) in unstructured quadrilateral cells of non-uniform grid spacing were
conjunction with the above-noted boundary conditions yields the generated using the commercial grid module, Gambit. A two-
primitive variables such as velocity (Ux and Uy), pressure (p) and dimensional, laminar, segregated solver was used to solve the
temperature (T) fields. incompressible flow on the collocated grid arrangement. Constant-
Some of the commonly used terms in this work and their defi- density and non-Newtonian viscosity models were used. The
nitions are as follows: quadratic upwind differencing scheme (QUICK) has been used to
discretize the convective terms in momentum and thermal energy
 Reynolds (Re) and Prandtl (Pr) numbers for non-Newtonian equations. The semi-implicit method for the pressure linked
power-law fluids are defined here as: equations (SIMPLE) scheme was used for solving the pressur-
eevelocity decoupling. The fully developed velocity profile for an

 incompressible power-law fluid has been incorporated at the inlet
rdn Uavg
2n C p m Uavg n1
Re ¼ and Pr ¼ of the channel by “user defined functions” available in Ansys. Ansys
m k d solves the system of algebraic equations using the Gauss-Siedel
point-by-point iterative method in conjunction with the algebraic
 Total drag coefficient (CD), which is the sum of friction (CDF) and multi-grid (AMG) method. The AMG scheme can greatly reduce the
pressure (CDP) components, is defined as: number of iterations and thus, CPU time required to obtain a
114 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
converged solution, particularly when the model contains a large
number of control volumes. The stabilization method BCGSTAB was
also used to further increase the efficiency of the solver. The ab-
solute residuals of all equations are converged below 1010. A
representative time history of residuals is shown in Fig. 2 for
Re ¼ 40, n ¼ 1.8, b ¼ 0.2, g ¼ 1 and Pr ¼ 1. The unsteady simulations
were also carried out at the extreme values of Reynolds number,
power-law index for all the values of gap ratio, blockage ratio and
Prandtl number studied in this study to ensure the true solutions
were steady-state in the regime under investigation.
4. Results and discussion
The effects of Re, n, g, b and Pr have been studied on the forced
flow and heat transfer characteristics (flow and thermal patterns,
engineering parameters such as drag and Nusselt number) around a
confined symmetric/asymmetric cylinder in a channel. The entire
ranges of dimensionless control parameters covered are Re ¼ 1, 5,
10, 20, 30, 40; n ¼ 1, 1.4, 1.8 (thereby covering both Newtonian
(n ¼ 1) and dilatant (n > 1) behaviors); Pr ¼ 1 and 50 at two values
of gap ratios of 0.375 and 1. To study the wall confinement effect,
blockage ratio has been varied from 0.5 to 0.2.
Based on our recent study [12] and others [9,13,19,20,28], the
present computations have been carried out using upstream and
downstream domain lengths of Lu ¼ 10d and Ld ¼ 40d, respectively.
Also, domain independence studies have been performed to choose
the appropriate values of upstream and downstream distances for
the different wall confinements. These dimensions are so chosen
that they frame a domain, which computes free from domain ef-
fects and at the same time does not consume excessive computa-
tion time. The upstream length was varied from 8d to 10d and then
to 15d for the greatest value of the wall confinement of 0.5 utilized.
The effect of Lu was studied at Re ¼ 40, Pr ¼ 50, g ¼ 0.375 and
n ¼ 1.8, and the results have been tabulated in Table 2. It has been
determined that Lu ¼ 10d provides the best balance between
computational time and domain sensitivity. The maximum relative
differences in CD and Nu are found to be only about 0.7%. Further,
the downstream length has been set to 40d to eliminate domain
effects at the low values of Re investigated here [9,12,13,19,20,28].
Owing to the no-slip condition employed both on the cylinder
and the channel walls; there exist sharp velocity gradients in the
vicinity of these walls. Hence, to capture the flow and temperature
Fig. 2. Convergence history at Re ¼ 40, n ¼ 1.8, b ¼ 0.2, g ¼ 1 and Pr ¼ 1.
fields effectively, the grid is very fine in the wall proximity. Fig. 3
shows the computational grid for the asymmetric placement of
the cylinder for b ¼ 0.5. The grid independence test has been done
using three non-uniform unstructured grids (symbolically repre-
sented as G1, G2, and G3) for the extreme values of Reynolds number
(Re) ¼ 40 and power-law index (n) ¼ 1.8 for the computational
domain employed for the asymmetrical orientation. Table 1 shows
the grid sensitivity analysis for the greatest blockage (b ¼ 0.5) at
Re ¼ 40, Pr ¼ 50, g ¼ 0.375, n ¼ 1.8 by incorporating the relative
differences in drag coefficient and Nusselt number. Based on the
results obtained, the grid G2 is found to be the most efficient
considering the two opposing factors of increased accuracy coupled
with unnecessarily large computing time incurred. The grid sizes of
38,040 cells and 43,700 cells for b ¼ 0.5, 48,400 cells and 63,200 cells
for b ¼ 0.34, 63,920 cells and 65,605 cells for b ¼ 0.2 are found
adequate for symmetric and asymmetric cases, respectively. The
maximum relative differences in CD and Nu are found only
approximately 0.8%.
However, before proceeding with new results, necessary to first
validate the present solution procedure with benchmarked results
available in the literature, to ascertain the precision and consis-
tency of the results presented herein for the asymmetrically
confined cylinder flow in a channel.
4.1. Benchmarking of results
Table 3 depicts the comparison of drag values at blockage
(b) ¼ 0.2 between the present results and the values of Zovatto and
Pedrizzetti [18] as benchmarked for both symmetrical (g ¼ 1) and
asymmetrical (g ¼ 0.375) settings of a cylinder. The latter has used
the finite element method to solve NaviereStokes equations with
the number of triangular elements of 10,509 for a symmetric ge-
ometry and of 17,728 elements for an asymmetric geometry. On the
other hand, to capture Newtonian flow around an asymmetric
cylinder, Mettu et al. [19] have used a coarser grid size of 90  60
cells. Whereas the optimized grid utilized in the present work is
much finer than the above two studies consisting of 63,920
quadratic cells for symmetric geometry and of 65,605 cells for
asymmetric geometry. The tabulated results in Table 3 show that
the maximum difference between present and literature values is
about 1% for the symmetric case and less than 1.5% for the asym-
metric case.
 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127 115

Table 1
Grid independence study at Re ¼ 40, Pr ¼ 50, n ¼ 1.8, g ¼ 0.375 and b ¼ 0.5.

S. no. Grid Number Number of points Nusselt Drag

of cells on cylinder number, Nu coefficient, CD

1 G1 38,357 360 16.9458 25.4008

2 G2 43,700 400 16.8256 25.3648
3 G3 45,097 440 16.9445 25.4035

On the other hand, Table 4 compares the values of total drag

coefficients for Newtonian fluids at b ¼ 0.5 with the results of Sahin
and Owens [6]. On comparison, it validates the behavior observed
by Sahin and Owens [6] and relation (CD a 1/Re) on which the drag
coefficient varies with Reynolds number due to wall effects. Table 5
also compares the total drag values for the non-Newtonian fluids
for the symmetric condition at a blockage ratio of 0.25. Here, the
present results are compared with previously available values of
Nejat et al. [28] and Bharti et al. [9] at different power-law indices.
Nejat et al. [28] used a lattice Boltzmann method to solve the
momentum equations, while Bharti et al. [9] have used the finite
volume based solver, Fluent. The comparison shows a close corre-
Fig. 3. The representation of the two-dimensional non-uniform computational grid for
spondence between the present results and those in literature the asymmetric orientation.
[9,28]. Furthermore, extensive benchmarking of the present nu-
merical methodology for non-Newtonian fluids in both confined
and unconfined domains can be found in our recent study [12]. This wall boundaries, thickness of the boundary layer and interaction
validates the numerical solution procedure used in this study and between the cylinder wake to the wall vorticity causes further delay
thereby enhances the reliability of the present results. in wake formation as increasing shear-thickening behavior. Thus, it
can be inferred that wake formation is delayed from Newtonian to
4.2. Flow patterns dilatant fluids. The confining walls are reported to exert a stabi-
lizing effect on the flow pattern.
The flow behavior can be analyzed by streamline contours in the When considering the wake regions, there are two different
vicinity of the cylinder. The variations emanate from symmetric kinds of wakes that can be observed in the diagrams (Figs. 4e6),
and asymmetric orientations of the cylinder within the channel, for instance one recirculation zone attached to the lower rear
coupled with variation in Reynolds number, power-law index and surface of the cylinder at the rear bottom of the cylinder and
blockage ratio. However, Figs. 4e6 present the streamline contours another detached recirculation zone on the near wall
for different values of power-law index (1, 1.4, 1.8) for Re ¼ 1, 20, 40
for the asymmetric configuration. In the case of shear-thickening
fluid flow (n > 1) in a channel, it can be observed that for the Table 3
Comparison of present drag results with literature values of Ref. [18] in the steady
symmetrically oriented cylinder [9,12,13], wake formation starts at
Newtonian flow regime at b ¼ 0.2 for different values of Re and g.
Re ¼ 20, where wakes are found to be symmetrical to the axis of the
cylinder. Similar behavior is observed for Newtonian fluids (n ¼ 1) Re g¼1 g ¼ 0.375
[9,11e13,19,20], except that wake formation starts at a lower value Zovatto and Present Zovatto and Present
of Re, i.e., at Re ¼ 10. As expected, the wake region is found to in- Pedrizzetti [18] work Pedrizzetti [18] work
crease with increasing Reynolds number (1e40) at all values of n, 20 4.75 4.7321 3.7 3.6956
thereby implying higher fluid inertia which restricts it from nego- 30 3.9 3.8921 3.0 3.0184
tiating the shape of the obstacle and hence separating the flow. It 40 3.4 3.4359 2.6 2.6379

can be observed that for a constant value of Re the wake region

decreases when increasing the power-law index. Also, the wake is
reported to be longer in shear-thinning fluids (n < 1) than that Table 4
Comparison of present drag results with literature values of Ref. [6] in the steady
encountered in Newtonian fluids [20]. There is a small wake region
Newtonian flow regime at b ¼ 0.5 for different values of Re and at g ¼ 1.
for n ¼ 1.8, even at Re ¼ 40 (Fig. 6c). There is also no wake formation
for Re ranging from 1 to 5 for both Newtonian and shear-thickening Re ¼ 1 Re ¼ 5 Re ¼ 10 Re ¼ 20

fluids. This can be explained as, when the fluid passes through the Sahin and Owens [6] 265.23 53.65 27.62 15.07
annular region its local acceleration (Re) increases thereby Present work 264.86 53.46 27.44 14.95
increasing its shear rate. The increase in shear rate makes the
apparent viscosity of shear-thickening fluids to increase as
increasing its index (n) value. In addition, viscous dissipation at the Table 5
Comparison of present drag results with literature values [9,28] in the steady flow
regime for Re ¼ 40, b ¼ 0.25 and g ¼ 1 at different values of n.
Table 2
Upstream independence study at Re ¼ 40, Pr ¼ 50, n ¼ 1.8, g ¼ 0.375 and b ¼ 0.5. n Nejat et al. [28] Bharti et al. [9] Present work

0.4 2.15 2.1268 2.1139

S. no. Lu/d Grid size Nusselt number, Nu Drag coefficient, CD
0.6 2.65 2.6404 2.6420
1 8 40,503 16.9455 25.4031 1 3.85 3.8327 3.8338
2 10 43,700 16.8256 25.3648 1.4 5.2 5.1766 5.1802
3 15 45,127 16.9439 24.3315 1.6 5.9 5.9060 5.9033
116 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127

Fig. 4. Streamline contours for n ¼ 1 and g ¼ 0.375 (a) Re ¼ 1, (b) Re ¼ 20, (c) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.2, (d) Re ¼ 1, (e) Re ¼ 20, (f) Re ¼ 40, for b ¼ 0.34 and (g) Re ¼ 1, (h) Re ¼ 20, (i)
Re ¼ 40, for b ¼ 0.5.

downstream of the cylinder. This phenomenon is similar to flow
around bluff rings studied by Sheard et al. [31,32]. They observed
these similar wakes at low aspect ratio of 1.4 (where aspect ratio
is the ratio of mean ring diameter to cross-section diameter) at
Re ¼ 25 for Newtonian fluids. When comparing our results at
n ¼ 1 for asymmetric configuration to that of torus flows, some
similarities can be found. At Re ¼ 1, it is clearly observed that
both stagnation points of pressure on the cylinder are pointed
towards the bottom cross-section. This effect is augmented for
higher blockage ratios due to high viscous forces induced by
walls; though no flow separation is observed at this stage. At
Re ¼ 20, due to high inertial forces the flow field at the bottom of
the cylinder radially diverges by shifting rear stagnation point
upwards. Due to this, the generated adverse pressure gradient
creates a low pressure zone below the axis near the wall. The
physics of the recirculation zone created at this low pressure
region is analogous to that of bubble formation in the flow
behind rings. In both cases, this bubble size increases with an
increase in Re. Another similarity between the flow around a
torus and asymmetric cylinder can be observed by considering
 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127 117

Fig. 5. Streamline contours for n ¼ 1.4 and g ¼ 0.375 (a) Re ¼ 1, (b) Re ¼ 20, (c) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.2, (d) Re ¼ 1, (e) Re ¼ 20, (f) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.34 and (g) Re ¼ 1, (h) Re ¼ 20, (i)
Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.5.

the formation of a small recirculation zone near the rear bottom
of the cylinder on increase in Reynolds number further (at
Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.2), due to the formation of an additional
stagnation point at the rear bottom of the cylinder.
The commonalities of these two different kinds of wake
formation are not only found in the flow around bluff rings.
This kind of analogous flows has been visible in flow through
180 sharp bends [33] and in flow over backward-facing step
[34,35]. In laminar flow around a 180 bend at opening ratios
(it is the ratio of bend opening to the entrance width) greater
than 0.3, the recirculation region near the outlet corner is
similar to the wake formation at the wall in Figs. 4e6. Simi-
larly, flow behind a backward-facing step exhibits a common
feature of diversion of streamlines sticking to the wall
boundary layer on increase of Reynolds number. This phe-
nomenon creates a low pressure inflection point causing an
adverse pressure gradient causing the flow to return back to
form a recirculation region. The size of these wakes formed
near to the wall, in all cases, is observed to be increased with
increase in Re in the laminar regime.
118 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127

Fig. 6. Streamline contours for n ¼ 1.8 and g ¼ 0.375 (a) Re ¼ 1, (b) Re ¼ 20, (c) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.2, (d) Re ¼ 1, (e) Re ¼ 20, (f) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.34 and (g) Re ¼ 1, (h) Re ¼ 20, (i)
Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.5.

When considering the shear-thickening effect, as the power-law
index increases, the wake formation at both regions, including at
the rear of the circular cylinder and at the wall boundary layer, is
apparently delayed. This can be attributed to apparent high viscous
forces of the shear-thickening fluids dampening the streamlines
divergence from the regular pathway thereby avoiding pressure
formation gradients. One attribute observed here that as the shear-
thickening nature increases the wake near the wall approaches
towards the circular cylinder and on the other hand irrespective of
the nature of fluid the wake size increases with increasing Reynolds
number. This can be explained as the Reynolds number increases
the high velocity streamlines augmenting the pressure gradients at
the wall boundary layer thereby lengthening size of the wake.
4.3. Thermal patterns
To study heat transfer characteristics between the flowing fluid
and the heated bluff body, temperature profiles have to be exam-
ined closely. For a symmetric orientation of a cylinder, at constant
values of Prandtl number and power-law index, the isotherm
 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
contours start narrowing down as Reynolds number increases
[10,20]. This has also been observed for all the cases studied here.
Similarly, as the Prandtl number is increased from Pr ¼ 1 to 50, for
Newtonian and dilatant fluids and for all Re studied, the thermal
contours narrow down along the downstream of the channel as a
result of the thinning of thermal boundary layer, and hence higher
heat transfer rate is achieved (Figs. 7e10). There is slight turning of
isotherm contours for Re  30 for n ¼ 1.4 and there is no turning for
n ¼ 1.8 (Figs. 9 and 10). This effect is seen to aggravate with increase
in Prandtl number. The asymmetrical orientation of the cylinder
brings in certain complex characteristic features of isotherms. It can
be observed that for Pr ¼ 1, the direction of the isotherm pattern
changes from facing the lower wall surface to the downstream
direction as we move to higher Re (Re  1), for both Newtonian and
shear-thickening fluids (Figs. 7 and 9). This arises due to the higher
mass flow rate at increasing Re. As we move to Pr ¼ 50, the isotherm
contours are concentrated more in the downstream region of the
cylinder and are seemingly more restricted for higher Re values
(Re > 10) (Figs. 8 and 10). This can be attributed to the decay of
temperature field as a result of thinning of thermal boundary layer
with increase in Pr. It would be important to note that due to the
Fig. 7. Thermal contours for n ¼ 1, Pr ¼ 1 and g ¼ 0.375 (a) Re ¼ 1, (b) Re ¼ 20, (c) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.2, (d) Re ¼ 1, (e) Re ¼ 20, (f) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.34, (g) Re ¼ 1, (h) Re ¼ 20, (i) Re ¼ 40
for b ¼ 0.5.
119
low rate of thermal diffusivity relative to molecular diffusivity at
Pr ¼ 50, the hot fluid tightly follows the departing streamline
behind the cylinder. Isotherms are also inclined towards the lower
channel wall at these conditions (for n  1).
4.4. Friction drag coefficient
It is notable from Fig. 11aec that blockage parameter (b) lays a
great impact on friction drag coefficient (CDF) as the wall confine-
ment effect increases (increasing b from 0.2 to 0.5). This is attrib-
uted to the increased shear stress on the surface of the cylinder as it
approaches a wall, for both gap ratios and at a particular flow
behavior index. The symmetrical orientation (g ¼ 1) of the circular
cylinder experiences more CDF than its counterpart (g ¼ 0.375) for
all Reynolds numbers and at similar conditions. This can be
explained as, when the circular cylinder approaches one of the
walls (g ¼ 0.375), the gap between cylinder and its adjacent wall is
filled with viscous boundary layer which offers great resistance to
the upcoming liquid, and this in turn causes a greater proportion of
the fluid to flow above the cylinder. Therefore, the drag force due to
skin friction caused by the fluid flow on the cylinder is less
120 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
Fig. 8. Thermal contours for n ¼ 1, Pr ¼ 50 and g ¼ 0.375 (a) Re ¼ 1, (b) Re ¼ 20, (c) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.2, (d) Re ¼ 1, (e) Re ¼ 20, (f) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.34, (g) Re ¼ 1, (h) Re ¼ 20, (i)
Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.5.
compared to the symmetrically placed cylinder. Also, the blockage
effect is more prominent on CDF as shear-thickening nature in-
creases, thereby enhancing wall effects. Hence, CDF varies in direct
proportion with power-law index, symmetry in orientation and
blockage ratio, while it varies inversely with Reynolds number.
4.5. Pressure drag coefficient
It can also be observed from Fig. 11aec that the wall confine-
ment has a significant role on pressure drag coefficient (CDP) similar
to as observed in CDF. As the blockage percentage increases
(increasing b from 0.2 to 0.5) the CDP also increases for both con-
figurations (g ¼ 1 and 0.375) at all values of n considered. An in-
crease in power-law index causes CDP to rise, but this influence
gradually diminishes with increasing Re. With increasing blockage,
CDP value rises with increase in Re. Again, the effect of n on CDP
decreases as the wall confinement decreases and more of wall ef-
fects come into play. The symmetrical orientation (g ¼ 1) of the
circular cylinder exhibits higher values of CDP than the asymmet-
rical orientation (g ¼ 0.375). This phenomenon can be explained as
the cylinder approaches the wall its wake decreases due to wall
repulsive forces and on the other side the wake increases this in
turn is responsible for uneven pressure distribution over the cyl-
inder, this difference can be observed much higher at low Reynolds
numbers (Re  5) and attenuates the same slowly as Reynolds
number increases. On the other hand, the wall effects become more
significant on the CDP value as the shear-thickening effect increases.
It is evident from the figure that for all blockage ratios the CDP
values increase with flow behavior index (shear-thickening nature).
This observation is further strengthened by the findings of Nir-
malkar and Chhabra [20]. They reported pressure drag coefficient to
increase as shear-thinning behavior transits to Newtonian behavior.
Similarly, at a fixed confinement ratio, the symmetrical orientation
(g ¼ 1) of the cylinder gives higher values of CDP compared to its
counterpart (g ¼ 0.375), and this difference is aggravated at low
Reynolds numbers (Re  5), for all n values investigated here.
 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
Fig. 9. Thermal contours for n ¼ 1.8, Pr ¼ 1 and g ¼ 0.375 (a) Re ¼ 1, (b) Re ¼ 20, (c) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.2, (d) Re ¼ 1, (e) Re ¼ 20, (f) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.34, (g) Re ¼ 1, (h) Re ¼ 20, (i)
Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.5.
4.6. Drag ratio CDP/CDF
To understand the physics of the problem considered, it is not
only required to study the individual drag coefficients, but also to
understand the relative contributions of friction and pressure drag
components. Fig. 11aec depicts the relative contribution of pres-
sure and friction drag coefficients (i.e. CDP/CDF) on the blockage
effects at different values of flow behavior indices, gap ratios and
Reynolds numbers. For a particular flow behavior, the ratio of
pressure drag to friction drag increases with blockage ratio for the
entire range of Re covered in this study. This behavior is found to
derogate with increasing shear-thickening nature of fluid flow
owing to the relative increase in fluid viscosity, hence total drag
deriving primarily from friction drag. As expected, this is in contrast
with increasing drag ratio for shear-thinning fluids [20]. This
further suggests a decreasing impact of n as flow transits from
Newtonian to shear-thinning nature. The orientation of cylinder
(symmetric g ¼ 1/asymmetric g ¼ 0.375) is seen to have a small
121
effect on CDP/CDF, at low confinement ratio (b ¼ 0.2). This is due to
the wall effects having a minimal influence at low blockage ratios.
Contrary to this, as we increase the confinement ratio the nature of
contribution of these two drag coefficients differs greatly for the
orientation changes, i.e. the pressure drag contribution has a major
role compared to friction drag for the asymmetric orientation
(g ¼ 0.375) compared with the symmetric orientation (g ¼ 1). The
same phenomenon is found to aggravate as Reynolds number in-
creases from 1 to 40. The relative influence of pressure drag forces
compared to friction drag forces decreases either approaching
symmetry of the cylinder (i.e. g ¼ 1) or increasing the shear-
thickening behavior of fluids.
4.7. Overall drag coefficient
The flow dynamics differ for an asymmetrically confined cylin-
der from a symmetric orientation owing to proximity of the sta-
tionary wall to the surface of the cylinder. This leads to a significant
122 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
Fig. 10. Thermal contours for n ¼ 1.8, Pr ¼ 50 and g ¼ 0.375 (a) Re ¼ 1, (b) Re ¼ 20, (c) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.2, (d) Re ¼ 1, (e) Re ¼ 20, (f) Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.34, (g) Re ¼ 1, (h) Re ¼ 20, (i)
Re ¼ 40 for b ¼ 0.5.
change in the value of total drag coefficient (CD). Fig. 12aec illus-
trates the effect of wall confinement and power-law index on the
total drag coefficient for both symmetrical and asymmetrical po-
sitions of the circular cylinder in the channel. The overall obser-
vation of total drag coefficient on the flow and geometrical
parameters (Re, b, n and g) of Fig. 12 has been presented in equation
(5) in the form of multi parameter power-law regression fit to
elucidate the effect of these parameters and for greater under-
standing of the effect of these parameters on flow behavior. For this
analysis, the Reynolds number range Re  10 has been considered
as the dependency on parameters is higher at lower Reynolds
numbers.
Kna bb
CD ¼
qRec gd
The values of exponents a, b, c and d on the respective param-
eters have been given in Table 6 at low Reynolds numbers (10). In
the above power-law expression, K is proportionality constant and
its value in this expression is 822.87. Similarly, q is an error
parameter and is a function of b and Re. The value of q has to be
calculated using equation (6)
q ðb; ReÞ ¼ xn2 þ yn þ z (6)
The coefficient values x, y and z at respective b and Re have been
presented in Table 7. The value of q takes into consideration non-
linearities associated in equation (5).
From equation (5) and Fig. 12, it is clear that Reynolds number
and gap ratio are inversely proportional, but power-law index and
blockage ratio are directly proportional to the drag coefficient.
When considering the impact of Reynolds number on drag coeffi-
cient in the unconfined cylinder, it is found to be inversely pro-
(5) portional with an exponent of around 0.56 [7,19] for Re  10. On the
other hand, in the confined situation, walls augmented dependency
on Reynolds number with an exponent value equal to nearly one
(CD a 1/Re) is evident from Table 6 and the results of Sahin and
Owens [6]. Considering the wall effects on drag coefficient at fixed
 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
Fig. 11. Effects of Reynolds number (Re), power-law index (n), blockage ratio (b) and gap ratio (g) on drag ratio (CDP/CDF).
Re, drag coefficient increases with increasing blockage ratio owing
to the sharpening of the velocity gradient and energy dissipation at
the confining walls. The effect is observed for both shear-thinning
[20] and shear-thickening fluids. The change in drag coefficient is
more prominent at low Re. This is attributed to thicker boundary
layer at low Re [19]. But the effect of b on it slowly decreases once Re
increases. From Table 6 and Fig. 12, it can be observed that the
confinement effect is more prominent in the symmetric position of
the cylinder than asymmetric position. Further, analyzing the effect
of shear-thickening behavior, at fixed Reynolds number and at
higher blockage ratios the impact of power-law index on drag is
dominant compared to all other parameters. However, at low
blockage ratios the dominating element for drag contribution is b.
In other words, it can be stated that for both orientations of the
cylinder at fixed Re, at higher blockages, shear-thickening phe-
nomenon has the major contribution of drag, conversely, at lower
blockage ratios wall effects play the major dominating factor. This
can be attributed to shear-thickening (high apparent viscosity)
nature, which enhances the wall effects thereby further sharpening
of velocity gradients and dissipation.
Furthermore, CD is found to vary inversely with g. It is found that
the total drag values are higher for g ¼ 1 compared to g ¼ 0.375 at a
fixed blockage ratio. This can be explained as both CDF and CDP have
a higher value for symmetric orientation than that of asymmetric
case and CD is derived from these two components. Overall, every
parameters of equation (5) at a given Reynolds number has higher
impact on drag at symmetrical position than asymmetric.
123
4.8. Lift coefficient
The flow being asymmetric about the mid plane for g ¼ 0.375,
incorporates the effect of asymmetric variation of normal and
tangential forces exerted on the surface of cylinder. Hence, a net lift
force is brought into effect by the increasing degree of asymmetry.
Fig. 13aec represents the dependence of lift coefficient (CL) on
different flow variables such as Reynolds number, blockage ratio and
power-law index. It is notable from the figures that lift coefficient
increases (positive dependency) as the blockage ratio increases from
0.2 to 0.5. This is attributed to the confinement of the walls, i.e.
repulsive force exerted by the walls. The repulsive force from the wall
tends to force the cylinder away from the wall and this repulsion
force increases as the wall proximity increases. Due to asymmetric
position of a cylinder in the channel, the unbalanced repulsive forces
on circular cylinder produce higher values of lift coefficients with
increasing blockage ratio. From the figure, it can be observed that as
the shear-thickening nature causes higher value of lift coefficient
when compared to Newtonian fluids. The effect is aggravated as
blockage ratio increases and in the same way attenuated as blockage
ratio decreases. This can be ascribed to the fact that shear-thickening
fluids intensify the wall effect of repulsion and this effect increases
with shear-thickening behavior. Shear-thinning fluids, on the other
hand, experience lesser lift than Newtonian/shear-thickening fluids
due to reduction in effective viscosity [20]. Further, lift coefficients
show a negative dependency on the Reynolds number, irrespective of
blockage ratio and flow behavior index. In the time-periodic regime,
124 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127

Fig. 12. Effects of Reynolds number (Re), power-law index (n), blockage ratio (b) and gap ratio (g) on total drag coefficient (CD).

the oscillations in CL are wiped away when cylinder is very close to
one of the confining walls as reported in Ref. [19].
4.9. Average Nusselt number
The combined effects of different controlling parameters such as
blockage ratio (b), gap ratio (g), flow behavior index (n), Reynolds
number (Re) and Prandtl number (Pr) on the average Nusselt
number (Nu) are discussed here. Fig. 14a and b shows the de-
pendency of the average Nusselt number on power-law index as a
function of Reynolds number at Pr ¼ 1 for g ¼ 1, 0.375 and
b ¼ 0.2e0.5. At small value of Reynolds number (Re ¼ 1, for
instance), the average Nusselt number is seen not to be significantly
Table 6
Parameter exponents of power-law model to calculate the total drag coefficient of
equation (5) for symmetric and asymmetric circular cylinder in a channel.
influenced by power-law index. This is due to the fact that in this
situation, advection contributes to heat transfer only slightly. As
Reynolds number is progressively increased, convection starts
playing an important role and hence this feature derives a strong
heat transfer dependency on power-law index. Heat transfer is
found to be more dependent on Re than Pr for shear-thinning fluids
[20]. It is notable from Fig. 14a and c that the symmetrically posi-
tioned circular cylinder achieves a stronger heat transfer coefficient
compared to the asymmetrical one, for all blockage ratios studied.
Similarly, overall observation elucidates that the surface Nusselt
number decreases as the shear-thickening effect increases
(increasing n) for all blockage ratios. Following an opposite trend-
line, increasing shear-thinning behavior increases Nu for all
blockage ratios [10,20]. When considering wall confinement, the
Table 7
Coefficients of equation (6) to calculate error parameter q.

Re b Symmetrical cylinder Asymmetrical cylinder Re b Symmetrical cylinder Asymmetrical cylinder

a b c d a b c d x y z x y z

1 0.2 0.8708 1.7749 1.097 1 0.3967 1.7373 1.056 0.5181 1 0.2 0.2114 0.588 0.5452 0.1066 0.2965 0.7379
0.34 1.9698 1.4879 0.34 0.67 1.8635 0.0391 0.5288 1.4706 0.2149
0.5 3.2773 2.7978 0.5 0.88 2.4483 0.6998 0.7658 2.1304 0.4897
5 0.2 0.7803 1.6103 0.4497 1.4825 5 0.2 0.1653 0.4597 0.6216 0.0727 0.2023 0.7985
0.34 1.9116 1.3353 0.34 0.7135 1.9847 0.0946 0.5384 1.4976 0.2011
0.5 3.2621 2.7239 0.5 0.8818 2.4534 0.7136 0.814 2.2647 0.5794
10 0.2 0.7433 1.4092 0.4951 1.3291 10 0.2 0.1103 0.3069 0.7191 0.0604 0.168 0.8309
0.34 1.79 1.1666 0.34 0.7524 2.0929 0.1569 0.4345 1.2085 0.3613
0.5 3.219 2.5426 0.5 0.9113 2.5355 0.7712 0.9366 2.6058 0.7897
 Fig. 13. Effects of Reynolds number (Re), power-law index (n), blockage ratio (b) on lift coefficient (CL) for g ¼ 0.375.

Fig. 14. Effects of Reynolds number (Re), power-law index (n), blockage ratio (b) and gap ratio (g) on average Nusselt number (Nu) at different values of Prandtl numbers (Pr).
126 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
average Nusselt number increases as the blockage ratio increases
from 0.2 to 0.5 for both symmetrical and asymmetrical cylinder
configurations, and is a reverse phenomenon at low Reynolds
number (Re ¼ 1). From the same figure, it can be observed that
increasing the wall confinement effect over powers the effect of
flow behavior index; for example, at b ¼ 0.2 the Nu value maintains
approximately a single point up to Re ¼ 5, for b ¼ 0.34 it is up to
Re ¼ 10, for b ¼ 0.5 it is up to Re ¼ 20 for both symmetrical and
asymmetrical positions of the circular cylinder.
On the other hand, Fig. 14c and d shows the effect of the above
specified control parameters on the average Nusselt number
comparatively at higher Prandtl number (Pr ¼ 50). The values of the
average Nusselt numbers are higher compared to the correspond-
ing values estimated at Pr ¼ 1. Nevertheless, as the blockage ratio
increases, the value of average Nusselt number also increases for
both symmetric and asymmetric positions of the circular cylinder
for all values of the Reynolds numbers. In contrast, the Nu values
estimated at Pr ¼ 1 and at low Reynolds numbers (Re ¼ 1) were
found to vary inversely with blockage ratio. The overpowering
nature of the wall confinement effect on the dilatant flow behavior,
as seen above for the Pr ¼ 1 case is, to a moderate extent reduced by
increasing the Prandtl number to Pr ¼ 50. Due to this, at b ¼ 0.2, Nu
value maintains approximately constant limited to low Re ¼ 1, for
b ¼ 0.34 it is up to Re ¼ 5 and for b ¼ 0.5 it is up to Re ¼ 10 for both
asymmetrical and symmetrical positioning of the circular cylinder
at Pr ¼ 1. While at a higher Pr ¼ 50, the effect is seen at a low value
of Re ¼ 1 for all blockage ratios and both the orientations.
Fig. 15. Effects of Reynolds number (Re), power-law index (n), blockage ratio (b) and gap ratio (g) on the jh factor at different values of Prandtl numbers (Pr).
Further insights are provided by the Colburn heat transfer factor
(jh), which is defined as jh ¼ Nu/(RePr1/3). The Colburn factor (jh)
characterizes the analogy between heat transfer and friction
developed by fluid flow. This finds application in the range of
Prandtl number investigated here. The significance of this param-
eter lies in the fact that it gives the opportunity of merging the
results for a range of values of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers into a
single curve. Further, this dimensionless number facilitates calcu-
lation of heat transfer coefficient or Nusselt number at intermediate
values of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers especially in the heat-
exchangers design [36]. Fig. 15aed shows the Colburn heat trans-
fer factor dependency on Reynolds numbers for three blockage
ratios (b ¼ 0.2, 0.34 and 0.5) for both symmetrical and asymmet-
rical positions of the circular cylinder at Pr ¼ 1 and 50. It can be
observed from the figure that results for liquids of different flow
behavior index (n ¼ 1, 1.4 and 1.8) collapse almost to a single curve
for a fixed blockage ratio at both gap ratios. The jh factor increases
with increasing blockage ratio for all Reynolds and Prandtl numbers
and decreases with increasing degree of asymmetry. However, at
Re ¼ 1, Pr ¼ 1 for both gap ratios, the opposite trend of the jh factor
is observed because the conduction effects are prominent at low
values of Re and Pr. Furthermore, it is quite clear that at Re ¼ 1,
Pr ¼ 1, jh ¼ Nu and hence the jh factor follows the same variation as
Nu. At higher values of Re and Pr, it can be observed by the present
numerical values that the jh factor varies inversely with Re. Simi-
larly, the jh factor is a monotonically decreasing function of Re for
shear-thinning behavior [10].
 S. Bijjam et al. / International Journal of Thermal Sciences 88 (2015) 110e127
5. Conclusions
Two-dimensional numerical analyses have been carried out for
momentum and heat transfer for an asymmetric cylinder in a plane
channel for shear-thickening power-law fluids. The Reynolds num-
ber is studied from 1 to 40 with varying values of n (1e1.8),
b (0.20.5), g (0.375e1) and Pr (1e50). In the preceding range of
conditions, the flow is found to be laminar and at steady state. The
present analysis enhanced the understanding of the engineering
parameters and the heat transfer characteristics with the help of flow
patterns. These flow patterns enabled to find the distinguished
feature of two wakes one at the bottom of the cylinder and another
detached recirculation zone on the near wall downstream of the
cylinder, this is not found in the symmetrically positioned circular
cylinder. Similarly, this paper identifies the similar kind of flow
behavior and wake regions occurred in other geometries and
compared the analogies. In addition, we have quantitatively pre-
sented the relationship between various flow parameters and
geometrical parameters in terms of multi parameter power-law
model using regression analysis. In future perspective, these kinds
of multi parametric models can also be developed for shear-thinning
fluids as well as for non-Newtonian fluids at higher Reynolds
numbers. This will enhance the deep understanding of the effects of
various control parameters on flow and thermal characteristics. It has
been found that at constant Pr and g, the average Nusselt number is
increasing with increasing Re. The values of average Nusselt numbers
are significantly increased when Pr is increased from 1 to 50. Also, the
effect on average Nusselt number due to an increase in Prandtl
number is much more prominent than due to placement of cylinder.
The heat transfer jh factor plots for different Re, Pr, g and n reconcile
into a single plot with the jh factor being higher for symmetric case as
compared to asymmetric case for the above range of settings.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the four anonymous reviewers
for their valuable and helpful comments on this work.
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