Three-dimensional spectral proper orthogonal decomposition analyses of the turbulent flow around a seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder

The flow around a seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder (SVSC) is numerically investigated using the large eddy simulation framework at a Reynolds number of 20000. Compared with a circular cylinder (CC), the wake of the SVSC presents more stable three-dimensional separation, a longer vortex formation length, and a weaker vortex strength. The mean drag and fluctuation of the lift coefficient are 59.5% and 87.7% lower than those of the CC, respectively. Three-dimensional spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) is used to investigate the turbulent flow around these two types of cylinders in terms of the spatial modes, mode energy, mode coefficients, and reconstructed flow by a reduced-order modeling. Four typical vortex shedding patterns are first extracted by SPOD for the SVSC, producing crescent-, twist-, branch-, and knot-shaped vortices. A concept model is proposed for the wake dynamics of the SVSC, allowing the formation and transformation of these modes to be elucidated. Detailed analysis of the impact of the flow pattern on the associated forces indicates that the dominant out-phase vortex shedding at the upper and lower saddle planes makes a significant contribution to the reduction in lift fluctuations.

Automated summary

The study reveals that the seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder has a more stable three-dimensional separation wake, longer vortex formation length, and weaker vortex strength compared to a circular cylinder at a Reynolds number of 20000. The mean drag and fluctuation of the lift coefficient of the seal-vibrissa-shaped cylinder are significantly reduced, and SPOD can extract four typical vortex shedding patterns.