Numerical investigation of flow around circular cylinder with splitter plate

Abstract

The flow around a single circular cylinder with splitter plate was investigated using Computational Fluid Dynamics. The present study investigated the effects of varying splitter plate length and the Reynolds numbers on flow characteristic, such as vortex shedding, drag force, lift force, separation point, pressure, and friction coefficients of the cylinder. It was revealed that the vortex shedding behind cylinder is completely suppressed when the splitter plate length is longer than the critical value, which is proportional to the Reynolds number. The variation of drag and lift coefficients with respect to splitter length can be classified into two patterns of a monotonic decrease and a general decrease but with small increase. We found that the first pattern occurs at Reynolds number ≤ 180 and higher Reynolds number gives the second pattern. When the splitter plate length is similar to the diameter of the cylinder, the vortex frequency, drag, and lift coefficients reach local minimum depending on the Reynolds number. A functional relationship between drag coefficient, length of splitter plate, and Reynolds number was determined.