Flow visualisation in lid-driven cavity using

CFD analysis
1. Introduction
Flow analysis over a lid driven cavity has been used for validation and verification of fluid flows
over the past years. In case of 2D Navier Stokes equation, it is difficult to capture the flow field
near the singular points in the cavity’s corner. Lid driven cavity is a physics problem, employed
as a numerical benchmarking for the various type of flows such as laminar, transient, and
turbulent. It is popular due to its simple geometry and the importance of studying vortices
formation and location as well as the flow inside containers especially at the corners where
cavitation occurs.

Number of studies are available in which Conventional numerical methods are used to obtain
variables of interest such as pressure and velocity using lid driven cavity problem. Such
methods are often tested for code validation and results are compared with relevant data.
Single sided lid-driven cavity is one such method. It is the motion of a fluid inside a rectangular
cavity. The motion is induced in the fluid contained, by the constant translational velocity of
one side of the geometry while other sides remain stationary.
Mohammad A et al [1] have simulated a square cavity for both 2D and 3D case for different
Re and position of the vorticities are presented. Hannes Juujärvi et al [2] used two stencil-
based numerical method in MATLAB to simulate the lid driven cavity problem for various Re
and then compared both methods in terms of accuracy and computational cost. Former
method was regular finite difference method (FDM) on uniform Cartesian grid and later was
a least-squares radial basis function-generated finite difference (RBF-FDLS) method
implemented over an unfitted hexagonal node layout. Abanoub G et al [3] studied two-
dimensional, time-dependent Newtonian fluid flow in a square cavity. Simulation was
performed using finite difference method and alternating direction implicit technique. Figures
of streamlines, vorticity contours and vorticity velocity profiles were revealed for low and
intermediate Re along with location of primary and secondary vortices. Two cases of three-
sided lid driven cavity were also investigated.

Ghia et al [4] studied cavity flow analysis in broad way and presented experimental data for
the farther studies. Abdul Rahiman et al [5] provided a comprehensive review over a cavity
flow analysis. Hendrik C et al [6] carried out computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis for
laminar incompressible fluid flow in a lid-driven cavity (10 Re 1000) using commercial finite
volume programme FLUENT and results were presented as a velocity profile, a pressure
coefficient, and stream contours. Reyad Omari [7] studied laminar incompressible fluid flow
in lid driven cavity (10 ≤ Re ≤ 1000) using commercial finite volume package FLUENT and
concluded that the pressure coefficient inside the cavity is strongly governed by the aspect
ratio as well as the Reynolds number. Mohammed A et al [8] used Multi-Relaxation-Time
Lattice Boltzmann Method (MRT LBM) to simulate steady viscous incompressible flow in a lid
driven cavity for a range of Reynolds numbers between 100 and 1000. B Senthil Rathi et al [9]
presented flow and mixing characteristics of fluids in a Lid driven square cavity by steady
motion of both upper and bottom plate.

Present study is inspired by the wide range of applicability of lid driven cavity problem, for
example, material process, metal casting, designing journal bearing and many more. The
purpose of this project is to get familiarization with the ANSYS Fluent fluid solver and serve as
an initiation for undertaking further projects.

2. Problem description
In this project we are going to study the steady-state lid-driven cavity flow test problem using
ANSYS Fluent fluid solver. The domain is a two-dimensional square with side length 1 m where
the top wall is moving in the positive x-direction with velocity u = 1 m/s, and the other walls
remain stationary. A no-slip condition is applied to all four walls of the cavity and the walls are
impenetrable.
A sketch of the problem domain is shown in figure 1.

Figure 1: Problem definition of lid driven cavity [2]

3. Governing Equations
The flow fields are computed by solving mass (1) and momentum (2) balance equations
known as Navier-Stokes equation. For non-Newtonian power law fluids, the stress tensor can
similarly be written in terms of a non-Newtonian viscosity η (3). In general, η is a function of
all three invariants of the rate-of-deformation tensor D. However, in the non-Newtonian
models available in FLUENT, η is considered to be a function of the shear rate γ only. γ is
related to the second invariant of D (4).
A non-Newtonian power law model was chosen. The power law parameters calculated from
the rheological measurements was incorporated in the model (5) to study the flow. The upper
and lower limits on the viscosity are defined for the power law function, (6) where η min and
η max are, respectively, the lower and upper limits of the viscosity of a power law fluid. The
convective flow terms were discretized using a second order upwind scheme. The boundary
condition on the top plate was imposed. The other faces of the cavity were considered as solid
stationary walls. The coupled implicit time formulation was used with second order accuracy.
 ∂ρ
∂t
+ ∇(ρu) = 0 (1)

∂ρ ∂(ρu)
∂t
+ ∇ ⋅ (ρν) = 0 ∂t
+ ∇(ρu ⋅ u) = −∇p + ∇(τ) + ρg (2)

τ = η(D)D (3)

1
γ = √(2 (D: D)) (4)

η = Kγn−1 (5)

η (min) < η; η = Kγn−1 < η(max) (6)

4. Geometry
A 2D square cavity of aspect ratio 1 modelled in ANSYS space claim, is considered for the
current CFD analysis. Length and depth of the cavity are taken as 1m. The square cavity with
moving wall is shown in Figure 1. Top wall of the cavity is assigned as moving wall with axial
velocity of 1 m/s. The no-slip boundary condition is used for the two side boundaries and the
bottom of the cavity.

Moving wall

No slip wall No slip wall

No slip wall

Figure 2: Lid driven cavity(left) and mesh(right) used in present study

5. Meshing
Entire domain is discretised with 15625 quad elements using ANSYS workbench meshing.
ANSYS Workbench offers various strategies for CFD/Fluids meshing. For each strategy,
certain defaults are in place to target the particular needs of an analysis. For current
case default meshing setup is used to generate mesh and 15876 corner nodes were
generated, sufficient to resolve boundary layer near the wall. Maximum surface element
size 0.008 m is used to generate the mesh to maintain the good gird quality. The
obtained aspect ratio and minimum skewness are 1.4 and 0.13 respectively. The
meshed cavity is shown in figure 2.

6. Solver setup
Pressure based ANSYS Fluent solver is used to solve incompressible flow inside the lid driven
cavity. The fluid is considered as water [1] and flow is considered as laminar. Gradient based
least square cell based technique is used to perform spatial discretization. A second order
upwind solution method with QUICK solver is used. Convergence criteria for the continuity
and momentum equation is set to 10-10 . Re is varied from 100 to 2000 to visualise the flow
pattern. Dynamic viscosity of fluid for different Reynolds number was calculated using
following formula:

𝜌∗𝑈∗𝐿
Re= ...(7)
𝜇

Where 𝜌= 1000kg/ m3, density of fluid

𝑈=1m/s, velocity of the lid (top wall)

𝐿=1m, characteristic length (length of the cavity)

𝜇= Dynamic viscosity

7. Results
Equation (1) and (2) are solved for the Reynolds numbers 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 in the case
of the lid driven cavity. The flow through a square cavity is simulated for 2D case for different
Re and the position of the vortices are observed. By varying the Reynolds number, vortex
position is changing. In Figure 3, the primary vortex is observed along with right-side lower
vortex and left-side lower vortex. High gradient of the tangential velocity component near the
top lid region is observed. In Figure 4 primary vortex has shifted towards the center of the
cavity and a slight shift in the position of right-side lower vortex at higher Re. Increase in the
size of both the lower vortices is also observed with variation in Re. High gradient of tangential
velocity for the right wall which is in the direction of the movement of the lid is also observed
for increasing Re. Figure 5 and Figure 6 shows the starting of the generation of the fourth left-
side upper vortex. Changes in the velocity direction in a local region are observed leading to
vortex development. It is observed that, the center of the primary vortex become close to the
center of the cavity as Re increases beyond 1000. The predicted vortices locations are
comparable with existing literature [8].
 Figure 3: Re_100 Figure 4: Re_500

Figure 5: Re_1000 Figure 6: Re_2000

To validate the numerical method used in present study, resultant data is compared with
available experimental data [4] at Reynolds number 1000, which is plotted in figure7 and
figure8. It was observed that CFD data is having good match with experimental data.
In Figure 7 and Figure 8 the velocity profile was plotted along a horizontal and vertical line,
passing through the geometric centre at (X=0.5m and Z=0.5m) respectively. With increasing
Re the location of central vortex is shifting with the particles having positive velocity profile
shifting towards the coordinate corresponding to Z=0.5m, it was also observed in Figure 9,
which was compared with existing literature [7] as was confirmed by the flow visualisation in
Figure 3 to Figure 6. For increasing Re as indicated in Figure 9, greater velocity for the peak in
the curve is observed which shift downwards for increasing Re. Increase in the maximum
velocity near the edge of the wall was also observed in Figure 9 with the shifting of lower peak
toward higher values in negative direction of velocity profile and sudden jump in the velocity
profile visible for Re=1000 and Re=2000 near Z=1m.Similar flow behaviour was observed in
Figure 8 with peak velocity increasing near the edges which is also validated by
literature[4].Position of primary vortex corresponding to centre of the cavity is observed by
the curve attaining zero velocity near X=0.5m.From Figure 7 and Figure 8, the velocity gradient
along the horizontal is much higher than along the vertical.

Figure 7: x-velocity along vertical line

Figure 8: y-velocity along horizontal line

X-velocity for different Re was compared with the reference [7] and plotted in figure 9. It was
observed that there is a good match between CFD data and reference data.
 Figure 9: comparison of x-velocity along vertical line with different Re

Figure 10: x-velocity contours at Re_100 Figure 11: x-velocity contours at Re_500
 Figure 12: x-velocity contours at Re_1000 Figure 13: x-velocity contours at Re_2000

In the Figure 10 low x-velocity is observed near the center of the square cavity indicating the
primary vortex and high velocity near the moving lid edge, this confirms with the data
obtained from Figure 8. Figure 10 to Figure 13 also verify the flow behaviour as expected from
the curve obtained in Figure 8 and similar behaviour is expected along the horizontal line
passing through Z=0.5m (Figure 8). Greater tangential velocity is also observed for increasing
Re near the moving lid. Decrease in low velocity contours is observed in the cavity for
increasing Re. A region of negative x-velocity gradient surrounded by positive x-velocity
gradient is observed, which indicates the formation of left side upper vortex for values of Re
500 and above. General velocity gradient has been observed to be shifted towards positive
value for Re 500 and above as compared to velocity gradient for Re 100 (Figure 10).
In Figure 14, the convergence of continuity and momentum equations were plotted. It’s clear
that equations are converged to 10-10.

8. Conclusion
CFD simulation was carried out for laminar incompressible fluid flow in lid driven cavity for
different Reynolds number. The flow pattern was visualised and velocity along the horizontal
and vertical lines passing through the centre of the cavity was plotted in the case of a 2D case
square cavity for different Re. The nature of the flow and the position of the vortices are
visualised for Re varying from 100 to 2000.Greater tangential flow near the moving lid was
observed. The movement of primary vortex towards the center of the cavity and increasing
size of the secondary and tertiary vortices for increasing Re was observed along with
generation of left side upper vortex for comparatively higher Re. The results are compared
with the published data.
9. Reference:

1. Mohammad A. Hossain, Mominul Huq, Numerical Investigation of fluid flow Over a

Lid driven Square Cavity (ICMIEE-PI-1401231).
2. Hannes Juujärvi, Isak Kinnunen, Lid driven cavity flow using stencil-based numerical
methods Uppsala University (2022).
3. Abanoub G. Kamel Eman H. Haraz Sarwat N. Hanna, Numerical simulation of three-
sided lid-driven square cavity (26 February 2020).
4. Ghia, U., K.N. Ghia, and C.T. Shin, High-Re solutions for incompressible flow using the
Navier-Stokes equations and a multigrid method. (Journal of Computational Physics,
1982).
5. Abdul Rahiman, Dhanush Kumar, Sachin Naik, M Aameer, M Shareef B U, CFD
Simulation of Flow in a Lid Driven Cavity with Ribs (doi:
https://doi.org/10.32628/IJSRSET).
6. Hendrik C. Kuhlmann and Francesco Roman`o, the lid-driven cavity (Institute of Fluid
Mechanics and Heat Transfer, TU Wien, Getreidemarkt 9, 1060 Vienna, Austria) .
7. Reyad Omari, CFD simulations of lid driven cavity flow at moderate Reynolds number.
European Scientific Journal May 2013 edition vol.9, No.15.
8. Mohammed A. Boraey, Simulation of the lid-driven cavity flow at Reynolds numbers
between 100 and 1000 using the Multi-Relaxation-Time Lattice Boltzmann Method
(doi: 10.22531/muglajsci.340207).
9. B Senthil Rathi, Dr. R Baskaran and N Deepa, CFD simulations for mixing by introducing
solid object in lid driven square cavity. (Article DOI:10.21474/IJAR01/7198 DOI URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.21474/IJAR01/7198).