Analysis of potential flow around two-dimensional body by finite element method

The paper presents a numerical method for analyzing the potential flow around two dimensional body such as single circular cylinder, NACA0012 hydrofoil and double circular cylinders by finite element method. The numerical technique is based upon a general formulation for the Laplace’s equation using Galerkin technique finite element approach. The solution of the systems of algebraic equations is approached by Gaussian elimination scheme. Laplace’s equation is expressed in terms of both steam function and velocity potential formulation. A finite element program is developed in order to analyze the result. The contours of stream and velocity potential function are drawn. The contour of stream function exhibits the characteristics of potential flow and does not intersect each other. The calculated pressure co-efficient shows the pressure decreasing around the forwarded face from the initial total pressure at the stagnation point and reaching a minimum pressure at the top of the cylinder.   Key words: Stream function, velocity potential, number of nodes (NDE), number of elements (NEL).