Reynolds number effect on the flow past two tandem cylinders

This work investigates Reynolds number Re (= 50 - 200) effects on the flows around a single cylinder and the two tandem (center-to-center spacing 𝐿∗= 𝐿/𝐷 = 4) cylinders, each of a diameter D. Vorticity structures, Strouhal numbers, and time-mean and fluctuating forces are presented and discussed. For the single cylinder, with increasing Re in the range examined, the vorticity magnitude, Strouhal number and fluctuating lift all monotonically rise but time-mean drag, vortex formation length, and lateral distance between the two rows of vortices all shrink. For the two tandem cylinders, the increase in Re leads to the formation of three distinct flows, namely reattachment flow (50 ≤ Re ≤ 75), transition flow (75 ≤ Re ≤100), and coshedding flow (100 ≤ Re ≤ 200). The reattachment flow at Re = 50 is steady. When Re is increased from 75 to 200, the Strouhal number of the two cylinders, jumping from 0.113 to 0.15 in the transition flow regime, swells to 0.188. The two-cylinder flow is more sensitive to Re than the single cylinder flow. Fluctuating lift is greater for the downstream cylinder than the upstream cylinder while time-mean drag is higher for the upstream cylinder than for the other. The time-mean drags of the upstream cylinder and single cylinder behaves similar to each other, both declining with increasing Re.