EVALUATION OF TURBULENCE MODELS FOR FLOW OVER A HEATED CIRCULAR CYLINDER

The present study aims to assess the applicability of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations for the simulation of non-isothermal flow over circular cylinder. Study is carried out for a Reynolds number (Re) of 3000 using open source software OpenFOAM. In this study, performance of two RANS models, k - epsilon and k - omega SST, are evaluated in term of flow and heat transfer parameters such as pressure coefficient (Cp) and Nusselt number (Nu). These parameters are compared with the experimental results available in literature and also with the LES study performed using dynamic k-equation model. From the study it was found that, the RANS models are able to capture the flow parameter well but are not able to capture the temperature gradient correctly at the wall which was captured by the LES correctly. Among the two RANS models, the k - omega SST shows better match with LES results compared to the k - epsilon model.