3-D numerical investigation of the wall-bounded concentric annulus flow around a cylindrical body with a special array of cylinders

Abstract

Concentric annulus flow around a combinational cylindrical body with a special array of cylinders at five high Reynolds numbers is investigated numerically using Fluent 6.3.26 in this paper. The numerical results show a good agreement with the experimental data in regard to the axial velocity of the flow. This study focuses on the flow structure and the hydrodynamic characteristics based on the velocity distribution, the pressure distribution, streamlines and vectors under 1-D, 2-D and 3-D conditions. Meanwhile, some global parameters including the pressure coefficient, the drag coefficient and the lift coefficient are analyzed. Numerical results show that the high velocity region and the reverse wake zone with low velocity exist in some spaces due to the disturbance of the cylindrical body. Negative pressures appear in some regions. Neither a wide area vortex nor the vortex shedding appears in the wall-bounded domain. The drag along the axial direction is the main force acting on the cylindrical body in the pipe domain. The annulus flow around the cylindrical body is analyzed to reveal the hydrodynamic characteristics of the complex turbule- nt concentric annulus flow field due to the multi-effects in the pipeline.