The results of numerical experiments aimed at investigating the topology of the vortex structures shed by an oscillating foil of finite span are described. The motion of the foil and its geometry are chosen to mimic the tail of a fish using the carangiform swimming. The numerical results have been compared with the flow visualizations of Freymuth [J. Fluids Eng. 111, 217 (1989)] and those of von Ellenrieder et al. [J. Fluid Mech.490, 129 (2003)]. The results show that a vortex ring is shed by the oscillating foil every half a cycle. The dynamics of the vortex rings depends on the Strouhal number St. For relatively small values of St, the interaction between adjacent rings is weak and they are mainly convected downstream by the free stream. On the other hand, for relatively large values of St, a strong interaction among adjacent rings takes place and the present results suggest the existence of reconnection phenomena, which create pairs of longitudinal counter-rotating vortices

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In this paper we found, by means of numerical simulations, a transition in the oscillatory character of the flow field for a particular combination of buoyancy and spacing in an array of six circular cylinders at a Reynolds number of 100 and Prandtl number of 0.7. The cylinders are iso-thermal and they are aligned with the Earth acceleration (g). According to the array orientation, an aiding or an opposing buoyancy is considered. The effect of natural convection with respect to the forced convection is modulated with the Richardson number, Ri, ranging between −1 and 1. Two values of center to center spacing (s = 3.6d − 4d) are considered. The effects of buoyancy and spacing on the flow pattern in the near and far field are described. Several transitions in the flow patterns are found and a parametric analysis of the dependence of the force coefficients and Nusselt number with respect to the Richardson number is reported. For Ri = −1, the change of spacing ratio from 3.6 to 4 induces a transition in the standard deviation of the force coefficients and heat flux. In fact the transition occurs due to rearrangement of the near field flow in a more ordered wake pattern. Therefore, attention is focused on the influence of geometrical and buoyancy parameters on the heat and momentum exchange and their fluctuations. The available heat exchange models * for cylinders array provide a not accurate prediction of the Nusselt number in the cases here studied.

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