Flow separation behind ellipses at Reynolds numbers less than 10

Flow separation behind two-dimensional ellipses with aspect ratios ranging from 0, a flat plate, to 1, a circular cylinder, were investigated for Reynolds numbers less than 10 using both a cellular automata model and a commercial computational fluid dynamics software program. The relationship between the critical aspect ratio for flow separation and Reynolds number was determined to be linear for Reynolds numbers greater than one. At slower velocities, the critical aspect ratio decreases more quickly as the Reynolds number approaches zero. The critical Reynolds numbers estimated for flow separation behind a flat plate and circular cylinder agree with extrapolations from experimental observations. Fluctuations in the values of the stream function for laminar flow behind the ellipses were found at combinations of Reynolds number and aspect ratio near the critical values for separation.