Three-Dimensional Instability of Flow Around Two Circular Cylinders in Tandem Arrangement

The spatial evolution of vortices and transition to three-dimensionality in the wake of two circular cylinders in tandem arrangement have been numerically studied. An improved virtual body method developed from the virtual boundary method is used here. A Reynolds number range between 220 and 270 has been considered, and the spacing between two cylinders is selected as L/D = 3 and L/D = 3.5. When L/D = 3, the secondary vortices of Mode-A are seen to appear at Re = 240 and persist over the range of the Reynolds number of 240 - 270. When L/D = 3.5, the similar critical Reynolds number has been found at Re = 250. No obvious discontinuity has been found in the Strouhal-Reynolds number relationship, and this is different from three-dimensional flow around a single cylinder at the critical Reynolds number. The spanwise wavelength is about four times the diameter of the cylinder, and it is the characteristic wavelength for ModeA instability. This paper can give some foremost insight into the three-dimensional instability of flow by complicated geometrical configuration.

Three-Dimensional Instability of Flow Around Two Circular Cylinders in Tandem Arrangement