Flow Around a Cylinder

A well known benchmark, test, and validation problem suite for incompressible fluid flows are
the DFG cylinder benchmark problems. Although it is not possible to derive analytical solutions
to these test cases, accurate numerical solutions to benchmark reference quantities have been
established for a number of configurations [1], [2].

The test configuration used in the following places a solid cylinder centered at (0.2, 0.2) with
diameter D=0.1 in a L=2.2 by H=0.41 rectangular channel. The fluid density ρ is taken
as 1 and the viscosity μ is 0.001. A fully developed parabolic velocity profile is prescribed at
the inlet, uinflow=u(0,y)=4UmaxH−2(y(H−y),0), with the maximum velocity Umax=0.3. This
results in a mean velocity Umean=0.2 and a Reynolds number Re=ρUmeanD/μ=20 and thus
the flow field will be laminar.

As the fluid is considered incompressible the problem is governed by the Navier-Stokes

equations. That is,

⎧⎩⎨⎪⎪ρ(∂u∂t+(u⋅∇)u)−∇⋅(μ(∇u+∇uT))+p∇⋅u=F=0

where in this case the time dependent term can be neglected. The benchmark quantities that
should be computed include the pressure difference between the front and rear of the
cylinder Δp=p(0.15,0.2)−−p(0.25,0.2), and the coefficients of drag cd and lift cl, defined as

cd=2FdρU2meanD,cl=2FlρU2meanD

The drag and lift forces, Fd and Fl, can be computed as

Fd=∫S(μ∂uτ(t)∂nny−pnx)dS,Fl=−∫S(μ∂uτ(t)∂nnx+pny)dS

where uτ is the velocity in the tangential direction τ=(ny,−nx,0)T.

Tutorial
This model is available as an automated tutorial by selecting Model Examples and
Tutorials... > Fluid Dynamics > Flow Around a Cylinder from the File menu. Or
alternatively, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

1. To start a new model click the New Model toolbar button, or select New Model... from
the File menu.
2. Select the 2D radio button.

3. Select the Navier-Stokes Equations physics mode from the Select Physics drop-down
menu.

4. Press OK to finish the physics mode selection.

5. To create a rectangle, first click on the Create square/rectangle Toolbar button. Then left
click in the main plot axes window, and hold down the mouse button. Move the mouse
pointer to draw the shape outline, and release the button to finalize the shape.
6. Select R1 in the geometry object Selection list box.

7. To modify and edit the selected rectangle, click on the Inspect/edit selected geometry
object Toolbar button to open the Edit Geometry Object dialog box.

8. In the Edit Geometry Object dialog box, edit the minimum and maximum coordinates to
define a rectangle with length 2.2 and height 0.41 . Finish editing the geometry object and
close the dialog box by clicking OK.
9. To create a circle or ellipse, first click on the Create circle/ellipse Toolbar button. Then left
click in the main plot axes window, and hold down the mouse button. Move the mouse
pointer to draw the shape outline, and release the button to finalize the shape.

10. Select E1 in the geometry object Selection list box.

11. To modify and edit the selected ellipse, click on the Inspect/edit selected geometry
object Toolbar button to open the Edit Geometry Object dialog box.

12. In the Edit Geometry Object dialog box change the center coordinates to 0.2 0.2 , and
the x and y radius 0.05 in the corresponding edit fields. Finish editing E1 and close the
dialog box by clicking OK.
1. To subtract the circle from the rectangle first select both geometry objects by clicking on
them so both are highlighted in red, and then click on the - / Subtract geometry
objects button. (Alternatively, if the circle is obscured by the rectangle they can be selected
by holding the Ctrl key while clicking on the labels R1 and E1 in the Selection list box, or in
this case simply pressing Ctrl + a to select all objects).
2. Switch to Grid mode by clicking on the corresponding Mode Toolbar button.

The default grid may be too coarse ensure an accurate solution. Decrease the grid size to
generate a finer grid that better can resolve the curved boundary.

1. Enter 0.02 into the Grid Size edit field, and press the Generate button to call the grid
generation algorithm.
2. Switch to Equation mode by clicking on the corresponding Mode Toolbar button.

3. In the Equation Settings dialog box that automatically opens, set the density to 1 and
viscosity to 0.001 in the corresponding edit fields. The other coefficients can be left to their
zero default values. Press OK to finish and close the dialog box.
4. Press the Constants Toolbar button, or select the corresponding entry from
the Equation menu, to open the Model Constants and Expressions dialog box. Enter the
following expressions for the fluid parameters, inlet velocity, force, and drag coefficient.
Press Enter after the last expression or use the Add Row button to expand the expression
list.

Name Expression

h 0.41

diam 0.1

rho 1

miu 0.001

umax 0.3

umean 2/3*umax

fx nx*p+miu*(-2*nx*ux-ny*(uy+vx))
 cd 2*fx/(rho*umean^2*diam)

1. Switch to Boundary mode by clicking on the corresponding Mode Toolbar button.

2. In the Boundary Settings dialog box, first select all boundaries except for the right outflow
and left inflow (numbers 1, 3, and 5-8) in the left hand side Boundaries selection list box, and
select the Wall/no-slip boundary condition from the drop-down menu.

3. Select the right outflow boundary (number 2) and select the Outflow/pressure boundary
condition from the drop-down menu (alternatively one can prescribe the Neutral
outflow/stress boundary condition).
4. Lastly select the left inflow boundary (number 4) and select the Inlet/velocity boundary
condition from the drop-down menu. To specify a parabolic velocity profile enter the
expression 4*umax*y*(h-y)/h^2 in the edit field for the velocity coefficient in the x-
direction, u0. Press OK to finish the boundary condition specification.
5. Now that the problem is fully specified, press the Solve Mode Toolbar button to switch to
solve mode. Then press the = Tool button to call the solver with the default solver settings.

After the problem has been solved FEATool will automatically switch to postprocessing mode
and display the computed velocity field.

1. Press the Plot Options Toolbar button.

2. Select the Contour Plot check box.

3. Select Pressure from the Predefined contour plot expressions drop-down menu.

4. Select the Arrow Plot check box.

5. Press OK to plot and visualize the selected postprocessing options.

6. To calculate the drag coefficient. Select Boundary Integration... from the Post menu. In
the Boundary Integration dialog box, select the boundaries which make up the circle
(numbers 5-8) in the left hand side Boundaries selection list box. Then enter the name for the
previously defined expression for the drag coefficient, cd , in to the Integration
Expression edit field. Press the OK or Apply button to show the result in the lower Integration
Result frame as well as in the Command Log message window.
The computed drag coefficient is 5.3 which is close to the reference value of 5.5795. To get a
closer result one could use a finer grid along the cylinder boundary, as well as higher order
elements which yield higher accuracy for quantities involving derivatives (as the force terms
here do).

Similar to the drag one can compute the lift coefficient defining fy as ny*p+miu*(-
nx*(uy+vx)-2*ny*vy) , and cl = 2*fy/(rho*umean^2*diam) . And the pressure difference
can be computed by directly evaluating the pressure at the front and back of the cylinder with
the Point/Line Evaluation functionality, and computing the difference.

The flow around a cylinder fluid dynamics model has now been completed and can be saved
as a binary (.fea) model file, or exported as a programmable MATLAB m-script text file, or GUI
script (.fes) file.
Instationary Flow
In addition to the stationary test case described above. An instationary benchmark test case is
also available (ex_navierstokes6). This test case uses the same geometry but instead applies
an inflow condition that varies with time uinflow = 6·sin(π·t/8)·(y·(0.41-y))/0.412 so that 0 < Re(t)
< 100 [3]. Computations with FEATool show that the drag and lift coefficients, and pressure
difference between front and rear of the cylinder agrees very well with the reference values [4].

References
[1] Nabh G. On higher order methods for the stationary incompressible Navier-Stokes
equations. PhD Thesis, Universität Heidelberg, Preprint 42/98, 1998.

[2] John V, Matthies G. Higher-order finite element discretizations in a benchmark problem for
incompressible flows. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, 37(8):885–903,
2001.

[3] John V. Reference values for drag and lift of a two-dimensional time-dependent flow around
a cylinder. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, 44:777-788, 2004.

[4] John V, Rang J. Adaptive time step control for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations.
Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 199 (2010) 514–524.