Experimental Observations on Flow Characteristics around a Low-Aspect-Ratio Wall-Mounted Circular and Square Cylinder

The mean wake structures of a cube (square cylinder) and circular cylinder of height-to-width aspect ratio 1.0, at a Reynolds number of 1.78 × 10⁴ based on the obstacle width, were investigated experimentally. The boundary-layer thickness was 0.14 of the obstacle height. The study was performed using thermal anemometry and two-dimensional digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV). Streamwise structures observed in the mean wake for both cylinders included well-known tip- and horseshoe (HS)-,vortex pairs as well as additional structures akin to the base vortices. In addition to tip-, base-, and HS-vortices, in the near wake of the cube, two more counter-rotating pairs of streamwise structures, including upper and inboard vortices, were observed. The existence of base vortices formed in the near wake for both obstacles is a unique observation and has not been previously reported for such low-aspect-ratio obstacles in thin boundary-layers. A model of arch-vortex evolution was proposed, in which arch structures were deformed by the external shear-flow to explain the observed base-vortices in the cylinder wake. A weak dominant-frequency of <i>St</i> = <i>f</i>₀<i>D</i>/<i>U∞</i> = 0.114 was observed across the height for the cube, while no discernible spectral peaks were apparent in the wake of the cylinder. Cross-spectral analysis revealed the shedding to be symmetric (in-phase) arch-type for the cylinder and predominantly anti-symmetric (out-of-phase) Karman-type for the cube. The study makes fundamental contributions to the understanding of the flow-field surrounding low-aspect-ratio cylinders.