Aerodynamic characteristics of a square cylinder with a rod in a staggered arrangement

Abstract

The aerodynamic characteristics of a square cylinder with an upstream rod in a staggered arrangement were examined. The pressure measurement was conducted in a wind tunnel at a Reynolds number of Re D =82,000 (based on the width of the square cylinder) and the flow visualization was carried out in a water tunnel with the hydrogen bubble technique at Re D =5,200. When the rod and the square cylinder were in tandem, the reduction of drag was mainly caused by the increase of the rear suction pressure. When the staggered angle was introduced, the shield and disturbance effect of the rod on the square cylinder diminished, which results in the increase of the cylinder drag. The side force induced by the staggered angle is small (the maximum value is 20% of the drag of the isolate square cylinder). There were six different flow modes with various staggered angles and spacing ratios, and the corresponding flow patterns are presented in present paper. © Springer-Verlag 2005.