Numerical Simulation of Asymmetric Merging Flow in a Rectangular Channel

The steady, asymmetric and two-dimensional flow of viscous, incompressible and Newtonian fluid through a rectangular channel with splitter plate parallel to walls is investigated numerically. Earlier, the position of the splitter plate was taken as a centreline of channel but here it is considered its different positions which cause the asymmetric behaviour of the flow field. The geometric parameter that controls the position of splitter is defined as splitter position parameter a. The plane Poiseuille flow is considered far from upstream and downstream of the splitter. This flow-problem is solved numerically by a numerical scheme comprising a fourth order method, followed by a special finite-method. This numerical scheme transforms the governing equations to system of finite-difference equations, which are solved by point S.O.R. iterative method. In addition, the results obtained are further refined and upgraded by Richardson Extrapolation method. The calculations are carried out for the ranges -1 < α < 1, and 0 ≤ R < 105. The results are compared with existing literature regarding the symmetric case (when a = 0) for velocity, vorticity and skin friction distributions. The comparison is very favourable. Moreover, the notable thing is that the decay of vorticity to its downstream value takes place over an increasingly longer scale of x as R increases for symmetric case but it is not so for asymmetric one.