Modeling 2D laminar steady-state flow over a rectangular cavity

Cavity flows are a significant topic in environmental hydraulics because they could be applied as idealized model for the flow over rivers and lakes cavities, the wind-driven flows in closed body of water, etc. In these cases the main concern is the mass exchange process between the cavity and the overlying flow and the mixing of contaminants downstream the cavity. The objective of the paper is to present the results of a numerical study undertaken to investigate the flow patterns inside a rectangular cavity located on the floor of a duct. Therefore, 2D steady-state numerical simulations were performed with Multiphysics 3.5a (TM) in a duct-cavity geometry with a cavity bottom. The duct flow had parabolic inlet velocity profile and laminar flow was considered for a Reynolds number based on the cavity depth Re-D equal to 3000. Cavity aspect ratio was 1.0. Numerical results for the flow field were successfully compared with the experimental data collected by Bogatyrev et al. in the same geometry for the same operative conditions.