Bluff Body Flows Research Articles

Validation of the Aerodynamic Loading on Basic Flying Disc Geometries Derived from CFD Simulations

The present study in spin stabilised disc aerodynamics builds on previous experimental wind tunnel work to broaden the knowledge base through CFD simulation without the necessity for high facility or time cost. The current experimental database from previous studies is extensive enough for sufficient validation to be conducted on known geometries. From there, the limitations of CFD studies for this application on such complex highly separated bluff body flows can be understood. All of the results are for non-spinning discs to reduce computational time, this step is justifiable as the spinning case has previously been shown to have minimal effect on the aerodynamic loads at typical throw release spin rates. The work builds CFD simulation cases carefully and systematically starting with cylindrical discs with thickness to chord (diameter) ratio of 0.01 and 0.1, then to introduce a cavity to one flat side analogous to the Frisbee disc, before moving to look at a generic discus geometry from field athletics. The aerodynamic loading results compare very well to experimental data for the low angle of attack range, however, at higher angles of attack the CFD curves are divergent. It is possible that the generated mesh, for each geometry, does not capture the wake with enough resolution at high angles of attack, note that for sports disc applications the high angle of attack range is very important towards the end of the flight from a human throw. Therefore, further investigations are required to extend this initial study to a modified meshing regime with further refinement, prior to moving forward with any parametric design studies.

Bluff body flow and vortex—its application to wind turbines

Some interesting phenomena of vortex flows we have found in past experimental research are described. For a given flow configuration, multiple flow patterns can exist and a sudden change from one flow pattern to another can occur. We observed the alternate switching of the flow patterns with irregular periods around a bluff body. The change of vortex flow pattern around a bluff body with geometrical parameters or stratification is not always continuous but often shows a sudden change in the whole flow pattern. Based on our research on vortex flows, an innovative application of the vortex flow to a shrouded wind turbine is made in which the power output of a wind turbine is remarkably enhanced. Unlike the majority of conventional aerodynamic machinery, which tends to minimize vortex shedding, the vortex formation of our ‘brimmed’ shroud plays an important role in capturing and concentrating wind energy. Furthermore, aerodynamic noise is reduced in this design. The blade tip vortex is weakened by a counter-rotating vortex generated along the inner side of the shroud as they travel downstream, making the shrouded wind turbine much quieter than conventional turbines.

A new robust consistent hybrid finite-volume/particle method for solving the PDF model equations of turbulent reactive flows

A new robust hybrid finite-volume (FV)/particle method is developed for solving joint probability density function (JPDF) model equations of statistically stationary turbulent reacting flows. The method is designed to remedy the deficiencies of the hybrid algorithm developed by Muradoglu et al. (1999, 2001). The density-based FV solver in the original hybrid algorithm has been found to be excessively dissipative and yet not very robust. To remedy these deficiencies, a pressure-based PISO algorithm in the open source FV package, OpenFOAM, is used to solve the Favre-averaged mean mass and momentum equations while a particle-based Monte Carlo algorithm is employed to solve the fluctuating velocity-turbulence frequency-compositions JPDF transport equation. The mean density is computed as a particle field and passed to the FV method. Thus the redundancy of the density fields in the original hybrid method is removed making the new hybrid algorithm more consistent at the numerical solution level. The new hybrid algorithm is first applied to simulate non-swirling cold and reacting bluff-body flows. The convergence of the method is demonstrated. In contrast with the original hybrid method, the new hybrid algorithm is very robust with respect to grid refinement and achieves grid convergence without any unphysical vortex shedding in the cold bluff-body flow case. In addition, the results are found to be in good agreement with the earlier PDF calculations and also with the available experimental data. Finally the new hybrid algorithm is successfully applied to simulate the more complicated Sydney swirling bluff-body flame ‘SM1’. The method is also very robust for this difficult test case and the results are in good agreement with the available experimental data. In all the cases, the PISO-FV solver is found to be highly resilient to the noise in the mean density field extracted from the particles.

Numerical analysis of laminar fluid flow characteristics past an elliptic cylinder

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of Angle of Attack (AOA), Axis Ratio (AR) and Reynolds number (Re) on unsteady laminar flow over a stationary elliptic cylinder. Design/methodology/approach – The governing equations of fluid flow over the elliptic cylinder are solved numerically on a Cartesian grid using Projection method based Immersed Boundary technique. This numerical method is validated with the results available in open literature. This scheme eliminates the requirement of generating a new computational mesh upon varying any geometrical parameter such as AR or AOA, and thus reduces the computational time and cost. Findings – Different vortex shedding patterns behind the elliptic cylinder are identified and classified using time averaged centerline streamwise velocity profile, instantaneous vorticity contours and instantaneous streamline patterns. A parameter space graph is constructed in order to reveal the dependence of AR, AOA and Re on vortex shedding. Integral parameters of flow such as mean drag, mean lift coefficients and Strouhal number are calculated and the effect of AR, AOA and Re on them is studied using various pressure and streamline contours. Functional relationships of each of integral parameters with respect to AR, AOA and Re are proposed with minimum percentage error. Practical implications – The results obtained can be used to explain the characteristics of flow patterns behind slender to bluff elliptical cylinders which found applications in insect flight modeling, heat exchangers and energy conservation systems. The proposed functional relationships may be very useful for the practicing engineers in those fields. Originality/value – The results presented in this paper are important for the researchers in the area of bluff body flow. The dependence of AOA on vortex shedding and flow parameters was never reported in the literature. These results are original, new and important.

Stability, separation and close body interactions. Introduction.

Stability, separation and close body interactions. Introduction.

Wavelet-based adaptive simulations of three-dimensional flow past a square cylinder

AbstractThe wavelet-based eddy capturing approach is extended to three-dimensional bluff body flows, where the flow geometry is enforced through Brinkman volume penalization. The wavelet-collocation/volume-penalization combined method is applied to the simulation of vortex shedding flow behind an isolated stationary prism with square cross-section. Wavelet-based direct numerical simulation is conducted at low supercritical Reynolds number, where the wake develops fundamental three-dimensional flow structures, while wavelet-based adaptive large-eddy simulation supplied with the one-equation localized dynamic kinetic-energy-based model is performed at moderately high Reynolds number. The present results are in general agreement with experimental findings and numerical solutions provided by classical non-adaptive methods. This study demonstrates that the proposed hybrid methodology for modelling bluff body flows is feasible, accurate and efficient.

Impact of dynamic subgrid-scale modeling in variational multiscale large-eddy simulation of bluff-body flows

The effects of dynamic subgrid-scale (SGS) modeling are investigated in variational multiscale (VMS) large-eddy simulation (LES) simulations of bluff-body flows. The spatial discretization is based on a mixed finite-element/finite-volume formulation on unstructured grids. In the VMS approach used in this work, the separation between the largest and the smallest resolved scales is obtained through a variational projection operator and a finite-volume cell agglomeration. The dynamic and non-dynamic versions of Smagorinsky and wall-adapted local eddy-viscosity SGS models are used to account for the effects of the unresolved scales. In the VMS approach, these effects are only modeled in the smallest resolved scales. The VMS-LES and classical LES approaches, combined with the considered dynamic and non-dynamic SGS models, are applied to the simulation of the flow around a circular cylinder at Reynolds numbers 3,900 and 20,000 and to the flow around a square cylinder at Reynolds numbers 22,000 and 175,000.

Streakline-based closed-loop control of a bluff body flow

A novel closed-loop control methodology is introduced to stabilize a cylinder wake flow based on images of streaklines. Passive scalar tracers are injected upstream the cylinder and their concentration is monitored downstream at certain image sectors of the wake. An AutoRegressive with eXogenous inputs mathematical model is built from these images and a Generalized Predictive Controller algorithm is used to compute the actuation required to stabilize the wake by adding momentum tangentially to the cylinder wall through plasma actuators. The methodology is new and has real-world applications. It is demonstrated on a numerical simulation and the provided results show that good performances are achieved.

On the mechanism of bluff body flow control by pulsed plasma actuator

On the mechanism of bluff body flow control by pulsed plasma actuator

The Interaction of Porous Material Coating With the Near Wake of Bluff Body

The flow around a circular cylinder with porous material coating (PMC) is numerically investigated based on unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) method at subcritical Reynolds number. The results are compared with some available results in the open literature. The interaction of PMC with the near wake of a circular cylinder such as streamline, vorticity field, and shear stress are studied in detail. Subsequently, the fluctuation forces and velocity distribution in the boundary layer are analyzed and the effect of various thicknesses of PMC is investigated. The numerical results reveal that PMC has prominently modified the flow characteristic of the near wake of circular cylinder and significantly mitigated the fluctuations of aerodynamic forces from two aspects of frequency and amplitude. It means that the vortex shedding from the bluff body is suppressed. It also is found that the thickness of the PMC is a sensitive parameter to the aerodynamic forces and velocity distribution in the boundary layer. Furthermore, the mean drag can be reduced to a certain extent when the thickness is appropriate. It is expected that the modification of flow characteristic and aerodynamic forces is closely related to the flow-induced noise reduction. Those results will be helpful to understand the mechanism of flow control on bluff body flow by using porous material coating and accumulate meaningful information for further industrial application.

Unsteady Euler/Lagrange simulation of a confined bluff-body gas–solid turbulent flow

An unsteady Euler–Lagrangian approach is adopted to predict the gaseous carrier and disperse phases flow dynamics. The turbulence is captured using two different methods, i.e. the unsteady Reynolds averaging based numerical simulation (URANS) and the large eddy simulation (LES). In the latter one, the dynamic Smagorinsky approach is used to model the sub-grid scale stresses. The time-dependent solid particle and gas phase flow properties of a confined bluff-body turbulent flow including two-way coupling effects are evaluated through comparisons with experimental data. The configuration under study features an important recirculation zone and has a mass loading of 22%. So, collision effects are not considered while tracking the disperse phase that consists of glass beads. A thermodynamically consistent turbulence modulation approach is applied for the determination of the source terms that account for the effect of particles on the turbulence level of the carrier phase. Within the URANS technique the dispersion of particles is captured by the Markov sequence approach; this model is modified by integrating a drift factor term while modeling the pressure gradient. A particular emphasis is put on the disperse phase feedback on the carrier phase and coupling procedure within each Eulerian time step along with an unsteady coupling of both codes, the (Eulerian) FASTEST3D and the (Lagrangian) LAG3D codes. Quantitative results of the disperse phase properties as well as those of the carrier phase are presented at different positions around the recirculation zone. The numerical results using both, the LES and/or the URANS delivered comparable results that agree reasonably with experimental data. However, a slight advantage of LES over URANS could be observed.

Wall shear stress characterization of a 3D bluff-body separated flow

Efficient flow control strategies aimed at reducing the aerodynamic drag of road vehicles require a detailed knowledge of the reference flow. In this work, the flow around the rear slanted window of a generic car model was experimentally studied through wall shear stress measurements using an electrochemical method. The mean and fluctuating wall shear stress within the wall impact regions of the recirculation bubble and the main longitudinal vortex structures which develop above the rear window are presented. Correlations allow a more detailed characterization of the recirculation phenomenon within the separation bubble. In the model symmetry plane the recirculation structure compares well with simpler 2D configurations; specific lengths, flapping motion and shedding of large-scale vortices are observed, these similarities diminish when leaving the middle plane due to the strong three-dimensionality of the flow. A specific attention is paid to the convection processes occurring within the recirculation: a downstream convection velocity is observed, in accordance with 2D recirculations from the literature, and an upstream convection is highlighted along the entire bubble length which has not been underlined in some previous canonical configurations.

Numerical simulation on fluid-structure interaction of wind around super-tall building at high reynolds number conditions

With more and more high-rise building being constructed in recent decades, bluff body flow with high Reynolds number and large scale dimensions has become an important topic in theoretical researches and engineering applications. In view of mechanics, the key problems in such flow are high Reynolds number turbulence and fluid-solid interaction. Aiming at such problems, a parallel fluid-structure interaction method based on socket parallel architecture was established and combined with the methods and models of large eddy simulation developed by authors recently. The new method is validated by the full two-way FSI simulations of 1:375 CAARC building model with Re = 70000 and a full scale Taipei101 high-rise building with Re = 1e8, The results obtained show that the proposed method and models is potential to perform high-Reynolds number LES and high-efficiency two-way coupling between detailed fluid dynamics computing and solid structure dynamics computing so that the detailed wind induced responses for high-rise buildings can be resolved practically.

A unified view of energetic efficiency in active drag reduction, thrust generation and self-propulsion through a loss coefficient with some applications

An analysis of the energy budget for the general case of a body translating in a stationary fluid under the action of an external force is used to define a power loss coefficient. This universal definition of power loss coefficient gives a measure of the energy lost in the wake of the translating body and, in general, is applicable to a variety of flow configurations including active drag reduction, self-propulsion and thrust generation. The utility of the power loss coefficient is demonstrated on a model bluff body flow problem concerning a two-dimensional elliptical cylinder in a uniform cross-flow. The upper and lower boundaries of the elliptic cylinder undergo continuous motion due to a prescribed reflectionally symmetric constant tangential surface velocity. It is shown that a decrease in drag resulting from an increase in the strength of tangential surface velocity leads to an initial reduction and eventual rise in the power loss coefficient. A maximum in energetic efficiency is attained for a drag reducing tangential surface velocity which minimizes the power loss coefficient. The effect of the tangential surface velocity on drag reduction and self-propulsion of both bluff and streamlined bodies is explored through a variation in the thickness ratio (ratio of the minor and major axes) of the elliptical cylinders.

Numerical Simulation on H2 Rich Blowout Limit in Bluff-Body Burner

In order to investigate the hydrogen rich blowout limit (RBL) at different bluff-body diameters and flow velocities, the computational fluid dynamics software Fluent was used to simulate H2 combustion in the present study. The composition probability density function (C-PDF) model was adopted to simulate H2 burning in a turbulent flame by solving two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations. To verify the accuracy of the C-PDF combustion model, a piloted methane–air jet flame was simulated at first, and a good agreement between the numerical results and the published measurements was obtained. The H2 RBL formula about bluff-body diameters and flow velocities was summarized according to the numerical results. The results show that the C-PDF model is a reasonable method to capture flame ignition, flame extinction, and the H2 RBL. There should be an optimal bluff-body diameter in the burner which stabilizes the flame best. The flame will take an “M” shape with reaction fronts inside the central recirculation zone (CRZ) near the blow-off condition. When the bluff-body diameter remains unchanged, the relationship between the H2 RBL and the flow velocity is a logarithmic function. When the flow velocity remains unchanged, the relationship between the H2 RBL and the bluff-body diameter is a quadratic function. A successful ignition sequence requires typical three phases: the startup of ignition in the recirculation zone, the energy accumulation in the recirculation zone, and the flame propagation from the recirculation zone to the main stream. A complete extinction also requires three phases: the sudden decline of the temperature in the main stream, the energy dissipation from the recirculation zone to the main stream, and the complete extinction of the flame.

Numerical Simulation of Two-Dimensional Bluff Body Aerodynamic Noise Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

Aerodynamic noise generated by air-moving devices is a common problem. In this paper, the aerodynamic noise around two-dimensional bluff body flow was simulated by Lattice Boltzmann Method. Utilizing blend radius can reduce the aerodynamic noise around the bluff body notably, and the greater the blend radius, the better the noise reduction effect will be. When the basic shape model is simulated and post-processed, the speed nephogram and the streamline chart of the flow field were obtained. Then Sound Pressure Level (SPL) of some key points was tested. Changing the shape of the bluff body’s vertices to blend radius, the results were compared with those of the basic shape, and the aerodynamic noise was reduced.

Immersed boundary methods for the numerical simulation of incompressible aerodynamics and fluid-structure interactions

In this work three branches of Immersed Boundary Methods (IBM) are described and validated for incompressible aerodynamics and fluid-structure interactions. These three approaches are: Cut Cell method, Vortex-Penalization method and Forcing method. Two first techniques are validated for external bluff-body flows and the last one is used for fluid-structure interactions. The paper confirms the ability of this family of numerical schemes for accurate and robust simulation of incompressible flows.

Influence of Rounded Corners on Flow Interference Due to Square Cylinders Using Immersed Boundary Method

Abstract The influence of rounded corners on the aerodynamic forces and flow interference has been studied in detail for a uniform flow past two side-by-side arranged square cylinders. The Reynolds number (Re) based on the cylinder diameter (D) and free stream velocity (U∞) is 100. Numerical simulations are carried out for seven different transverse gap ratios (T/D), each with a minimum and maximum corner radius. An inbuilt finite difference code with staggered arrangement of flow variables is used to discretize the governing equations. The concept of immersed boundary method (IBM) is employed to simulate flow around rounded corners using the regular Cartesian grids. The computational code was validated for flow past an isolated circular cylinder, square cylinder, and two equal sized circular cylinders and the results were found to be in very good agreement with available literatures. In the present study, results in terms of the mean and rms values of lift and drag coefficients, Strouhal number, phase diagrams, and contours of streamlines and vorticity are presented. As the corner radius is increased, a reduction in the drag force is observed. There exists a significant effect of gap ratio and corner radius on the phase angle of lift and drag coefficients. Three different flow patterns, namely the single bluff body flow, biased gapside flow, and two independent bluff body flows, were observed from this study.

Density ratio effects on reacting bluff-body flow field characteristics

AbstractThe wake characteristics of bluff-body-stabilized flames are a strong function of the density ratio across the flame and the relative offset between the flame and shear layer. This paper describes systematic experimental measurements and stability calculations of the dependence of the flow field characteristics and flame sheet dynamics upon flame density ratio,${\rho }_{u} / {\rho }_{b} $, over the Reynolds number range of 1000–3300. We show that two fundamentally different flame/flow behaviours are observed at high and low${\rho }_{u} / {\rho }_{b} $values: a stable, noise-driven fixed point and limit-cycle oscillations, respectively. These results are interpreted as a transition from convective to global instability and are captured well by stability calculations that used the measured velocity and density profiles as inputs. However, in this high-Reynolds-number flow, the measurements show that no abrupt bifurcation in flow/flame behaviour occurs at a given${\rho }_{u} / {\rho }_{b} $value. Rather, the flow field is highly intermittent in a transitional${\rho }_{u} / {\rho }_{b} $range, with the relative fraction of the two different flow/flame behaviours monotonically varying with${\rho }_{u} / {\rho }_{b} $. This intermittent behaviour is a result of parametric excitation of the global mode growth rate in the vicinity of a supercritical Hopf bifurcation. It is shown that this parametric excitation is due to random fluctuations in relative locations of the flame and shear layer.

Numerical simulation of flow past rectangular cylinders with different aspect ratios using the incompressible lattice Boltzmann method

This paper presents a numerical study of a uniform flow past a rectangular cylinder using the incompressible lattice Boltzmann method (ILBM). Firstly, we use the ILBM to simulate the flow past a square cylinder symmetrically placed in a two-dimensional channel and results are validated against the well-resolved results obtained using finite-difference method and finite-volume method. Secondly, the effects of the aspect ratio defined as R = width/height on the fluid forces, vortex shedding frequency and the flow structures in the wake are investigated. Aspect ratios ranging from 0.15 to 4.00 and four Reynolds numbers Re = 100, 150, 200 and 250 are selected for the investigation. The results show that the effects of aspect ratio on physical quantities such as drag and lift coefficients, Strouhal number and the vortex shedding mechanism are very notable in the range between 0 and 2. In general, the drag coefficient decreases with the aspect ratio and the decreasing rate is more distinct in the range of 0.15 ≤ R ≤ 2.0. There is no local maximum found at around R = 0.6 in the drag coefficient as reported for higher Reynolds numbers in the literature. However the root-mean-square value of the lift coefficient shows a maximum value at R ≈ 0.5 for all Reynolds numbers selected. The variation of Strouhal number with R appears to be different for four selected Reynolds numbers. Especially for Re = 250, a discontinuity in St, as has been observed for higher Reynolds numbers, is observed at around R = 1.45 where multiple peaks are found in the result of Fourier spectrum analysis of the lift force and irregular vortex shedding behavior with no fixed shedding frequency is observed from the instantaneous vorticity contours. Such discontinuity is not observed for Re = 100, 150 and 200. The present results using the LBM are compared with some existing experimental data and numerical studies. The comparison shows that the LBM can capture the characteristics of the bluff body flow well and is a useful tool for bluff body flow studies.