Research Projects

Highly confined flows have numerous real-life applications, including nature, biomedical, and industry. These flows become more complex when considering the rheological aspects of the flowing fluids. Newtonian fluid flow has non-linear convective and viscous/diffusion terms, which adds complexity to the numerical treatment of governing conservation equations. Current research on non-Newtonian fluid flow in India heavily relies on commercial software, such as ANSYS FLUENT and COMSOL multiphysics. However, in-house codes offer more flexibility and control on input parameters. The proposed project aims to develop a stabilized finite-element based in-house non-Newtonian flow solver in the laminar regime that is compatible with collocated variable arrangement on the nodes of quadrilateral elements forming a structured mesh. The existing highly accurate stabilized Petrov-Galerkin based finite-element Newtonian flow solver on primitive variables will be modified to develop the desired monolithic or coupled solver. The solver will undergo extensive tests for validation and convergence for steady and unsteady flow problems. Non-Newtonian fluids are known for their ability to reduce drag, and this project considers non-Newtonian fluid flow past single and multiple objects located in an extremely narrow channel. The project also considers the effects of rotation of an isolated cylinder or rear cylinder in an in-line arrangement of a pair of cylinders. The project will explore flow around twin cylinders subject to confinement of the order of 90%.