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andmoregenerallythewakebehaviordependondifferentaspectsoftheflowfieldsuchas
the side and end conditions, blockage ratio of the flow passage, upstream velocity and the
aspectratio ofthestructures.
A significant amount of work has been published in many literatures for experimental and
numerical study of flow past a square cylinder. Experimental results for Reynolds number
<200 for zero angle of incidence are available in Okajima [1], Davis and Moore [2].
Extensive literature is available for numerical investigation on 2D flow around square
cylinder is available. Investigation has been carriedout for variousparameters i.e.effect of
Reynoldsnumber,effectofoutletboundarycondition,effectofdomainextent,effectofgrid
size,effectoftime step,effectofblockageratioetc.Ineachofthosestudies,onlysomeof
theseaspectsareinvestigatedandnoinvestigationhasbeenfoundwhichextensivelycovers
alltheseaspects.
The distance from the computational inlet to the cylinder, Xu ranges from 4 (Kelkar and
Patankar[3])to125(StegellandRockliff[4]).AsshownbySohankaret.al.[5],whenusing
afreestreamconditionattheinlet,thenecessarydistanceforobtainingresultsindependentof
thisinletlocationisabout10units.WhenXuwasincreasedfrom7.5to11.1units,therewas
a 9.3% decrease in RMS lift (the RMS lift is perhaps the best overall indicator when
comparingresultsinvortexsheddingflows).AfurtherincreaseuptoXu=18gavenegligible
changesintheglobalresults(lessthan1%).Forallreferences,afreestreamconditionU=1
andV=0isprescribedattheinlet.
The effect of blockage was investigated numerically by Stansby and Slaouti [6],
Anagnostopoulos et. al. [7], Behr et. al. [8] and Turki et. al. [9]. It is shown that with
increasing blockage parameter the Strouhal number anddrag coefficient increase, while the
basesuctionandstagnationpressurecoefficientsincrease.AthighReynoldsnumbersthisis
alsoobservedexperimentallyforrectangularcylinders,circularcylindersandflatplates.
The influence of domain size, especially the location of the outflow boundary, Xd is
investigatedbySohankaret.al.[5]andBehret.al.[10].ItisshownthatifXdisselectedless
than 2.5 from the body, then the temporal periodicity of the solution is lost. The minimum
valueof Xd is found tobe6.5. It was also concluded that reliable results forboth types of
boundary conditions areobtainable with Xd14.5. Sohankaret.al.[5] have investigated the
influence of Xd between 3 and 26 using the standard Neumann condition at the outlet
(hereafterreferredtoastheNBC)andConvectiveconditionattheoutlet(hereafterreferredto
astheCBC).Theresultsindicatethatinordertoobtainresultsindependentoftheoutlet,Xd
mustbearound26forNBCattheoutlet.
Some refinement studies are carriedoutby Sohankar et. al. [5] [11] andFranke et al. [12].
Some limited studies with different time steps and nearwall resolutions were performed.
They conclude that the distance of the first gridpoint (d) away from thebody has a strong
influence on the results. For flow around square cylinders they used d=0.004. A grid
refinementstudyforflowaroundasquarecylinderatRe=500waspresentedbyArnaletal.
[13].Theyemploythreegrids(1196137,60669and40645)andreportsomesignificantgrid
dependences. For example, the RMS lift was decreased three times when going from the
finest to the coarsest grid. For a square cylinder at zero incidence the effects of time step,
distribution of grid points, size of cells adjacent to the body, upstream and downstream
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extentsofthecalculationdomainandblockagewerethoroughlyinvestigatedbySohankaret
al. [11]. The influence of Reynolds number from 45 to 250 at blockage 5% was also
presented. In that study, when using a highly nonuniform grid, some recommendations for
therequiredsizeofthedomain,griddistribution,timestepandspatialresolutioninthenear
body region are provided. These recommendations have directly been used in the present
study.
The present work is aimed at understanding the wake characteristics in laminar wake of a
squarecylinder.Anumericalsimulationapproachhasbeenadoptedinthepresentwork.The
flowconfigurationcomprisesofasquarecylinderplacednormaltofreestreaminaninfinite
medium. The Reynolds number based on the cylinder height and the average velocity
consideredinthenumericalstudyisintherange50250.
2.GoverningEquations andBoundaryConditions
FlowpastasquarecylinderhasbeensimulatedbysolvingnumericallytheunsteadyNavier
Stokesequationsforan incompressiblefluidinatwodimensionalgeometry.Theequations
forcontinuityandmomentummaybeexpressedinthedimensionlessformasfollows:
Continuity
u
(1)
=0
Xmomentum
u
t
(uu)+
(vu) = -
2
2
1 u u
(
+
)
Re x2 y2
(2)
Ymomentum
v
t
(uv)+
(vv) = -
p
y
2
2
1 v v
(
+
)
Re x2 y2
(3)
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3.NumericalDetails
The flow was assumed to be two dimensional and unsteady. An incompressible SIMPLE
finitevolumecodewasusedwithastaggeredgridarrangement.CrankNicholsonschemeof
secondorderwasusedintimeandasecondorderschemehasbeenusedforconvectiveand
diffusive terms the pressure was treated fully implicitly. The timemarching calculations
were started with the fluid at rest. A constant time step Dt =0.025 was used for all
calculations. During the iterative sequence, convergence was assessed at the end of each
iterationonthebasisoftheresidualsourcecriterion,whichcomparesthesumoftheabsolute
residual sources over all the control volumes in the computational field, for each finite
volumeequation.
Figure1:Computationaldomainfortheflowaroundasquarecylinder
Figure2: Gridusedforcomputation
Outsidearegionfromthebodywhichextends2unitsupstream,downstreamandsideways,
thegriddistributionwasmadeuniformwithaconstantcellsize D.Downstreamofthebody,
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Dwassetto0.15.Inotherparts, D=0.25wasused.Thedistancefromthecylindersurfaceto
thenearestgridpointdefines d.Forthisstudy, d=0.004ontheupstreamsurface,0.006on
side surfaces, and 0.008 on the downstream surface was used. The hyperbolic tangent
function was used for stretching the cell sizes between these limits d and D.The numberof
nodesdistributedoveroneunitlengthofthecylindersurfacewassetequalto25forallsides
ofthebody.Allthecomputationshavebeencarriedoutusingthegridsizeof211X137.The
gridusedforthecomputationisshowninfigure2.Oneofthemaindifficultiesencountered
in numerical solution of the NavierStokes equations is that of boundary conditions,
especially the outflow boundaries. This difficulty is due to the fact that the computational
domain is bounded whereas the physical domain is unbounded. Thus the computational
domain should be truncated from the real domain by using artificial open boundary
conditions such as Neumann (NBC) or convective (CBC) boundary conditions. For high
accuracy the computational domain must sometimes be very large and this increases CPU
times and the costof computation.Thusproperboundary conditions can reduce the size of
thecomputationaldomainanddecreasethecost.Inmostnumericalstudies,especiallythose
which involve vortex shedding, the outlet boundary condition is a very important issue. A
suitableoutflowboundaryshouldpermittheflowtoexitthedomainwithasmoothdischarge
of vortices, without affecting the flow in the domain near the outlet and nearbody flow.
Incorrect location of outflow boundaries and nonsuitable boundary conditions might
seriouslyaffectthewholeflowstructure,especially nearthebody.Forfinitedifferenceand
finite volume discretization the NBC and CBC are the two most popular outlet boundary
conditions. As per the recommendation of Sohankar et al. (1998) CBC has been used in
presentcomputation.IngeneraltheCBCcanbewrittenforbothUandVas
U
U
i
i
+ U
=0
c x
t
(4)
Where Uc is the convective velocity/phase speed (U1=U U2=V). The CBC has been tested
with both variable and constant (uniform) velocity, with negligible differences in the
statisticalresults.Thusinthisstudy,asrecommendedbySohankaretal.(1998),thevalueof
Uc wassettoUin.Thediscretizedformofthisequationwasimplementedas
Dt
n+ 1
n
n
n
U
= U U (U - U
)
N
N (Dx)
c N
N - 1
N
(5)
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giveninTable1.UptoReynoldsNumber50,theflowissteady.BetweenReynoldsnumbers
50to55,instabilityoccursandvortexsheddingappearsandflowbecomesunsteady(Figure
3).ThusourpredictionisingoodagreementforzeroangleofincidencethecriticalReynolds
numberis52asreportedbySohankaretal.(1998).
Table1: EffectofReynoldsnumber
Re
50
55
75
100
125
150
175
200
225
250
St
0.107
0.122
0.129
0.136
0.141
0.143
0.143
0.140
0.134
CD
1.615
1.565
1.524
1.461
1.423
1.411
1.472
1.487
1.503
1.526
CDP
1.473
1.446
1.455
1.439
1.412
1.491
1.512
1.540
1.561
1.579
CL
0.067
0.101
0.157
0.212
0.252
0.295
0.329
0.365
0.404
CPf
0.981
0.964
0.896
0.857
0.849
0.836
0.832
0.828
0.824
0.836
0.0050
CPtb
0.847
0.841
0.936
1.055
1.132
1.231
1.281
1.320
1.315
1.288
CPbc
0.735
0.727
0.812
0.924
1.049
1.108
1.159
1.205
1.256
1.293
CPs
1.204
1.196
1.161
1.143
1.135
1.132
1.128
1.125
1.121
1.119
0.06
0.04
LiftCoefficient
LiftCoefficient
0.0025
0.0000
0.0025
0.02
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.0050
100
200
300
Time
400
500
600
0.3
0.6
0.2
0.4
LiftCoefficient
LiftCoefficient
0.1
0.0
0.2
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.2
0.4
0.3
0.6
0
100
200
Time
300
50
100
150
200
250
300
Time
Figure3: LiftCoefficientwithtimefor(a)Re=50(b)Re=55(c)Re=100(d)Re=200
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Figure4showsthevariationoftotaldragcoefficientwithtimeforRe=55.Initiallythereisa
sharp drop in the drag coefficient then it remains constant at low value followed by a
transitional phase leading to fully developed vortex shedding phase. At high Reynolds
numberthisconstantlowvaluephaseremainsforaveryshorttime.Initiallythereisadropin
thedragcoefficientleadstoaminimumvalueofdragcoefficientimmediatelyfollowedbya
transition to fully developedphase at Re=100(Figure4).Figure5depicts the valuesof CD
and St Vs Re for the present work and comparison with other published results. There is a
goodagreementbetweentheresultsqualitatively.Quantitativelythereisslightdifferencein
absolute values of the parameters that may be attributed to strong sensitivity to various
numerical parameters, blockage ratio at this low value of Re. Figure 6 shows the
instantaneous vorticity and stream function contour for Re=75. The same for Re=175 has
beenshowninFigure7.
5.Conclusion
CFDanalysiswascarriedoutforunsteady,incompressible2Dflowaroundasquarecylinder
atzeroangleofincidenceforRerangingfrom50to250.Thevortexsheddingstartsbetween
Re 50 and 55 if angle of incidence is zero. The vortex shedding is exhibited by a single
dominated frequency for Re>55. The study also predicted the influence of Reon quantities
such as Strouhal number and lift, drag, and base suction coefficients. The predicted results
showgoodtrendswithotherreportedresults.Experimentalstudiesonthisflowfortheselow
Reynolds numbers are very scarce. Nevertheless, when considering the effects of different
blockages, experimental uncertainties and numerical inaccuracies, the agreement seems
satisfactory.Accuratemeasurements,especiallyatlowRearestillneeded.Inparticular,the
questionofthetransitionalReynoldsnumber,i.e.thecriticalReabovewhichtheflowceases
tobelaminarandcannotbemadetwodimensional,needsfurtherinvestigation.
2.0
1.64
DragCoefficient
DragCoefficient
1.8
1.62
1.60
1.58
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.56
1.0
0
100
200
300
400
Time
Figure4: DragCoefficientwithtimefor(a)Re=55(b)Re=100
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Present
Sohankaret.al.1995
Sharma&Eswaran2004
Davis&Moore1982
Sohankaret.al.1998
Sahaet.al.2003
Sohankaret.al.1997
1.90
1.85
1.80
1.75
0.18
0.16
0.14
St
CD
1.70
1.65
0.12
Present
Sohankaret.al.1995
Okajima1982
Davis&Moore1982
Sohankaret.al.1998
Sahaet.al.2003
Sohankaret.al.1997
0.10
1.60
1.55
0.08
1.50
1.45
0.06
1.40
0.04
1.35
0
50
100
150
Re
200
250
300
50
100
150
Re
200
250
300
Figure5:CDandStVsRe(PresentWorkandcomparisonwithpublishedresults)
Figure 6:Instantaneousvorticitycontour(a)Re=75(b)Re=175
Figure7:InstantaneousStreamFunctioncontour(a)Re=75(b)Re=175
6.References
1. Okajima,A.,Strouhalnumbersofrectangularcylinders,JournalFluidMechanicsvol
(123),1982,pp379398.
2. Davis, R. W. and Moore, E. F., A numerical study of vortex shedding from
rectangles,JournalFluidMechanicsvol(116),1982,pp 475506.
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3. Kelkar,K.M.andPatankar,S.V.,Numericalpredictionofvortexsheddingbehinda
squarecylinder,InternationalJournalNumericalMethodsinFluidsvol(14),1992,p.
327.
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