Syed Fahad Anwer

Natural convection in a bottom heated horizontal cylinder

In this work a numerical investigation of two-dimensional steady and unsteady natural convection in a circular enclosure whose lower half is nonuniformly heated and upper half is maintained at a constant lower temperature has been carried out. An explicit finite difference method on a nonstaggered rectangular grid is used to solve the momentum and energy equations subject to Boussinesq approximation. The study is carried out for a range of Rayleigh number (Ra) varying between 102 and 106 at a fixed Prandtl number (Pr) taken as 0.71. The numerical experiments reveal that for Ra⩽8500, the flow always attains a steady state. In the steady regime, at very low Rayleigh numbers (Ra<300), it is shown that the velocity field is very weak and the heat transfer is predominantly by conduction. A series solution for the temperature field obtained by neglecting the fluid velocities is shown to agree well with the computed data for Ra<300. The convection takes place in the form of two cells with their interface aligned...

Extension of SMAC scheme for variable density flows under strong temperature gradient

An extension of SMAC scheme is proposed for variable density flows under low Mach number approximation. The algorithm is based on a predictor-corrector time integration scheme that employs a projection method for the momentum equation. A constant-coefficient Poisson equation is solved for the pressure following both the predictor and corrector steps to satisfy the continuity equation at each time step. Spatial discretization is performed on a collocated grid system that offers computational simplicity and straight forward extension to curvilinear coordinate systems. To avoid the pressure odd-even decoupling that is typically encountered in such grids, a flux interpolation technique is introduced for the equations governing variable density flows. An important characteristic of the proposed algorithm is that it can be applied to flows in both open and closed domains. Its robustness and accuracy are illustrated with a non-isothermal, turbulent channel flow at temperature ratio of 1.01 and 2.

LES of Stably Stratified Flow with Varying Thermophysical Properties

Large eddy simulations of stably stratified, turbulent channel flow subjected to a large temperature gradient have been performed by considering a broad spectrum of stratification. Due to a large thermal gradient across the channel, temperature-dependent fluid properties like viscosity (µ), density (ρ), and thermal conductivity (κ) are considered as variables. With increased stratification, a cluster of laminar patches appears in the near-wall region, and turbulent momentum and buoyancy fluxes are suppressed drastically in the core of the channel due to the formation of internal gravity waves. Variable viscosity results in flow relaminarization on the hot side of the channel (where viscosity is higher). Density tends to stablize the flow by blocking the upward movement of thermal plumes, while thermal conductivity pays the toll for viscosity at high Reynolds number. A mechanistic model for wall heat transfer is developed for buoyancy-effected flows. We have observed qualitatively and quantitatively the pronounced modifications in turbulent structure and flow statistics.

Phenomenological and statistical analyses of turbulence in forced convection with temperature-dependent viscosity under non-Boussinesq condition

In this work, Thermal Large Eddy Simulation (TLES) is performed to study the behavior of weakly compressible Newtonian fluids with anisotropic temperature-dependent viscosity in forced convection turbulent flow. A systematic analysis of variable-viscosity effects, isolated from gravity, with relevance to industrial cooling/heating applications is being carried out. A LES of a planar channel flow with significant heat transfer at a low Mach number was performed to study effects of fluid property variation on the near-wall turbulence structure. In this flow configuration the top wall is maintained at a higher temperature (Thot) than the bottom wall (Tcold). The temperature ratio (Rθ = Thot/Tcold) is fixed at 1.01, 2 and 3 to study the effects of property variations at low Mach number. Results indicate that average and turbulent fields undergo significant changes. Compared with isothermal flow with constant viscosity, we observe that turbulence is enhanced in the cold side of the channel, characterized by locally lower viscosity whereas a decrease of turbulent kinetic energy is found at the hot wall. The turbulent structures near the cold wall are very short and densely populated vortices but near the hot wall there seems to be a long streaky structure or large elongated vortices. Spectral study reveals that turbulence is completely suppressed at the hot side of the channel at a large temperature ratio because no inertial zone is obtained (i.e. index of Kolmogorov scaling law is zero) from the spectra in these region.Graphical abstract

Peculiar Behavior of Thermally Stratified Channel Flow Under Non-Boussinesq Condition

Buoyancy affected turbulent flow in a channel is numerically simulated via LES, subjected to large temperature gradient. Temperature dependent fluid properties like viscosity (µ) and thermal conductivity (κ) considered as variable as Boussinesq assumption fails to capture the insight physics. With increased stratification, turbulent momentum and buoyancy fluxes decreased at an alarming rate in the core of the channel due to the formation of some wave like structures (IGW). The most striking feature produced by the temperature dependence of viscosity is flow relaminarization on the hot side of the channel (where viscosity is higher) and movement of IGW from core to hot side. Pronounced modifications in turbulent structure are observed qualitatively and quantitatively, and the deviation in the behavior is due to the non-Boussinesq assumption.