Experimental Study on the Flow Around Two Tandem Cylinders with Unequal Diameters

In this paper, flow around two circular cylinders in tandem arrangement with unequal diameters has been investigated using the particle image velocimetry technique(PIV) in a water channel. The upstream to downstream diameter ratio was kept constant at d/D = 2/3, the centre-to-centre distance was varied from 1.2D to 5D and the Reynolds number was varied from 1200 to 4800. The flow characteristics were analyzed through ensemble-averaged patterns of velocity, vorticity, normalized Reynolds stress contours and streamlines. Based on ensemble-averaged and instantaneous flow fields, different flow patterns, including single-wakeshedding at small spacing ratio, bi-stable flow behavior(alternating behavior of reattachment and vortex shedding) at intermediate spacing ratio and co-shedding pattern at large spacing ratio were observed. The effects of Reynolds number and the centre-to-centre spacing ratio on flow patterns and turbulent characteristics were also investigated. It was found that the diameter ratio appears to have a certain effect on the flow patterns at intermediate spacing ratios, where the reattachment of shear layer depends on the lateral width of the wake flow in the lee of the upstream cylinder. Extensive discussion on the distributions of Reynolds stress and turbulent kinetic energy was presented.

Heat transfer analysis and experimental study of unequal diameter twin-roll casting process for fabricating Cu/Al clad strips

Unequal diameter twin-roll casting(UDTRC)can improve the formability,surface conditions,and production efficiency during the fabrication of clad strips.Using Fluent software,a numerical simulation is used to study the asymmetric heat transfer characteristics of Cu/Al clad strips fabricated by UDTRC.The effects of roller velocity ratio,Cu strip thickness,and inclination angle on the kissing point position,as well as the entire temperature distribution are obtained.The heat transfer model is established,and the mechanism is discussed.The Cu strip and rollers are found to be the main causes of asymmetric heat transfer,indicating that the roller velocity ratio changes the liquid zone proportion in the molten pool.The Cu strip thickness determines the heat absorption capacity and the variations in thermal resistance between the molten Al and the big roller.The inclination angle of the small roller changes the cooling time of big roller to molten Al.Moreover,the microstructure of Al cladding under different roller velocity ratios is examined.The results show significant grain refinement caused by the shear strain along the thickness direction of Al cladding and the intense heat transfer at the moment of contact between the metal Al cladding and Cu strip.

Response of Two Unequal-Diameter Flexible Cylinders in A Side-by-Side Arrangement:Characteristics of FIV

Till now,little information is available on the flow-induced vibration(FIV)of multiple flexible cylinders with unequal diameters.Some FIV characteristics of unequal-diameter cylinders can be predicted based on the knowledge of equal-diameter cylinders,while there are still other features remaining unrevealed.In this paper,the FIV characteristics of two flexible cylinders with unequal diameters arranged side-by-side are experimentally investigated.The diameter ratio of the small cylinder(Small Cyl.)to the large cylinder(Large Cyl.)is nearly 0.5.The aspect ratios and mass ratios of the two flexible cylinders are 350/181 and 1.90/1.47,respectively.The centre-tocentre spacing ratio in the cross-flow(CF)direction is kept constant as 6.0 and the two cylinders can oscillate freely in both the CF and in-line(IL)directions.The towing velocity varies from 0.05 m/s to 1.00 m/s.The dominant modes and frequencies,CF and IL displacement amplitudes and response trajectories are discussed.Compared with the case of two identical cylinders in our previous study,the FIV responses demonstrate some similarities and differences.The similarities are as follows.Both cylinders exhibit multi-mode vibration features and they interact with each other.Meanwhile,the IL FIV shows a more complex behaviour than that in the CF direction.The difference is that as the diameter of one cylinder is increased,the effect on the smaller cylinder becomes more significant.For Large Cyl.,the FIV response is similar to its isolated counterpart,which indicates that Small Cyl.has a negligible effect on the FIV of the larger one.Whereas Large Cyl.perplexes the FIV of Small Cyl.during the vibration process.The spacing would change when both cylinders are oscillating.Proximity interference between the two cylinders and wake shielding effect of the Large Cyl.may occur.The dominant frequencies of Small Cyl.are reduced and the wake-induced flutter of Small Cyl.is observed from the response trajectories at different measuring points.

Numerical Study of an Oscillating Smaller Cylinder in the Wake of an Upstream Larger Cylinder

A numerical study of flow around two tandem cylinders with unequal diameters was carried out. The upstream larger cylinder was fixed and the downstream smaller cylinder was allowed to oscillate in the transverse direction only. Comparisons of the experimental and numerical results were made to investigate the effects of the gap ratio on the maximum vibration amplitude and vortex shedding frequency. The results showed that the vibration response of the smaller cylinder was significantly affected by the presence of the upstream larger cylinder, and resulted in greatly reduced vibration amplitudes. With an increasing gap ratio, the vibration amplitude increased. However, the magnitude was lower than that corresponding to a single cylinder (with the same diameter as that of the downstream smaller cylinder) under the same flow conditions.