Numerical Simulation of the Incompressible Laminar Flow Over a Square Cylinder

Simulation of fluid flow over a square cylinder can be performed in order to understand the physics of theflow over bluff bodies. In the current study, incompressible laminar flow over a confined square cylinder,with variable blockage factor has been simulated numerically, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).The focus has been on vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of the cylinder. Vorticity-stream function formulationof the governing equation has been used and the equations have been discretized using finite differencemethod (FDM). Different flow analyses have been conducted based on various Reynolds numbers. Theresults show that, as the blockage factor increases, the vortex wakes detach from the cylinder at higherReynolds numbers and therefore , the channel walls have a suppressing effect on vortex-induced vibration. Inorder to ensure the validity of the developed code, incompressible Couette flow has been modeled using thecode, and the results have been compared against the analytical solutions with good agreement