Tanh-like models for analysis and prediction of time-dependent flow around a circular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers

Abstract

When employing traditional low-order approximation equations to forecast the Hopf bifurcation phenomenon in the wake of a circular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers, inaccuracies may arise in estimating the phase. This is due to the fact that, in this transition process, the frequency varies with time. In this paper, we propose a method for analyzing and predicting the vortex shedding behind a cylinder at low Reynolds numbers. The proposed method is based on coordinate transformation and description function and is demonstrated using data from computational fluid dynamics simulation of flow around a cylinder at Reynolds number 100. The resulting governing equations explicitly contain the flow amplitude and implicitly contain the flow frequency. The proposed method is found to have higher accuracy compared to other methods for nonlinear identification and order reduction. Finally, the method is extended to predict nonlinear vortex shedding in the Reynolds number range of 80–200.