Numerical simulation of Reynolds number effects on velocity shear flow around a circular cylinder

Three-dimensional Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) are performed to investigate the shear effects on flow around a circular cylinder at Reynolds numbers of Re=60–1000. The shear parameter, β, which is based on the velocity gradient, cylinder diameter and upstream mean velocity at the center plane of the cylinder, varies from 0 to 0.30. Variations of Strouhal number, drag and lift coefficients, and unsteady wake structures with shear parameter are studied, along with their dependence on Reynolds number. The presented simulation provides detailed information for the flow field around a circular cylinder in shear flow. This study shows that the Strouhal number exhibits no significant variation with shear parameter. The stagnation point moves to the high-velocity side almost linearly with shear parameter, and this result mainly influences the aerodynamic forces acting on a circular cylinder in shear flow. Both the Reynolds number and shear parameter influence the movement of the stagnation point and separation point. Mode A wake instability is suppressed into parallel vortex shedding mode at a certain shear parameter. The lift force increases with increasing shear parameter and acts from the high-velocity side to the low-velocity side. In addition, a simple method to estimate the lift force coefficient in shear flow is provided.     

Coherent and turbulent process analysis in the flow past a circular cylinder at high Reynolds number

This article presents an experimental study of the turbulent flow past a circular cylinder at high Reynolds number by means of advanced optical measurements techniques. Following previous studies using standard PIV and stereoscopic PIV (3C PIV), TRPIV and 3C-TRPIV have been employed in low subsonic wind tunnel environment. The database consisting of statistical and time-dependent fields aims at providing a physical analysis of the coherent and turbulent part, as well as a proper basis for validation and improvement of recent turbulence modelling approaches for strongly detached flow at high Reynolds number. As the nonlinear interaction between the coherent and turbulent dynamics have to be taken into account in a model, particular attention is paid to a decomposition of the flow into a coherent and a turbulent part, and to the analysis of their dynamics. This is achieved both using phase averaging and Proper Orthogonal Decomposition. For phase averaging, the two first POD coefficients are used for the evaluation of the vortex shedding phase angle. Furthermore, selected results of a Detached Eddy Simulation which had been validated by means of the experiment, are also presented to contribute to the physical analysis. The present study's experimental data resolved in space and time allow the confirmation of the conditional averaging for the turbulent stresses evaluation, by alleviating their overestimation due to phase jitter that occurs between the trigger signal and the velocity, when the phase angle is determined from a wall pressure signal. A more accurate physical analysis of the flow is achieved, particularly regarding the occurrence of irregular vortex shedding.     

Computation of unsteady viscous flow around a locally flexible airfoil at low Reynolds number

A numerical method for fluid–structure interaction is presented for the analysis of unsteady viscous flow over a locally flexible airfoil. The Navier–Stokes equations are solved by ALE–CBS algorithm, coupling with a structural solver with large deformation. Following the validation of the method, a numerical example for the flight of micro-air vehicles at low Reynolds number is chosen for the computation. The coupling effect of flexible structure with different elastic stiffness on aerodynamic performance is demonstrated. A noticeable camber effect is induced by the deflection of the structure as the elastic stiffness of the structure goes smaller. Moreover, when the vibrating frequencies of the structure with smaller elastic stiffness have a close correlation with the shedding frequencies, the positive impact of the vibration of local flexible surface on the lift of the airfoil is highlighted, which results from the formation of the coherent vortices.     

A three-dimensional simulation of a steady approach flow past a circular cylinder at low Reynolds number

The three-dimensional (3D) unsteady viscous wake of a circular cylinder exposed to a steady approach flow is calculated using a fractional-step finite-difference/spectral-element method. The calculated flow fields at Reynolds numbers of 100 (2D) and 200 (3D) are examined in detail. The flow field at Re = 100 is 2D as expected, while the flow field at Re = 200 has distinct 3D features, with spanwise wavelengths of about 3.75 cylinder diameters. The calculated results produce drag and lift coefficients and Strouhal numbers that agree extremely well with the experimental values. These 3D values at Re = 200 are in better agreement with experimental values than the results of a 2D calculation at Re = 200, which is expected. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An experimental investigation of viscoplastic flow past a circular cylinder at high Reynolds numbers

Summary The purpose of this work was to examine the high speed flow of viscoplastic fluid past a circular cylinder. Included in this work were measurements of the time-averaged wake length and the pressure and temperature distributions over the cylinder surface. The time-averaged wake length was very characteristic of viscoplasticity: The viscoplastic flow showed quite longer wake length than theNewtonian flow under certain conditions. It was found that there were the regions of stationary fluids adjacent to a cylinder and that they obstructed the heat transfer between the cylinder and fluid very much.

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Zusammenfassung Die vorliegende Arbeit befaßt sich mit der Untersuchung der Umströmung eines Kreiszylinders durch eine visko-plastische Flüssigkeit mit hoher Geschwindigkeit. Hierin eingeschlossen sind die Messung der mittleren Längenausdehnung des Totwasser-Gebiets sowie der Druck- und Temperaturverteilung über die Zylinderoberfläche. Die zeitlich gemittelte Längserstreckung des Totwasser-Gebiets stellt sich als eine für das visko-plastische Fließen charakteristische Größe heraus: Sie kommt erheblich größer heraus als fürnewtonsche Flüssigkeiten unter vergleichbaren Bedingungen. Man findet weiterhin am Zylinder anliegende stationäre Flüssigkeitsbereiche, welche die Wärmeübertragung zwischen Zylinder und Flüssigkeit sehr hemmen.

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With 16 figures and 1 table     

The turbulent flow field around a circular cylinder

The flow field around a circular cylinder mounted vertically on a flat bottom has been investigated experimentally. This type of flow occurs in several technical applications, e.g. local scouring around bridge piers. Hydrogen bubble flow visualization was carried out for Reynolds numbers ranging from 6,600 to 65,000. The main flow characteristic upstream of the cylinder is a system of horse-shoe vortices which are shed quasi-periodically. The number of vortices depends on Reynolds number. The vortex system was found to be independent of the vortices that are shed in the wake of the cylinder. The topology of the separated flow contains several separation and attachment lines which are Reynolds number dependent. In the wake region different flow patterns exist for each constant Reynolds number.     

Heat transfer and flow around a circular cylinder with tripping-wires

An experimental study was conducted on the heat transfer under the condition of constant heat flux and the flow around a circular cylinder with tripping-wires, which were affixed at ± 65° from the forward stagnation point on the cylinder surface. The testing fluid was air and the Reynolds number Red, based on the cylinder diameter, ranged from 1.2 × 10⁴ to 5.2×10⁴. Especially investigated are the interactions between the heat transfer and the flow in the critical flow state, in relation to the static pressure distribution along the cylinder surface and the mean and turbulent fluctuating velocities in the wake. It is found that the heat transfer from the cylinder to the cross flow is in very close connection with the width of near wake.     

Numerical investigation of fluid flow past circular cylinder with multiple control rods at low Reynolds number

Laminar flow past a circular cylinder with multiple small-diameter control rods is numerically investigated in this study. The effects of rod-to-cylinder spacing ratio, rod and cylinder diameter ratio, cylinder Reynolds number, number of control rods and angle of attack on the hydrodynamics of the main circular cylinder are investigated. Four different flow regimes are identified based on the mechanism of lift and drag reduction. The range of rod-to-cylinder spacing ratio where significant force suppression can be achieved is found to become narrower as the Reynolds number increases in the laminar regime, but is insensitive to the diameter ratio. The numerical results for the case with six identical small control rods at Re=200 show that the lift fluctuation on the main cylinder can be suppressed significantly for a large range of spacing ratio and various diameter ratios, while the drag reduction on the main cylinder is also achieved simultaneously. The six-control-rod arrangement has shown better performance in flow control than the arrangements with less control rods, especially in terms of force reduction at various angles of attack.     

Effect of magnetic Reynolds number on the two‐dimensional hydromagnetic flow around a cylinder

Numerical experiments have been conducted to study the effect of magnetic Reynolds number on the steady, two‐dimensional, viscous, incompressible and electrically conducting flow around a circular cylinder. Besides usual Reynolds number Re, the flow is governed by the magnetic Reynolds number R_m and Alfvén number β. The flow and magnetic field are uniform and parallel at large distances from the cylinder. The pressure Poisson equation is solved to find the pressure fields in the entire flow region. The effects of the magnetic field and electrical conductivity on the recirculation bubble, drag coefficient, standing vortex and pressure are presented and discussed. For low interaction parameter (N<1), the suppression of the flow‐separation is nearly independent of the conductivity of the fluid, whereas for large interaction parameters, the conductivity of the fluid strongly influences the control of flow‐separation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical investigation on flow around circular cylinders in tandem arrangement at a subcritical Reynolds number

Three-dimensional fluid computations have been performed to investigate the flows around two circular cylinders in tandem arrangements at a subcritical Reynolds number, Re=2.2×10⁴. The center-to-center space between the cylinders was varied from twice the cylinder diameter to five times that, and the flows and fluid-dynamic forces obtained from the simulations are compared with the experimental results reported in the literature. Special attention is paid to the characteristics of the vortices shed from the upstream cylinder such as the convection, the impingement onto the downstream cylinder and the interaction with the vortices from the downstream cylinder. The effects of the vortices from the upstream cylinder on the fluid-dynamic forces acting on the downstream cylinder are discussed.     

Low Reynolds number flow over a square cylinder with a detached flat plate

A numerical study of the alteration of a square cylinder wake using a detached downstream thin flat plate is presented. The wake is generated by a uniform flow of Reynolds number 150 based on the side length of the cylinder, D. The sensitivity of the near wake structure to the downstream position of the plate is investigated by varying the gap distance (G) along the wake centerline in the range 0 ⩽ G ⩽ 7D for a constant plate length of L = D. A critical gap distance is observed to occur at G_c ≈ 2.3D that indicates the existence of two flow regimes. Regime I is characterised by vortex formation occurring downstream of the gap while for regime II, formation occurs within the gap. By varying the plate length and gap distance, a condition is found where significant unsteady total lift reduction can occur. The root mean square lift reduction is limited by an unsteady stall process on the plate.     

Critical effects of a spanwise surface wire on flow past a circular cylinder and the significance of the wire size and Reynolds number

An experimental study is conducted on flow past a circular cylinder fitted with a single spanwise wire on its surface. The work investigates the dependency of the critical wire locations on the wire size and Reynolds number, and examines the near wake and vortex shedding characteristics in an effort to advance the understanding of the critical wire effects beyond the existing literature. The Reynolds number is varied from 5000 to 30 000, and the wire diameter is varied from 2.9% to 5.9% of the cylinder diameter. All wires are larger than the boundary-layer thickness forming around a comparable smooth cylinder. Constant Temperature Anemometry and hydrogen bubble visualization are used as the flow diagnostic tools. The frequency and strength of the Karman instability are shown to vary with the wire location at any given Reynolds number nearly in an inverse fashion. For all the Reynolds numbers and wire sizes considered, two types of critical locations are shown to exist on the cylinder surface for the application of a wire. These locations are associated with the attenuation and amplification of the Karman instability, and in accord with the existing literature, are denoted as θ_c1 and θ_c2, respectively. The present work reveals that θ_c2 consists of a wide range of locations which remains unaffected from the wire size and Reynolds number, while θ_c1 is a relatively distinct location on the cylinder surface and depends on both the Reynolds number and wire size. For a given Reynolds number, increasing the wire size decreases θ_c1. For a given wire size, increasing the Reynolds number from 5000 to 15 000 increases θ_c1, and past 15 000, θ_c1 remains unaffected from the Reynolds number. When a wire is at θ_c1, even though, for the majority of the time the regular formation of Karman vortices ceases, the present data also reveals intermittent, short time periods where the regular shedding resumes.     

Vortex shedding and aerodynamic forces on a circular cylinder in linear shear flow at subcritical Reynolds number

Vortex shedding and aerodynamic forces on a circular cylinder in a linear shear flow with its axis normal to the plane of the velocity shear profile at subcritical Reynolds number are investigated experimentally. The shear parameter β, which is based on the velocity gradient, cylinder diameter and upstream mean velocity at the center plane of the cylinder, varies from 0 to 0.27. The Strouhal number has no significant variation with the shear parameter. The time-mean base pressure increases and the fluctuating component of the base pressure decreases significantly with increasing shear parameter. Vortex shedding is suppressed by the velocity shear. Dislocation of the stagnation point takes place and this influences the pressure distribution around the cylinder together with the velocity shear. A mean lift force arises in the shear flow due to asymmetry of the pressure distribution, and it acts from the high velocity side to the low velocity side. In addition, the lift coefficient increases and the drag coefficient decreases with increasing shear parameter.     

Control of the near-wake flow around a circular cylinder with electrohydrodynamic actuators

We analysed the modifications of the near wake of a circular cylinder (2,300< Re <58,000) when the flow was perturbed steadily using an electrohydrodynamic actuator. Two electrodes flush-mounted on the surface of the cylinder were excited with DC power supplies to create a plasma sheet contouring the body. The discharge produced an electric force and changed the physical properties in the fluid layers at close vicinity to the surface. This plasma sheet diminished the base pressure, modified the size of the mean recirculation region and produced an increase in the shear stresses of the layers bounding the contour of this region.     

Large-eddy simulation of circular cylinder flow at subcritical Reynolds number: Turbulent wake and sound radiation

The flows past a circular cylinder at Reynolds number 3900 are simulated using large-eddy simulation(LES) and the far-field sound is calculated from the LES results. A low dissipation energy-conserving finite volume scheme is used to discretize the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The dynamic global coefficient version of the Vreman's subgrid scale(SGS) model is used to compute the sub-grid stresses. Curle's integral of Lighthill's acoustic analogy is used to extract the sound radiated from the cylinder. The profiles of mean velocity and turbulent fluctuations obtained are consistent with the previous experimental and computational results. The sound radiation at far field exhibits the characteristic of a dipole and directivity. The sound spectra display the-5/3 power law. It is shown that Vreman's SGS model in company with dynamic procedure is suitable for LES of turbulence generated noise.     

Hydrodynamic instability of separated viscous flow around a circular cylinder

A uniform viscous flow around a circular cylinder is studied numerically in the Reynolds number range from 0 to 500. It is shown that the existence and the basic properties of self-oscillating regimes are specified by the evolution of their hydrodynamic instability. It is found that the vortex formation in a near wake is associated with the separation zone dynamics in the main flow. The values of critical Reynolds numbers for the four successive bifurcations of the self-oscillating regimes of flow are obtained. An interpretation of experimental data on the vortices in the near wake is discussed.     

较高Re数圆柱尾流的控制

引入一个窄条作为控制件,在Re=3.0×10 3~2.0×10 4范围内对圆柱尾流进行控制实验。窄条长度与柱体长度相同,厚 度为柱体直径的 0.015~0.025倍,宽度为柱体直径的0.18倍. 窄条的两个长边 与柱中心轴平行, 而且三者共面. 控制参数为窄条位置, 可由间距(窄条到柱轴)比λ/(0.5D)和风向角β (窄 条面与来流的夹角)确定. 采用流动显示和热线测量方法,对控制和未控制尾流的流动状态, 平均速度分布和脉动速度情况,以及作用于柱体和控制件的总阻力进行了研究和比较. 研究结果证明, 当窄条位于柱体尾流中一定区域内时, 可有效抑制柱体两侧的旋涡脱落.有效控制后的尾流湍流度也相应减小. 在不同Re数下,找出了有效抑制旋涡脱落的窄条位置区域, 并用动量积分估计了作用于柱体和窄条上的总阻力与光圆柱阻力的比值及其随风向角的变 化. 对λ/(0.5D)=2.9情况,得到了减阻的风向角区域(β=0°~40°与180°附近)以及最大减阻率32%.以上事实表明,在近尾流局部区域施加小的干扰,可改变较高Re数圆柱尾流的整体性质.