Numerical analysis of newtonian and non-newtonian lid-driven cavity flow in plane and curved geometries

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to develop a numerical solution to the lid driven cavityproblem in plane and curved geometries for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. The planar case is the lid-driven square cavity problem and the curved cases are the lid-driven polar cavity and the lid-driven arc-shaped cavity problems. For the non-Newtonian case, in elastic Power-Law fluid model is adopted. The study is carried out interms of investigating the inertia effects on the flow field as well as the shear-thickeningand /or shear-thinning attributes of the fluid. The inertia effects are characterized bythe non-dimensional Reynolds number, whereas non-Newtonian effects such as shear thinning and shear thickening are characterized by Power-Law Reynolds number and Power-Law indices.