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Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Extension of the finite volume method to laminar and turbulent flow

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

A method has been developed which calculates two-dimensional, transonic, viscous flow in ducts. The finite volume, time marching formulation is used to obtain steady flow solutions of the Reynolds-averaged form of the Navier Stokes equations. The entire calculation is performed in the physical domain. The method is currently limited to the calculation of attached flows. The features of the current method can be summarized as follows. Control volumes are chosen so that smoothing of flow properties, typically required for stability, is not needed. Different time steps are used in the different governing equations to improve the convergence speed of the viscous calculations. A new pressure interpolation scheme is introduced which improves the shock capturing ability of the method. A multi-volume method for pressure changes in the boundary layer allows calculations which use very long and thin control volumes (length/height ≅ 1000). A special discretization technique is also used to stabilize these calculations which use long and thin control volumes. A special formulation of the energy equation is used to provide improved transient behavior of solutions which use the full energy equation. The method is then compared with a wide variety of test cases. The freestream Mach numbers range from 0.075 to 2.8 in the calculations. Transonic viscous flow in a converging diverging nozzle is calculated with the method; the Mach number upstream of the shock is approximately 1.25. The agreement between the calculated and measured shock strength and total pressure losses is good. Essentially incompressible turbulent boundary layer flow in an adverse pressure gradient is calculated and the computed distribution of mean velocity and shear stress are in good agreement with the measurements. At the other end of the Mach number range, a flat plate turbulent boundary layer with a freestream Mach number of 2.8 is calculated using the full energy equation; the computed total temperature distribution and recovery factor agree well with the measurements when a variable Prandtl number is used through the boundary layer.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Mechanical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Year dc:date.issued
1986

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Nicholson, Stephen
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Moore, John
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Grossman, Bernard
  • Moses, Hal L.
  • O'Brien, Walter F.
  • Swift, George W.

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en_US

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10919/71264
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/71264

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Nicholson, Stephen. Extension of the finite volume method to laminar and turbulent flow. doctoral thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/71264