Viscous flow around circular cylinders is a classical research topic in fluid dynamics with a vast amount of practical applications in the field of offshore marine technology. In the flow around cylinders of finite length, complex wake behaviours and coherent structures occur even at relatively low Reynolds numbers. An understanding of the nature and dynamics behind such behaviour could form a basis for improved designs and innovative solutions for offshore and subsea constructions.In the present study, flow around long finite cylinders at Re = 100 is investigated numerically using the incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations solver MGLET. To study the isolated flow near the free end, a cylinder with aspect ratio L/D = 50 is chosen. The flow over the free end gives rise to a wake consisting of two vortex shedding cells with different shedding frequencies; one small near the free end and one larger in the central region of the span. It is found that each vortex shed in the end cell bends horizontally and connects with the upstream vortex shed from the opposite side of the cylinder. The horizontal vortex shedding is found to give rise to a pair of trailing vortices in the time averaged flow.When a vortex is shed with a large phase difference between the two cells, the vortex is split and connects with other surrounding vortices. This phenomena is commonly referred to as vortex dislocations and occurs with the beat frequency, i.e. the difference between the two vortex shedding frequencies. It is found that this frequency can be detected in time histories of $u$ in the wake at the spanwise centre.A second configuration, consisting of a wall mounted cylinder with aspect ratio L/D = 25 is simulated in order to study the effect of introducing a no-slip surface. The effect on the end cell is found to be minimal, while the central cell shedding frequency is reduced. Comparisons with published data on a cylinder with aspect ratio L/D = 25 and two free ends shows that both the reduction of aspect ratio and the introduction of the no-slip boundary condition contributes to the reduced shedding frequency.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ntnu-18641 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Levold, Pål |
| Publisher | Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for marin teknikk, Institutt for marin teknikk |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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