On the Instability of Two Dimensional Backward-Facing Step Flow using Energy Gradient Method

Abstract

In the present paper, the energy gradient method is implemented to study the instability of 2-D laminar backward-facing step (BFS) flow under different Reynolds numbers and expansion ratios. For this purpose, six different Reynolds numbers (50 ≤ Re ≤ 1000) and two various expansion ratios of 1.9423 and 3 are considered. We compared our results of the present study with existing experimental and numerical data and good agreement is achieved. To study of fluid flow instability, we evaluated the distributions of velocity, vorticity and energy gradient function K. The results of our study show that as the expansion ratio decreases the flow becomes more stable. We also found that the origin of instability in the entire flow field is located on the separated shear layer nearby the step edge. In addition, we approved that the inflection point on the profile of velocity corresponds to the maximum of vorticity resulted to the instability.

Keywords

• Energy gradient; Instability; Backward-facing step flow.