Seminar and Technical Writing (CH4903)

Name: Prateek Gupta

Roll number: 118CH0525

Article Title: Rotating elliptic cylinders in a uniform cross flow

Authors: Kim Boon Lua, Hao Lu, T.T. Lim
Publication Detail: Journal of Fluids and Structures 78 (2018) 36 – 51
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfluidstructs.2017.12.023 #HYPERLINK

Abstract
A computational study has been carried out to investigate the effect of flow around a two-
dimensional rotating elliptic cylinder of varying aspect ratios. The entire work has been
carried out at a flow Reynolds Number of 200 and aims to investigate the effect of decreasing
the aspect ratio on engineering parameters like the drag coefficient and lift coefficient as well
as the flow structures in the vicinity of the rotating cylinder. For the current work, the authors
have taken the velocity ratio (ω /v ¿ up to 2.5, which has never been previously documented.
Their results highlight that the mean lift force magnitude also decreases as the aspect ratio is
reduced. On the other hand, the mean drag force coefficient undergoes a non-monotonic
variation, with a local minimum at an aspect ratio of 0.375. The authors have also
documented a positive thrust at a velocity ratio of 2.5; which in the past researches for the
circular cylinder was achieved at a much higher value. A comprehensive analysis of the
pressure contours and vortex-shedding diagrams project that this thrust production occurs due
to a complex interplay between the prevalent negative pressure zone below the cylinder and a
“Hovering vortex” formed above the leading edge. Lua and Lim were the first to discover this
phenomenon of hovering vortex in their 2010 PIV work involving an elliptic airfoil.
Additionally, the authors also report that the shedding patterns for an elliptic cylinder are
quite different from that of a circular cylinder.

Introduction & Literature Survey

The problem of flow past a rotating cylinder of circular and noncircular shape has dictated
much of the recent developments in the field of bluff body flows. Having practical
applications and rich physics to explore, the developments in this direction have been
prominent. Immense literature is available on this topic, focusing both on the practical
applications of this problem and flow physics. Iversen [1] gave a description of a Magnus
type rotor – the Flettner rotor, which uses the Magnus effect for its rotation. However, the
rotation is not self-sustained and requires external torque. This sparked the development of
self-sustainable rotors which could autorotate, such as the Savonius and Darrieus rotors, often
found in wind turbines. Several researchers [1,2,3] define ‘autorotation’ as the ability of a
device to rotate on its own in the presence of a flow field. However, Lugt [2] argues that this
is an incomplete treatment of a complex phenomenon and goes on to present a more
comprehensive description for the same. A classic application of ‘autorotation’ is found in
helicopter rotors [3], as the problem of autorotating wings helps to understand the concept of
‘dynamic stall’, a non-linear aerodynamic effect. Many researchers [4,5,6] have documented
the use of autorotation mechanics in nature such as winged seeds of certain plants
autorotating while they fall, in order to increase their dispersal area. Starting with Lugt and
Ohring [7], researchers shifted their focus on computational means to explore the flow
physics near the cylinder’s vicinity, with Lua et al’s [8] DPIV measurements being the only
reported experimental work.

Methodology

In the present work, the authors have

taken a rectangular domain with 60L
length and 40L width, where L is the
major axis of the rotating elliptic cylinder.
The aspect ratio of the cylinder is defined
as b /a. Here b is the semi-minor axis and
a is the semi-major axis of the ellipse. The
cylinder rotates counter-clockwise with an
angular velocity ω. The flow velocity is
U ∞ . The freestream Reynolds number is
defined as L U ∞ / μ. Furthermore, the non-
dimensional rotational rate α is defined as Lω/2 U ∞ . The parameter α is also termed as tip-
velocity ratio as it is the ratio of the angular velocity of the tip of the cylinder to the flow
velocity of the fluid. The entire domain is divided into two regions. The circular region inside
the dotted lines is the “rotating domain” whereas the region outside is the stationary domain.
A sliding mesh method is used to simulate rotation.
The authors use finite-volume
method (FVM) based software
ANSYS FLUENT to
numerically solve the
governing equations on an
unstructured grid. The
stationary domain is meshed
with triangular cells which
gives flexibility and economy
over cell distribution, with
higher mesh density near the
boundaries. Being
unstructured, the flow direction does not coincide with the grid lines. This can result in false
diffusion when discretizing the convection term. However, the authors steer clear of that
problem by making the grid sufficiently refined to minimize diffusion. Full pressure-velocity
coupling is achieved by using a pressure-based PISO solver, which results in faster
convergence. The convective term in the flow equation is discretized using Linear Upwind
Differencing (LUD) which uses a three-point stencil to give second-order accuracy, whereas
the approximation for diffusion term is automatically second-order accurate. Discretization
with respect to time is first-order implicit which magnifies the stability envelope severalfold.
They validate the choice of their time-step size Δ t by performing a time-step independence
test. A grid and domain independence test was done to ascertain that the new results are
accurate and reliable. In addition, validation was performed with Mittal [9].

Results and Discussion

1. Mean Force Patterns

The mean force coefficients –

drag coefficient, lift coefficient,
and moment coefficient - were
computed for an average of N
cycles of rotation. It was
observed that the mean value of
lift coefficient (C L) decreases
monotonically with increasing
value of aspect ratio. However,
at low values of α , this effect is
not so prominent. The drag
coefficient follows a non-
monotonic trend. It first
decreases and then increases. At α =2.5 , there is a particular region of aspect ratio where the
drag becomes negative, implying that a thrust is being generated. This thrust is also generated
for circular cylinders too, but at α =4 [9]. The moment coefficient (C m) also follows a similar
trend as the drag coefficient.

2. Transient flow structure

The authors have elucidated the variations in the mean coefficients and instantaneous
coefficients by plotting vorticity contours for different configurations. In addition, they have
draw surface pressure contours to justify the variations in the drag and lift force with the
instantaneous angle of attack.
At α =0.5 , the tip velocity of the cylinder is lower than the flow velocity. As a result of this,
we observe a coupled pair of Trailing edge vortex (TEV) and a Leading-edge vortex (LEV)
every half cycle of rotation. The vortex shedding is representative of a von-Karman vortex
street for an aspect ratio of 1. However, as we decrease the aspect ratio, the flow becomes
separated. The force signal variations depict these changes by recording the time period of
the lift signal. FFT of these lift signals gives us the spectral peaks which helps determine the
vortex-shedding frequency at different values of the aspect ratio. At α =1.5, the fundamental
frequency of the force signals becomes 2.5 times the rotational frequency. This is a marked
difference between the two cases. At α =2.5 , the oscillation in the force signals for rotating
cylinder ceases. A hovering vortex is formed above the cylinder which stays there for a long
time thereby producing thrust for 0.2<e <0.6 .

Concluding Remarks

References
[1] Iversen, J.D., Autorotating flat-plate wings: the effect of the moment of inertia, geometry
and Reynolds number, 1977, J. Fluid Mech.
[2] Lugt, H.J., Autorotation, 1983, Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 15, 123-47
[3] Smith, E.H., Autorotating wings: an experimental investigation, 1971, J. Fluid Mech.
[4] McCutchen, C.W., The Spinning Rotation of Ash and Tulip Tree Samaras, 1977, Science
Vol. 197
[5] Azuma, A., Yasuda, K., Flight performance of rotary seeds, 1989, J. Theoretical Biology
[6] Lentink, D., Dickson, W.B., Leeuwen, J.L., Dickinson, M.H., Leading-Edge Vortices
Elevate Lift of Autorotating Plant Seeds, 2009, Science, Vol. 324, Issue 5933, pp. 1438-1440
[7] Lugt, H.J., Ohring, S., Rotating elliptic cylinders in a viscous fluid at rest or in a parallel
stream, 1977, J. Fluid Mech.
[8] Lua, K.B., Lim, T.T., Yeo, K.S., A rotating elliptic airfoil in fluid at rest and in parallel
freestream, Exp Fluids (2010) 49: 1065-1084
[9] MITTAL, S., & KUMAR, B. (2003). Flow past a rotating cylinder. Journal of Fluid
Mechanics, 476, 303-334. doi:10.1017/S0022112002002938