CONFORMING CHEBYSHEV SPECTRAL COLLOCATION METHODS FOR THE SOLUTION OF LAMINAR-FLOW IN A CONSTRICTED CHANNEL

The numerical simulation of steady planar two-dimensional laminar flow of an incompressible fluid through an abruptly contracting channel using spectral domain decomposition methods is described. The key features of the method are the decomposition of the flow region into a number of rectangular subregions and spectral approximations that are pointwise C1 continuous across subregion interfaces. Spectral approximations to the solution are obtained for Reynolds numbers in the range [0, 500]. The size of the salient corner vortex decreases as the Reynolds number increases from 0 to around 45. As the Reynolds number is increased further, the vortex grows slowly. A vortex is detected downstream of the contraction at a Reynolds number of around 175 that continues to grow as the Reynolds number is increased further.