Flow around partly buried tandem cylinders in steady current

Abstract

This study concerns the flow around a pair of surface-mounted circular cylinders arranged in a tandem configuration. The study comprises (i) flow visualization experiments and (ii) numerical simulations performed by using a CFD model. The influence of the burial ratio, G/D, on flow interference between cylinders is investigated and the lengths of the separation zones are determined for the Reynolds number range varying from 1.3 x $10^4$ to 2.6 x $10^4$ . Qualitative and quantitative comparsions with experimental results obtained by using the digital image processing technique are made to evaluate the ability of simulation. Results are also compared with the previous studies performed for a single cylinder at corresponding Reynolds numbers. Evidently, the length of the downstream separation zone is influenced by changing burial depth and presence of the upstream cylinder.