Experimental and Numerical Study of the Three Dimensional Instabilities in the Wake of a Blunt Trailing Edge Profiled Body

Abstract

The wake of nominally two dimensional bluff bodies is dominated by von Ka´rma´n vortices, which are accompanied by three dimensional instabilities beyond a threshold Reynolds number. These three dimensional instabilities initiate as dislocations in the von Ka´rma´n vortices near the trailing edge, which evolve into pairs of counter-rotating vortices further downstream. The wavelength of the three dimensional instabilities depends on profile geometry and Reynolds number. In the present study, the three dimensional wake instabilities for a blunt trailing edge profiled body, composed of an elliptical leading edge and a rectangular trailing edge, have been studied in Reynolds numbers ranging from 500 to 1200, based on the thickness of the body. Numerical simulations, Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) flow visualization, and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) methods have been used to identify the instabilities. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) has been used to analyze the velocity field data measured using PIV. The results confirm the existence of three dimensional instabilities with an average wavelength of 2.0 to 2.5 times thickness of the body, in the near wake. The findings are in agreements with the values reported previously for different Reynolds numbers, and extend the range of Reynolds numbers in which the three dimensional instabilities are characterized.