Numerical study of vortex shedding from a rotating cylinder immersed in a uniform flow field

Abstract

A numerical study is made of the unsteady two-dimensional, incompressible flow past an impulsively started translating and rotating circular cylinder. The Reynolds number (Re) and the rotating-to-translating speed ratio (α) are two controlled parameters, and the influence of their different combinations on vortex shedding from the cylinder is investigated by the numerical scheme sketched below. Associated with the streamfunction (ψ)–vorticity (ω) formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations, the Poisson equation for ψ is solved by a Fourier/finite-analytic, separation of variable approach. This approach allows one to attenuate the artificial far-field boundary, and also yields a global conditioning on the wall vorticity in response to the no-slip condition. As for the vorticity transport equation, spatial discretization is done by means of finite difference in which the convection terms are handled with the aid of an ENO (essentially non-oscillatory)-like data reconstruction process. Finally, the interior vorticity is updated by an explicit, second-order Runge–Kutta method. Present computations fall into two categories. One with Re=103 and α≤3; the other with Re=104 and α≤2. Comparisons with other numerical or physical experiments are included. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.