Detachment at leading edge of flat plate

[rjohanss]

I am trying to model a flat plate in a wind tunnel at zeo angle of attack and am encountering a problem near the leading edge. It appears that I am getting a fairly large detachment region at the leading edge and I'm not sure why. The simulation I am running has the incoming flow at 45knots, using the k-omega SST turbulence model and ADV5. I've attached an image of the leading edge of the plate and of the front of the plate (thickness 1.8"). The radius of curvature on the leading edge is 0.1" and I used a refinement region with a uniform element size of 0.0256. Is this a mesh problem? A Geometry problem? A fluid model problem? Any input is appreciated.

Thank you,

Reed

[srhusain]

Having the flow at the bottom of the plate might be causing this separation. If you are trying to do a benchmark for the turbulent Blasius problem, can you try the following:

1. Place the plate at the bottom of the computational domain (remove the solid representing the plate). This will prevent any flow below and obviate the rounded leading edge.
2. Refine the mesh and ensure that the solution Y+ is less than 1.0

Hope this helps.

[rjohanss]

Thanks for your suggestions. I don't think I can move the plate to the bottom of the domain as I eventually will be looking at heat transfer from the whole model. As far as Y+, I am fairly new to Simulation CFD, how can I check the Y+ for the model?

Thanks,

Reed