Reduction of fluid forces and vortex shedding frequency of a circular cylinder using rigid splitter plates
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1080/17797179.2017.1306826Keywords:
Rigid splitter plate, vortex shedding, drag reduction, laminar flow, circular cylinder, Strouhal numberAbstract
This study investigates the fluid forces acting on a circular cylinder in a laminar flow regime while using a passive control strategy. Three cases including the cylinder with one, two or three rigid splitter plates attached at its rear surface were considered and the location of horizontal plates (attachment angle) was varied between 0° and 90°. A comprehensive parametric study was performed to identify the optimum arrangement of the plates using the commercial finite element software, Comsol Multiphysics. The results show that the location and the number of the plates have crucial effects on the wake control. Increasing the number of splitter plates from one to two symmetric parallel plates led to a reduction in drag force, vortex shedding frequency and fluctuation of lift force. A maximum drag reduction of 23% for dual-splitters and 15% for single-splitter was achieved, at an angle of 45° at Reynolds number 100. However, increasing the number of attached plates to three didn’t have a significant effect on flow quantities when plates of the same length were utilised. The suitability of the third plate (the middle plate) was further studied by investigating the effect of length of the plate on flow quantities.
Downloads
References
Akilli, H., Sahin, B., & Tumen, N. F. (2005). Suppression of vortex shedding of circular cylinder
in shallow water by a splitter plate. Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, 16, 211–219.
Apelt, C. J., & West, G. S. (1975). The effects of wake splitter plates on bluff-body flow in the
range 10 4< R< 5× 10 4. Part 2. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 71, 145–160.
Apelt, C. J., West, G. S., & Szewczyk, A. A. (1973). The effects of wake splitter plates on the
flow past a circular cylinder in the range 10 4< R< 5× 10 4. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 61,
–198.
Assi, G. R., Bearman, P. W., & Kitney, N. (2009). Low drag solutions for suppressing vortexinduced
vibration of circular cylinders. Journal of Fluids and Structures, 25, 666–675.
Bao, Y., & Tao, J. (2013). The passive control of wake flow behind a circular cylinder by parallel
dual plates. Journal of Fluids and Structures, 37, 201–219.
Barman, B., & Bhattacharyya, S. (2015). Control of vortex shedding and drag reduction through
dual splitter plates attached to a square cylinder. Journal of Marine Science and Application,
, 138–145.
Bearman, P. W. (1965). Investigation of the flow behind a two-dimensional model with a blunt
trailing edge and fitted with splitter plates. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 21, 241–255.
Brown, P. N., Hindmarsh, A. C., & Petzold, L. R. (1994). Using Krylov methods in the solution
of large-scale differential-algebraic systems. SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing, 15,
–1488.
COMSOL Multiphysics, COMSOL Multiphysics User Guide (Version 4.3 a), 2012. COMSOL, AB.
De Nayer, G., & Breuer, M. (2014). Numerical FSI investigation based on LES: Flow past a
cylinder with a flexible splitter plate involving large deformations (FSI-PfS-2a). International
Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 50, 300–315.
Gerrard, J. H. (1966). The mechanics of the formation region of vortices behind bluff bodies.
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 25, 401–413.
Gu, F., Wang, J. S., Qiao, X. Q., & Huang, Z. (2012). Pressure distribution, fluctuating forces
and vortex shedding behavior of circular cylinder with rotatable splitter plates. Journal of
Fluids and Structures, 28, 263–278.
Hindmarsh, A. C., Brown, P. N., Grant, K. E., Lee, S. L., Serban, R., Shumaker, D. E., &
Woodward, C. S. (2005). SUNDIALS: Suite of nonlinear and differential/algebraic equation
solvers. ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software, 31, 363–396.
Hwang, J. Y., Yang, K. S., & Sun, S. H. (2003). Reduction of flow-induced forces on a circular
cylinder using a detached splitter plate. Physics of Fluids, 15, 2433–2436 (1994-present).
Kwon, K., & Choi, H. (1996). Control of laminar vortex shedding behind a circular cylinder
using splitter plates. Physics of Fluids, 8, 479–486 (1994-present).
Ozono, S. (2003). Vortex suppression of the cylinder wake by deflectors. Journal of Wind
Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 91, 91–99.
Park, J., Kwon, K., & Choi, H. (1998). Numerical solutions of flow past a circular cylinder at
Reynolds numbers up to 160. KSME International Journal, 12, 1200–1205.
Posdziech, O., & Grundmann, R. (2007). A systematic approach to the numerical calculation
of fundamental quantities of the two-dimensional flow over a circular cylinder. Journal of
Fluids and Structures, 23, 479–499.
Qiu, Y., Sun, Y., Wu, Y., & Tamura, Y. (2014). Effects of splitter plates and Reynolds number
on the aerodynamic loads acting on a circular cylinder. Journal of Wind Engineering and
Industrial Aerodynamics, 127, 40–50.
Roshko, A. (1954). On the drag and shedding frequency of two-dimensional bluff bodies (No.
TN3169). Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Roshko, A. (1955). On the wake and drag of bluff bodies. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences
(Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences), 22, 124–132.
Schenk, O., & Gärtner, K. (2004). Solving unsymmetric sparse systems of linear equations with
PARDISO. Future Generation Computer Systems, 20, 475–487.
Schenk, O., & Gärtner, K. (2006). On fast factorization pivoting methods for sparse symmetric
indefinite systems. Electronic Transactions on Numerical Analysis, 23, 158–179.
Serson, D., Meneghini, J. R., Carmo, B. S., Volpe, E. V., & Assi, G. R. S. (2015). Numerical
study of the flow around a circular cylinder with dual parallel splitter plates. In V. Theofilis
& J. Soria (Eds.), Instability and Control of Massively Separated Flows (pp. 169–174). Cham:
Springer International Publishing.
Shukla, S., Govardhan, R. N., & Arakeri, J. H. (2009). Flow over a cylinder with a hinged-splitter
plate. Journal of Fluids and Structures, 25, 713–720.
Shukla, S., Govardhan, R. N., & Arakeri, J. H. (2013). Dynamics of a flexible splitter plate in
the wake of a circular cylinder. Journal of Fluids and Structures, 41, 127–134.
Sudhakar, Y., & Vengadesan, S. (2012). Vortex shedding characteristics of a circular cylinder
with an oscillating wake splitter plate. Computers & Fluids, 53, 40–52.
Tian, F. B., Luo, H., Zhu, L., Liao, J. C., & Lu, X. Y. (2011). An efficient immersed boundarylattice
Boltzmann method for the hydrodynamic interaction of elastic filaments. Journal of
Computational Physics, 230, 7266–7283.
Unal, M. F., & Rockwell, D. (1988). On vortex formation from a cylinder. Part 1. The initial
instability. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 190, 491–512.
Williamson, C. H. K. (1989). Oblique and parallel modes of vortex shedding in the wake of
a circular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 206, 579–627.
Yucel, S. B., Cetiner, O., & Unal, M. F. (2010). Interaction of circular cylinder wake with a short
asymmetrically located downstream plate. Experiments in Fluids, 49, 241–255
