Low Reynolds Number Flow Characteristics for Two Side by Side Rotating Cylinders

Abstract

Numerical simulations were performed for two-dimensional viscous incompressible flow past two stationary side-by-side rotating circular cylinders at Reynolds number (Re) 100 by varying center-to-center distance between the cylinders from 1.1 to 3.5 times the diameter (D) of a cylinder and different rotational speed ratio (α) = 0.5, 1.0, and 1.25. The incompressible Navier–Stokes equations were solved using consistent flux reconstruction (CFR) technique of Roy and Bandyopadhyay (2006, “A Finite Volume Method for Viscous Incompressible Flows Using a Consistent Flux Reconstruction Scheme,” Int. J. Numer. Methods Fluids, 52(3), pp. 297–319). Eight different flow regimes were observed within the investigated parametric space. An attempt has been made to characterize the different flow regimes using vorticity contours, λ2 criterion, and force coefficients. All these above stated methods confirm the existence of eight different regimes in the flow.