Suppression of the unsteady vortex wakes of a circular cylinder pair by a doublet‐like counter‐rotation

Abstract

Abstract The present investigation examines the suppression of unsteady, two‐dimensional wake instabilities of a pair of identical circular cylinders, placed side‐by‐side normal to freestream at a low Reynolds number of 150. It is found that when the cylinders are counter‐rotated, unsteady vortex wakes can be completely suppressed. At fast enough rotational speeds, a virtual elliptic body is produced by a closed streamline, strongly resembling a doublet potential flow. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.