2D Flow around a Rectangular Cylinder: A Computational Study

Abstract

The unsteady flow around a rectangular cylinder is an area of great research for scientist for several years. A two-dimensional unsteady flow past a rectangular cylinder has been investigated numerically for the low Reynolds numbers (flow is laminar). Gambit has been used throughout this work to generate the geometry and meshes and the computational fluid dynamics analysis is done using fluent software. The influence of vortical structure and pressure distribution around the section of rectangular cylinders are examined and reported. The integral aerodynamic parameters are also reported. Strouhal numbers for Reynolds numbers of 55, 75, 100, 150, 250 and 400 are 0.102, 0.122, 0.129, 0.136, 0.139 and 0.158 respectively. The magnitudes of the coefficient of drag for the Reynolds numbers are 1.565, 1.524, 1.432, 1.423, 1.526 and 1.545. The lift coefficient for flow around a rectangular cylinder with a chord-to-depth ratio equal to 5 of low Reynolds numbers of 55, 75, 100, 150, 250 and 400 are 0.067, 0.101, 0.157, 0.212, 0.404 and 0.537 respectively. The pressure drags obtained in the simulations at zero angle of incidence are 1.446, 1.455, 1.439, 1.412, 1.579 and 1.602 for Reynolds numbers 55, 75, 100, 150, 225, and 250. The velocity across the rectangular cylinders varies from 0.089 to 1.02m/s. The forces caused by vortex shedding phenomenon must be taken into account when designing buildings for safe, effective and economical engineering designs.

Keywords: Vortex shedding, laminar, Aerodynamic, Strouhal number, Wake and Von Kármán Street.