Computation of Incompressible Flow Past Array of Circular Cylinders Using an Unstructured Grid Finite Volume Approach

ABSTRACT

In the present investigation, a novel incompressible unsteady viscous two-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver is developed by using “Consistent Flux Reconstruction” method (Roy and Bandyopadhyay [1]). The original scheme was developed on a structured grid. In this paper, we report calculations carried out using unstructured mesh with triangular elements. In this solver, the full Navier-Stokes equations have been solved numerically using collocated finite volume method. The cell face center velocities are reconstructed explicitly by solving the momentum equations on flux reconstruction control volumes defined judiciously around the respective cell face centers. This is followed by solution of the cell centre pressure field using a discrete Poisson equation developed from the reconstructed velocities and updating the cell centre velocities by using an explicit scheme. In the present investigation, the solver has been applied to unconfined flow past two and three cylinders placed in tandem and side-by-side arrangements at zero incidence with Reynolds number (Re)=100 and Re=200. The shedding of vortices and the flow interference between circular cylinders in tandem and side-by-side arrangements are investigated. The present results are found to be in satisfactory agreement with the results available from literature. In addition to the numerical computation of the hydrodynamics for the present problem, the convective heat transfer phenomena could be computed by incorporating the energy equation in the solver.

KeyWords: Incompressible Navier-Stokes solver, Finite volume method, Unstructured triangular mesh, Circular cylinder, Side-by-side and tandem arrangement, Vortex shedding.

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