Wake flow pattern modified by small control cylinders at low Reynolds number

Passive wake control behind a circular cylinder in uniform flow is studied by numerical simulation for Re_D ranging from 80 to 300. Two small control cylinders, with diameter d/D=1/8, are placed at x/D=0.5 and y/D=±0.6. Unlike the 1990 results of Strykowski and Sreenivasan, in the present study, the vortex street behind the main cylinder still exists but the fluctuating lift and the form drag on the main cylinder reduces significantly and monotonously as the Reynolds number increases from 80 to 300. Obstruction of the control cylinders to the incoming flow deflects part of the fluid to pass through the gap between the main and control cylinders, forming two symmetric streams. These streams not only eliminate the flow separation along the rear surface of the main cylinder, they also merge toward the wake centerline to create an advancing momentum in the immediate near-wake region. These two effects significantly reduce the wake width behind the main cylinder and lead to monotonous decrease of the form drag as the Reynolds number increases. As the Reynolds number gets higher, a large amount of the downstream advancing momentum significantly delays the vortex formation farther downstream, leading to a more symmetric flow structure in the near-wake region of the main cylinder. As the Reynolds number increases from 80 to 300, both increasing symmetry of the flow structure in the near-wake and significant delay of the vortex formation are the main reasons for the fluctuating lift to decrease monotonously.     

Flow-induced vibrations of two circular cylinders in tandem with shear flow at low Reynolds number

The flow-induced vibrations of two elastically mounted circular cylinders subjected to the planar shear flow in tandem arrangement are studied numerically at Re=160. A four-step semi-implicit Characteristic-based split (4-SICBS) finite element method is developed under the framework of the fractional step method to cope with the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) problem. For the computational code verification, two benchmark problems are examined in the laminar region: flow-induced vibration of an elastically mounted cylinder having two degrees of freedom and past two stationary ones in tandem arrangement. Regarding the two-cylinder VIVs in shear flow, the computation is conducted with the cylinder reduced mass M_r=2.5π and the structural damping ratio ξ=0.0. The effects of some key parameters, such as shear rate (k=0.0, 0.05, 0.1), reduced velocity (U_r=3.0–18.0) and spacing ratio (L_x/D=2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 8.0), are demonstrated. It is observed that the shear rate and reduced velocity play an important role in the VIVs of both cylinders at various center-to-center distances. Additionally, in comparison with the single cylinder case, a further study indicated that the gap flow has a significant impact on such a dynamic system, leading it to be more complex. The results show that, the performances of ‘dual-resonant’ are discovered in the shear flow. A valley is formed in transverse oscillation amplitude of DC for each spacing ratio when U_r is about 6.0. For the X–Y trajectories of the circular cylinders, figure-eight, figure-O and oval shape are obtained. Finally, the interactions between cylinders are revealed, together with the wake-induced vibration (WIV) mechanism underlying the oscillation characteristics of both cylinders exposed to shear flow. Besides, the “T+P” wake pattern is discovered herein.     

On the origin of wake-induced vibration in two tandem circular cylinders at low Reynolds number

We numerically investigate flow-induced vibrations of circular cylinders arranged in a tandem configuration at low Reynolds number. Results on the coupled force dynamics are presented for an isolated cylinder and a pair of rigid cylinders in a tandem configuration where the downstream cylinder is elastically mounted and free to vibrate transversely. Contrary to turbulent flows at high Reynolds number, low frequency component with respect to shedding frequency is absent in laminar flows. Appearance and disappearance of the vorticity regions due to reverse flow on the aft part of the vibrating cylinder is characterized by a higher harmonic in transverse load, which is nearly three times of the shedding frequency. We next analyze the significance of pressure and viscous forces in the composition of lift and their phase relations with respect to the structural velocity. For both the isolated and tandem vibrating cylinders, the pressure force supplies energy to the moving cylinder, whereas the viscous force dissipates the energy. Close to the excitation frequency ratio of one, the ratio of transverse viscous force to pressure force is found to be maximum. In addition, movement of stagnation point plays a major role on the force dynamics of both configurations. In the case of isolated cylinder, displacement of the stagnation point is nearly in-phase with the velocity. During vortex-body interaction, the phase difference between the transverse pressure force and velocity and the location of stagnation point determines the loads acting on the cylinder. When the transverse pressure force is in-phase with velocity, the stagnation point moves to higher suction region of the cylinder. In the case of the tandem cylinder arrangement, upstream vortex shifts the stagnation point on the downstream cylinder to the low suction region. Thus a larger lift force is observed for the downstream cylinder as compared to the vibrating isolated cylinder. Phase difference between the transverse load and the velocity of the downstream cylinder determines the extent of upstream wake interaction with the downstream cylinder. When the cylinder velocity is in-phase with the transverse pressure load component, interaction of wake vortex with the downstream cylinder is lower compared to other cases considered in this study. We extend our parametric study of tandem cylinders for the longitudinal center-to-center spacing ranging from 4 to 10 diameter.     

Self-sustained oscillations between two tandem cylinders at Reynolds number 1,000

This study focuses on the self-sustained oscillatory flow characteristics between two tandem circular cylinders of equal diameter placed in a uniform inflow. The Reynolds number (Re _D ), based on the cylinder diameter, was around 1,000 and all experiments were performed in a recirculating water channel. The streamwise distance between two tandem cylinders ranged within 1.5 ≤ X _c/D ≤ 7.0. Here X _c denotes the center-to-center distance between two tandem cylinders. For all experiments studied herein, quantitative velocity measurements were performed using hot-film anemometer and the LDV system. The laser sheet technique was employed for qualitative flow visualization. The wavelet transform was applied to elucidate the temporal variation and phase difference between two spectral components of the velocity signals detected in the flow field. The remarkable finding was that when two tandem circular cylinders were spaced at a distance within 4.5 ≤ X _c/D ≤ 5.5, two symmetrical unstable shear layers with a certain wavelength were observed to impinge onto the downstream cylinder. The responding frequency (f _u ), measured between these two cylinders, was much higher than the natural shedding frequency behind a single isolated cylinder at the same Re _D . This responding frequency decreased as the distance X _c/D increased. Not until X _c/D ≥ 6.0, did it recover to the natural shedding frequency behind a single isolated cylinder. Between two tandem cylinders, the Strouhal numbers (St _c = f _u X _c/U_c) maintained a nearly constant value of 3, indicating the self-sustained oscillating flow characteristics with a wavelength X _c/3. Here U _c is the convection speed of the unstable shear layers between two tandem cylinders. At Re _D = 1,000, the self-sustained oscillating characteristics between two tandem circular cylinders were proven to exhibit a sustained flow pattern, not just a sporadic phenomenon.     

Numerical predictions of low Reynolds number flows over two tandem circular cylinders

Flows over two tandem cylinders were analysed using the newly developed collocated unstructured computational fluid dynamics (CUCFD) code, which is capable of handling complex geometries. A Reynolds number of 100, based on cylinder diameter, was used to ensure that the flow remained laminar. The validity of the code was tested through comparisons with benchmark solutions for flow in a lid‐friven cavity and flow around a single cylinder. For the tandem cylinder flow, also mesh convergence was demonstrated, to within a couple of percent for the RMS lift coefficient. The mean and fluctuating lift and drag coefficients were recorded for centre‐to‐centre cylinder spacings between 2 and 10 diameters. A critical cylinder spacing was found between 3.75 and 4 diameters. The fluctuating forces jumped appreciably at the critical spacing. It was found that there exists only one reattachment and one separation point on the downstream cylinder for spacings greater than the critical spacing. The mean and the fluctuating surface pressure distributions were compared as a function of the cylinder spacing. The mean and the fluctuating pressures were significantly different between the upstream and the downstream cylinders. These pressures also differed with the cylinder spacing. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scale-adaptive simulation of flow past wavy cylinders at a subcritical Reynolds number

The Xu & Yan scale-adaptive simulation (XYSAS) model is employed to simulate the flows past wavy cylinders at Reynolds number 8 × 10 3.This approach yields results in good agreement with experimental measurements.The mean flow field and near wake vortex structure are replicated and compared with that of a corresponding circular cylinder.The effects of wavelength ratios λ/D m from 3 to 7,together with the amplitude ratios a /D m of 0.091 and 0.25,are fully investigated.Owing to the wavy configuration,a maximum reduction of Strouhal number and root-meansquare (r.m.s) fluctuating lift coefficients are up to 50% and 92%,respectively,which means the vortex induced vibration (VIV) could be effectively alleviated at certain larger values of λ/D m and a /D m.Also,the drag coefficients can be reduced by 30%.It is found that the flow field presents contrary patterns with the increase of λ/D m.The free shear layer becomes much more stable and rolls up into mature vortex only further downstream when λ/D m falls in the range of 5-7.The amplitude ratio a /D m greatly changes the separation line,and subsequently influences the wake structures.     

On characteristics of two-degree-of-freedom vortex induced vibration of two low-mass circular cylinders in proximity at low Reynolds number

Two-degree-of-freedom vortex induced vibrations (VIVs) of two identical spring-supported circular cylinders in proximity with the mass ratio of 2 and zero damping at Re of 100 are numerically studied. Totally 20 arrangements of cylinders are investigated combining four stagger angles and five normalized center-to-center spacings. Results show that the in-line vibration amplitude is comparable to the transverse one for most arrangements and usually accompanies irregular cylinder trajectories. Extremely slender figure-8 cylinder trajectories usually seen in single-cylinder VIVs exist only for the tandem arrangements. Arranging the trailing cylinder to vibrate near the wake boundary of the leading cylinder enhances the possibility of irregular trajectories and impacts of both cylinders. Impact between cylinders must occur in cases with irregular cylinder trajectories; however, irregular cylinder trajectories could be found in impact-free cases. The stagger angle significantly changes the attribute of the transverse vibration frequency, toward either the single-cylinder VIV frequency or natural structure frequency in still fluid. The major transverse vibration frequency and the natural structure frequency in still fluid are decoupled for all the side-by-side arrangements and some far spaced tandem arrangements and highly correlated for non-tandem and non-side-by-side arrangements. The time-averaged impact frequency increases with decreasing normalized center-to-center spacing for most combinations of stagger angle and reduced velocity. Apart from the side-by-side arrangements, high-frequency impacts occur when the trailing cylinder is initially located in or near the wake zone of the leading cylinder. The mechanism of trailing cylinder chopping the gap-flow vortices plays an important role in determining the near-wake vortex structures for all non-side-by-side arrangements.     

Cylinder-wall interference effects on finite-length wavy cylinders at subcritical Reynolds number flows

An experimental study was conducted on aspect-ratio of six finite-length wavy cylinders immersed within a Re _D = 2,700 free-stream. Wavelengths of 2 and 4 diameters, as well as wave amplitude of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 diameters were used for a comprehensive investigation. Time-resolved particle-image velocimetry measurements and proper orthogonal decomposition analyses show that for the present large wavelength wavy cylinders, vortex-shedding behaviour of high aspect-ratio wavy cylinders observed in past studies can be altered through variations in the aspect-ratio, exact geometric node and saddle locations, as well as the presence of end-walls. This is due to the persistent formation of recirculating regions close to the end-walls under certain wavy cylinder configurations, which affect the distributions of spanwise flows and vortex formation lengths. Vortex-shedding behaviour of smaller-wavelength wavy cylinders has also been observed to be considerably less sensitive to variations in the physical configurations, due to the formation of multiple streamwise vortices at the saddles. The presence of these coherent streamwise vortices is postulated to play a key role in significantly reducing flow-altering effects associated with the end-walls.     

Propulsion velocity of a flapping wing at low Reynolds number

This paper presents a computational fluid–structure interaction analysis for free movements with a flapping wing in a quiescent fluid. We demonstrated the moving velocity of a flapping wing according to the phase difference between the angle of attack and the positional angle in the case of a fruit fly with a Reynolds number of 136. If we considered the moving velocity of the flapping wing, the physics were different from that of hovering flight of previous studies, which did not consider the propulsive velocity and presented the advanced rotation of the angle of attack as the best mechanism for propulsion force, as compared to symmetric rotation and delayed rotation. We found that symmetric rotation produced a better propulsion velocity with less fluctuation in other direction than the advanced rotation. The hairpin vortex generated at the end of a stroke did not clearly contribute to the enhancement of propulsion; the wake capture is considered to be one of the main enhancements of the advanced rotation in a previous studies. We studied the effects of the angle of attack to determine why the fruit fly uses a large angle of attack during a constant angle of attack period. Larger angles of attack produced greater propulsion velocities. Further, larger angles of attack did not generate greater peak force during the rotation of the angle of attack at the reversal of stroke, but they produced less fluctuation at the reversal of the stroke and greater force during the constant angle of attack period.     

Three-dimensional numerical study of jet-in-crossflow characteristics at low Reynolds number

A numerical study of a square jet in a cross flow is carried out at a Reynolds number of 100. The flow field and heat transfer characteristic downstream of the jet have been explored by solving three-dimensional unsteady Navier–Stokes equations and energy equation using higher order spatial and temporal discretization. The projection of vortical structure on a plane is seen to give the component of vortex normal to the plane. Four combinations of velocity profile namely (1) uniform crossflow and uniform jet, (2) laminar boundary layer crossflow and uniform jet, (3) uniform crossflow and parabolic jet profile, and (4) laminar boundary layer crossflow and parabolic jet are compared at same phase to see their effect on the flow field and heat transfer characteristic. All the four cases are seen to exhibit unsteadiness but the jet with parabolic profile is seen to show stronger unsteadiness. The instantaneous vortical structures of all the cases at the same phase show that the structures are more complex for the jet with parabolic velocity profile. The temperature field is seen to be correlated with the vortical structures. Comparison of the time averaged flow field reveals that the jet penetration is the highest for the jet having parabolic profile and boundary layer crossflow. The adiabatic effectiveness is observed to be more for the jet with uniform velocity profile and uniform crossflow and was least for the jet with parabolic velocity profile and boundary layer crossflow.     

Passive control of wake flow by two small control cylinders at Reynolds number 80

Passive control of the wake behind a circular cylinder in uniform flow is studied by numerical simulation at Re_D=80. Two small control cylinders are placed symmetrically along the separating shear layers at various stream locations. In the present study, the detailed flow mechanisms that lead to a significant reduction in the fluctuating lift but maintain the shedding vortex street are clearly revealed. When the stream locations lie within 0.8≤X_C/D≤3.0, the alternate shedding vortex street remains behind the control cylinders. In this case, the symmetric standing eddies immediately behind the main cylinder and the downstream delay of the shedding vortex street are the two primary mechanisms that lead to a 70–80% reduction of the fluctuating lift on the main cylinder. Furthermore, the total drag of all the cylinders still has a maximum 5% reduction. This benefit is primarily attributed to the significant reduction of the pressure drag on the main cylinder. Within X_C/D>3.0, the symmetry of the standing eddy breaks down and the staggered vortex street is similar to that behind a single cylinder at the same Reynolds number. In the latter case, the mean pressure drag and the fluctuating lift coefficients on the main cylinder will recover to the values of a single cylinder.     

Turbulent flow in a channel at a low Reynolds number

A two-component laser Doppler velocimeter with high spatial and temporal resolution was used to obtain measurements for fully developed turbulent flow of water through a channel with an aspect ratio of 12 : 1 at Re=5700 (based on the centerline velocity and the half-height of the channel). Statistical quantities that were determined are the mean streamwise velocity, the root-mean-square of the fluctuations of the streamwise and the normal velocities, the Reynolds shear stress and higher order moments. Turbulence production is calculated from these quantities. Turbulence statistics obtained from experiments are compared with results from a direct numerical simulation at the same Reynolds number. The good agreement validates a recent DNS, at Re=5700, which is approximately twice as large as used in most previous studies. Received: 12 May 1997 / Accepted: 8 April 1998     

Treadmilling swimmers near a no-slip wall at low Reynolds number

The motion of a circular treadmilling low Reynolds number swimmer near a no-slip wall is studied analytically. First, the exact solution of Jeffrey and Onishi [Q. J. Mech. Appl. Math., 34 (1981)] for a translating and rotating solid cylinder near a no-slip wall is rederived using a novel conformal mapping approach that differs from the original derivation which employed bipolar coordinates. Then it is shown that this solution can be combined with the reciprocal theorem, and the calculus of residues, to produce an explicit non-linear dynamical system for the treadmilling swimmer's velocity and angular velocity. The resulting non-linear dynamical system governing the swimmer motion is used to corroborate the qualitative results obtained by an approximate model of the same swimmer recently presented in Crowdy and Or [Phys. Rev. E., 81 (2010)].     

The control of vortex shedding behind heated circular cylinders at low Reynolds numbers

We report some experiments undertaken to investigate the control of vortex shedding behind electrically heated cylinders at low Reynolds numbers owing to the heat input brought to the cylinder. In airflow, depending on the Reynolds number value, complete suppression or modification of the vortex shedding phenomenon can be achieved with increase of heat input. Experimental results suggest that this control could result of a slight change of the separation point location due to the increase of the dynamic viscosity of the fluid.     

Numerical study of turbulent plane Couette flow at low Reynolds number

A direct numerical simulation of fully developed turbulent plane Couette flow has been performed. Unsteady large-scale structures, which contributed to the instantaneous energy level, were observed. These evolving and drifting vortical structures vanished after time-averaging, and the resulting mean velocity and streamwise turbulence intensity compared favourably with recent laboratory data.     

低雷诺数流理论

最近,严宗毅教授编著的《低雷诺数流理论》已由北京大学出版社出版（2002年）.本书是适合于从事缓慢或小尺度黏性流动研究和有关工程技术人员参考的一本不可多得的专著,也是供高等院校有关专业研究生和高年级学生学习的一本优秀教材. 近30年来,为适应环境、生物、化学工程广泛应用