Calculations of the flow resistance and heat emission of a sphere in the laminar and high-turbulent gas flows

Abstract

An early drag crisis can occur at high turbulence of incoming gas flow to a sphere. To study the influence of a crisis on heat transfer from a sphere to gas, a numerical experiment was carried out in which the free gas flow around a sphere with a temperature lower than the sphere temperature was simulated for two cases. The flow was laminar in the first case and highly turbulent in the second case. To take into account turbulence, the kinematic coefficient of turbulent viscosity with a value, which is much higher (up to 2000 times) than that for physical viscosity, was introduced. The results of calculations show that the early drag crisis occurs at Reynolds numbers of about 100 and results in considerable (by four to seven times) decrease in the hydrodynamic force and sphere drag coefficient C_d. The early drag crisis is also accompanied by the crisis of heat transfer from a sphere to gas with a decrease in Nusselt numbers Nu by three to six times.