TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY

INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING
PULCHOWK CAMPUS

AN ASSIGNMENT REPORT
ON
Flow Characteristics Behind A Backward-Facing Step

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

Name: Praphul Mishra Assistant Professor Kamal Darlami
Roll no. : 076BAS027 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering, IOE Pulchowk Campus

Date: 18 August, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 3
OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................................. 4
i. ASSIGNED PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS ............................................................................ 5
RESULTS ....................................................................................................................................... 8
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 10
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 11

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Backward-facing step flow features ................................................................................ 3
Figure 2: Flow characteristics behind a BFS (adapted from Driver et al.) ..................................... 4
Figure 3: Flow geometry for backward-facing step ........................................................................ 5
Figure 4: Different types of meshing details................................................................................... 6
Figure 5: Meshed flow geometry .................................................................................................... 6
Figure 6: Mesh quality worksheet................................................................................................... 6
Figure 7: Boundary condition details .............................................................................................. 7
Figure 8: Console window .............................................................................................................. 7
Figure 9: Scaled Residuals .............................................................................................................. 8
Figure 10: Velocity contour for the BFS flow ................................................................................ 8
Figure 11: Pressure Contours for the BFS flow .............................................................................. 9
Figure 12: Streamlines showing back flow in the domain .............................................................. 9
Figure 13: reattachment point of the recirculation zone ............................................................... 10

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INTRODUCTION
The physics of separated flows, due to their instabilities, are very complex. In an attempt to
simplify these flow characteristics, researchers conducted experiments on various geometries,
which include rib, fence, bluff body with a splitter plate, suddenly expanding pipes, forward and
backward-facing steps, cavities, and bluff bodies with blunt leading edges. These geometries
simplify the flow characteristics to a certain extent by fixing the separation or the reattachment
point or both, which are otherwise unsteady. The backward-facing step is considered by most as
the ideal canonical separated flow geometry because of its single fixed separation point and the
wake dynamics unperturbed by the downstream disturbances. An illustration of the wake
characteristics behind a backward-facing step is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Backward-facing step flow features

The wake of a backward-facing step has unique features mainly in two regions: the free shear
layer and the low velocity re-circulating bubble. Due to instabilities, the vortices in the shear
layer roll up and pair with the adjacent vortices to form larger coherent structure. These vortices
entrain fluid from the region below and trigger the recirculation. Due to the adverse pressure
gradient in the wake of the step the free shear layer reattaches at the bottom wall.
Based on the important flow features studied by previous researchers in a planar BFS geometry,
the flow wake can be distinguished into three main regions namely,
i. the shear layer region,
ii. separation bubble or recirculation zone and
iii. the reattachment zone.
The general characteristics of a BFS flow begins with an upstream boundary layer separating at
the step edge due to the adverse pressure gradient that develops into a thin shear layer. As the
flow progresses downstream, the shear layer grows in size with the amalgamation of the
turbulent structures contained within. This region where the shear layer develops and grows is
referred to as the shear layer region and is shown in Figure 2. The turbulent structures in the

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shear layer entrain irrotational fluid from the non-turbulent region outside the shear layer. This
flow entrainment causes the formation of a low velocity recirculation in the region, which is
located between the shear layer and the adjacent wall. The recirculation zone is mainly
comprised of a primary vortex in the center and a secondary vortex adjacent to the corner of the
step as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Flow characteristics behind a BFS (adapted from Driver et al.)

Due to the favorable pressure gradient created by the fluid entrained, the shear layer eventually
curves down towards the wall and impinges at a location known as the reattachment point. The
horizontal distance between the step and the reattachment point is defined as the reattachment
length. The reattachment length is unsteady due to the inherent oscillatory motion of the shear
layer known as the flapping. As a result, the reattachment point spreads within a certain span
along the streamwise distance, which is referred to as the reattachment zone. These three regions
in a whole comprise the important features of a BFS flow that can be altered or controlled to
achieve desirable outcome such as, enhanced mixing characteristics and reduced drag, noise and
vibrations. Hence it is essential to understand these flow features to control the flow dynamics.

OBJECTIVES
The aims of this problem are as follows:
i. To learn the process of creating and exporting a mesh by using any available mesh
generation software packages. For this assignment, the mesh generator in ANSYS
Workbench is employed.
ii. To learn how to set suitable boundary conditions and numerical models using any
available CFD software packages. ANSYS-FLUENT is used to solve the flow problem in
this assignment.
iii. To explore the post processing facilities of the CFD code to analyze the numerical
results.
iv. To formulate concise professional reports.

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 i. ASSIGNED PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS
Problem Description The student is required to compute laminar flows through a backward-
facing step as detailed below. The coordinates given for the geometry are normalized against
the characteristic length scale. For the case of backward-facing step, the characteristic length
scale is the step height (in this case, a length of unity is assumed).
The normalized fluid properties at the velocity inlet are given as follows:
Inlet velocity: 𝑢𝑥 = 1 and 𝑢𝑦 = 0
Fluid properties: Density, 𝜌 = 1 and dynamic viscosity, 𝜇 = 1/𝑅𝑒, where 𝑅𝑒 is the Reynolds
number
The outlet boundary is defined as an outflow condition, whilst the no-slip condition is invoked
for the rest of the computational walls. Turbulence is ignored, and no heat transfer exists
within the system. It is noted that the dimensions of the computational domain may need to be
altered to ensure that the flow is sufficiently developed at the outlet boundary

Ans:
Step I: Geometry

Figure 3: Flow geometry for backward-facing step

A flow geometry had been designed as indicated in the given question. Figure 3 indicates the
geometry requirement for the BFS analysis.
Step II: MESH
A structured mesh had been developed for the flow analysis using ANSYS fluent software.
The different types of meshing details can be seen as below:

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 Figure 4: Different types of meshing details

A refined structure mesh had been developed with 31827 elements and 32240 nodes. The
meshed structure had been shown below:

Figure 5: Meshed flow geometry

The quality of the mesh had also been determined. The skewness plot had been shown values. It
shows the value is within its range and the mesh can be processed further for the calculations.

Figure 6: Mesh quality worksheet

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Step III: Set up and Processing
Boundary Conditions
The normalized fluid properties at the velocity inlet are given as follows:
Inlet velocity: 𝑢𝑥 = 1 and 𝑢𝑦 = 0
Fluid properties: Density, 𝜌 = 1 and dynamic viscosity, 𝜇 = 1/𝑅𝑒, where 𝑅𝑒 is the Reynolds
number.

Figure 7: Boundary condition details

The required solution for the given plot had been initialized first with hybrid initialization and
the calculation had been precisely processed. The details had been shown in the following
figures below:

Figure 8: Console window

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 Figure 9: Scaled Residuals

RESULTS
Velocity Contour
The velocity contour shows the velocity magnitude distribution in the flow domain of the flow
geometry. The maximum value for the velocity magnitude is 1.50 m/s.

Figure 10: Velocity contour for the BFS flow

Pressure Contour
The pressure contour shows the pressure magnitude distribution in the flow domain of the flow
geometry. The maximum value for the pressure magnitude is 1.34*103 Pa.

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 Figure 11: Pressure Contours for the BFS flow

The figure below the flow characteristics descriptions. The three main regions developed are:

Figure 12: Streamlines showing back flow in the domain

i. Shear layer region

The layer of fluid with a velocity gradient subjected to viscous shearing is known as
the shear layer. The shear layers are of two types, wall-bounded and free shear flows;
the latter is the one of interest in BFS flows. The free shear layer in the BFS
originates at the separation point and eventually curves down towards the wall to
impinge at the reattachment point. This layer is created due to the fast moving fluid
(free stream velocity) on the top and the low momentum fluid in the wake of the step.
The separated free shear layer behind the BFS involves numerous instabilities.
Here, we can see the numerous instabilities.

ii. Separation bubble or recirculation zone

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 The region behind the step, which is bounded by the separating and reattaching shear
layer on the top and by the wall on the bottom is the recirculation zone. Due to the
presence of vortices in the separated shear layer fluid from the recirculation zone is
entrained and thus creates a low pressure triggering recirculation. This region also
referred to as the separation bubble is dominated primarily by a large two-
dimensional vortex (or primary vortex) that possesses a low circulation velocity. The
other significant turbulent structure commonly seen in the recirculation region is the
secondary vortex located at the corner of the step. A sketch illustrating the
recirculation region in a BFS wake can be seen in Figure 13.

iii. Reattachment zone

The reattachment point of an uncontrolled separating and reattaching shear layer in a
BFS is seldom fixed at a single point. This unsteadiness in the point of reattachment
is associated with the low-frequency oscillations detected in the shear layer. This
unsteadiness in the shear layer trajectory is referred to as the flapping of the shear
layer.
We can see BFS flows, have observed highly energized low-frequency peaks in the
power spectrum obtained near the separation point.

Figure 13: reattachment point of the recirculation zone

CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, the characteristics of a separating and reattaching flow on a BFS geometry had
been studied precisely. A laminar flows through a backward-facing step had been computed and
also the physics behind the details of the geometry had been studied precisely.

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REFERENCES
[1] J. Rajasekaran, “On the flow characteristics behind a backward-facing step and the design of
a new axisymmetric model for their study,” 2011. Available:
https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/31402/6/Rajasekaran_Jagannath_201111_
MASc_Thesis.pdf
[2] D. M. Driver, H. L. Seegmiller, and J. G. Marvin, “Time-dependent behviour of a
reattaching shear layer,” AIAA Journal, vol. 25, no. 7, pp. 9
[3] F. Durst and C. Tropea, “Flows over two-dimensional backward-facing steps,” in Structure
of Complex Turbulent Shear Flows (R. Dumas and L. Fulachier, eds.), pp. 41–52,
Proceedings of IUTAM symposium, Marseille, France, Springer-Verlag, August 31-
September 3 1982
[4] J. Tu, Guan Heng Yeoh, and Chaoqun Liu, Computational fluid dynamics a practical
approach. Oxford Butterworth-Heinemann, 2018.

***

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