Computational Study of Fluid Flow Past a Blunt Trailing Edge Cylinder

Flow past a two-dimensional D-shaped bluff body is numerically studied. This study uses two turbulence models, the standard k-ε turbulence model and the Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model to simulate the fluid flow inside the computational domain. This study focuses on the pressure distribution on the D-shaped body and the wake region behind the bluff body. Variation of centreline mean velocity, variation of mean velocity profile and the wake half-width in the wake region are also investigated and the results are compared with experimental results available in the literature. The computational fluid dynamics software EASYCFD, which uses a finite-volume based discretization method is chosen to solve the governing equations. The first order upwind method is used to discretize the momentum equations, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulence dissipation rate equations. The Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations-Consistent (SIMPLEC) method is implemented for the pressure velocity interactions. Numerical results show that the two turbulence models perform reasonably well in predicting this complex fluid flow. The drag coefficient of the bluff body has been calculated to be 0.758 and 0.679 using the standard k-ε and the Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence models respectively.