Shear Layer and Wake Characteristics of Square Cylinder in Transonic Flow

Abstract

The transonic flow around a square cylinder at Ma= 0.71 and Re= 4×105 has been studied by using the scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) method, and the characteristics of separated shear layer and wake have been analyzed in depth. To validate the SAS approach, the SAS results are compared with the existing numerical and experimental results. In the present transonic flow, the convective Mach number inside the shear layer is about 0.6. This indicates that the initial evolution of the separated shear layer is dominated by Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and the roller spanwise eddies in the initial stage of the shear layer can be observed. In the regions near the shear layer and the wake, the doubling frequencies can be obtained indicative of the harmonic phenomenon inside the separated shear layer, which is closely related to the obvious merging of the vortices in the shear layer. Proper orthogonal decomposition of the pressure field shows that the transonic flow field of square cylinder is dominated by the antisymmetric mode, which is associated with the vortex shedding in the wake and the propagation of compression waves induced by the shear layer.

Keywords

• square cylinder
• shock wave
• shear layer
• lamb vector
• scale-adaptive simulation