Bifurcation Analysis of Two-Dimensional Laminar Flow Through Sudden Expansion Channel

Abstract

In this work, bifurcation characteristics of unsteady, viscous, Newtonian laminar flow in two-dimensional sudden expansion and sudden contraction-expansion channels have been studied for different values of expansion ratio. The governing equations have been solved using finite volume method and FLUENT software has been employed to visualize the simulation results. Three different mesh studies have been performed to calculate critical Reynolds number (Recr) for different types of bifurcation phenomena. It is found that Recr decreases with the increase in expansion ratio (ER).