Flow mediated interactions between two cylinders at finite Re numbers

We present simulations of two interacting moving cylinders immersed in a two-dimensional incompressible, viscous flow. Simulations are performed by coupling a wavelet-adapted, remeshed vortex method with the Brinkman penalization and projection approach. This method is validated on benchmark problems and applied to simulations of a master-slave pair of cylinders. The master cylinder's motion is imposed and the slave cylinder is let free to respond to the flow. We study the relative role of viscous and inertia effects in the cylinders interactions and identify related sharp transitions in the response of the slave. The observed differences in the behavior of cylinders with respect to corresponding potential flow simulations are discussed. In addition, it is observed that in certain situations the finite size of the slave cylinders enhances the transport so that the cylinders are advected more effectively than passive tracers placed, respectively, at the same starting position. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4704195]