FLOW IN A TWO-DIMENSIONAL SQUARE CAVITY : A COMPARISON BETWEEN FLOW VISUALIZATION EXPERIMENT AND NUMERICAL CALCULATIONS

Abstract

Flow in a two-dimensional square cavity was investigated primarily by visualization using white starch powder or aluminium powder suspended in water; the flow was generated by sliding the cavity model itself on a stationary flat plate. Experimental flow patterns at Reynolds numbers up to 1000 were compared with those obtained by numerical calculations. It was found that the experimental location of the center of vortices agrees well with the calculated one. On the other hand the sizes of secondary vortices in the experiment were somewhat smaller than those in the numerical calculations. A velocity profile along a vertical line through the center of primary vortex was experimentally obtained by using the digital image processing technique and it showed fairly good agreement with the calculated profile.