Corner Vortex for Backward Facing Step

Patrick G. Hu

Recently I performed the numerical calculation for backward facing step using k-omega model of Wilcox's low Reynolds number version in 1998 (This case is standard case for validating the code, and has a experimental data for comparison. See the Journal paper: AIAA Journal Vol.23, No.2, David M. Driver and H. Lee Seegmiller, "Features of Reattaching Turbulent Shear Layer in Divergent Channel Flow"). I used 121x121 grid points and the domain is 45x9 (using the height of the step as the length scale). I do captured the corner eddy which is confined within about 1 dimension of the step hight. But some papers claimed that calculation did not capture this corner eddy before. I would like to know if recently anybody captured this corner eddy too if using Turbulence Modeling like k-e and k-omega model. Why calculation is difficult to capture this corner eddy. In the experiment, Driver at al. saw the existance of this coner eddy confined within 2 times of the step hight. I very appreciate if anybody can share your idea with me.