Two Dimensional flow of Shear Thinning Fluid Around A Circular Cylinder

Abstract

The Present Research work is done on the domain of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The entire work is done in the FLUENT component of ANSYS. The study of flow property has been divided into three phases. The first phase was getting familiar with the software ANSYS-FLUENT and learning its application and utility on the problem of a lid-driven square cavity. The work was done for both Newtonian (n=1) and shear-thinning NonNewtonian fluid (n=0.5) fluid flow for a set of Reynolds numbers (100<Re<10,000). The flow was incompressible and in Laminar Regime. The next phase of the work was to study the problem in hand, i.e., flow past a circular cylinder for a square domain in a steady state condition to determine the value of dragcoefficient. The flow was taken to be incompressible and in the laminar region. Here the fluid considered was both Newtonian (n=1) and Non-Newtonian (n=0.6 and n=0.8). The values of the drag-coefficient obtained were validated from the literature. Then the final task was to test the laminar incompressible fluid flow around circular cylinder for a unsteady state condition and a bit more complicated geometry, i.e., an interim between square and circular geometry for a Newtonian and a Non-Newtonian fluid (n=0.5). The study was done by varying the Reynolds number (60<Re<100). The values of average drag-coefficient, Root Mean Square value of lift-coefficient and Strouhal Number was plotted versus the considered Reynolds Number range. The flow pattern in an unsteady laminar incompressible flow was also studied