Dynamics of Flow Around a Cylinder Oscillating In-Line for Low Reynolds Numbers

This study builds on an earlier study of low-Reynolds number flow about a cylinder forced to oscillate in-line with the main flow, which found vortex switches at some oscillation amplitude values. Here we extend the Reynolds number domain to Re = 60–350, utilize a computational domain characterized by R2 /R1 = 360, and do computations at two frequency ratios of f/St0 = 0.8 and 0.9. Computations were carried out using a thoroughly tested finite-difference code. Some results were compared with those obtained by Ansys CFX, and good agreement was found. When plotted against oscillation amplitude, rms and time-mean values of force coefficients revealed a shift toward lower amplitude with higher Re. Findings for the effect of frequency ratio are similar. Where vortex switches occurred, a pre- and post-jump analysis is carried out. POD analysis of the cylinder wake flow field is employed to reveal the detailed wake dynamics as the forcing parameters are varied. The analysis provides further details on the transition of the dominant wake modes in response to the symmetry breaking bifurcation underlying the vortex switches observed in the simulations.Copyright © 2010 by ASME