Wake interference of a row of normal flat plates arranged side by side in a uniform flow

Abstract

The wake characteristic of groups of normal flat plates, consisting of two, three, or four plates placed side by side with slits in between, have been investigated experimentally. When the ratio of the slit width to the plate width (slit ratio) was small, the gap flows were observed to be biased either upward or downward in a stable way, leading to multiple, stable flow patterns for a single slit-ratio value. Some regularities were recognized in the gap-flow directions and the appearance of the flow patterns. The plates on the biased side showed high drag and regular vortex shedding, while those on the unbiased side showed the opposite. The origin of the biased flow has also been investigated with water-tank experiments, numerical calculations and wind-tunnel experiments. The-results showed that the origin of biasing is strongly related to the vortex shedding of each plate of a row.