Numerical investigation of vortex wake patterns of laminar flow around two side-by-side cylinders

Abstract

The laminar flow around two side-by-side circular cylinders was numerically investigated using a vortex-in-cell method combined with a continuous-forcing immersed boundary method. The Reynolds number (Re) of the flow was examined in the range from 40 to 200, and the distance between the cylinders varies from 1.2 D to 6 D, where D is the cylinder diameter. Simulation results show that the vortex wake is classified into eight patterns, such as single-bluff-body, meandering-motion, steady, deflected-in-one-direction, flip-flopping, anti-phase-synchronization, in-phase-synchronization, and phase-difference-synchronization, significantly depending on the Re, the cylinder distance, and the initial external disturbance effects. The anti-phase-synchronization, in-phase-synchronization, and phase-difference-synchronization vortex patterns can be switched at a low Re after a long time evolution of the flow. In particular, the single-bluff-body and flip-flopping vortex patterns excite the oscillation amplitude of the drag and lift coefficients exerted on the cylinders.

Keywords

• viscous fluid
• vortex shedding
• vortex wake pattern
• vortex-in-cell method
• two side-by-side cylinders