The predominant frequency for viscous flow past two tandem circular cylinders of different diameters at low Reynolds number

Abstract

Viscous flow past two circular cylinders in tandem arrangement is numerically investigated at a typical Reynolds number of 200 which is based on the diameter of the downstream cylinder. The non-dimensional diameter of the downstream cylinder D is fixed to be 1.0, while the non-dimensional diameter of the upstream cylinder d varies from 0.1 to 1.0 with an interval of 0.1. Moreover, the minimal non-dimensional distance between the two cylinders changes from 0.1 to 4.0. The numerical results show that continuous variation of the mean drag coefficient, the lift coefficient, and the lift frequency is observed with the increase in the gap ratio for d/ D = 0.1 and 0.2. Discontinuities are found for the mean drag coefficient, the lift coefficient, and the lift frequency of the downstream cylinder with the increase in gap ratio for d/ D = 0.9 and 1.0. Multiple lift oscillating frequencies of the downstream cylinder can be detected for d/ D = 0.3–0.8 at special gap ratios. Special attention is paid on d/ D = 0.4, which is a typical example for d/ D = 0.3–0.8. The predominant lift frequency of the downstream cylinder is observed to change from fL-1 to fL-2 as the increase in the gap ratio for d/ D = 0.4, which have not been previously detected. However, the predominant drag frequency of the downstream cylinder is found always to be fD-3 in present investigation scope. Moreover, a conclusion that fD-3 = fL-1 + fL-2 can be obtained.