Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

Reducing the drag on a circular cylinder by upstream installation of a small control rod
Sang-Joon Leea; , Sang-Ik Leea , Cheol-Woo Parkb
a

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 790-784, South Korea b School of Mechanical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 702-701, South Korea Received 28 August 2003; received in revised form 1 January 2004; accepted 30 January 2004 Communicated by Y. Matsumoto

Abstract The e ects of installing a small control rod upstream of a circular cylinder are investigated experimentally, with a focus on the drag characteristics and the wake structure behind the cylinder. The Reynolds number based on the main cylinder diameter (D = 30 mm) is about Re = 20 000. Control rods with diameters d ranging from d=D = 0:133 to 0.267 are tested. Wake velocity and surface-pressure distributions are measured with varying the pitch distance L (i.e., center-to-center distance) between the main circular cylinder and the control rod. The form drag coe cient is obtained by integrating the surface pressure on the cylinder surface. The critical pitch distance Lc at which vortices start to shed from the control cylinder is found to obey the relation Lc =D =1:5+0:083d. Characteristic ow quantities such as pressure and drag force change substantially at the critical pitch distance. The drag coe cient of the main circular cylinder decreases about 29% when a control rod of diameter d = 7 mm (d=D = 0:233) is installed at a pitch ratio close to the critical value of Lc =D = 2:081. However, the maximum reduction of the total system drag including that of the control rod (about 25%) is observed at a pitch ratio of L=D = 1:833 with a control rod diameter of d=D = 0:233. c 2004 Published by The Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics and Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Drag reduction; Control cylinder; Vortex shedding; Critical pitch distance; Total system drag

1. Introduction Numerous studies have investigated the ow structure around a circular cylinder. These studies have been driven both by academic interest and by a wide range of practical situations involving

Corresponding author. Tel.: +82-54-279-2169; fax: +82-54-279-3199. E-mail address: sjlee@postech.ac.kr (S.-J. Lee).

0169-5983/$30.00 c 2004 Published by The Japan Society of Fluid Mechanics and Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j. uiddyn.2004.01.001

234

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

ows of this type. Within this body of work, considerable e orts have been devoted to improving aerodynamic characteristics such as drag and lift forces by controlling the ow around the cylinder. In general, ow control techniques for reducing the aerodynamic drag exerted on a blu body are classied into two types, referred to as active and passive control. Active control methods control the ow by supplying external energy through means such as acoustic excitation or jet blowing. Passive control methods control the ow by modifying the shape of the body or by attaching additive devices such as a control rod or roughness elements onto the body (Sakamoto et al., 1991). Active control requires complex mechanical devices that supply external power to the ow. Therefore, compared with active ow control, passive control is simpler and easier to implement. An example of a passive control technique is the approach of Igarashi and Tsutsui (1989, 1991), who installed a trip-wire within the separated shear layer of a cylinder at a Reynolds number of Re = 4:2 104 . They found that the addition of this wire reduced the mean drag force acting on the cylinder by 2030%, with the greatest drag reduction being obtained when a trip-wire was located at an angle of 120 to the stagnation point. They noted that the drag coe cient was reduced by the reattached jet passing rapidly through the gap between the cylinder and the control rod. Lee and Lee (1995) also investigated the e ect of installing a small-diameter control rod within the separated shear layer formed around the main cylinder. Strykowski and Sreenivasan (1990) found that the vortex shedding behind a circular cylinder could be varied and suppressed over a limited range of Reynolds numbers by placing a small secondary control cylinder which alters the local stability of near wake behind the main cylinder. It is well known that the drag on a cylinder decreases when the wake behind it changes from laminar to turbulent ow with a narrow wake width. Zdravkovich (1977) reviewed previous studies on the ow over two cylinders and suggested a drag reduction method of using an obstacle placed upstream or downstream to alter the ow eld around the blu body. Igarashi (1997) reported that the drag on a square prismatic cylinder was reduced by about 5070% on installation of a small-diameter control rod upstream of the cylinder for the Reynolds number of Re = 3:2 104 . He investigated the interaction between the shear ow separated from the control rod and the square prism. Tsutsui and Igarashi (1995, 1996) investigated the e ect of varying the Reynolds number on the reduction in the drag on a circular cylinder located behind a control rod of diameters between 1 and 12 mm. They found that the drag decreased with increasing Reynolds number for all control rod diameters, with maximum drag reduction being observed when the diameter ratio d=D of the control rod to the cylinder was 0.25. Mahir and Rockwell (1996) investigated the wakes behind a side-by-side arrangement of two cylinders subjected to various excitations. Prasad and Williamson (1997) studied the reduction in the drag on a blu body that could be achieved by placing a small at-plate at 1:5D upstream of the cylinder in a parallel arrangement. When the width of the plate was one-third of the cylinder diameter, the total drag on the system was reduced by about 38% in comparison to the case of the cylinder alone. Mittal et al. (1997) carried out a numerical investigation of the reduction in the drag on the back cylinder of two identical cylinders arranged in tandem. They found that the drag on this cylinder was reduced by about 40% when the two cylinders were gapped with a distance of 1:5D. Sakamoto and Haniu (1994) investigated the suppression of uid forces acting on a cylinder when a control rod was added to the system. They found that the time-averaged mean drag force could be reduced by up to about 50%, and the uctuating lift and drag forces could be reduced by up to 85% by using a control rod.

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

235

Previous studies have clearly shown that inclusion of a control rod upstream of the main body is a very simple and e ective method for controlling the ow around a blu body such as a circular cylinder. However, although some researchers have explicitly included the e ect of the control rod in their analyses of these systems, most previous investigations have focused on the ow structure of the wake and the reduction of the drag on the main cylinder, and have not evaluated the entire system including the control rod. Various aspects of these systems, including the modied wake structure, the e ects of the boundary layer and separated shear layer on the drag, and the optimal congurations for e ective control have yet to be fully investigated. In addition, ow interaction between the control rod and the main cylinder is also to be claried. The ow around a blu body is distinctively di erent, depending on the geometrical shape and surface condition of the body. Since a circular cylinder is a representative shape of aerodynamic blu bodies and has been applied in many practical applications, the main cylinder tested in this study is determined to have a circular cross-section. The objective of the present study is to investigate the e ect of installing a control rod upstream of a circular cylinder on the drag on this cylinder with varying the diameter and position of the control rod. To complement the analysis of the drag, the wake structure in the system containing the control rod is investigated using a ow visualization technique. 2. Experimental apparatus and methods Experiments are performed in a closed-return type subsonic wind tunnel with a test section of 0:72W 0:6H 6L(m3 ). The free stream velocity is xed at Uo = 10 m=s and the turbulence intensity in the test-section is less than 0.08%. The Reynolds number (Re=Uo D= ) based on the main cylinder diameter (D = 30 mm) is about Re = 20 000. To maintain the two-dimensional nature of the ow and minimize the e ect of boundary layer development, end plates with a sharp edge are installed on both ends of the cylinder (Szepessy and Bearman, 1992). The spanwise length C of the main cylinder between the two end plates is 600 mm. A schematic diagram of the wind tunnel test section and measurement system is shown in Fig. 1. The main cylinder is made of acryl and the upstream control cylinder (i.e., the control rod) is made from stainless steel. The geometric arrangement of the two cylinders and the coordinate system used in this study are shown in Fig. 2. The diameter d of the control rod is varied from 4 to 8 mm (d=D = 0:1330.267) in intervals of 1 mm. The longitudinal pitch distances L between the centers of the main cylinder and control rod tested in this study are 45, 50, 55, 60, 62.5, 65, 70, 90, 105, and 120 mm (L=D = 1:54.0). The gap distance G between the facing surfaces of the two cylinders can be easily converted to the longitudinal pitch distance using the relationship L = G + (D + d)=2. In this study, L is non-dimensionalized by D to give the pitch ratio L=D, which is used as a governing parameter. The wake velocity is measured using I-type and X-type hot-wire probes connected to a constant temperature hot-wire anemometer (TSI IFA 100). The hot-wire probe is traversed to measuring points using a 3-D traverse with an accuracy of 0:01 mm. At each measurement point, 32 768 data are acquired at a sampling rate of 2 KHz, after low-pass ltering at 800 Hz. During the experiments, the temperature variation in the wind tunnel test section is maintained to be less than 0:5 C. West and Apelt (1982) mentioned that the pressure distribution around a circular cylinder varies only

236

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

Wind Tunnel Test Section 3-D Traverse

Hot-wire

Uo
Model Cylinders

Electronic Pressure Scanning System ZOC 23B

CTA TSI IFA-100

Digital Service Module DSM 3000 Signal Conditioner

PC

A/D Converter DT 2838

Fig. 1. Wind tunnel test section and measurement system.

Main Circular Cylinder Uo = 10 m/s Control Rod D=30mm

d G

d (mm) 4 5 6 7 8

d/D 0.133 0.167 0.2 0.233 0.267

Fig. 2. Experimental set-up and coordinate system.

slightly with respect to the blockage ratio. For blockage ratios of less than 6%, the Strouhal number is independent of the blockage ratio and aspect ratio of the cylinder. Given that in the present study the maximum blockage ratio based on the projected area of the cylinder models and end plates is about 4.2%, the blockage e ect is not considered in this study. To measure the surface pressure distribution around the main cylinder, pressure taps are installed at 10 intervals around the mid-span region of the cylinder. These pressure taps are connected to an electronic pressure scanning system (ZOC-23B) with vinyl tubes of inner diameter 0:8 mm. The analog pressure signals are digitized using a high-precision A/D converter (DSM-3000). At each measurement point, 16 384 pressure data are acquired at a sampling rate of 200 Hz. The pressure di erence between the surface pressure p and the static pressure po is divided by the dynamic pressure to give the following pressure coe cient Cp ,
2 Cp = (p po )=(1=2) Uo ;

(1)

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

237

Wind Tunnel T/S Control Cylinder Main Circular Cylinder

Supporting Rod 3-Component Dynamometer LCM-3502

DC Strain Amplifier DSA-100

PC

A/D Converter DT 2838

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of drag force measurement system.

where Uo is the free stream velocity and is the air density. The reference pressure po is measured with a Pitot-static tube located at Y = 200 mm, where the in uence of the experimental model is small and the ow is assumed to be inviscid. A 3-component dynamometer (LMC3502) is employed to measure the total drag force acting on the main cylinder and control rod, as shown in Fig. 3. The dynamometer is calibrated using scaled weights and then the main cylinder and control rod are installed vertically with supporting rods. During the drag force measurements, the end plates are removed and the clearance between the wind tunnel wall and the supporting rod is 50 mm. The output signal from the dynamometer is amplied using a strain amplier (DSA-100) and time-averaged data are acquired using an A/D converter (DT-2838). To obtain a qualitative understanding of the ow structure around the cylinders, ow visualization experiments are carried out using a smoke-wire method. Smoke laments usually break and disappear when the Reynolds number based on the smoke-wire diameter is larger than 6000. Therefore, the ow visualization experiments are carried out at the reduced free stream velocity of Uo = 2 m=s, for which the corresponding Reynolds number based on the wire diameter is about Re = 4000. Streak lines are illuminated with a thin light sheet emitted from a stroboscope. The visualized ow images are photographed with a high-resolution digital camera (Olympus C-3030). 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Flow visualization Fig. 4 shows typical visualized ows around the main cylinder and control rod for pitch ratios L=D ranging from 2.0 to 3.0. In these systems, the ratio of the control rod diameter to the main cylinder diameter is d=D = 0:233. Two di erent ow patterns are observed in the region between the control rod and the main cylinder as the pitch ratio is varied. When the pitch ratio is smaller

238

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

Fig. 4. Flow visualization in the region between the control rod and main cylinder for d=D = 0:233. (a) L=D = 2:0, (b) 2.08, (c) 2.5, (d) 3.0.

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

239

than 2.08 (Figs. 4(a) and (b)), no periodic vortex shedding from the control rod is observed due to mutual interference of the two adjacent cylinders. The shear layer separated from the control rod reattaches smoothly on the upper and lower sides of the main cylinder at = 40 . This is in good agreement with the reattachment location reported by Luo and Gan (1992). No vortex street exists in front of the main cylinder. This kind of ow structure was named in many di erent terminologies (Strykowski and Sreenivasan, 1990; Igarashi, 1997; Prasad and Williamson, 1997). We call this ow pattern as the cavity mode. The wake region behind the control rod in uences the free stream ow structure in front of the main cylinder. We conjecture that this cavity between the two cylinders plays an important role in the reduction of the drag on the main circular cylinder. On increasing the pitch ratio to a value greater than the critical pitch ratio (Lc =D 2:081), a periodic vortex street appears behind the control rod. This critical pitch ratio will be discussed in detail in Section 3.3. The vortices shed from the control rod go downstream and impinge on the front face of the main cylinder (Figs. 4(c) and (d)). In particular, for the pitch ratio of 3, quasi-stationary vortices are clearly observed in the region between the control rod and the main cylinder. We call this kind of ow pattern as the wake impingement mode (Hiwada et al., 1979; Luo and Gan, 1992; Prasad and Williamson, 1997). For the wake-impingement mode, distinct vortices are generated from the control rod and impinge upon the main cylinder. As a result, the oncoming ow speed in the region in front of the main cylinder is larger than that in the cavity mode. Considering the increase in the approaching ow speed on going from the cavity mode to the wake impingement mode, we would expect the wake impingement mode to reduce the drag to a lesser extent than the cavity mode. These ow visualization experiments can suggest the existence of a critical pitch distance at which the ow pattern shifts from the cavity mode to the wake impingement mode. Prasad and Williamson (1997) mentioned these two modes and the gap between cylinders at which the ow shows a discontinuous transition. Fig. 5 shows the wake ow patterns behind the main cylinder with and without the control rod diameter of 0.233. Without the control rod, laminar ow separation occurs on the front surface and the separation point moves toward upstream direction on the cylinder surface, increasing the shear layer inclination angle and wake width. These changes lead to a marked elongation of the vortex formation region in the downstream direction, as seen in Fig. 5(a). When a control rod is installed in front of the main cylinder (Figs. 5(b) and (c)), the oncoming ow that has been disturbed by the control rod causes turbulent ow separation on the surface of the main cylinder, which leads to a smaller vortex formation region and wake width in comparison to the ow without a control rod. In addition, the retardation of the separation point results in higher pressure on the rear surface of the cylinder and reduces the pressure drag acting on the main cylinder. 3.2. Pressure distributions Fig. 6 shows the mean pressure distribution on the main cylinder at a range of control rod diameters at pitch ratios of 1.5 and 2.17. These two values of the pitch ratio straddle the critical pitch ratio that discriminates the wake ow pattern into the cavity mode and wake impingement mode. Thus, the pressure coe cient distributions are classied into two groups.

240

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

Fig. 5. Visualized wake ows behind the main cylinder for d=D = 0:233. (a) No control, (b) L=D = 2:0, (c) 3:0.

For the gap ratio of 1.5 (Fig. 6(a)), which gives rise to the cavity mode, the mean pressure on the stagnation region of the main cylinder is greatly reduced and has small negative values. The pressure seems equal to the base pressure on the control rod. As would be expected, compared with the case of no control rod, the form drag is reduced due to this large reduction in the pressure on the front surface of the main cylinder. On the front side surface (30 70 ), the mean pressures are increased and the maximum pressure occurs at an angle of = 30 due to the impingement of shear layers separated from the upstream control rod. As the diameter of the control rod increases, the pressure coe cient decreases on the front face of the main cylinder ( 6 40 ). On moving further around the main cylinder, the mean pressure increases again on the side and rear surfaces. In addition, the ow separation point, at which the uid experiences an adverse pressure gradient, is shifted slightly downstream from = 70 to 80 in comparison with the system without a control rod, irrespective of the control rod diameter and pitch ratio.

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

1.0 0.5 0.0

241

1.0 0.5 0.0

Cp

-1.0 -1.5 -2.0 0 30 60 90 120 150 180

Cp

-0.5

-0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 0 30 60 90 120 150 180

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6. E ect of control rod diameter on the mean pressure distribution of main cylinder. (a) L=D = 1:5, (b) 2.17. control; , d=D = 0:133; 4, 0.167; , 0.2; ?, 0.233.

, No

For the case of the wake impingement mode (L=D = 2:17), the mean pressure distributions on the main cylinder are similar in shape to those of the cavity mode; however, the pressure distributions at L=D = 2:17 approach the distribution observed in the absence of the control rod. In comparison to the cavity mode ow, the stagnation pressure at = 0 is higher for the wake impingement mode, because the velocity of the oncoming ow is recovered with the absence of cavity between two cylinders. For larger control rod diameters (d=D = 0:2 and 0.233) in particular, the mean pressure on the leeward surface of the main cylinder is larger than that on a bare cylinder. This may result from the retardation of ow separation due to the impingement of vortices shed from the control rod. For both modes, the inclusion of a control rod leads to the attenuation of the pressure force acting on the windward surface of the main cylinder. For the cavity mode, the signicant reduction in the pressure on the windward surface is responsible for the substantial reduction in the drag force. Fig. 7 shows the mean pressure distributions at various pitch ratios for control rods with diameters of d=D = 0:133 and 0.233. As the pitch ratio increases, the mean pressure in the stagnation region increases irrespective of the rod diameter. However, the surface pressure distributions can be divided into two distinct groups, which can be discriminated on the basis of the critical pitch ratio. The di erence between the two forms of the surface pressure distribution is signicant on the windward surface, which is in agreement with the results of Baxendale et al. (1985). On the leeward surface, however, the mean pressure distributions show similar patterns irrespective of the pitch ratio. The marked change in the pressure distribution on the windward surface (0 90 ) with increasing pitch ratio is indicative of a transition in the ow pattern from the cavity mode to the wake impingement mode. 3.3. Drag reduction and critical pitch ratio The changes in the drag on the main circular cylinder with varying the diameter and position of the control rod are shown in Figs. 8 and 9. The drag coe cient acting on the main cylinder is

242
1.0 0.5 0.0

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

1.0 0.5 0.0

Cp

Cp

-0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 0 30 60 90

-0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0

(a)

120

150

180

30

60

90

(b)

120

150

180

Fig. 7. E ect of pitch ratio on the mean pressure distribution of main cylinder. (a) d=D = 0:133, (b) 0.233. , L=D = 1:5; , 1.83; , 2.08; , 2.33; , 3.0; +, 4.0.

, No control;

1.00 0.95 0.90

CDc /CDo

0.85 0.80 0.75 0.70 0.65 0.60 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

L/D
Fig. 8. E ect of control rod diameter on the drag reduction of main cylinder. , d=D = 0:133; 0.233; ., 0.267; , 0.25 (Tsutsui and Igarashi, 1995); , 0.3 (Tsutsui and Igarashi, 1995).

, 0.167; 4, 0.2;

obtained by integrating the surface pressure on the cylinder as CD C =

2 (p po ) dA=(1=2) Uo DC;

(2)

where A is the projected area and C is the spanwise length of the main cylinder between the two end plates. The drag coe cient of the main cylinder is normalized by the value of the bare cylinder to recognize the drag reduction rate at a glance and to detect the location of modal change. Fig. 8 shows the e ect of control rod diameter on the drag for the variation of pitch ratio between the control rod and main cylinder. In all of the systems tested, the drag acting on the main cylinder is reduced by the presence of a control rod in tandem at an upstream location. This drag reduction is independent of the downstream body shape, such as circular or rectangular cylinder (Igarashi, 1997). As the rod diameter is increased up to 0.233, the drag coe cient decreases substantially. The

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

1.0

243

0.9

CDc /CDo

0.8

0.7

0.133

0.167

0.2

0.233

0.267

d/D
Fig. 9. E ect of control rod position on the drag reduction of main cylinder. 2.33; J, 3.0; I, 4.0. , L=D = 1:5;

, 1.83; 4, 2.0; 5, 2.08;

main cylinder shows a maximum drag reduction of about 29% for the control rod of diameter 0.233 located at L=D = 2:083, compared with the drag on the main cylinder in the absence of the control rod. On a further increase of the rod diameter to diameters greater than d=D = 0:233, however, the drag reduction decreases. In addition, up to the rod diameter of d=D = 0:233, the pitch ratio at which the local maximum drag reduction occurs increases with increasing control rod diameter. As the rod diameter is increased above d=D = 0:233, however, the pitch ratio giving maximum drag reduction at the chosen diameter decreases slightly. This behavior may be attributed to the shear layer elongation and variation of the vortex formation length. The results of Tsutsui and Igarashi (1995) are in good agreement with the present results. For a downstream body of square cylinder, Igarashi (1997) found a little di erent variation, the increase of drag coe cient for the control rods having diameter less than d=D = 0:2 due to di erent windward surface conguration of downstream rectangular cylinder. Especially, due to rectangular corner edge of the square cylinder, the variation of pressure distribution on the windward surface is larger, compared with the case of a circular cylinder. With the rod diameter deviating from d=D 0:233, the drag reduction e ect of control rod is decreased as shown in Figs. 8 and 9. This indicates that the control rod has an optimal diameter around d=D 0:233, bringing about the maximum drag reduction. For all rod diameters, the drag coe cient decreases to a minimum value at small pitch ratios and then increases on further increase of the pitch ratio. The point of minimum drag coe cient corresponds to the transition from the cavity mode to the wake impingement mode. Near the critical pitch ratio, the ow seems to swap intermittently between two modes. Hiwada et al. (1979) mentioned that a bi-stable ow exists in the ow past two tandem unequal cylinders in the range of 1:78 6 L=D 6 2:23 at a Reynolds number of 6:27 104 . Prasad and Williamson (1997) observed wake mode variation in experiments in which they traced the time evolution of the instantaneous pressure signal of the wake behind a circular cylinder with a thin upstream plate. Based on the ow visualization results and drag force measurements, we determined the critical pitch distance Lc at which the drag reduction is greatest. Fig. 10 shows the critical pitch ratio as a

244

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

4.5

4.0

3.5

3.0

L/D

Lc/D = 1.5 + 0.083 d

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0 4 0.133 5 0.167 6 0.2 7 0.233

d (mm) d/D

Fig. 10. Relationship between the critical pitch distance and the control rod diameter. pingement mode.

, Cavity mode; , Wake im-

function of control rod diameter. The critical pitch ratio Lc =D was estimated by tting a curve through the boundary at which the wake pattern changes from the cavity mode to the wake impingement mode and drag reduction is the maximum. The critical pitch distance Lc and gap distance Gc may be expressed as Lc =D = 1:5 + 0:083d (0:133 6 d=D 6 0:233); (0:133 6 d=D 6 0:233): (3a) (3b)

Gc =D = 1:0 + 0:083d 0:5(d=D)

For the control rods tested in this study, the critical pitch ratio increases linearly with increasing control rod diameter. For a given value of d=D, the critical distance decreases with increasing Reynolds number (Igarashi, 1997; Luo and Gan, 1992; Bearman, 1969). Therefore, there may be some Reynolds number dependency in the present results of critical pitch distance. However, its e ect is assumed to be small and insensitive in the sub-critical Reynolds number regime (Bearman, 1969; Tsutsui and Igarashi, 1995; Prasad and Williamson, 1997). The critical pitch distance largely depends on upstream cylinder diameter. The distance may be increased analogously with the increase of rod diameter in the range less than that of downstream cylinder (Luo and Gan, 1992). Hiwada et al. (1979) measured the Strouhal number, Sherwood number and pressure distributions and proposed a similar formula which can be used to predict the critical spacing for diameter ratios in the range from d=D = 0:13 to 0.52. From direct comparison of Figs. 8 and 9, we can see that the maximum (about 29%) drag reduction on the main cylinder occurs when a control rod of d=D=0:233 is located at a critical pitch ratio of Lc =D = 2:081.

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

245

Y/D

Y/D
0.86 0.88 0.90 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98 1.00

-1

-1

-2

-2 0.86 0.88 0.90 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98 1.00

(a)
2

U/Uo

(b)
2

U/Uo

Y/D

Y/D

-1

-1

-2 0.86 0.88 0.90 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98 1.00

-2 0.86 0.88 0.90 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98 1.00

(c)

U/Uo

(d)

U/Uo

Fig. 11. Mean streamwise velocity proles measured at X=D=5. (a) d=4 mm (d=D=0:133). , No control; , L=D=1:67; , 1.83; , 2.0, (b) d = 5 mm (d=D = 0:167). , No control; , L=D = 1:83; , 2.0; , 2.08, (c) d = 6 mm (d=D = 0:2). , No control; , L=D = 1:83; , 2.0; , 2.08, (d) d = 7 mm (d=D = 0:233). , No control; , L=D = 2:0; , 2.08; , 2.17.

3.4. Mean velocity prole and Strouhal number Fig. 11 shows the mean streamwise velocity proles measured with a hot-wire X-probe at the location of X=D = 5 for various values of the pitch ratio and control rod diameter. The wake behind the main cylinder has a large velocity decit in the central wake region. For comparison purposes, the results for the bare cylinder without a control rod are also included. When a control rod is installed in front of the main cylinder, the velocity proles divide into two general groups on the basis of the critical pitch distance Lc . When the pitch distance is shorter than the critical pitch distance, the velocity decit is much less than that observed for the bare cylinder without a control rod. For the case of L Lc , however, the velocity decit is larger than that of the bare cylinder. This enhancement of the velocity decit may be attributed to the increase in wake width that results from the impingement of vortices shed from the control rod. In addition, for pitch distances larger than the critical value, the velocity decit increases with increasing rod diameter, as shown in Fig. 11.

246

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

0.216 0.212 0.208

Cavity Mode

St

0.204 0.200 0.196

Wake Impingement Mode

0.192 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

L/D

Fig. 12. Variation of Strouhal number measured at X=D = 5 and Y=D = 0:5. - - - -, No control; 5, 0.2; , 0.233.

, d=D = 0:133;

, 0.167;

For the control cylinder of diameter d=D = 0:233 (Fig. 11(d)) located such that the pitch ratio is L=D = 2:0, the streamwise velocity is substantially recovered and is almost constant in the wake center. These results suggest that the total drag on the entire system (i.e., main cylinder and control rod) can be substantially reduced by placing a control rod within the critical pitch distance (L Lc ) so as to attenuate the velocity decit in the region behind the main cylinder. In the systems considered here, each of the control rod and the main cylinder has a distinct vortex shedding frequency. We focus only on the vortex shedding frequency fs of the main cylinder, because the presence of vortex shedding from the control rod depends on the gap distance, as shown in the ow visualization results. However, the shear layer detached from the control rod may have in uence on the behavior of downstream wake (Baxendale et al., 1985; Luo and Gan, 1992). In the present study, the Reynolds number Red based on the control rod diameter d, is in the range of 2:6 103 6 Red 6 5:3 103 . The vortex shedding frequency from the main cylinder is estimated using spectral analysis of the wake velocity signal measured at the location of X=D = 5 and Y=D = 0:5. Fig. 12 shows the variation of the Strouhal number (St = fs D=Uo ) with respect to the pitch ratio. In the absence of a control rod, the Strouhal number of the main cylinder is 0.198. The Strouhal number distribution changes substantially with changing pitch ratio due to the di erent wake ow patterns at pitch distances above and below the critical pitch distance. For the cavity mode condition (L=D 6 2:0), the Strouhal number is relatively high compared with that of the bare cylinder; however, it decreases rapidly with increasing pitch ratio. In this case, large scale vortices are not shed from the control rod in the region between the two cylinders and the Strouhal number behind the main cylinder has large values compared with the no-control-rod case. For a xed pitch ratio, the Strouhal number increases with increasing rod diameter. For ows in the wake impingement mode regime (L=D 2:0), the Strouhal number of the upstream control rod increases as the pitch ratio increases above the critical value. However, the Strouhal number of the downstream main cylinder does not show a large variation. Baxendale et al. (1985) mentioned that this results from the synchronization of the vortex shedding with that of the upstream control rod. Therefore, the Strouhal number approaches the value that is obtained in the absence of

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

1.3 1.2 1.1

247

CDtotal / C Do

1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

L/D

Fig. 13. Variation of total drag coe cient. ?, d=D = 0:167: Balance;

, 0.133; 4, 0.167; 5, 0.2; J, 0.233.

the upstream control rod and has almost uniform values in the range 0:195 6 St 6 0:199. Similar to the cavity mode, in the wake impingement mode the Strouhal number also increases with increasing control rod diameter. 3.5. Total drag coe cient Previous studies have found that the inclusion of a small upstream control device can substantially reduce the drag on a large body downstream. However, in order to check the e ectiveness and usefulness of this approach, one should consider the drag on the front control body together with that on the main body. In the present study, the total drag Dtotal on the entire system consisting of the main and control bodies is calculated by applying the following momentum equation to the velocity proles in the wake of the main cylinder with the assumption of constant downstream pressure in the longitudinal direction (Schlichting, 1975): Dtotal = C
+

U (Uo U ) dy;

(4)

where Uo is the free stream velocity and C is the cylinder length. In the present study, since the velocity measurement location is not su ciently far downstream from the body, there may be some e ects of velocity prole on the estimated total drag due to development of shear layer separated from the body (Schlichting, 1975). It is known that the velocity prole in the wake at a large downstream distance is independent of the body shape except for a scale factor. To validate the total drag evaluated using this momentum equation, the total drag force for the case of d=D = 0:167 was measured directly using a 3-component dynamometer. Fig. 13 shows the total drag coe cient CDtotal normalized by the drag coe cient of the bare cylinder CDo as a function of the pitch ratio L=D between the control rod and main cylinder. At a glance, the variation of the total drag coe cient with respect to pitch ratio is qualitatively di erent from the drag on the main cylinder shown in Fig. 8. In addition, the values of the total drag measured directly using the dynamometer are in good agreement with the results obtained through momentum integration.

248

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

The total drag decreases to a minimum value at small pitch ratios and then increases rapidly on further increase of the pitch ratio, irrespective of rod diameter. For pitch ratios greater than the critical value, the total drag coe cient is almost constant. However, its magnitude is larger than that of the no control rod case, indicating an overall increase in the drag. In particular, the increase in total drag on inclusion of the front control rod may be attributed to the change in the ow pattern from the cavity mode to the wake impingement mode. This result is well matched by the variations observed in the velocity proles behind the main cylinder, which were discussed in the preceding section. For the cavity mode (L Lc ), the main cylinder is located inside the vortex formation region behind the upstream control rod. As a result, the mean pressure on the windward surface of the main cylinder is lower than that of the bare cylinder and has almost uniform values. In addition to the reduction in the speed of the oncoming ow, the velocity decit behind the main cylinder in systems with small pitch ratios is greatly reduced in comparison to the no-control-rod case. Therefore, the total drag on the entire system is substantially lower at small pitch ratios, the cavity mode. Among various conditions tested in this study, the maximum reduction of the total drag coe cient (about 25%) is observed at a pitch ratio of L=D = 1:833 for the control rod of diameter d=D = 0:233. For the wake impingement mode, on the other hand, the direct impingement of vortices shed from the control rod causes the pressure on the windward surface of the main cylinder to be substantially higher than that of the cavity mode. This e ect leads to an increase in the total drag on the entire system for pitch ratios greater than the critical ratio (Lc L). On average, the increase in the total drag coe cient due to the installation of the upstream control rod is less than 10% of the drag coe cient for the bare cylinder. 4. Conclusions The e ect of installing a small control rod upstream of a circular cylinder was investigated experimentally, with a focus on the drag characteristics and ow structure. Inclusion of the control rod was found to change the drag coe cient and the ow structure substantially, depending on the pitch distance L between the main cylinder and control rod. In the experiments, the pitch ratio was varied over the range L=D = 1:54.0 for various control rod diameters (0:133 6 d=D 6 0:267) at Re = 2:0 104 . The main results obtained in this study are as follows: (1) Flow visualization showed that the ows can be discriminated into two distinct ow patterns, referred to as the cavity mode and the wake impingement mode, depending on the longitudinal pitch distance L. The ow structure suddenly changes from one mode to the other at a critical pitch ratio. (2) The critical pitch distance Lc at which the main cylinder shows the maximum drag reduction can be represented by Lc =D = 1:5 + 0:083d (0:133 6 d=D 6 0:233): (5) Flow patterns are substantially changeable according to the critical pitch distance for a given ratio of diameters d=D. Based on this relationship, we can easily predict the position at which the drastic variation of uid dynamic quantities occurs. (3) For the case of the cavity mode, the main cylinder lies inside the vortex formation region behind the control rod. This leads to a substantial decrease in the pressure on the windward

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

249

surface of the main cylinder and a considerable reduction in the drag force acting on the main cylinder. (4) The velocity prole and vortex shedding frequency of the near wake behind the main cylinder change abruptly on approaching the critical pitch distance. At small pitch ratios, the Strouhal number has relatively high values compared with that of the bare cylinder, but it decreases rapidly with increasing pitch ratio in the cavity mode regime. For the wake impingement mode (L=D 2:0), on the other hand, the Strouhal number remains within the narrow range of 0:195 6 St 6 0:199. These values are similar to the value measured in the absence of the control rod. (5) The maximum reduction of the drag coe cient of the main cylinder was 29% in comparison to the no-control-rod case. This reduction is achieved using a control rod of diameter d=D = 0:233 located at a pitch ratio of Lc =D = 2:081. (6) The maximum reduction of the total drag coe cient of the entire system including the main cylinder and control rod is about 25% at the pitch ratio of L=D = 1:833 with the control rod diameter of d=D = 0:233. On the other hand, for gap distances larger than the critical pitch ratio (Lc L), the total drag is about 10% higher than that on the main cylinder alone without a control rod. Acknowledgements The authors thank the support of NRL (National Research Laboratory) program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Korea. References
Baxendale, A.J., Grant, I., Barnes, F.H., 1985. The ow past two cylinders having di erent diameters. Aeronaut. J. 89, 125134. Bearman, P.W., 1969. On vortex shedding from a circular cylinder in the critical Reynolds number regime. J. Fluid Mech. 37, 577585. Hiwada, M., Mabuchi, I., Kumada, M., Taguchi, T., 1979. Fluid ow and heat transfer around two circular cylinders of di erent diameters in cross ow. Bull. JSME 22 (167), 715723. Igarashi, T., 1997. Drag reduction of a square prism by ow control using a small rod. J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 6971, 141153. Igarashi, T., Tsutsui, T., 1989. Flow control around a circular cylinder by a new method (2nd report, uids forces acting on the cylinder). Trans. JSME 55 (511), 708714 (in Japanese). Igarashi, T., Tsutsui, T., 1991. Flow control around a circular cylinder by a new method (3rd report, properties of the reattachment jet). Trans. JSME 57 (533), 813 (in Japanese). Lee, H.B., Lee, S.J., 1995. Flow structure of modied cylinder wake by a small control cylinder. Proceedings of the Sixth Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics 2, 16081611. Luo, S.C., Gan, T.L., 1992. Flow past two tandem circular cylinders of unequal diameter. Aeronaut. J. 96, 105114. Mahir, N., Rockwell, D., 1996. Vortex formation from a forced system of two cylinders. Part II: side-by-side arrangement. J. Fluids Struct. 10, 491500. Mittal, S., Kumar, V., Raghuvanshi, A., 1997. Unsteady incompressible ows past two cylinders in tandem and staggered arrangements. Int. J. Numer. Methods Fluids 25 (11), 13151344. Prasad, A., Williamson, C.H.K., 1997. A method for the reduction of blu body drag. J. Wind Eng. Ind. Aerodyn. 6971, 155167. Sakamoto, H., Haniu, H., 1994. Optimum suppression of uid forces acting on a circular cylinder. J. Fluids Eng. 116, 221227.

250

S.-J. Lee et al. / Fluid Dynamics Research 34 (2004) 233 250

Sakamoto, H., Tan, K., Haniu, H., 1991. An optimum suppression of uid forces by controlling a shear layer separated from a square prism. J. Fluids Eng. 113, 183189. Schlichting, H., 1975. Boundary-Layer Theory. McGraw-Hill Inc., New York, pp. 175179. Strykowski, P.J., Sreenivasan, K.R., 1990. On the formation and suppression of vortex shedding at low Reynolds numbers. J. Fluid Mech. 218, 71107. Szepessy, S., Bearman, P.W., 1992. Aspect ratio and end plate e ects on vortex shedding from a circular cylinder. J. Fluid Mech. 234, 191217. Tsutsui, T., Igarashi, T., 1995. Drag reduction of a circular cylinder (2nd report, e ect of Reynolds number). Trans. JSME 61 (586), 20692075 (in Japanese). Tsutsui, T., Igarashi, T., 1996. Enhancement of heat transfer and reduction of drag of a circular cylinder ( ow control using a small rod). Trans. JSME 62 (597), 18021809 (in Japanese). West, G.S., Apelt, C.J., 1982. The e ects of tunnel blockage and aspect ratio on the mean ow past a circular cylinder with Reynolds numbers between 104 and 105 . J. Fluid Mech. 114, 361377. Zdravkovich, M.M., 1977. Review of ow interference between two circular cylinders in various arrangements. Trans. ASME J. Fluids Eng. 99, 618633.