AIM- To setup flow over backward facing step

For three different mesh sizes

GEOMETRY DIMENSIONS-For the given standard geometry by

Skill-Lync

mesh_1--dx=dy=dz=2e-3;

mesh_2--dx=dy=dz=1.5e-3;
mesh_3--dx=dy=dz=1e-3;

Pressure Contour animation

Link to the video-(https://youtu.be/qwzMEQMxaFY)

Velocity Contour animation

Link to the video-(https://youtu.be/C0BJgMMMz9E)

Comparative plots

Mass Flow rate-

Comment-The mass flow rate at inlet is seen to be negative and at outlet is

positive but both have same numerical value(has negligible deviations),the
signs only signify the directions i.e amount of fluid entering the control
volume is equal to amount of fluid leaving the control volume,Hence
conservation of mass .The mass flow rate plots at inlet and outlet are
mirror images(with small deviations) for their respective mesh sizes.
Pressure-INLET

Mesh_3

Comment-The given pressure at inlet is the Total

Pressure(110235pa),

Total Pressure=Static pressure +Dynamic pressure

It can be observed that Static pressure starts to reduce while

Dynamic pressure increases, from this it can be understood

that the potential energy of the fluid is converted into kinetic
energy so the fluid flows and this is because of the existence of
pressure gradient between inlet and outlet.

Mesh_2-

Mesh_1-
Note-The plot in all three cases is converged around 2100
cycles.

PRESSURE-OUTLET

Mesh_3-

Comment-The pressure defined at outlet is Static

Pressure(101235 pa),so from the plot it can be seen that static
pressure is constant and the dynamic pressure has been
reduced(11682pa to 2322.6pa) compared to inlet which means
that the fluid is retarding(refer velocity plot for better
understanding) around the regions near outlet,i.e the retarding
fluid particles contribute to static pressure but yet still some
particles posses kinetic energy and flow is reflected by dynamic
pressure.Therefore the total pressure increases(103558pa).

Mesh_2-
Mesh_1-

Velocity plots

INLET

The velocity magnitude at inlet found to be 140m/s which is

quite high

This might be because of

 small inlet cross-section

 High pressure gradient

OUTLET
The velocity at outlet found to be 60m/s which is 57.142%

Lesser compared to inlet,so this loss in velocity is converted to

potential energy contributing to static pressure.

CELL COUNT

Mesh_3-5786

Mesh_2-3178

Mesh_1-1973

Physics Of Flow in Backward Facing Step

The flow over this geometry is of most important because there

is lot of experimental data available on this,

This is a benchmarking problem used to evaluate the turbulence

models and performance of computational methods.
The vector plot of the BFS region is shown below:

Link to the
video-(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U-Fsb79JsFsBqvZR-
8rGE97rTwhU9iHx/view?usp=sharing)

The Flow separation-The separation is due to the fact that

when flow suddenly encounters the increased cross section an
Adverse Pressure Gradient exists so the flow starts to
separate along the length and the vortices starts to form at the
edge and propagates towards the bottom wall, but also triggers
vortex formation around it.
The Flow Re-Circulation-Flow re-circulation is mainly due to the
vortices formation and propagation towards the step so there is
a local region at the step where vortices exist and re-joins the
flow. The re-circulation velocity magnitude is lower compared to
mainstream velocity.In certain cases there would be vortex
shedding at the separation length propagating towards outlet
face.

NOTE-The flow separation length is different for different

dimensions of BFS and it is also dependant on reynolds number.

The Non-Dimensional number “strouhal number”

For given fluid and given step height the vortex shedding
frequency is directly proportional to the velocity of the
fluid(faster the fluid flow,faster is the shedding of vortex)

And the vortex size is inversely proportional to the velocity

(higher the fluid velocity,smaller the vortex size formed and

vice versa)

Strouhal Number- St=((f*L)/V)

Where f-frequency of vortex shedding

L-Length of the Step

V-Fluid flow velocity