Numerical Investigation of Flow over a Sphere using LES and the Spalart-Allmaras Turbulence Model

Y. Q. Wang1 , P. L. Jackson1 , and J. D. Ackerman1 2

1

College of Science and Management, University of Northern British Columbia Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada 2 Faculty of Environmental Science, University of Guelph Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1, Canada Email: yqwang@unbc.ca

A BSTRACT
Numerical simulations of forced convection of air for ow over a sphere are presented. The primary aim is to determine if FLUENT, a commercial computational uid dynamics software package, is capable of providing the solution for heat transfer in a three dimensional massively separating ow. Spalart-Allmaras, a one-equation turbulence model and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) are used in the present study. Simulations are performed in the range of Reynolds numbers from 103 to 1 5 105 with a Prandtl number of 0.71. The mean Nusselt number over the sphere predicted by both models are in good agreement with both measurements and empirical correlations. For Reynolds number of 104 , the mean Nusselt number over the sphere predicted by LES is 92.92 and predicted by the Spalart-Allmaras model is 94.55 on a coarse grid and 92.94 on a ner grid. The differences between the predicted values and one of the well-established empirical corrections is 0%, 1 7% and 0 02% respectively. In addition, the agreement with previous observations is reasonable for pressure coefcients and skin friction coefcients along the sphere. The present study has established that commercially-available software like FLUENT can provide a reasonable good solution of complicated ow structures, including ow with separation.

I NTRODUCTION

Corresponding author.

<<Table of Contents

418

The ow past a sphere, representing a 3-D massively separating ow, has been subjected to numerous experimental [1-7] and computational studies [8-15]. Among the computational studies, the most recent nu

merical simulations were made by an in-house code at a wide range of Reynolds numbers (104-106 ) by LES and Detached - Eddy Simulation (referred to as DES throughout) approaches [15]. Signicant efforts have also been made in measurements and empirical correlations in turbulent forced convection for ow past a sphere[16-18]. However, numerical studies of heat transfer for ow over a sphere are limited; particularly there has been no specic effort to predict heat transfer for ow over a sphere with a Reynolds number higher than 10,000, perhaps because ow and temperature elds induced by this geometry are complex. Among the computational studies on this subject, the one conducted by Acrivos and Taylor [19] should be mentioned. Acrivos and Taylor used a singular perturbation analysis and a Stokesian velocity distribution around the sphere to derive their well-known solution for the steady-state heat transfer from a sphere at a small Peclet number. Due to the assumption of the Stokesian velocity, the solutions are limited to the ow with a low Reynolds number. Also assuming a Stokesian velocity distribution around the sphere, Abramzon and Elata [20] computed the transient heat transfer coefcient for rigid spheres at a wide range of Peclet numbers. In a recent numerical study conducted by Feng and Michaelides [21], the Stokesian velocity eld assumption has been relaxed. They solved the Navier-Stokes equations in the range of Reynolds numbers from 0 to 4,000 and the range of Peclet numbers from 0 to 1,000. Unlike previous approaches, in the present study, LES and Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model (referred to as S-A throughout) [22] are used for simulations. Therefore, the present study can provide solutions for ow with much higher Reynolds numbers (Re 4 000), compared to previous numerical studies. The main goal of the present study is to

Author Index>>

5 4 3 2 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4

0.5

Re=10,000, S-A model, present Re=10,000, LES, present Re=10,000, k-, Constantinescu et al. Re=100,000, DES, Constantinescu et al. Re=120,000 S-A model, present Re=1,140,000, DES, Constantinescu et al. Re=1,140,000, expt., Achenbach

CP
0.5 1 1.5 0

30

60

(deg)

90

120

150

180

Figure 1: Computational grid and domain: an example of a coarse grid projected on an iso-surface of y=0. The circle at (-2,0,0) is the sphere around which the ow occurs.

Figure 2: Pressure coefcient distribution over the sphere.

2.2 Grid and Numerical Approach

Grids generated by GAMBIT (version 2.0.4), a preprocessor of FLUENT (version 6.0), has been used for the calculations and the grid-independence tests. The coarse grid consists of 40,195 cells and 13,511 nodes with the rst point off the wall situated at 0.01 m. The ner grid used in the present study consists of 129,172 cells and 91,090 nodes with the rst point off the wall situated at 0.00001 m. In the present study, the segregated solver, the standard SIMPLE algorithm and the implicit formulation have been used in both S-A and LES simulations. The solution-adaptive renement technique has been used in the present study which has signicantly reduced the computational effort required to achieve the desired level of accuracy. Gradients of velocity magnitude, static pressure and static temperature have been selected as the eld variables for adapting the grid. Convergence was declared when the maximum scaled residuals were less than 10 4 for the continuity equation, the velocity equations and the

S IMULATION OVERVIEW

In the following section, the computational grid and domain, the numerical method, boundary conditions, and turbulence models are summarized.

2.1 Problem Description

The problem under consideration involves air ow past a sphere whose diameter (D) is 1 m and its center is located at (-2, 0, 0). The calculation domain is a sphere whose diameter is 10 m and its center is located at (0,0,0). The computational domain of the coarse grid is shown in Figure 1 as a three dimensional mesh pro-

419

test whether FLUENT, a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package, is capable of providing the solutions for heat transfer in a three dimensional massively separating ow. The steady S-A turbulence model has been used for providing a steadystate solution while the LES model has been used for providing a transient solution. Simulations are performed in the range of Reynolds numbers from 10 3 to 1 5 105 with a Prandtl number of 0.71. In this work, the Reynolds number is based on the sphere diameter D and freestream velocity U . Results obtained by both LES and S-A are presented and discussed with details.

jected on an iso-surface of y=0. The solution domain is bounded by the inlet, the outlet, and the sphere wall. The inow region starts from x=-5 m to x=2 m. The outow region starts at x 2 m. The inlet ow has a uniform velocity U . Zero gauge pressure has been set for the outow boundary condition. The intensity of turbulence is 10% at both inow and outow boundaries. Temperature at the sphere surface Tw is 400 F and temperature at the inlet T is 300 F.

turbulent kinematic viscosity equation, and less than 10 6 for the energy equation.

The ft2 function in the original S-A model is dened by ft2

 

S-A model
The S-A model is a relatively simple one-equation model that solves a modeled transport equation for the kinematic eddy viscosity. In the S-A model, the Reynolds stresses are given by ui u j 2t Si j where Si j is the mean strain rate, dened as Si j


where is the molecular viscosity and obeys the transport equation:



Here

where S is the magnitude of the vorticity, and d is the distance to the closest wall. The function fw is 1 c6 w3 g 6 c6 w3
$   "
1 6

where
  

!

r


cw2 r6

fw

2d2 S

&

f2 2 d 2

f2

1 f1

" #

  !

cb2


cw1 fw

cb1 ft2 2

ft1 U 2

  

D Dt

cb1 1

ft2 S

(3)

(4)

In its original form, the S-A model is effectively a low-Reynolds-number model, requiring the viscousaffected region of the boundary layer to be properly resolved. In FLUENT, however, the S-A model has been implemented to use wall functions when the mesh resolution is not sufciently ne. This might make it the best choice for relatively crude simulations on coarse meshes where accurate turbulent ow computations are not critical.

LES
LES which solves the large eddies and models the smaller scales is attractive for massively separated ows since it resolves more ow details compared to the conventional approach, in which all the turbulent motions are modeled. The governing equations employed for LES are obtained by ltering the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations in either Fourier (wave-number) space or conguration (physical) space.

(5)

(6)

420

Cw2

0 3 Cw3

20

0 4187

Cw1

f1

f1

3 3 c3 1

(2) Cb1 2 1 Cb2

The eddy viscosity t is given by

1 2

u j xi

ui x j

(1)

where dt is the distance from the eld point to the trip, t is the wall vorticity at the trip, and U is the difference between the velocity at the eld point and that at the trip. gt min 0 1 U t xt where xt is the grid spacing along the wall at the trip. However, in FLUENT, both ft2 and ft1 have been set to zero. Therefore, the model constants Ct1 Ct2 Ct3 , and Ct4 are not used. The other model constants have the following default values: Cb1 0 1335 Cb2 0 622
! '  %

2 Cv1 3

ft1

ct1 gt exp

The S-A model and LES have been used in the present study.

and the trip function ft1 is dened by t2 2 d U 2 gt2dt2

ct2

!

 

2.3 Turbulence Models

ct3 exp

ct4 2

(7)

(8)

71

In FLUENT, the nite-volume discretization itself implicitly provides the ltering operation: x
! 

5 4.5

/(U 2 ) Re0.5

where V is the volume of a computational cell. The lter function, G x x , implied here is then Gxx
 2 ) ' ! ) 

Filtering the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, one obtains t and



where i j is the subgrid-scale stress dened by i j and modeled by i j

 %

The eddy viscosity, t , is modeled by [23] [24] t

 6 6

where S is dened by:

6 6

and Ls is the mixing length for subgrid scales:

@ &

where is the von Krmn constant, d is the distance to the closest wall, and V is the volume of the computational cell. Cs is the Smagorinsky constant. Cs 0 1 has been found to yield the best results for a wide range of ows, and is the default value in FLUENT.

421

Ls

min d CsV 1

7 8% 6

S
6 6 6

2Si j Si j

L2 S s
6 6 6

(15)

(16)

(17)

The skin friction coefcient distributions over the sphere with numerical simulation of Constantinescu and Squires [15] and Achenbachs experimental data [3] are plotted in Figure 3. Overall, the trend in skin friction coefcient prole obtained by LES matches well that of Constantinescu and Squires [15] for their

B A

1 kk i j 3

ui x j

u j xi

(14)

ui u j

ui u j

ui t


ui u j x j

x j

ui xi


1 V 0

x V x otherwise

ui x j

23)

1)

1 x dx V V
0) !  ( 

(9)

4 3.5 3

Re=10,000, S A model, present Re=10,000, LES, present Re=10,000, DES, Constantinescu et al. Re=100,000, DES, Constantinescu et al. Re=120,000, S A model, present Re=162,000, Expt., Achenbach Re=420,000, DES, Constantinescu et al.

2.5 2

(10)

4 5! )

1.5 1 0.5 0

30

60

(deg)

90

120

150

180

(11) Figure 3: Skin friction coefcient distributions over the sphere. p xi i j x j (12)

R ESULTS

AND

D ISCUSSION

(13)

Predictions of the pressure coefcient distributions over the sphere are plotted in Figure 2. The value and angular position of the minimum in C p is accurately captured by LES compared to the data of Constantinescu et al. [15] for supercritical fully turbulent ow (Re 1 140 000) and for turbulent ow (Re 10 000) predicted both by the k model [14] as well as the measurements [3]. At the back portion of the sphere, with 110 , a large disagreement exists with the LES model yielding under-predicted values. In the LES simulation, separation was predicted around 124 which is close to 120 of the measurement [3] and 117 2 of Constantinescus prediction. At the forward portion of the sphere, the value is slightly over-predicted and the angular position of the minimum in C p is slightly delayed in the S-A simulation. Similar to the LES simulation, a large disagreement also exists in the back portion of the sphere between predictions made by the S-A simulation and observations. Overall, the present predictions of the C p are similar to the solutions for supercritical fully turbulent ow in Constantinescus study and are different with the C p proles in their subcritical solutions.

2 10 1.5
3

NuD=0.37 ReD NuD=2+(0.4Re1/2+0.06Re2/3)Pr0.4(/w)1/4 D D S A model S A model (finer grid) LES model Meissner and Buttner

0.6

0.5

0.5

Nu=hD/kf

10

Cd

101

10

20

30

40

10

10

10

10

10

t U /D

ReD=U D/

Figure 4: Temporal variation of streamwise drag coefcient.

Figure 5: Nu versus ReD for air-ow over the sphere.

The mean Nusselt numbers (Nu) averaged around the sphere surface for Reynolds number between 10 3 to 1 5 105 along with Meissner and Buttners data [17], and two empirical correlations are shown in Figure 5. One empirical line was recommended by McAdams [17]: Nu

0 37Re0 6

(18)

which is valid for 17

Re

70 000. Another was

Figure 6(a) and Figure 6(b) show instantaneous streamlines in an azimuthal plane of S-A and LES at Re=10,000, respectively. Contours of out-of-plane vorticity component in an azimuthal plane of S-A and LES at Re=10,000 are shown in Figure 7(a) and Figure 7(b), respectively. The plots provide a view of the inuence of the turbulence models. In general, LES yields a higher asymmetric velocity/vorticity eld and indicates it is able to capture the vortex mechanisms. The asymmetry of velocity/vorticity eld in an azimuthal plane is not obvious for S-A model although its velocity magnitude and vorticity contour is qualitatively similar to LES.

422

Part of the temporal variation of the mean stream-wise drag coefcient Cd for Re 10 000 is plotted in Figure 4. In the present study, Cd is 0.476 and it has been averaged over 213.3s and 711 physical time steps. In previous observations, the range of the average mean stream-wise drag coefcient for this Reynolds number is between 0.391-0.699 [14], [25], and [3].

where all uid properties are evaluated at the freestream temperature, T , except w (evaluated at the sphere wall). The correlation is valid for 3 5 Re 8 104 and 0 7 Pr 380. Overall the Nusselt numbers obtained by both LES and S-A are in good agreement with the line recommended by McAdams. For Reynolds number of 104 , the mean Nusselt number over the sphere predicted by LES is 92.92 and is predicted by the Spalart-Allmaras model as 94.55 on a coarse grid and 92.94 on a ner grid. The differences between predicted values and McAdams empirical correction is 0%, 1 7% and 0 02%, respectively.

'

Nu

& !

 D

! &

&

subcritical cases but has over predicted value. Note that the skin friction coefcient C f is made dimen2 sionless using U Re0 5 , which is appropriate for the laminar boundary layers on the sphere, in order to compare with Constantinescu and Squires data and the experimental data. The trend in skin friction coefcient prole obtained by S-A matches well with that of Constantinescu and Squires [15] for their supercritical fully turbulent case. Compared with experimental data, however, differences exist. We attribute these differences to the simplistic treatment of the boundary layers in the computations that could not represent the complicated character of turbulent separation.

proposed by Whitaker [18]:

 C'

0 4Re1

0 06Re2

Pr0 4 w

1 4

(19)

1 1

Y
0 0 -1 -1 -3 -3 -2 -1 0 -2 -1 0

(a)

(a)

1 1

Y
0 0 -1 -1 -3 -3 -2 -1 0 -2 -1 0

(b)

(b)

Figure 6: Instantaneous streamlines at Re=10,000 in an azimuthal plane: (a) by S-A model (b) by LES.

Figure 7: Vorticity contour at Re=10,000 in an azimuthal plane (61 increments in the contour levels from -1 to 1) : (a) by S-A model; (b) by LES.

423

S UMMARY

Two models in FLUENT, LES and S-A, are used to predict the ow and heat transfer over a sphere for a range of Reynolds number from 103 to 1 5 105 . Comparison of the present results with experimental data and empirical correlations showed that the predictions obtained by commerical CFD software successfully reproduced most of the ow features associated with the vortex shedding. In this work, the capability of FLUENT was tested in a fully three-dimensional unsteady ow subject to massive separation. The LES and S-A simulations were analyzed in detail and compared with available observations including previous numerical simulations, experimental data and empirical correlations. The most favorable agreement with experimental measurements and empirical correlation is obtained in the mean Nusselt number predictions. The Nusselt numbers obtained by both LES and S-A are in good agreement with the empirical correlation of McAdams. Furthermore, LES yields the asymmetric distributions of the streamlines and vorticity indicated that it can resolve enough details of the ow and is able to capture the vortex shedding mechanism.

crease by Acoustic Excitation, Phys. Fluids 31 (1988) 3260-3265. [6] H. Sakamoto and H. Haniu, A Study of Vortex Shedding From Spheres in an Uniform Flow, J. Fluids Eng. 112 (1990) 386-392. [7] J.M. Chonaz, P. Bonneton and E. J. Hopnger, The Structure of the Near Wake of a Sphere Moving Horizontally in a Stratied Fluid, J. Fluid Mech. 254 (1993) 1-21. [8] T. A. Johnson and V. C. Patel, Flow Past a Sphere up to a Reynolds Number of 300, J. Fluid Mech. 378 (1999) 19-70. [9] R. Mittal, Planar Symmetry in the Unsteady Wake of a Sphere, AIAA J. 37 (1999) 388-390. [10] A. G. Tomboulides, S. A. Ogszag and G. E. Karniakidis, Direct and Large-Eddy Simulations of Axisymmetric Wakes, AIAA Paper 93-0546, 1993. [11] G.S. Constantinescu and K.D. Squires, LES and DES Investigations of Turbulent Flow over a Sphere AIAA Paper 2000-0540, 2000. [12] G.S. Constantinescu, R. Pacheco and K.D. Squires, Detached-eddy Simulation of Flow over a Sphere, AIAA Paper 2002-0425, 2002. [13] G.S. Constantinescu, M. Chapelet, and K.D. Squires, Turbulence Modeling Applied to Flow over a Sphere, AIAA Journal 41 (2003) 17332981742. [14] G.S. Constantinescu and K.D. Squires, LES and DES Investigations of Turbulent Flow over a Sphere at Re=10,000 , Flow, Turbulence and Combustion 70 (2003) 267-298. [15] G.S. Constantinescu and K.D. Squires, Numerical Investigations of Flow over a Sphere in the Subcritical and Supercritical Regimes, Physics of Fluids 16 (2004) 1449-1466. [16] J. R. Cary, The Determination of Local ForcedConvection Coefcients for Spheres Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 75 (1953) 483-487. [17] W. H. McAdams, Heat Transmission, 3rd. ed., 265-266, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., NewYork, 1954. [18] S. Whitaker, Forced Convection Heat Transfer Correlations for Flow in Pipes, Past Flat Plates, Single Cylinders, Single Spheres, and Flow in Packed Beds and Tube Bundles, AIChE J. 18 (1972) 361-371.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Computing infrastructure for this work was provided by grants from Canada Foundation for Innovation, BC Knowledge Development Fund, SGI Canada and donors to University of Northern British Columbia (Project number: 1854; Institute: University of Northern British Columbia). Simulations were performed on an SGI Origin 3400 with 28 processors.

R EFERENCES
[1] S. Taneda, Experimental Investigations of the Wake behind a Sphere at Low Reynolds Numbers, J. Phys. Soc. Japan 11 (1956) 1104-1108. [2] F. W. Roos and W. W. Willmarth, Some Experimental Results on Sphere and Disk Drag, AIAA J. 9 (1971) 285-291. [3] E. Achenbach, Experiments on the Flow Past Sphere at Very High Reynolds Numbers, J. Fluid Mech. 54 (1972) 565-575. [4] S. Taneda, Visual Observations of the Flow Past a Sphere at Reynolds Numbers Between 104 and 106 , J. Fluid Mech. 85 (1978) 187-192. [5] H. J. Kim and P. A. Durbin, Observations of the Frequencies in a Sphere Wake and of Drag In-

424

[19] A. Acrivos and T. E. Taylor, Heat and Mass Transfer from Single Spheres in Stokes Flow Phys. Fluids 5 (1962) 387-394. [20] B. Abramzon and C. Elata, Heat Transfer from Single Spheres in Stokes Flow Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 27 (1984) 687-695. [21] Z.-G. Feng, E. E. Michaelides, A Numerical Study on the Transient Heat Transfer from a Sphere at High Reynolds and Peclet Numbers Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 43 (2000) 219-229. [22] P. R. Spalart and S. R. Allmars, A One-Equation Turbulence Model for Aerodynamic Flows, La Recherche Aerospatiale 1 (1994) 5-21. [23] J. Smagorinsky, General Circulation Experiments with the Primitive Equations. I. The Basic Experiment Month. Wea. Rev. 91 (1963) 99-164. [24] D. K. Lilly, On the Application of the Eddy Viscosity Concept in the Inertial Subrange of Turbulence, NCAR Manuscript 123, 1966. [25] F. M. White, Viscous Fluid Flow, McGraw-Hill Series in Mechanical Engineering Second Edition (1991) Chapter 3.

425