LAB ORIENTED PROJECT REPORT

By

Pranav Natu 2015A4PS0320G

Shilpan Shukla 2015A4PS0329G
Anurag Rallapalli 2015A4PS0220G
Jayesh Mahajan 2015A4PS0331G
Submitted to:

Dr. Shibu Clement

5th May 2018

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sr no Title Page
no

1 Abstract 2
2 Simulation of Flow over a Cylinder 3
3 Simulation of Flow over a Rotating Cylinder 6
4 Velocity Deficit Decay Study 10
5 Conclusion 20
6 References 20

1
 ABSTRACT

In this piece of study, we perform two simulations; one for simulation of air flow
over a fixed circular cylinder and for the other, we use a rotating cylinder. The aim
of this simulation was to firstly, to study the drag coefficient for a fixed cylinder
taking into account different reynolds numbers for flow and then comparing them to
the experimental values as obtained in literature. Once this was obtained, second
simulation on flow over a rotating circular cylinder was performed and velocity and
pressure plots were studied at the steady state. The second part of the project was
focused in the wake region and the relation between velocity deficit decay and the
distance from the cylinder​( i.e. x)​ downstream the flow were studied. Further,
experimental data was used to verify the relation between velocity deficit decay and
x ​as obtained from literature.

2
Simulation of Flow over a Circular Cylinder
The simulation of the flow over a cylinder was done in ANSYS Fluent 13.0 with
parameters similar to the experiment performed in the wind tunnel.

Geometry
The diameter of the cylinder was taken as 0.07 m and the dimensions of the test
section were taken as 4m X 1m.

Meshing
All Triangles method was used for meshing the flow around the cylinder.
Edge sizing was used for the flow on the edge of the cylinder with element size of
0.0001 m. First Layer Thickness inflation was used with a height of 0.001 m and
growth rate of 2.5 and with 50 maximum layers.

3
Details of the Analysis
A 2D Planar Transient Analysis was done with the size of time step as
0.01s and 250 timesteps The model used for the simulation was viscous standard K
-omega model. The boundary conditions for the cylinder were taken as stationary
wall and with specified shear.
The density of the fluid was assumed to be 1.16 kg/m^3 and the viscosity as
1.86X10^-5 kg/m-s. The material of the cylinder was taken as FRP with density as
2000 kg/m^3.
The SIMPLE scheme was used to solve the equations. The simulation was
done for Reynolds number of 10000,19000 and 37000

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The coefficient of drag was observed to be 1.25 for all the Reynolds number which
was in accordance with published literature.

5
Simulation of Flow over a Rotating Circular Cylinder

The simulation of the flow over a cylinder was done in ANSYS Fluent 13.0 with
parameters similar to the experiment performed in the wind tunnel.

Geometry
The diameter of the cylinder was taken as 0.07 m and the dimensions of the test
section were taken as a shown below radius of semi circle is 500mm and trailing
length is 700 mm

Meshing
All Triangles method was used for meshing the flow around the cylinder.
Edge sizing was used for the flow on the edge of the cylinder with element size of
0.001 m. adaptive meshing was used with smaller mesh size at the circumference
of the rotating cylinder and a medium mesh size of 0.01m at distance

6
Details of the Analysis
A 2D Planar Transient Analysis was done with the size of time step as
0.005s and 200 timesteps The model used for the simulation was viscous standard
K -omega model. The boundary conditions for the cylinder were taken as
stationary wall and with no slip condition.
The density of the fluid was assumed to be 1.16 kg/m^3 and the viscosity as
1.86X10^-5 kg/m-s. The material of the cylinder was taken as FRP with density as
2000 kg/m^3.
The velocity of flow was measured to 10m/s and cylinder was rotated at 300
rpm.
Velocity profile at the end of the process is given below
Velocity
Initial Final (steady state)

Initial final

7
Pressure
initial Final (steady state)

Velocity
Velocity at 5 cm in the wake region of the rotating cylinder from y =-50 to +50 cm

8
Velocity at 10 cm in the wake region of the rotating cylinder

Velocity at 15 cm in the wake region of the rotating cylinder

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Results
Velocity in the wake region is achieved from the simulation resembles the
theoretical velocity with an error margin 0f 3% and also coincide much with the
practical practical data obtained for LDV
x= 5mm form the end at y=0 v= -2.36m/s
x= 10mm form the end at y=0 v= 10.13m/s
x= 15mm form the end at y=0 v= 9.38 m/s
1st case shows a reverse flow due to -ve pressure gradient and vortices generated
due to it.
Velocity in evens out with the boundary layer later in the flow.

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 Velocity Deficit Decay

The flow past a circular cylinder causes a vorticity shed from the surface, which
creates a velocity deficit downstream, whose maximum amplitude decays
downstream as the wake spreads.

It is important to understand how quickly the velocity deficit behind these

structures decays with distance or time, as this largely controls how close energy
extracting devices can be placed in tidal streams, and also the persistence of
wake signatures from ships, submarines and aircraft.

The level of ambient turbulence for this study is low on the near wake structure.
However, there are many environmental flows where turbulence levels are quite
high, for example tidal streams exhibit turbulence intensities exceeding 20%.

The experimental results were then compared to the simulation results (section 1)
of velocity profile distribution.

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Mathematical model

The time-averaged drag force can be expressed in terms of a drag coefficient, i.e.

(1)

where C​D​ is the mean drag coefficient, which includes the effect of ambient
turbulence wherever relevant; for a cylinder the time-averaged lift force is zero.
The use of the momentum flux in the mean flow downstream of the body to
estimate the force requires the contribution of the pressure gradient in the wake to
be negligible. This gives,

(2)

When the velocity deficit is sufficiently weak, Equation (6) reduces to the
well-known Betz formula

(3)

In this laminar viscous regime, the wake width, ​y​w​, increases due to diffusion,
where,

(3b)

Which gives,

(3c)

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Non-turbulent ambient flow

The characteristics of the wake flow depend on whether it is laminar, unsteady or

turbulent. The wake width, ​y​w​, is defined as the distance from the centreline where
the velocity deficit has decayed to ​e-1/2​
​ of its maximum value. Associated with the
wake is a Reynolds number based on the velocity deficit, defined as -

The characteristic velocity profile downstream will be -

Fig.1 General schematic of a cylinder in an incident flow

for this analysis, illustrated for large Reynolds number (ambient turbulence is negligible).

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The relationship between the velocity deficit and wake width is established by
determining the similarity solution satisfying

as

and the integral constraint, i.e Equation (3), to give

(4)

Where,

(5)

From Equations (11) and (3c), the maximum (centreline) velocity deficit decays
with distance downstream as

(6)

Where,

(7)

Now, reforming Equation (6) into terms of ‘u’,

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This gives,

(8)

Thus, the nature of the curve (u/U) vs (x/D) is given by Equation (8).

Experimental setup and methodology

The experiment was conducted in a ​low speed wind tunnel​ at ​BITS Pilani K. K.
Birla Goa Campus​, with readings taken from ​laser doppler velocimetry (LDV)​.

The freestream velocity for this set of readings was calculated to be, downstream
6.9824 m/s and upstream 5.923 m/s with the Reynolds number coming out to be
21847 (downstream). Diameter of the circular cylinder D = 50mm.
The simulation was done under parameters similar to the wind tunnel with
freestream velocity set to be 7 m/s.

The circular cylinder is fixed in the test section of the wind tunnel and readings
taken at a particular rpm with the LDV. Seeding was done using a mixture of
glycerol and water.

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Experimental results

Fig.2 normalized streamwise velocity distribution upstream of the circular cylinder at x = 150mm w.r.t. (Y/D)

The mean upstream velocity is calculated to be 5.932 m/s.

The following will be a comparison between the simulation results and the
experimental data gathered.

Due to multiple issues, we were only able to collect 3 runs, velocity profiles at
different positions of x (50mm, 100mm, 150mm) downstream.

Values of y ranging from -75mm to 75mm.

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Fig.3 Normalized streamwise velocity deficit profile at x = 50mm downstream

Fig.4 Simulation velocity profile at x = 50mm downstream

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Fig.5 Normalized streamwise velocity deficit profile at x = 100mm downstream

Fig.6 Simulation velocity profile at x = 100mm downstream

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Fig.7 Normalized streamwise velocity deficit profile at x = 150mm downstream

Fig.8 Simulation velocity profile at x = 150mm downstream

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The above results show the similarity between the nature of the curve of simulation
and the experimental data.

The differences are attributed towards various factors that affect the observations
in the actual experiment. These include random errors, machine calibration faults,
changes in environmental conditions etc.

As is clearly visible from the experimental results, the velocity deficit profile starts
to decrease as we go downstream. This is also confirmed in the simulation. The
wake width also grows as we go downstream.

Fig.9 Variation of normalized streamwise velocity downstream along the centreline

This curve has a nature similar to Equation (8).

Thus, the nature of velocity deficit decay is proportional to x​-½​ .

Further investigations into turbulent studies will show that, the case is similar to
non-turbulent cases.

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 Conclusion

The results obtained were well comparable to what was obtained from the literature
and also from the experiment performed on the wind tunnel.

For non turbulent flow, the velocity deficit decay downstream the flow, for a
cylinder is proportional to ​x​½​, where ​x​ is the distance downstream of the cylinder
keeping other parameter same.

Reference
[1]G.K. Batchelor,An Introduction to Fluid Mechanics, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge,UK, 1967.
[2]Eames , C. Jonsson & P. B. Johnson (2011) The growth of a cylinder wake in
turbulent flow, Journal of Turbulence, 12, N39,
DOI:10.1080/14685248.2011.619985

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