Effect of turbulence modelling on the computation of the near-wake flow of a circular cylinder

Uǧur Oral Ünal*, Mehmet Atlar, Ömer Gören

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

55 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

An evaluation of four well-known Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)-based turbulence models was performed in comparison with the results of a dedicated experimental measurement on the near-wake of a circular cylinder in a large water (cavitation) tunnel using a state-of-the-art two-dimensional Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) device. The turbulence models investigated were Spalart-Allmaras (S-A), Realizable k-ε (RKE), Wilcox k-ω (WKO) and Shear-Stress-Transport k-ω (SST), which were assessed based on their comparative performances in predicting some important flow field characteristics of the near-wake region of the experimental circular cylinder flow. Within the flow range investigated in this study, which implied a cylinder diameter-based Reynolds Number of 41,300, the qualitative and quantitative comparisons revealed that the application of the SST model to the wall-bounded unsteady flow - that experienced severe adverse pressure gradient, massive flow separation and vortex shedding - presents more successful predictions compared to other models investigated for such challenging flow conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)387-399
Number of pages13
JournalOcean Engineering
Volume37
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2010

Keywords

  • Circular cylinder
  • Near-wake flow
  • RANS
  • Turbulence modelling

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