Computational Analysis of Fluid Forces on an Obstacle in a Channel Driven Cavity: Viscoplastic Material Based Characteristics

In the current work, an investigation has been carried out for the Bingham fluid flow in a channel-driven cavity with a square obstacle installed near the inlet. A square cavity is placed in a channel to accomplish the desired results. The flow has been induced using a fully developed parabolic velocity at the inlet and Neumann condition at the outlet, with zero no-slip conditions given to the other boundaries. Three computational grids, C1, C2, and C3, are created by altering the position of an obstacle of square shape in the channel. Fundamental conservation and rheological law for viscoplastic Bingham fluids are enforced in mathematical modeling. Due to the complexity of the representative equations, an effective computing strategy based on the finite element approach is used. At an extra-fine level, a hybrid computational grid is created; a very refined level is used to obtain results with higher accuracy. The solution has been approximated using P2 − P1 elements based on the shape functions of the second and first-order polynomial polynomials. The parametric variables are ornamented against graphical trends. In addition, velocity, pressure plots, and line graphs have been provided for a better physical understanding of the situation Furthermore, the hydrodynamic benchmark quantities such as pressure drop, drag, and lift coefficients are assessed in a tabular manner around the external surface of the obstacle. The research predicts the effects of Bingham number (Bn) on the drag and lift coefficients on all three grids C1, C2, and C3, showing that the drag has lower values on the obstacle in the C2 grid compared with C1 and C3 for all values of Bn. Plug zone dominates in the channel downstream of the obstacle with augmentation in Bn, limiting the shear zone in the vicinity of the obstacle.

Flow-Induced Vibrations of Single and Multiple Heated Circular Cylinders: A Review

This study is an effort to encapsulate the fundamentals and major findings in the area of fluid-solid interaction, particularly the flow-induced vibrations (FIV). Periodic flow separation and vortex shedding stretching downstream induce dynamic fluid forces on the bluff body and results in oscillatory motion of the body. The motion is generally referred to as flow-induced vibrations. FIV is a dynamic phenomenon as the motion, or the vibration of the body is subjected to the continuously changing fluid forces. Sometimes FIV is modeled as forced vibrations to mimic the vibration response due to the fluid forces. FIV is a deep concern of engineers for the design of modern heat exchangers, particularly the shell-and-tube type, as it is the major cause for the tube failures. Effect of important parameters such as Reynolds number, spacing ratio, damping coefficient, mass ratio and reduced velocity on the vibration characteristics (such as Strouhal number, vortex shedding, vibration frequency and amplitude, etc.) is summarized. Flow over a bluff body with wakes developed has been studied widely in the past decades. Several review articles are available in the literature on the area of vortex shedding and FIV. None of them, however, discusses the cases of FIV with heat transfer. In particular systems, FIV is often coupled to heat transfer, e.g., in nuclear power plants, FIV causes wear and tear to heat exchangers, which can eventually lead to catastrophic failure. As the circular shape is the most common shape for tubes and pipes encountered in practice, this review will only focus on the FIV of circular cylinders. In this attempt, FIV of single and multiple cylinders in staggered arrangement, including tandem and side-by-side arrangement is summarized for heated and unheated cylinder(s) in the one- and two-degree of freedom. The review also synthesizes the effect of fouling on heat transfer and flow characteristics. Finally, research prospects for heated circular cylinders are also stated.

Fluid flow and heat transfer around square cylinder with dual splitter plates arranged at novel positions

In this paper, the effect of the dual splitter plates on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics around a regular square cylinder for a low Reynolds number flow ( Re = 100) is presented. The placement of the dual splitter plates is novel of its kind as these plates are located at the top and bottom surfaces of the cylinder rather than the conventional locations, that is, at the upstream and downstream of the cylinder. Here, two splitter plates of the same width ( w) with varying lengths and location are considered. A numerical investigation is performed using the open-source code, OpenFOAM. A base solver, icoFOAM is used after modifying the code by incorporating the energy equation in it. The primary wake bubble is found closer to the cylinder rear surface when the dual plates are introduced. It is also noticed that the separation angle and the recirculation length are smaller in the dual plates cases than that are in the cases without the dual plates. A mixed effect of the dual plates on the fluid forces is observed in the present study. A maximum reduction on the mean drag coefficient and root mean square of the lift coefficient is found as 3% and 24%, and maximum increment as 75% and 87%, respectively. However, a substantial enhancement on the overall heat transfer is noticed with the dual plates compared to that of the bare cylinder. A maximum enhancement of 40% is observed in the heat transfer around the square cylinder. In addition, thermal-hydraulic performance is calculated for finding the trade-off between the fluid forces and the heat transfer. The maximum value of thermal-hydraulic performance is found as 1.35 in the present study depending on the mean drag coefficient and 3.65 depending on the root mean square of the lift coefficient. Further, a novel combined thermo-fluid regime is defined for the square cylinder with dual splitter plates from which the location of the plates can be determined according to the demand on the heat transfer and fluid forces.

T-Shaped Control Plate Effect on Flow past a Square Cylinder at Low Reynolds Numbers

In this study, the influence of the T-shaped control plate on the fluid flow characteristics around a square cylinder for a low Reynolds numbers flow is systematically presented. The introduction of upstream attached T-shaped control plate is novel of its kind as T-shaped control plate used for the first time rather than the other passive control methods available in the literature. The Reynolds numbers (Re) are chosen to be Re = 100, 150, 200, and 250, and the T-shaped control plate of the same width with varying length is considered. A numerical investigation is performed using the single-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method. The numerical results reveal that there exists an optimum length of T-shaped control plate for reducing fluid forces. This optimum length was found to be 0.5 for Re = 100, 150, and 200 and 2 for Re = 250. At this optimum length, the fluctuating drag forces acting on the cylinder are reduced by 134%, 1375, 133%, and 136% for Re = 100, 150, 200, and 250, respectively. Instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields were also presented for some selected cases in order to identify the three different flow regimes around T-shaped control plate and square cylinder system.

Investigating the Influence of Design Parameters on the Fluid-Structure Interaction in Fast Switching Valves

When considering digital displacement machines, one of the key elements are the fast switching valves. However, the dynamic requirements and conflicting design objectives mean that designing these fast-switching valves is a complex process, which pushes the technology to the limit. Optimization approaches are therefore required just to find feasible and, secondly, optimal solutions. However, dynamic CFD simulation is required to accurately describe dynamic fluid effects as fluid stiction, -drag and -end damping. This limits the possibilities to use optimization approaches due to the computational burden imposed, the need for dynamic mesh generation, and the design parameterization. Hence, this paper investigates analytical approximations and the error size introduced by simplifying dynamic fluid friction effects into a lumped parameter form. Specifically, the article presents a comprehensive parameter study of selected design parameters’ influence on the fluid forces in fast switching annulus valves, based on both analytical expressions and results derived from dynamic CFD simulations. The focus is primarily on describing the effects and size of the flow forces resulting from changes in parametric design parameters that influence the flow geometry. The results reveal a fair correlation between the fluid force predicted by the rapidly executable lumped model and the CFD model.

Fluid forces and vortex patterns of an oscillating cylinder pair in still water with both fixed side-by-side and tandem configurations

Models of cylinders in the oscillatory flow can be found virtually everywhere in the marine industry, such as pump towers experiencing sloshing load in a LNG ship liquid tank. However, compared to the problem of a cylinder in the uniform flow, a cylinder in the oscillatory flow is less studied, let alone multiple cylinders. Therefore, we experimentally and numerically studied two identical circular cylinders oscillating in the still water with either a side-by-side or a tandem configuration for a wide range of Keulegan-Carpenter number and Stokes number β. The experiment result shows that the hydrodynamic performance of an oscillating cylinder pair in the still water is greatly altered due to the interference between the multiple structures with different configurations. In specific, compared to the single-cylinder case, the drag coefficient is greatly enhanced when two cylinders are placed side-by-side at a small gap ratio, while dual cylinders in a tandem configuration obtain a smaller drag coefficient and oscillating lift coefficient. In order to reveal the detailed flow physics that results in significant fluid forces alternations, the detailed flow visualization is provided by the numerical simulation: the small gap between two cylinders in a side-by-side configuration will result in a strong gap jet that enhances the energy dissipation and increase the drag, while due to the flow blocking effect for two cylinders in a tandem configuration, the drag coefficient decreases.

Flow Characteristics and Fluid Forces Reduction of Flow Past Two Tandem Cylinders in Presence of Attached Splitter Plate

Numerical simulations are carried out to study the flow around two tandem square cylinders (SC) under the effect of spacing ratio(g/D) and splitter plate length (l/D) for a fixed Reynolds number (Re) = 100. The g/D is varied from 0 to 10 and l/D is varied from 0.5 to 10. The splitter plate length is found to have strong effect on vortex shedding and fluid forces. The maximum reduction in mean drag coefficient is observed at l/D = 8, that is 15% and 78% for upstream and downstream cylinders, respectively. The maximum reduction in root-mean-square value of lift coefficient is found at l/D = 10, that is 99%. The flow pattern at both of these points is steady flow. There is 100% vortex shedding suppression for l/D > 5. The observed flow patterns for flow past tandem cylinders without splitter plate are; single bluff body (SBB), steady flow (SF), quasi-steady flow (QSF), fully developed flow (FDF) and fully developed two-row vortex street flow (FDTRVS) regimes. SBB, QSF and SF regimes were observed in presence of splitter plate.

Topological Characteristics of Obstacles and Nonlinear Rheological Fluid Flow in Presence of Insulated Fins: A Fluid Force Reduction Study

In this work, a comprehensive study of fluid forces and thermal analysis of two-dimensional, laminar, and incompressible complex (power law, Bingham, and Herschel–Bulkley) fluid flow over a topological cross-sectional cylinder (square, hexagon, and circle) in channel have been computationally done by using finite element technique. The characteristics of nonlinear flow for varying ranges of power law index 0.4 ≤ n ≤ 1.6 , Bingham number 0 ≤ Bn ≤ 50 , Prandtl number 0.7 ≤ Pr ≤ 10 , Reynolds number 10 ≤ Re ≤ 50 , and Grashof number 1 ≤ Gr ≤ 10 have been examined. Considerable evaluation for thermal flow field in the form of dimensionless velocity profile, isotherms, drag and lift coefficients, and average Nusselt number Nu avg is done. Also, for a range of Bn , the drag forces reduction is observed for circular and hexagonal obstacles in comparison with the square cylinder. At Bn = 0 corresponding to Newtonian fluid, maximum reduction in drag force is reported.