Large eddy simulation of flow around two side-by-side circular cylinders at Reynolds number 3900

This paper investigates the flow dynamics around two circular cylinders in a side-by-side arrangement with different spacing ratios (T/D, T is the center-to-center cylinder spacing and D is the diameter) under a subcritical Reynolds number condition (Re = 3900). A three-dimensional (3D) numerical model was developed with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) technique. The model was well validated against published data of flow around a single cylinder at Re = 3900. Numerical simulations were conducted for flow around two side-by-side circular cylinders with T/D = 1.2, 1.5, 1.75, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4. Based on the LES results, three wake regimes were identified: single bluff body regime (T/D = 1.2), biased flow regime (T/D = 1.5–2), and parallel vortex streets regime (T/D = 2.5–4). In the single bluff body regime with T/D = 1.2, the stable deflection of gap flow is also observed which indicates that there may exist a transition state from the single bluff body regime to the biased flow regime. In biased flow regime, the pairing and merging process of the outer vortices with the inner vortices are analyzed. The occurrence of the flip-flopping phenomenon is found to be related to the merging tendency between gap-side vortices in narrow wake region and free-flow-side vortices in wide wake region, and the relative phase of gap side vortices in transient state. In the parallel vortex streets regime, the phase relation of the vortex shedding process was analyzed. The time proportions of the in-phase mode and anti-phase mode are found to be varied with spacing ratio. As the spacing ratio increases, the wakes behind the cylinders lose their dependency on the anti-phase mode. The results of the present study were compared with the existing results at other Reynolds numbers. It is found that vortex shedding manner during the flip-over transitions is closely related to the spacing ratios and is independent of the Reynolds number.