Flow past a bluff body subjected to lower subcritical Reynolds number

Abstract

The paper aimed to study the flow structure at the wake of the bluff body with altered blockage ratio (BR) keeping the fixed aspect ratio (AR). The study was conducted by a finite volume technique using commercial software Ansys-Fluent. The CFD analysis of the bluff body is mainly subjected to the lower subcritical Reynolds number range (5000 to 15,000) along with blockage ratio as an important factor. The flow parameters such as drag coefficient, pressure, and kinetic energy variations are analyzed here for the Reynolds number (Re) and BR. It was observed that at fixed Re, the drag coefficient (CD) increases with an increase in the BR while decrease with increasing Re for a fixed value of BR.