Vortex shedding from spheres

1974 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmar Achenbach

Vortex shedding from spheres has been studied in the Reynolds number range 400 < Re < 5 × 106. At low Reynolds numbers, i.e. up to Re = 3 × 103, the values of the Strouhal number as a function of Reynolds number measured by Möller (1938) have been confirmed using water flow. The lower critical Reynolds number, first reported by Cometta (1957), was found to be Re = 6 × 103. Here a discontinuity in the relationship between the Strouhal and Reynolds numbers is obvious. From Re = 6 × 103 to Re = 3 × 105 strong periodic fluctuations in the wake flow were observed. Beyond the upper critical Reynolds number (Re = 3.7 × 105) periodic vortex shedding could not be detected by the present measurement techniques.The hot-wire measurements indicate that the signals recorded simultaneously at different positions on the 75° circle (normal to the flow) show a phase shift. Thus it appears that the vortex separation point rotates around the sphere. An attempt is made to interpret this experimental evidence.

Author(s):  
Sandra K. S. Boetcher ◽  
Ephraim M. Sparrow

The possible impact of the presence of the strut portion of a Pitot tube on the efficacy of the tube as a velocity-measuring device has been evaluated by numerical simulation. At sufficiently low Reynolds numbers, there is a possibility that the precursive effects of the strut could alter the flow field adjacent to the static taps on the body of the Pitot tube and might even affect the impact pressure measured at the nose. The simulations were performed in dimensionless form with the Reynolds number being the only prescribed parameter, but the dimensions were taken from a short-shanked Pitot tube. Over the Reynolds number range from 1500 to 4000, a slight effect of the strut was identified. However, the variation due to the presence of the shank of the velocity measured by the Pitot tube operating in that range of Reynolds numbers was only 1.5%.


1983 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 265-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter Schewe

Force measurements were conducted in a pressurized wind tunnel from subcritical up to transcritical Reynolds numbers 2.3 × 104[les ]Re[les ] 7.1 × 106without changing the experimental arrangement. The steady and unsteady forces were measured by means of a piezobalance, which features a high natural frequency, low interferences and a large dynamic range. In the critical Reynolds-number range, two discontinuous transitions were observed, which can be interpreted as bifurcations at two critical Reynolds numbers. In both cases, these transitions are accompanied by critical fluctuations, symmetry breaking (the occurrence of a steady lift) and hysteresis. In addition, both transitions were coupled with a drop of theCDvalue and a jump of the Strouhal number. Similar phenomena were observed in the upper transitional region between the super- and the transcritical Reynolds-number ranges. The transcritical range begins at aboutRe≈ 5 × 106, where a narrow-band spectrum is formed withSr(Re= 7.1 × 106) = 0.29.


1969 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. W. Bearman

The flow around a circular cylinder has been examined over the Reynolds number range 105 to 7·5 × 105, Reynolds number being based on cylinder diameter. Narrow-band vortex shedding has been observed up to a Reynolds number of 5·5 × 105, i.e. well into the critical régime. At this Reynolds number the Strouhal number reached the unusually high value of 0·46. Spectra of the velocity fluctuations measured in the wake are presented for several values of Reynolds number.


2019 ◽  
Vol 878 ◽  
pp. 875-906
Author(s):  
Adnan Munir ◽  
Ming Zhao ◽  
Helen Wu ◽  
Lin Lu

Flow around a high-speed rotating circular cylinder for $Re\leqslant 500$ is investigated numerically. The Reynolds number is defined as $UD/\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}$ with $U$, $D$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}$ being the free-stream flow velocity, the diameter of the cylinder and the kinematic viscosity of the fluid, respectively. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a high rotation rate on the wake flow for a range of Reynolds numbers. Simulations are performed for Reynolds numbers of 100, 150, 200, 250 and 500 and a wide range of rotation rates from 1.6 to 6 with an increment of 0.2. Rotation rate is the ratio of the rotational speed of the cylinder surface to the incoming fluid velocity. A systematic study is performed to investigate the effect of rotation rate on the flow transition to different flow regimes. It is found that there is a transition from a two-dimensional vortex shedding mode to no vortex shedding mode when the rotation rate is increased beyond a critical value for Reynolds numbers between 100 and 200. Further increase in rotation rate results in a transition to three-dimensional flow which is characterized by the presence of finger-shaped (FV) vortices that elongate in the wake of the cylinder and very weak ring-shaped vortices (RV) that wrap the surface of the cylinder. The no vortex shedding mode is not observed at Reynolds numbers greater than or equal to 250 since the flow remains three-dimensional. As the rotation rate is increased further, the occurrence frequency and size of the ring-shaped vortices increases and the flow is dominated by RVs. The RVs become bigger in size and the flow becomes chaotic with increasing rotation rate. A detailed analysis of the flow structures shows that the vortices always exist in pairs and the strength of separated shear layers increases with the increase of rotation rate. A map of flow regimes on a plane of Reynolds number and rotation rate is presented.


2013 ◽  
Vol 733 ◽  
pp. 171-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Espinosa-Gayosso ◽  
Marco Ghisalberti ◽  
Gregory N. Ivey ◽  
Nicole L. Jones

AbstractParticle capture, whereby suspended particles contact and adhere to a solid surface (a ‘collector’), is an important mechanism for a range of environmental processes including suspension feeding by corals and ‘filtering’ by aquatic vegetation. In this paper, we use two- and three-dimensional direct numerical simulations to quantify the capture efficiency ($\eta $) of low-inertia particles by a circular cylindrical collector at intermediate Reynolds numbers in the vortex-shedding regime (i.e. for $47\lt \mathit{Re}\leq 1000$, where $\mathit{Re}$ is the collector Reynolds number). We demonstrate that vortex shedding induces oscillations near the leading face of the collector which greatly affect the quantity and distribution of captured particles. Unlike in steady, low-$\mathit{Re}$ flow, particles directly upstream of the collector are not the most likely to be captured. Our results demonstrate the dependence of the time-averaged capture efficiency on $\mathit{Re}$ and particle size, improving the predictive capability for the capture of particles by aquatic collectors. The transition to theoretical high-Reynolds-number behaviour (i.e. $\eta \sim {\mathit{Re}}^{1/ 2} $) is complex due to comparatively rapid changes in wake conditions in this Reynolds number range.


1971 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Tritton

A discussion is given of the current state of knowledge of vortex streets behind circular cylinders in the Reynolds number range 50 to 160. This was prompted by Gaster's (1969) report that he could not find the transition at a Reynolds number of about 90 observed by Tritton (1959) and Berger (1964a). A further brief experiment confirming the existence of the transition is described Reasons for rejecting Gaster's interpretation are advanced. Possible (mutually alternative) explanations of the discrepant observations are suggested.


1974 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmar Achenbach

The effect of surface roughness on the flow past spheres has been investigated over the Reynolds number range 5 × 104 < Re < 6 × 106. The drag coefficient has been determined as a function of the Reynolds number for five surface roughnesses. With increasing roughness parameter the critical Reynolds number decreases. At the same time the transcritical drag coefficient rises, having a maximum value of 0·4.The vortex shedding frequency has been measured under subcritical flow conditions. It was found that the Strouhal number for each of the various roughness conditions was equal to its value for a smooth sphere. Beyond the critical Reynolds number no prevailing shedding frequency could be detected by the measurement techniques employed.The drag coefficient of a sphere under the blockage conditions 0·5 < ds/dt < 0·92 has been determined over the Reynolds number range 3 × 104 < Re < 2 × 106. Increasing blockage causes an increase in both the drag coefficient and the critical Reynolds number. The characteristic quantities were referred to the flow conditions in the smallest cross-section between sphere and tube. In addition the effect of the turbulence level on the flow past a sphere under various blockage conditions was studied.


1970 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jen-Shih Lee ◽  
Yuan-Cheng Fung

With an objective to understand arteriosclerosis, the blood flow in a circular cylindrical tube with a local constriction is analyzed. Numerical results are presented for the streamlines and the distributions of velocity, pressure, vorticity, and shear stress in the Reynolds number range 0–25. These results have applications to other fluid-mechanical problems such as gauges for velocity measurements, etc.


2010 ◽  
Vol 648 ◽  
pp. 225-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. E. STEWART ◽  
M. C. THOMPSON ◽  
T. LEWEKE ◽  
K. HOURIGAN

A study investigating the flow around a cylinder rolling or sliding on a wall has been undertaken in two and three dimensions. The cylinder motion is specified from a set of five discrete rotation rates, ranging from prograde through to retrograde rolling. A Reynolds number range of 20–500 is considered. The effects of the nearby wall and the imposed body motion on the wake structure and dominant wake transitions have been determined. Prograde rolling is shown to destabilize the wake flow, while retrograde rotation delays the onset of unsteady flow to Reynolds numbers well above those observed for a cylinder in an unbounded flow.Two-dimensional simulations show the presence of two recirculation zones in the steady wake, the lengths of which increase approximately linearly with the Reynolds number. Values of the lift and drag coefficient are also reported for the steady flow regime. Results from a linear stability analysis show that the wake initially undergoes a regular bifurcation from a steady two-dimensional flow to a steady three-dimensional wake for all rotation rates. The critical Reynolds number Rec of transition and the spanwise wavelength of the dominant mode are shown to be highly dependent on, but smoothly varying with, the rotation rate of the cylinder. Varying the rotation from prograde to retrograde rolling acts to increase the value of Rec and decrease the preferred wavelength. The structure of the fully evolved wake mode is then established through three-dimensional simulations. In fact it is found that at Reynolds numbers only marginally (~5%) above critical, the three-dimensional simulations indicate that the saturated state becomes time dependent, although at least initially, this does not result in a significant change to the mode structure. It is only at higher Reynolds numbers that the wake undergoes a transition to vortex shedding.An analysis of the three-dimensional transition indicates that it is unlikely to be due to a centrifugal instability despite the superficial similarity to the flow over a backward-facing step, for which the transition mechanism has been speculated to be centrifugal. However, the attached elongated recirculation region and distribution of the spanwise perturbation vorticity field, and the similarity of these features with those of the flow through a partially blocked channel, suggest the possibility that the mechanism is elliptic in nature. Some analysis which supports this conjecture is undertaken.


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