Experimental study on wake flow structures of screen cylinders using PIV

Abstract

Experiments were conducted in a water flume using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to study the evolution of the vortical structures in the wakes of four types of screen cylinders at a Reynolds number of about 3200. The results were compared with that of a bare cylinder. The screen cylinders were made of stainless steel screen meshes of various porosities (37%, 48%, 61% and 67%) rolled into cylindrical shapes. Smoke wire flow visualisations in a wind tunnel were also conducted in support of the PIV tests. Depending on the porosity of the screen mesh, two vortex formation mechanisms for the screen cylinder wakes were identified. One was associated with wake instability and the other was associated with shear-layer (Kelvin-Helmholtz) convective instability which involved merging through pairing and tripling of small-scale vortices within the shear layers. The former was responsible for the formation of large-scale vortices in the bare cylinder and the screen cylinder wakes with 37% and 48% porosities, while the latter was responsible for the screen cylinder wakes with 61% and 67% porosities. The results also showed that with increasing porosity, the vortex formation region was extended farther downstream and the Reynolds shear stress, the Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE) and vortex intensity were decreased constantly.