Computational characteristics of fluid flow in a staggered double-sided lid-driven cavity

This study presents a comparative analysis of the staggered lid-driven cavity problem employing both a finite-difference-based vorticity–stream function formulation and OpenFOAM software. The staggered lid-driven cavity has attracted attention because of its academic interest in areas such as the study of vortex dynamics and its relevance to industrial applications such as cut-out design and step-up flow in building design. The present investigation considers parallel and antiparallel moving lid configurations, with the main aim being to use a continuum-based method to obtain standard results for the relatively poorly explored case of flow induced by the parallel configuration. Results are presented for standard cases and compared against data from the literature for the antiparallel lid configuration, and excellent agreement is noted. Additionally the streamline patterns for various Reynolds numbers are presented along, with the centerline velocity profiles and vortex locations for different lid motions.