The influence of numerical models on determining the drag coefficient

Abstract

The paper deals with numerical modelling of body aerodynamic drag coefficient in the transition from laminar to turbulent flow regimes, where the selection of a suitable numerical model is problematic. On the basic problem of flow around a simple body-sphere selected computational models are tested. The values obtained by numerical simulations of drag coefficients of each model are compared with the graph of dependency of the drag coefficient vs. Reynolds number for a sphere. Next the dependency of Strouhal number vs. Reynolds number is evaluated, where the vortex shedding frequency values for given speed are obtained numerically and experimentally and then the values are compared for each numerical model and experiment. The aim is to specify trends for the selection of appropriate numerical model for flow around bodies problem in which the precise description of the flow field around the obstacle is used to define the acoustic noise source. Numerical modelling is performed by finite volume method using CFD code. © 2014 EDP Sciences.