Comparison of CFD Simulation to the Experiments for Forward Step Flows

Three dimensional DNS simulation on the fluid flow over a forward step configuration are compared with the experiments reported by Shakouchi, Ando, and Ito. This is a part of authors’ attempts to evaluate the validity of three dimensional unsteady flow simulation by comparison to experiments. Summary of the comparison is as follows: (1) vortex shedding in the flow separation over the top of the step near the corner is observed, (2) frequency of vortex shedding and distance between two consecutive vortices do not agree with the experiment, (3) however, while steady periodic shedding of vortices from the top corner of the step is reported for the experimental results, the computational results show unsteady behavior of the flow over the top corner, which results in unsteady shedding of vortices. This unsteadiness in the computational simulation is due to unsteady motion of fluid upstream from the step where adverse pressure increase occurs.