The Comparison of Various Turbulence Models of the Flow around a Wall Mounted Square Cylinder

Abstract

The flow past a wall mounted square cylinder, a typical and basic shape of building, bridge or offshore structure, was simulated using URANS computation through adoption of three turbulence models, namely, the k-e model, k-ω model, and the v2-f model. It is well known that this flow is naturally unstable due to the Karman vortex shedding and exhibits a complex flow structure in the wake region. The mean flow field including velocity profiles and the dominant frequency of flow oscillation that was from the simulations discussed earlier were compared with the experimental data observed by Wang et al. (2004; 2006). Based on these comparisons it was found that the v2-f model is most accurate for the URANS simulation; moreover, the k-ω model is also acceptable. However, the k-e model was found to be unsuitable in this case. Therefore, v2-f model is proved to be an excellent choice for the analysis of flow with massive separation. Therefore, it is expected to be used in future by studies aiming to control the flow separation.