Direct Numerical Simulations of Separated and Separated-Reattaching Flows on Massively Parallel Processing Computers.
Abstract
Direct numerical simulations of separated-reattaching and separated flows have been performed on massively parallel processing computers. Two basic geometrical configurations have been studied: the separated-reattaching flow past a normal flat plate with an attached downstream splitter plate and the separated flow past a flat plate held normal to a uniform stream. A high-order finite-difference formulation on collocated grids has been developed to perform unsteady fluid flow simulations in rectangular geometries. The numerical procedure is based on a fifth-order upwind-biased scheme for the convective terms and a fourth-order accurate stencil for the diffusive terms. A direct solver based on eigenvalue decomposition has been developed for the pressure-Poisson equation. A mixed Fourier spectral /finite difference formulation is used for the spanwise discretization, and a data-parallel algorithm has been developed for the CM-5. The performance of the algorithm has been evaluated on various grid sizes in model flow problems and for different partition sizes. The characteristics of the separated-reattaching flow have been investigated through two-dimensional simulations in the steady and unsteady regimes. The shedding mechanism is characterized by two major modes at Re = 250 and a single mode at Re = 375 and 500. Further, the instability of the separated shear layer is found to be consistent with inviscid theory. For the two-dimensional study of the separated flow past a normal flat plate, the time-mean flow quantities are observed to be over-estimated compared to the experiments. The time-mean drag coefficient is also over-predicted by a factor of up to 2. This is attributed to the high coherence of the vortices predicted by the two-dimensional simulations
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA300740
Entities
People
- Fady M. Najjar
Organizations
- University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign