Control and suppression of laminar vortex shedding off two-dimensional bluff bodies [electronic resource]

The focus of this research is on the control and suppression of vortex shedding of flow past bluff bodies. The motivation of this research stems from the aerodynamic problems encountered in the design and development of hard disk drives (HDD's). Two different computational fluid dynamic methods have been used in this research-- the Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equation (SIMPLE), that is widely employed in today's commercial incompressible flow solvers, and the high-order spectral difference (SD) method, recently developed for compressible flow solution. In addition to numerical simulation and verification, complementary experimental measurements have been performed to further validate the results. This research leads to two very different suppression techniques: 1) a passive control using a thin splitter plate positioned downstream of the bluff body; 2) an active control by way of counter rotating a cylinder pair. The passive suppression technique places a thin splitter plate downstream of the bluff body in order to interfere with the vortex wakes and thereby suppress the vortexinduced forces on the bluff body itself. The present investigation examines the suppression of wake instabilities in the laminar shedding regime. Both bounded and unbounded flow conditions are examined. It is found that in the bounded flow condition, the channel walls have an additional stabilizing effect on the shedding control. With proper positioning of the splitter plate, vortex shedding is completely suppressed in a bounded flow with moderate blockage factor. Wind tunnel empirical experiments have also confirmed the effectiveness of a splitter plate in a bounded flow. Active flow control by counter-rotating a pair of cylinders has been numerically investigated. It has also been investigated experimentally in partnership with the Gas Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University. It is demonstrated that it is possible to suppress unsteady vortex shedding for gap sizes from one to five cylinder diameters, at Reynolds numbers from 100 to 200. The degree of unsteady wake suppression is proportional to the speed and the direction of rotation, and there is a critical rotation rate where a complete suppression of flow unsteadiness can be achieved. In the doublet-like configuration at higher rotational speeds, a virtual elliptic body that resembles a potential doublet is formed, and the drag is reduced to zero. The shape of the elliptic body primarily depends on the gap between the two cylinders and the speed of rotation. Prior to the formation of the elliptic body, a second instability region is observed, similar to that seen in studies of rotating single cylinders. It is also shown that the unsteady wake suppression can be achieved by rotating each cylinder in the opposite direction, that is, in a reverse doublet-like configuration. This tends to minimize the wake interaction of the cylinder pair and the second instability did not make an appearance over the range of speeds investigated here.

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Eaton John K. primary advisor. Thesis advisor
Jameson Antony
MacCormack R. W. (Robert William)