Control of circular cylinder flow via bilateral splitter plates

Abstract

We carry out wind tunnel investigations to study the flow of a circular cylinder modified with two rigid splitter plates hinged along its stagnation points. The equal-sized and symmetrically placed splitter plates are both parallel to the incoming airflow, and their single-sided length in the streamwise direction varies from 0 to 2.0D (where D is the cylinder diameter). The wind tunnel experiments are conducted at the Re of 3.33 × 104. In addition to bilaterally arranged plates, two other configurations of splitter plates, i.e., front-plate-only and rear-plate-only, are also investigated. By employing the sectional measurement of surface pressure in the midspan slice, we evaluate typical aerodynamic parameters, including pressure distribution, instantaneous drag and lift forces, frequency spectra of the unsteady lift forces, mean drag, and root-mean-square lift coefficients acting on the cylindrical test models. A particle image velocimetry (PIV) system is used to visualize and quantify the vortex shedding process and the dynamic interactions of the natural and modified cylinders. Experimental results of the surface pressure measurement and PIV measurement results are then combined to reveal the effects of rigid plates with different configurations (bilateral, front-only, and rear-only) on the circular cylinder flow.