Open Access

ARTICLE

Parametric Study of a Pitching Flat Plate at Low Reynolds Numbers

by

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, U.S.A

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2011, 72(1), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmes.2011.072.001

Abstract

In this paper we simulate the unsteady, incompressible, and laminar flow behavior over a flat plate with round leading and trailing edges. A pressure-Poisson method is used to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Both convection and diffusion terms are discretized using a second-order accurate central difference method. A second-order accurate split-step scheme with an Adam's predictor corrector time-stepping method is adopted for the time integration. An overlapping moving grid approach is employed to dynamically update the grid due to the plate motion. The effects of the pitch rate, Reynolds number, location of pitch axis, and computational domain size are investigated. Comparisons are made with experimental results.

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