Flow Around Upstream Square and a Circular Cylinder- Study

Abstract

This experimental study is devoted to the analysis of flow past a circular cylinder placed upstream and a square cylinder. Experimental study is carried out in a water channel and the flow around cylinders is visualized by using tracer particles (aluminium) deployed on the water surface. Water bed is illuminated by power halogen lamps and the fluid flow phenomena is captured using video camera. First the flow around a single circular cylinder and a square cylinder is analyzed. Then the interference effects between two circular cylinders in tandem is investigated based on the research works reported in the literature .Finally, the flow around a circular and a square cylinder in tandem arrangement is analysed. In the studies presented for the tandem arrangement of circular and square cylinder, the circular cylinder is the upstream cylinder and the square cylinder is the downstream cylinder. The flow patterns were visualized for various spacing ratios. The variation of Strouhal number with respect to the spacing was also studied in this investigation. It was observed that spacing ratio considerably influences the flow patterns both for interfering twin circular cylinders and also for circular- square combination in tandem arrangement. Spacing ratio was also observed to influence the Strouhal number of the cylinders.