Experimental and numerical investigation of turbulent wake flow around wall-mounted square cylinder of aspect ratio 2

The turbulent wake velocity fields around a short wall-mounted square cylinder of aspect ratio 2 fully immersing into a thick turbulent boundary layer are obtained experimentally with PIV and numerically with LES. Comparison between the two sets of data is made on the time-averaged mean velocities, turbulent fluctuating velocities, and the detailed characteristics of energetic large-scale coherent structures. It is noted that a good comparison of the low-order statistics of velocity fields does not guarantee a satisfactory reproduction of the coherent structures. These flow structures show great similarities in the spatial patterns and dynamic performance between PIV and LES, but apparent differences in turbulent kinetic energy contribution. On the horizontal plane parallel to the wall, the dominant antisymmetric spatial mode pair illustrates the evolution process of Karman vortex shedding with a clear spectral peak around the characteristic frequency while three extra frequency peaks are found in the symmetric spatial modes. Further investigation on the velocity field on the central vertical plane reveals the connection between the unsteadiness of shear layer flow at the free end and the spanwise symmetric vortex shedding activities. It is confirmed that the flapping motion and vortex convection mechanisms observed for the present cylinder could modulate the symmetric wake dynamics. The three-dimensional extreme wake patterns, available from LES results, are related to the most energetic Karman vortex shedding demonstrate upward flow in the vortex weakening side. Meanwhile, the downwash flow at the extreme time instants is found to become stronger always for this kind of short cylinder with a dipole wake pattern.

Automated summary

Experimental and numerical data were obtained for the turbulent wake velocity fields around a short wall-mounted square cylinder in a thick turbulent boundary layer. Despite good comparisons in low-order statistics of velocity fields, a satisfactory reproduction of coherent structures was not guaranteed. While spatial patterns and dynamic performance showed great similarities between PIV and LES, differences were found in terms of turbulent kinetic energy contribution.