Investigation of incompressible flow within 1/2 circular cavity using lattice Boltzmann method

A wall-driven incompressible viscous flow in a 1/2 circular cavity is simulated, based on the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The treatment of curved boundary with second-order accuracy is used. The force evaluation is based on the momentum-exchange method. The streamlines and vorticity contours and the velocity component along the central line of a semi-circular cavity are obtained for different Reynolds numbers. The numerical results show that the LBM can capture the formation of primary, secondary and tertiary vortices exactly as the Reynolds number increases and has a great agreement with those of current literatures. Copyright 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.