Comparison of different turbulence models in pipe flow of various Reynolds numbers

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have adopted different turbulence models to study turbulent flows in wall-bounded channels using computational fluid dynamics approach. Therefore, the performance comparison of turbulence models in wall-bounded turbulent flow against theoretical equations or experimental data has to be studied to provide a better insight for future application of turbulent models in wall-bounded flow. The aim of this study is to compare the performance of different turbulence models through numerical analysis of friction factor and turbulence intensity of fully developed turbulent pipe flow. Finite volume method (FVM) solver with three widely studied Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) turbulence models are adopted to investigate friction factors and turbulence intensity of fully-developed water flow in smooth pipes at various Reynolds numbers. A pipe length which is sufficiently long is adopted to neglect the effects of entrance region. The simulated results are validated against analytical equations at various inlet Reynold’s number. Results shown that RNG k-∈ turbulence model with enhanced wall treatment is the most superior model in predicting friction factor, which is an important parameter in study of pressure drop in wall-bounded flow. In addition, SST k-ω turbulent model gives the closest prediction of turbulence intensities by area (T.I.), which will provide good estimation of T.I at the boundary conditions in pipe flow using CFD.