Pressure Distributions and Forces on Rectangular and D-shaped Cylinders

Abstract

SummaryMeasurements in two-dimensional flow on rectangular cylinders confirm earlier work of Nakaguchi et al in showing a maximum drag coefficient when the height h of the section (normal to the stream) is about 1.5 times the width d. Reattachment on the sides of the cylinder occurs only for h/d < 0.35.For cylinders of D-shaped section (Fig 1) the pressure distribution on the curved surface and the drag are considerably affected by the state of the boundary layer at separation, as for a circular cylinder. The lift is positive when the separation is turbulent and negative when it is laminar. It is found that simple empirical expressions for base pressure or drag, based on known values for the constituent half-bodies, are in general not satisfactory.