On the distributed blowing control of flow around a square cylinder at a low Reynolds number

Abstract

This paper numerically investigates the distributed blowing control of the flow around a square cylinder at a low Reynolds number of Re=200. The air holes are placed at the windward or leeward stagnation points. The control effect of the unsteady aerodynamic forces is notably different with different spanwise distributions of air holes, which is represented by the dimensionless air hole area ratio G. The simulation results indicate that the windward blowing control (WBC) shows better control effect than the leeward blowing control (LBC) in reducing the time-averaged drag coefficient Cd¯ of the square cylinder while the fluctuating lift coefficient Cl′ can be significantly suppressed by the LBC. Besides, the surface pressure distribution, the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) and Reynolds shear stress (RSS) distributions and the shedding vortices in the wake are analysed and compared in detail under different control conditions. Finally, through the instantaneous 3D vortex structures and the spanwise fluctuating velocity w′ distribution in the flow field, the suppression of the unsteady aerodynamic forces is mainly related to the 3D vortex pairs induced by the blowing jet.