Since the review of periodic flow phenomena by Berger & Wille (1972) in this journal, over twenty years ago, there has been a surge of activity regarding bluff body wakes. Many of the questions regarding wake vortex dynamics from the earlier review have now been answered in the literature, and perhaps an essential key to our new understandings (and indeed to new questions) has been the recent focus, over the past eight years, on the three-dimensional aspects of nominally two-dimensional wake flows. New techniques in experiment, using laser-induced fluorescence and PIV (Particle-Image-Velocimetry), are vigorously being applied to wakes, but interestingly, several of the new discoveries have come from careful use of classical methods. There is no question that strides forward in understanding of the wake problem are being made possible by ongoing three- dimensional direct numerical simulations, as well as by the surprisingly successful use of analytical modeling in these flows, and by secondary stability analyses. These new developments, and the discoveries of several new phenomena in wakes, are presented in this review.

Vortex Dynamics in the Cylinder Wake

Fluctuating lift on a circular cylinder: review and new measurements

In this review, we present control methods for flow over a bluff body such as a circular cylinder, a 2D bluff body with a blunt trailing edge, and a sphere. We introduce recent major achievements in bluff-body flow controls such as 3D forcing, active feedback control, control based on local and global instability, and control with a synthetic jet. We then classify the controls as boundary-layer controls and direct-wake modifications and discuss important features associated with these controls. Finally, we discuss some other issues such as Reynolds-number dependence, the lowest possible drag by control, and control efficiency.

Control of Flow Over a Bluff Body

Calculations of unsteady 2D flow around a square cylinder at incidence (α=0°−45°) are presented. The Reynolds numbers are low (Re=45–200) so that the flow is presumably laminar. A von Karman vortex sheet is predicted behind the cylinders with a periodicity which agrees well with experiments. An incompressible SIMPLEC code is used with a non-staggered grid arrangement. A third-order QUICK scheme is used for the convective terms. The time discretization is implicit and a second-order Crank–Nicolson scheme is employed. At the outlet of the computational domain a convective Sommerfeld boundary condition is compared with a traditional Neumann condition. The convective boundary condition is shown to be more effective in reducing the CPU time, reducing the upstream influence of the outlet and thus reducing the necessary downstream extent of the domain. A study of the effects of spatial resolution and blockage is also provided. The onset of vortex shedding is investigated by using the Stuart–Landau equation at various angles of incidence and for a solid blockage of 5%. A number of quantities such as Strouhal number and drag, lift and moment coefficients are calculated. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Low-Reynolds-number flow around a square cylinder at incidence: study of blockage, onset of vortex shedding and outlet boundary condition

Closed-Loop Turbulence Control: Progress and Challenges

The onset of Karman-vortex shedding is studied experimentally in the wake of different two-dimensional bluff bodies, namely an oblong cylinder, circular cylinders and plates of rectangular cross-section. Different control measures, such as wake heating, transverse body oscillations and base bleed are investigated. As the steady-periodic Karman shedding has previously been identified as a limit-cycle, i.e. as self-excited oscillations, the experiments are interpreted in the framework of the Stuart–Landau model. The coefficients of the Stuart–Landau equation for the characteristic vortex shedding amplitude, i.e. the linear temporal growth rate, linear frequency and the Landau constant, are fully determined for the two cylinders and in part for the plate. For this purpose transients are generated by suddenly switching transverse body oscillations or base bleed on or off. The analysis of these transients by a refined method based on complex demodulation provides reliable estimates of the model coefficients and yields an experimental validation of the concept that a global instability mode grows or decays as a whole. Also, it is demonstrated that the coefficients of the Stuart–Landau equation are independent of the experimental technique used to produce the transients.

Eberhard Berger

Papers

Self-excited oscillations in the wake of two-dimensional bluff bodies and their control