Fluid motion in a cavity driven by a four-sided moving lid with uniform velocity

Abstract

This work investigates the mixing phenomenon within rectangular cavities of various aspect ratios, all four sides driven at the same speed in a clockwise direction. For the creeping flow regime, an analytical solution using real eigenfunction expansion is derived. Inertia’s influence under higher flow rates is then numerically simulated using a built-in finite element technique in the Mathematica software. For a square cavity, the inherent structural symmetry is combined with the dynamical symmetry of the velocity field. However, changing the aspect ratio disrupts this symmetry in the horizontal and vertical velocities. Interestingly, unlike other wall-driven cavity flows found in the literature, the recirculating zone in this system forms a single vortex without any corner eddies at any Reynolds number. This unique feature offers tremendous potential for controlling the mixing process. In the highly viscous regime, the pressure field is dominated by odd functions in both x and y. As inertia increases, even functions in x and y become more significant, causing the velocities near the moving lids to overshoot their steady-state values. The extent of this overshoot depends on the cavity’s aspect ratio, and such a fast mixing regime could be valuable for industrial fluid mixing applications.