Validation of large eddy simulation of flow behind a circular cylinder

Abstract

The flow in the wake behind a circular cylinder in a cross-flow at Reynolds number of 4815 was studied both experimentally and via mathematical modeling. The mathematical model was performed as a Large Eddy Simulation (LES), while the experiments were carried out using the time-resolved variant of the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method. Both the simulation and experiment took into account the dynamical aspects of the studied phenomenon, which enabled a detailed validation of the mathematical model. The overall statistical properties of the simulated flow were validated via comparing the time-averaged measured and computed velocity and vorticity fields. To validate the dynamical behavior, the velocity spectra were examined first. Next, the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) of the spatio-temporal velocity data was performed on both the experimental and numerical data and a comparison of the obtained energetic modes was carried out. All the performed validations have shown a satisfactory agreement between the simulation and the experiment.