An Experimental Investigation of Staggered Circular Cylinders in a Uniform Planar Shear Flow

Abstract

Two circular cylinders of equal diameter, arranged in staggered configurations of P/D = 1.125 and 1.25, were immersed in a uniform planar shear flow, at Re = 5.0×104 and a dimensionless shear parameter of K = 0.05. The mean aerodynamic forces and the vortex shedding frequencies were measured for the upstream and downstream cylinders at each P/D. Under uniform, no-shear flow conditions, K = 0, the flow field of the cylinder group is similar to a single bluff body. As the incidence angle is varied from α = 0° to 90°, the forces on each cylinder undergo discontinuous changes, or attain local minimum or maximum values, at several critical incidence angles. At small α, the Strouhal number is greater than that of a single, isolated circular cylinder, whereas at high α the Strouhal number is lower than the single-cylinder value. The effects of shear, K = 0.05, on the aerodynamic forces were different depending on whether the downstream cylinder was situated at a higher or lower centreline velocity compared to the upstream cylinder. The planar shear flow had its greatest influence when the cylinders were in a nearly side-by-side arrangement. This indicated that the effect of shear was mostly on the flow through the gap between the cylinders. The lift coefficient data were mostly unchanged by the shear flow, the drag coefficient data were lowered, and there were shifts in the critical incidence angles. The influence of shear on vortex shedding was less pronounced, but there was a small reduction in Strouhal number compared to the no-shear case.