Computation of the Fluid Flow Around Polyhedral Bodies at Low Reynolds Numbers

Abstract

The flow of incompressible fluid around the cube, octahedron and dodecahedron is investigated in the range of Reynolds numbers Red based on the largest polyhedron-width from 50 to 5000 using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The velocity field as well as the drag coefficients obtained in the case of flow around the cube are compared to the results published in the literature by other authors, showing a reasonable agreement. In the steady flow regime the computed drag coefficients of cube agree well with the reference data. A certain discrepancy is found in the time-dependent, transitional flow regime, but the values stay between the computational results and the correlation formulae from the literature. Also beyond the transitional regime, the present results approach those from the literature.