Development of a source code to analyze the effect of Reynolds number on a square lid driven cavity

Numerical simulations of two-dimensional, steady, incompressible lid driven flow in a square cavity were investigated in this work. A commercial finite volume package of ANSYS-FLUENT was used to analyze and visualize the nature of the flow inside the cavity at different Reynolds Numbers. In addition, a MATLAB code was developed and validated by comparing the results with the reference values from literature. Staggered grid was employed in the discretization of the cavity to avoid checkerboard pressure while developing the code. The governing equations were discretized in terms of velocity and pressure fields. The artificial compressibility method was used to de-couple the pressure and velocity terms in the governing equations. A 129×129 grid system was used in both cases. The effects of Reynolds number (100≤ Re ≤ 1000) on the flow characteristics were illustrated through an analysis of stream function, velocity vector, pressure co-efficient and velocity contours. The thinning of the wall boundary layers with an increase in the Reynolds number is evident from the u and v velocity profiles along the vertical and horizontal lines at the geometric center, although the rate of this thinning is very slow for Re> 5000.