Laminar flow over backward facing step

From CFD-Wiki

Separated flows are common in several engineering applications such as aircraft wings, turbine and compressor blades, diffusers, buildings, suddenly expanding pipes, combustors, etc. The characteristics of a separated flow has been studied for decades by experimentalists to understand the physics of the separated shear layers and their instability mechanisms. Flow over backward facing step is critically analyzed by great many researchers mainly to understand the boundary layer separation when the flow encounters a sudden expansion in the channel. Besides the academic interests, knowledge of separated flows can also be applied to many practical applications.