Numerical simulation of flow past twin near-wall circular cylinders in tandem arrangement at low Reynolds number

Fluid flow past twin circular cylinders in a tandem arrangement placed near a plane wall was investigated by means of numerical simulations. The two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations were solved with a three-step finite element method at a relatively low Reynolds number of Re = 200 for various dimensionless ratios of 0.25 ≤ G/D ≤ 2.0 and 1.0 ≤ L/D ≤ 4.0, where D is the cylinder diameter, L is the center-to-center distance between the two cylinders, and G is the gap between the lowest surface of the twin cylinders and the plane wall. The influences of G/D and L/D on the hydrodynamic force coefficients, Strouhal numbers, and vortex shedding modes were examined. Three different vortex shedding modes of the near wake were identified according to the numerical results. It was found that the hydrodynamic force coefficients and vortex shedding modes are quite different with respect to various combinations of G/D and L/D. For very small values of G/D, the vortex shedding is completely suppressed, resulting in the root mean square (RMS) values of drag and lift coefficients of both cylinders and the Strouhal number for the downstream cylinder being almost zero. The mean drag coefficient of the upstream cylinder is larger than that of the downstream cylinder for the same combination of G/D and L/D. It is also observed that change in the vortex shedding modes leads to a significant increase in the RMS values of drag and lift coefficients.