Experimental investigation of flow structure around two dimensional square and triangular tandem cylinders

In this study, the flow characteristics around two tandem square and equilateral triangle cylinders have been experimentally investigated. Experiments were conducted in an open-circuit subsonic wind tunnel with maximum free-stream turbulence level of 0.3%. Investigations for tandem arrangement were performed by moving the downstream square cylinder along the flow direction at various distances from the upstream triangular cylinder. Measurements were performed using 32-channel pressure transducer, three-component balances and hotwire anemometer. Square cylinder was placed at various distances from the upstream triangular cylinder and the flow Reynolds numbers were chosen to be 26000, 37000, 46000, and 51000. In this study, the mean and fluctuating lift and drag forces were measured for square cylinder at different spacings. Also, the distribution of mean and fluctuating surface pressure on the two-cylinders were measured. The vortex shedding frequency was measured by using both hotwire and surface pressure fluctuations on both cylinders and the results obtained by these two different measurement methods were compared. One of the most important outcome of the present study is the observation of two different flow patterns. It is noticed that the vortex shedding from the upstream cylinder was eliminated for cylinder distances lower than the critical spacing while for distances more than the critical spacing, the vortex shedding occurs from both triangular and square cylinders. The critical distance for this arrangement was obtained to be around three times of the length of the side length of the cylinders.