Publication Date

2019

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Shelton, John

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

The lid-driven cavity is a well-known canonical problem in the field of analytical and computational fluid dynamics. It is comprised of a square domain of an incompressible fluid with its upper lid has a specified velocity and the remaining wall boundaries are subjected to fixed, no-slip, zero-velocity constraints. There are numerous examples found in the literature that address the well-known, stable behavior of this system, which includes a primary recirculating vortex, secondary corner vortices, and a velocity profile through the center midpoint y-axis that is shown to be dependent on the Reynolds number. In this investigation, the shape of the square cavity is modified into an annular wedge-shaped cavity (W-LDC) with the varying center angle and its fluid behavior is analyzed numerically over a range of Reynolds numbers 100, 400 and 1000. The primary and secondary vortices these W-LDCs of different wedge angles and different lid lengths provide a benchmark for comparison with the square lid-driven cavity. In order to obtain these results, an open-source CFD software called OpenFOAM is used to solve the Navier-Stokes equations using the PISO algorithm. A grid- independent study was performed that determined an optimal grid size of 240*240 cells in both the radial and angular directions. An optimal simulation time study was also carried out that checked the minimum Stream Function value (Ψmin) for an enough calculated simulation time. The purpose of these studies and analyses will aid in the future findings of stable flow structures and how the vortexes are formed in an annular wedge-shaped cavity and will aid in the future findings of advantageous methodologies to determine the flow characterization of drilling mud

Extent

63 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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