Numerical investigation of flow past a row of rectangular rods

A numerical study of uniform flow past a row of rectangular rods with aspect ratio defined as R = width/height = 0.5 is performed using the Lattice Boltzmann method. For this study the Reynolds number (Re) is fixed at 150, while spacings between the rods (g) are taken in the range from 1 to 6. Depending on g, the flow is classified into four patterns: flip-flopping, nearly unsteady-inphase, modulated inphase-antiphase non-synchronized and synchronized. Sudden jumps in physical parameters were observed, attaining either maximum or minimum values, with the change in flow patterns. The mean drag coefficient (Cdmean) of middle rod is higher than the second and fourth rod for flip-flopping pattern while in case of nearly unsteady-inphase the middle rod attains minimum drag coefficient. It is also found that the Strouhal number (St) of first, second and fifth rod decreases as g increases while that of other two have mixed trend. The results further show that there exist secondary interaction frequencies together with primary vortex shedding frequency due to jet in the gap between rods for 1 ⩽ g ⩽ 3. For the average values of Cdmean and St, an empirical relation is also given as a function of gap spacing. This relation shows that the average values of Cdmean and St approach to those of single rectangular rod with increment in g.