Fluid flow in a cavity driven by an oscillating lid-A simulation by lattice Boltzmann method

The kinetic theory based lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is applied for the simulation of two dimensional fluid flow in a square cavity driven by a periodically oscillating lid. First, the developed code is validated against published works comprising of both numerical simulation and experiment for lid driven cavity flow. Next, the code has been applied for the oscillating lid case to simulate the fluid flow in a cavity for various Reynolds numbers (Re = 100, 400 and 1000) and frequencies of oscillation (omega = 2 pi/6, 4 pi/3, and 2 pi). The development of vortices within the cavity depends strongly on Re and omega. At lower Re and omega, the effect of the lid motion is transferred to the bulk of the fluid in the cavity more effectively. While, at a combination of higher Re and omega only a narrow zone of the fluid body adjacent to the top lid is affected by its motion. Streamline plots provide the details of fluid flow. An increase in Re at a fixed omega, promotes the development of primary, secondary, corner and counter rotating vortices. However, the number of vortices within the cavity diminishes as omega increases. Finally, phase diagrams have been provided to show the periodic nature of the flow phenomenon. (C) 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.