Application of models for laminar to turbulent transition to flow around a circular cylinder

In many technical fields, for example, in heat exchanger design, circular cylinders are involved in fluid structure interaction problems. Therefore, correct fluid forces are needed. Direct numerical simulation or large eddy simulation are too time expensive, but great errors can occur if fluid forces are evaluated with mainstream statistical turbulence models. In this paper, several models are applied to flow around a circular cylinder in the Reynolds number range from 500 up to 10(6). Mainly 2D simulations are performed. Additionally, calculations are performed to evaluate the influence of three dimensional modeling. The incorrect prediction of laminar to turbulent transition is identified as the main reason for the misprediction of flow forces with common statistical turbulence models. It is demonstrated that improvements are possible with available transition models. Although no grid independence in spatial direction could be achieved, the results indicate that 3D calculations may abolish remaining deviations between calculated and measured force coefficients. (Most of the data contained within this paper have been presented at the 2005 ASME PVPD Conference in Denver, Colorado. Although the title of the paper has not been changed, some newer results have been added.)