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Large eddy simulation of turbulent flow over a cactus-analogue grooved cylinder

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Abstract

The turbulent flow over a cactus-analogue grooved cylinder at a Reynolds number of 5.4 × 104 was investigated using large eddy simulation integrated in OpenFOAM, with particular emphasis on the flow within grooves and its effect on the near wake immediately behind the cylinder. The baseline configuration of a smooth cylinder was examined for comparison. The wall-pressure fluctuation intensity, wall-pressure spectra, and time-averaged velocity field were in favorable agreement with previous experimental measurements. The fluctuation intensity of the lift coefficient for the cactus-analogue grooved cylinder was approximately 50 % less than for the smooth one. Different flow regions around the cylinder were selected for the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis, with a view to elucidating the production of the fine vortices by the grooves and their coupling with the dynamics of the near wake. Taking the correlation of the first two POD mode coefficients as the phase indicator, the phase-dependent variations of the flow fields and wall-pressure fluctuations were determined. Finally, the POD analysis of the three-dimensional velocity fields confirmed that the vortical structure on the spanwise direction for the grooved cylinder was more scattered and irregular.

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Abbreviations

a i :

Coefficient of the POD mode i

A :

Reference area of the cylinder

C L :

Dimensionless lift coefficient

C s :

Smagorinsky coefficient

D :

Diameter of cylinder

l s :

\(C_{\text{s}} \Delta\)

L :

Cavity depth

f :

Frequency

F y :

Transverse force acting on the surface of the cylinder

p :

Instantaneous pressure

\(p_{\text{RMS}}^{'}\) :

RMS of instantaneous pressure fluctuation

\(\overline{S}_{ij}\) :

Rate-of-stain tensor

t :

Time

u x :

Component of instantaneous velocity

u i :

i Component of instantaneous velocity

\(u_{\text{RMS}}^{'}\) :

RMS of streamwise velocity fluctuation

\(U_{0}\) :

Free-stream velocity

\(v\) :

y component of instantaneous velocity

\(w\) :

z component of instantaneous velocity

y :

Cell-to-wall distance

y + :

Non-dimensional wall-distance

\(\delta_{ij}\) :

Kronecker delta

\(\Delta\) :

Grid scale, \(\left( {\Delta_{1} \Delta_{2} \Delta_{3} } \right)^{{{1 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {1 3}} \right. \kern-0pt} 3}}}\)

\(\Delta t\) :

Time step

\(\theta\) :

Angle defined in the coordinate system

\(\lambda_{i}\) :

Eigenvalue of the POD mode i

\(\nu\) :

Kinematic viscosity

\(\nu_{\text{t}}\) :

Turbulent kinematic viscosity

ρ :

Density

\(\tau_{ij}\) :

Sub-grid scale residual stress tensor

GAMG:

Generalized geometric-algebraic multi-grid

HPC:

High-performance computing

LES:

Large eddy simulation

LIC:

Line integral convolution

LUST:

Linear-upwind stabilized transport

PIMPLE:

Merged PISO-SIMPLE

POD:

Proper orthogonal decomposition

RANS:

Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes

RMS:

Root mean square

SGS:

Sub-grid scale

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support for this study from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51176108 and 11372189). Additionally, the authors would like to thank the Center for High Performance Computing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University for providing the HPC computational resources and useful technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Lab of Education Ministry for Power Machinery and Engineering and Gas Turbine Research Institute, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800, Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Hongen Jie & Ying Zheng Liu

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  1. Hongen Jie
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  2. Ying Zheng Liu
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Correspondence to Ying Zheng Liu.

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Jie, H., Liu, Y.Z. Large eddy simulation of turbulent flow over a cactus-analogue grooved cylinder. J Vis 19, 61–78 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12650-015-0294-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12650-015-0294-x

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