An experimental and numerical study of the flow past elliptic cylinder arrays
The subcritical flow over an array of elliptic cylinders with an axis ratio of 1:2 was studied both experimentally and numerically. The mean velocities, turbulence levels and the vortex dynamics of the array were determined experimentally by flow visualization and using a laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) and the flow was modelled using three-dimensional large eddy simulation (LES). The experimental results were compared with results obtained previously using circular cylinders and with numerical predictions of the flow. The study indicated that the flow past such a widely spaced array is characterized by low turbulence levels and poor lateral mixing compared with conventional circular cylinder arrays, and a weak flow periodicity with a constant Strouhal number of 0.11 was detected in downstream rows. The predicted mean and r.m.s. velocities, as well as the flow periodicity, were in good agreement with the experimental results.