Passive control of the onset of vortex shedding in flow past a circular cylinder using slit

Abstract

This study investigates the passive flow control phenomena over a two-dimensional circular cylinder using numerical simulations in the laminar regime. The aim is to explore one of the passive control techniques, which involves the introduction of a slit to the geometry of the cylinder. The two parameters, slit width ratio S/D (slit width/diameter) and slit angle (measured with respect to the incoming flow direction), play an essential role in determining the trend of critical Reynolds number (Rec). Most of the analysis invokes flow visualization and saturation amplitude methods to obtain the critical Reynolds number (indicative of the onset of vortex shedding) for different cases. Furthermore, Hopf bifurcation analysis using the Stuart-Landau equation and global stability analysis confirm the accuracy and consistency in the predicted solutions. The additional amount of flow through the slit increases the pressure downstream of the cylinder, which consequently leads to an increase in Rec of the modified cylinder. The critical Reynolds number increases with S/D of the modified cylinder at 0° slit angle (as an additional amount of flow grows with S/D). The critical Reynolds number shows an increasing trend with the slit angle in the range of S/D = 0.05–0.15 as the fluctuation intensity reduces with the slit angle in this range. For S/D = 0.15–0.25, the extra amount of flow through the slit induces instability in the wake, which causes a decrease in Rec with the slit angle. A correlation is obtained, which estimates the critical Reynolds number for a given S/D and slit angle.