G. S. West

Bio: G. S. West is an academic researcher from University of Queensland. The author has contributed to research in topics: Strouhal number & Vortex shedding. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 3 publications receiving 718 citations.

The effects of tunnel blockage and aspect ratio on the mean flow past a circular cylinder with Reynolds numbers between 104 and 105

Abstract: Results are presented of a series of experiments which were carried out with great care to produce accurate, comparable results in which the relatively small changes in the flow past a circular cylinder associated with varying blockage ratios can be clearly distinguished. The experiments cover a range of blockage from 2 to 16% and of aspect ratios from 4 to 10. End plates were fitted to the cylinders in all experiments. For blockage ratios less than 6y0, it is shown that the effects of blockage on pressure distribution and the drag coefficient arc small and that the Strouhal number is unaffected by blockage. For blockage ratios in the range 6-lSyo, there is considerable distortion of the flow due to blockage and the effects are complex. The pressure distribution is of a different form and the Strouhal number changes.However, conflicting influences result in a blocked drag coefficient which is not verydifferent from that at no blockage. Reduction in aspect ratio has effects on dragcoefficient and on base pressure coefficient which are similar to those associated with increase in blockage ratio.It is concluded that blockage correction procedures based on the momentum method and on the image method are unsatisfactory in their prediction of the unblocked drag coefficient but the momentum method predicts the unblocked base pressure coefficient quite well.

The effects of wake splitter plates on the flow past a circular cylinder in the range 10 4 < R <5×10 4

Abstract: Experiments were carried out using models having L/D [les ] 2 and the resulting pressure distributions and vortex shedding characteristics are presented. A simple visualization technique which provides explanations of some of the measured results is described. It is concluded that splitter planes reduce the drag markedly by stabilizing the separation points and produce a wake narrower than that for a plain cylinder, raise the base pressure by as much as 50% and affect the Strouhal number to a lesser degree. Careful measurement techniques have enabled these effects to be presented accurately.

The effects of wake splitter plates on bluff-body flow in the range 104 < R < 5 × 104. Part 2

Abstract: The work reported in part 1 has been extended to cover flows past circular cylinders with wake splitter plates having 2 [les ] L/D [les ] 7 and to include flows past normal flat plates with splitter plates having L/D [les ] 3·7. Pressure distributions and wake Strouhal numbers were measured and visualization studies carried out. The results obtained indicate that no further changes would be produced by lengthening the splitter plates beyond the limits tested.The combined results of parts 1 and 2 provide coherent descriptions of the effects of wake splitter plates for all values of L/D of significance for the two profiles, which are representative of two distinct classes of bluff bodies, viz., those with cross-sections of curvilinear shape for which the flow separation points are not determined uniquely by the geometry and those for which the separation points are fixed.

A laser-Doppler velocimetry study of ensemble-averaged characteristics of the turbulent near wake of a square cylinder

Abstract: Ensemble-averaged statistics at constant phase of the turbulent near-wake flow (Reynolds number ≈ 21400 around a square cylinder have been obtained from two-component laser-Doppler measurements. Phase was defined with reference to a signal taken from a pressure sensor located at the midpoint of a cylinder sidewall. The distinction is drawn between the near wake where the shed vortices are ‘mature’ and distinct and a base region where the vortices grow to maturity and are then shed. Differences in length and velocity scales and vortex celerities between the flow around a square cylinder and the more frequently studied flow around a circular cylinder are discussed. Scaling arguments based on the circulation discharged into the near wake are proposed to explain the differences. The relationship between flow topology and turbulence is also considered with vorticity saddles and streamline saddles being distinguished. While general agreement with previous studies of flow around a circular cylinder is found with regard to essential flow features in the near wake, some previously overlooked details are highlighted, e.g. the possibility of high Reynolds shear stresses in regions of peak vorticity, or asymmetries near the streamline saddle. The base region is examined in more detail than in previous studies, and vorticity saddles, zero-vorticity points, and streamline saddles are observed to differ in importance at different stages of the shedding process.

An experimental investigation of the flow around a circular cylinder : influence of aspect ratio

Abstract: The investigation is concentrated on two important quantities – the Strouhal number and the mean base suction coefficient, both measured at the mid-span position Reynolds numbers from about 50 to 4 × 104 were investigated Different aspect ratios, at low blockage ratios, were achieved by varying the distance between circular end plates (end plate diameter ratios between 10 and 30) It was not possible, by using these end plates in uniform flow and at very large aspect ratios, to produce parallel shedding all over the laminar shedding regime However, parallel shedding at around mid-span was observed throughout this regime in cases when there was a slight but symmetrical increase in the free-stream velocity towards both ends of the cylinder At higher Re, the results at different aspect ratios were compared with those of a ‘quasi-infinite cylinder’ and the required aspect ratio to reach conditions independent of this parameter, within the experimental uncertainties, are given For instance, aspect ratios as large as L/D = 60–70 were needed in the range Re ≈ 4 × 103–104 With the smallest relative end plate diameter and for aspect ratios smaller than 7, a bi-stable flow switching between regular vortex shedding and ‘irregular flow’ was found at intermediate Reynolds number ranges in the subcritical regime (Re ≈ 2 × 103)