Steady flow of a power-law non-Newtonian fluid across an unconfined square cylinder

Abstract

A two-dimensional flow of a non-Newtonian power-law fluid directed normally to a horizontal cylinder with a square cross section is considered in the present paper. The problem is investigated numerically with a finite volume method by using the commercial code Ansys Fluent with a very large computational domain so that the flow could be considered unbounded. The investigation covers the power-law index from 0.1 to 2.0 and the Reynolds number range from 0.001 to 45.000. It is found that the drag coefficient for low Reynolds numbers and low power-law index (n ≤ 0.5) obeys the relationship C_D = A/Re. An equation for the quantity A as a function of the power-law index is derived. The drag coefficient becomes almost independent of the power-law index at high Reynolds numbers and the wake length changes nonlinearly with the Reynolds number and power-law index.