Numerical Investigation of a 3D Flow Past an Impenetrable Rotating Micro Particle at Low and Moderate Reynolds Numbers

Abstract

Computations are performed to determine the steady 3D viscous fluid flow forces acting on an impenetrable rotating spherical suspended particle at low and moderate Reynolds numbers in the range of . In order to extend the capabilities of the finite volume method, the boundary (body) fitted coordinates (BFC) method is used. Transformation of partial differential equation to algebraic relation is based on the finite volume method and collocated variables arrangement. For solving the obtained algebraic relations, the TDMA in a periodic state is used. To approximate the convective fluxes, the differencing scheme of van leer method is used and SIMPLEC handles the linkage between velocity and pressure. Rotation increases the drag and lift force exerted by flow at the surface of sphere. Using velocity component in Cartesian coordinate causes to slightly decreasing in run time of program with respect to using it in contra-variant and covariant coordinates. The flow Patterns is changed with increasing rotation at x-y plane, but flow at x-y plane remains symmetric. Present numerical results are in complete accord with other results of flow around a rotating sphere.