Showing papers on "Vortex shedding published in 2020"

Guide to Spectral Proper Orthogonal Decomposition

Abstract: This paper discusses the spectral proper orthogonal decomposition and its use in identifying modes, or structures, in flow data. A specific algorithm based on estimating the cross-spectral density ...

Flow control over a square cylinder using attached rigid and flexible splitter plate at intermediate flow regime

Abstract: A detailed flow field behind a stationary square cylinder with attached rigid and flexible splitter plates has been studied using particle image velocimetry, constant temperature anemometry, and flow visualization techniques. A wide range of lengths of the splitter plate (L/B = 0–8) are considered, and their respective wake interference is reported. The investigation is carried out at an intermediate flow regime at three Reynolds numbers 600, 1000, and 2000 (based on blocking width “B” of the cylinder). The literature seriously lacks the information on a passive flow control of bluff body wakes in this flow regime. This study shows that the wake frequency and mean drag coefficient vary nonmonotonically to splitter plate lengths. The length of the splitter plate is a critical parameter, which, apart from flow control, can also bring a significant wake transition. At L/B > 3 to L/B = 4, strong secondary vortices are shed from the trailing edge. The shedding of the secondary vortex leads to a sudden shrinkage in the recirculation bubble and an increase in the periodicity of the unsteady flow. The onset of high amplitude flapping occurs in a flexible splitter plate (L/B = 3) at Re = 2000. The vortex shedding frequency becomes higher than the first mode natural frequency of the flexible splitter plate for this length and remains in the same regime for L/B > 3. The amplitude of flapping increases up to L/B = 5 and then again recedes. The high amplitude flapping of the flexible splitter plate adversely affects the mean drag coefficient of the bluff body.

Experimental and numerical analysis of the bi-stable turbulent wake of a rectangular flat-backed bluff body

Abstract: The wake dynamics of a rectangular flat-backed bluff body is studied using both the wind tunnel experiment and Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (IDDES) at Re = 9.2 × 104. Both approaches are systematically investigated in order to provide a quantitative comparison. The wake barycenter deficit and base pressure gradient dynamics are first investigated to characterize the wake states. Second, the known global dynamics such as long-term bi-stability, vortex shedding, and wake pumping are analyzed using proper orthogonal decomposition. It is found that the wake dynamics is globally well captured by the IDDES, but with a more intense activity due to the absence of the fore-body separations observed in the experiment. The coupling of these global dynamics is explored by utilizing low-order modeling in cross planes and elaborating the evolution of the three-dimensional (3D) instantaneous wake flow from IDDES. The shedding of a large-scale hairpin vortex from the horizontal shear layer is closely associated with the pumping motion during wake switchings or switching attempts. A concept model is proposed for 3D bi-stable wake topology, which attempts to elucidate both asymmetric and symmetric wake configurations.

Turbulent flow interaction with a circular cylinder

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive experimental study on the unsteady pressure exerted on the surface of a round cylinder in smooth and turbulent flows. A highly instrumented cylinder with several static pressure taps and dynamic pressure transducers at different spanwise and peripheral locations was used, enabling extensive dynamic surface pressure, coherence, and turbulence length-scale analysis. The effects of the free-stream turbulence and turbulent length scale are investigated by placing the turbulent-generating grids within the wind tunnel duct. For both the laminar and turbulent incident flows, the surface pressure results show the emergence of the fundamental, first and second harmonics at most peripheral angles, while at the cylinder base, the surface pressure spectra are dominated by the first harmonic. It has also been observed that an increase in the level of the turbulence intensity results in an increase in the energy level of unsteady pressure acting on the cylinder. An increase in the length scale of the incoming flow structures is shown to result in an increase in the energy level of the tonal frequencies and the broadband content of the surface pressure spectra. The spanwise coherence results have also shown that an increase in the length scale of the flow structures increases the spanwise correlation length of the flow structures at the vortex shedding frequency at the stagnation point, while at the cylinder base, the spanwise correlation length decreases at the vortex shedding frequency.

Experimental evaluation of cylinder vortex shedding noise reduction using porous material

Abstract: The tonal noise generation of a circular cylinder in a uniform flow is an important source of aerodynamic noise. It can be found at parts of the landing gear of airplanes, at pantographs of trains, at antennas and basically all other protruding parts of vehicles. This noise is due to the periodic shedding of vortices along the cylinder span. One method to reduce this noise is the use of flow permeable covers around the cylinders. In the present study, measurements were performed in an aeroacoustic wind tunnel on a large set of porous covered cylinders. In addition to varying the porous material, which is characterized by its air flow resistivity and its porosity, the thickness of the porous layer was varied as well. The measurements were performed at Reynolds numbers between 14,000 and 103,000 using microphones located in the acoustic far field. It was found that the porous covers lead to a notable narrowing of the vortex shedding tonal peak in the sound pressure level spectra, an effect that increases with increasing porosity and thickness and decreasing air flow resistivity of the porous layer. Based on the large set of experimental data, basic trends were derived for the estimation of the vortex shedding Strouhal number and the reduction in the energy in the vortex shedding peak using the method of linear regression. Constant temperature anemometry measurements in the wake of selected cylinders basically showed a similar narrowing of the vortex shedding peak in the spectra of the turbulent velocity fluctuations. In addition, the measurement of wake profiles showed a reduction in the mean velocity and the turbulence in the wake as well as a widening of the wake region, while an analysis of the spanwise coherence revealed that the cause of the overall noise reduction is not a breakup of spanwise turbulent structures. Rather, the results imply that viscous damping of turbulent flow pressure amplitudes by the porous material strongly contributes to the noise reduction.

Influence of three dimensionality on propulsive flapping

Abstract: Propulsive flapping foils are widely studied in the development of swimming and flying animal-like autonomous systems. Numerical studies in this topic are mainly two-dimensional (2-D) studies, as they are quicker and cheaper, but this inhibits the three-dimensional (3-D) evolution of the shed vortices from leading and trailing edges. In this work, we examine the similarities and differences between 2-D and 3-D simulations through a case study in order to evaluate the efficacy and limitations of using 2-D simulations to describe a 3-D system. We simulate an infinite-span NACA0016 foil in both two and three dimensions at a Reynolds number of 5300 and an angle of attack of 10°. The foil is subject to prescribed heaving and pitching kinematics with varying trailing-edge deflection amplitude for coupled motion, while 3-D effects dominate outside of these ranges. These 2-D regions begin when the fluid energy induced by the flapping motion overcomes the 3-D vortex shedding found on a stationary foil, and the flow reverts back to 3-D when the strength of the shed vortices overwhelms the stabilising influence of viscous dissipation. These results indicate that 3-D to 2-D transitions or vice versa are a balance between the strength and stability of leading/trailing-edge vortices and the flapping energy. However, 2-D simulations can still be used for flapping flight/swimming studies provided that the flapping amplitude/frequency is within a given range.

Experimental investigation of vortex shedding past a circular cylinder in the high subcritical regime

Abstract: Vortex shedding in the near wake of a circular cylinder is investigated using surface pressure measurements and two component Particle Image Velocimetry (2C PIV) for 1.49 × 105 ≤ Re ≤ 5 × 105. Space-time distribution of surface pressure shows that regular vortex shedding is interspersed with bursts of weakened activity. Its occurrence increases with an increase in Re. As a result, the rms of the lift coefficient decreases significantly in the subcritical regime with an increase in Re. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) of the surface pressure data and the 2C PIV data at the midspan of the cylinder shows that most of the energy is contained within the antisymmetric (AS) and symmetric (S) modes. The AS mode is responsible for the regular von Karman vortex shedding, while the S mode is related to intermittent expansion and contraction of the vortex formation region. The energy of the AS mode decreases at a faster rate as compared to that of the S mode with an increase in Re. The S mode is the most dominant mode beyond Re ∼ 3.2 × 105. In the critical regime, the POD modes are modified due to the presence of the intermittent Laminar Separation Bubble (LSB). 2C PIV at the midspan of the cylinder reveals that the weakening of the AS mode is accompanied by an increase in the formation length, Lf. (Lf/d) increases from 1.4 in the low subcritical to 2.0 in the high subcritical regime, where d is the diameter of the cylinder. The weakening of the AS mode and increase in Lf/d collectively lead to a significant decrease in fluctuating lift with an increase in Re. 2C PIV of a spanwise section shows that weakening of vortex shedding is nearly uniform along the span of the cylinder.

Vortex shedding characteristics in the wake of circular finned cylinders

Abstract: The near wake flow development and vortex shedding characteristics downstream of straight circular finned cylinders are experimentally investigated. Different finned cylinders with the same fin pitch and fin thickness, but different diameter ratios, Df/Dr = 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, are investigated. Particle image velocimetry measurements are carried out at a Reynolds number of Re = 2.0 × 104 based on the cylinder effective diameter (Deff), which corresponds to the sub-critical flow regime. The spatial flow development in the near wake is elucidated using both time-averaged and phase-resolved flow field characteristics. The proper orthogonal decomposition analysis is used to characterize the unsteady vortex shedding process in the wake of the cylinders. The results show that adding fins to the cylinder changes the flow development around it. Moreover, the extent of the recirculation region reduces significantly downstream of the finned cylinders as their diameter ratio increases due to higher flow entrainment between the fins. This causes an increase in both the energy of the primary vortex shedding and the strength of the vortices in the wake. The combination of stronger vortices with amplified periodicity leads to a more energetic vortex shedding process in the wake of the finned cylinders.

Characterization of three-dimensional vortical structures in the wake past a circular cylinder in the transitional regime

Abstract: The flow past a circular cylinder in the transitional regime at Re = 2000 has been thoroughly investigated via well resolved direct numerical simulation with a spectral element code. Spanwise periodic boundary conditions of at least Lz ≥ 2.5D are required to properly reproduce first and second order turbulent statistics in the cylinder wake. A Kelvin–Helmholtz instability can already be detected at this relatively low Reynolds number at the flapping shear layers issued from either side of the cylinder. The instability, with a frequency fKH ≃ 0.84 that is in excellent agreement with published experimental results, arises only occasionally and the associated spanwise vortices are subject to spanwise localization. We show that while Karman vortices remain predominantly two-dimensional, streamwise vortical structures appearing along the braids connecting consecutive vortices are mainly responsible for rendering the flow three-dimensional. These structures may appear in isolation or in vortex pairs and have a typical spanwise wavelength of around λz ≃ 0.20–0.28 at a location at (x, y) = (3, 0.5), as measured via Hilbert transform along probe arrays with spanwise orientation. In line with experimental and numerical results at higher Re = 3900, the size of the structures drops in the very near-wake to a minimum at x ≃ 2.5 and then steadily grows to asymptotically attain a finite maximum for x ≳ 20. A time-evolution-based stability analysis of the underlying two-dimensional vortex shedding flow, which happens to be chaotic, shows that the fastest growing perturbations in the linear regime have a spanwise periodicity λz ≃ 0.3 and are located in the very near-wake, right within the braid that connects the last forming Karman vortex with the previous one, thus hinting at a close relation with the fully developed vortical structures observed in full-fledged three-dimensional computations.

Passive control of the onset of vortex shedding in flow past a circular cylinder using slit

Abstract: This study investigates the passive flow control phenomena over a two-dimensional circular cylinder using numerical simulations in the laminar regime. The aim is to explore one of the passive control techniques, which involves the introduction of a slit to the geometry of the cylinder. The two parameters, slit width ratio S/D (slit width/diameter) and slit angle (measured with respect to the incoming flow direction), play an essential role in determining the trend of critical Reynolds number (Rec). Most of the analysis invokes flow visualization and saturation amplitude methods to obtain the critical Reynolds number (indicative of the onset of vortex shedding) for different cases. Furthermore, Hopf bifurcation analysis using the Stuart-Landau equation and global stability analysis confirm the accuracy and consistency in the predicted solutions. The additional amount of flow through the slit increases the pressure downstream of the cylinder, which consequently leads to an increase in Rec of the modified cylinder. The critical Reynolds number increases with S/D of the modified cylinder at 0° slit angle (as an additional amount of flow grows with S/D). The critical Reynolds number shows an increasing trend with the slit angle in the range of S/D = 0.05–0.15 as the fluctuation intensity reduces with the slit angle in this range. For S/D = 0.15–0.25, the extra amount of flow through the slit induces instability in the wake, which causes a decrease in Rec with the slit angle. A correlation is obtained, which estimates the critical Reynolds number for a given S/D and slit angle.

Kármán vortex street in incompressible fluid models

Abstract: This paper aims to provide a robust model for the well-known phenomenon of K\'arm\'an Vortex Street arising in Fluid Mechanics. The first theoretical attempt to model this pattern was given by von K\'arm\'an [22, 23]. He considered two parallel staggered rows of point vortices, with opposite strength, that translate at the same speed. Following the ideas of Saffman and Schatzman [36], we propose to study this phenomenon in the Euler equations by considering two infinite arrows of vortex patches. The key idea is to desingularize the point vortex model proposed by von K\'arm\'an. Our construction is flexible and can be extended to more general incompressible models.

A Review on Hydrodynamics of Free Surface Flows in Emergent Vegetated Channels

Abstract: This review paper addresses the structure of the mean flow and key turbulence quantities in free-surface flows with emergent vegetation. Emergent vegetation in open channel flow affects turbulence, flow patterns, flow resistance, sediment transport, and morphological changes. The last 15 years have witnessed significant advances in field, laboratory, and numerical investigations of turbulent flows within reaches of different types of emergent vegetation, such as rigid stems, flexible stems, with foliage or without foliage, and combinations of these. The influence of stem diameter, volume fraction, frontal area of stems, staggered and non-staggered arrangements of stems, and arrangement of stems in patches on mean flow and turbulence has been quantified in different research contexts using different instrumentation and numerical strategies. In this paper, a summary of key findings on emergent vegetation flows is offered, with particular emphasis on: (1) vertical structure of flow field, (2) velocity distribution, 2nd order moments, and distribution of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in horizontal plane, (3) horizontal structures which includes wake and shear flows and, (4) drag effect of emergent vegetation on the flow. It can be concluded that the drag coefficient of an emergent vegetation patch is proportional to the solid volume fraction and average drag of an individual vegetation stem is a linear function of the stem Reynolds number. The distribution of TKE in a horizontal plane demonstrates that the production of TKE is mostly associated with vortex shedding from individual stems. Production and dissipation of TKE are not in equilibrium, resulting in strong fluxes of TKE directed outward the near wake of each stem. In addition to Kelvin–Helmholtz and von Karman vortices, the ejections and sweeps have profound influence on sediment dynamics in the emergent vegetated flows.

Experimental investigation of turbulent wake flows in a helically wrapped rod bundle in presence of localized blockages

Abstract: In nuclear sodium fast reactors, bundles of rods are tightly packed into a triangular lattice, enclosed in a hexagonal duct, and each pin is spirally wrapped with a thin wire. Flow blockages can potentially impact the local flow characteristics and heat transfer mechanisms in the bundle due to its small subchannel size. The effects of the blockage on the flow structures and heat transfer mechanisms are important aspects that require an accurate investigation. In this study, the flow-field characteristics in the vicinity of a blockage located in the exterior subchannel of rod bundles with helically wrapped wires were experimentally investigated. The velocity fields in the exterior subchannel were acquired by applying matched-index-of-refraction and time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) techniques for Reynolds numbers of Re1 = 4000 and Re2 = 17 000, i.e., equivalent to Rew1 = 19 600 and Rew2 = 83 200, respectively, based on the blockage width. The results from the TR-PIV measurements revealed an arch-shaped vortex with a large flow recirculation and a pair of counter-rotating vortices in the wake region downstream of the blockage, which is commonly observed in the wake flow of bluff bodies. The relative lateral distance and angle between the two vortices decreased when the Reynolds numbers increased. Profiles of maximum turbulence intensity along the shear layers illustrated the transition process including the growth, peak, and decay along the flow direction. From the spectral analysis of the turbulent velocities extracted at points along the shear layer, the Strouhal numbers (St) representing the vortex shedding frequency were found to be St = 0.25 and St = 0.56 for the left and right shear layers, respectively. Characteristics of shear layers generated by the blockage in the exterior subchannel were investigated via the two-point cross correlation of fluctuating velocities. The spatiotemporal cross correlations of turbulent velocities, computed at points in the region where the left shear layer exhibited rolling effects and vortex breakdowns, were considerably wider and longer. The convection velocity Uc was estimated to be ∼0.82Um to 0.93Um. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis was applied to the instantaneous velocity fields to extract the statistically dominant flow structures. It was found that POD modes 2–3 and 4–5 formed the pair modes when the corresponding POD temporal coefficients depicted sinusoidal shapes and exhibited nearly circular orbits in the phase space. Spectral analysis of the POD temporal coefficients confirmed the vortex shedding frequencies detected in the analysis of turbulent velocities.