Comparison of Five Two-Equation Turbulence Models for Calculation of Flow in 90° Curved Rectangular Ducts

This paper presents a comparative study of five most widely used two-equation turbulence models in predicting the developing flows in two 90 degrees curved rectangular ducts. These include the standard k-epsilon model, the shear stress transport k-omega model, and three low-Reynolds number k-epsilon models by Jones and Launder, Launder and Sharma, and Nagano and Hishida, respectively. The computational time for convergent solutions, streamwise and secondary velocities, pressure distributions as well as the Reynolds-averaged turbulence quantities resolved by these models are compared and validated against available experimental data. The purpose of this paper are to provide a detailed comparative verification for applying the five most widely used two-equation turbulence models to predicting curved rectangular duct flows, which are a kind of proto type flows in fluids engineering, and to provide a reference for the selection of turbulence models in predicting such flows in industrial applications.