Large Eddy Simulation of Flow Over Elliptic Cylinder Array in Square Configuration at Subcritical Reynolds Numbers

Abstract

Flow over arrays of cylinders of different cross-sections has been an essential area of research interest for a long time. For the estimation of flow characteristics around arrays of cylinders, numerical simulation of the flow past four elliptic cylinders in a square arrangement for a range of spacing ratios is analysed in this paper. Three spacing ratios considered in the present study are 3.45, 4.14 and 5.17. The results from the numerical simulation are compared with the experimental findings obtained previously using square cylinder arrays. The fluid flow modelling is performed by applying three-dimensional LES (Large-eddy simulation) with commercial software ANSYS Fluent 19R1. The results from the simulation for elliptic cylinder arrays involve both quantitative and qualitative analyses in the form of various patterns of flow, drag and lift coefficients, St (Strouhal number) and PSD (Power Spectral Density) plots. The Strouhal number values found for cylinder 1 and cylinder 2 in case of elliptic cylinder arrays are 0.642 and 0.703. It is observed that the force coefficients encountered by the cylinders are moderately varying for different spacing ratios.