VMFL036

VMFL036
Laminar Flow Past Sphere

Overview

Reference	Mittal, R. (1999). A Fourier-Chebyshev spectral collocation method for simulating flow past spheres and spheroids. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, 30 (7). Tabata, M. & Itakura, K. (1998). A precise computation of drag coefficients of a sphere. International Journal of Computational Fluid Dynamics, 9 (3-4).
Solver	Ansys Fluent
Physics/Models	Laminar Flow
Input File	`VMFL036_FLUENT.cas.h5`
Project Files	Link to Project Files Download Page

Test Case

To verify that FLUENT can capture the flow regime in wake and flow separation where a sphere is immersed in the flow. The forces computed on the sphere wall surface are compared with the literature.

Figure 93: Flow Domain

Material Properties	Geometry	Boundary Conditions
Density: 1 kg/m³ Viscosity: 0.02 kg/m-s	A section of the spherical geometry is modeled in 2D with axisymmetric boundary conditions. The sphere diameter is 1 m, and the circular fluid domain around the sphere has a radius of 50 D.	Inlet Velocity = 1 m/s

Material Properties

Geometry

Boundary Conditions

Density: 1 kg/m³

Viscosity: 0.02 kg/m-s

A section of the spherical geometry is modeled in 2D with axisymmetric boundary conditions. The sphere diameter is 1 m, and the circular fluid domain around the sphere has a radius of 50 D.

Inlet Velocity = 1 m/s

Analysis Assumptions and Modeling Notes

Flow is laminar and steady.

Results Comparison for Ansys Fluent

Table 29: Comparison of Drag Coefficient

	Target	Ansys Fluent	Ratio
Drag Coefficient	1.0895	1.0875	0.998