Flow past a cylinder in the Brinkman limit

We consider the quasi-2D flow past a cylinder in the limit of highly confined flow in the depth direction, often referred to as the Brinkman limit. We use microfluidics experiments and numerical simulations to consider the transition from the Brinkman limit to the infinite 2D limit. In particular, we focus on the formation of recirculation zones behind the cylinder as functions of Reynolds number. Microfluidics experiments are performed using high-speed photography and MATLAB’s PIVlab along with particle tracking to analyze both the transient and steady-state results. Numerical simulations are performed using OpenFOAM to vary the thickness of the geometry from the Brinkman limit to the 2D limit, and streamline visualizations are used to visualize the flows. The wake formation and unsteady flow behaviors in the Brinkman limit are found to vary significantly from the traditional results for the 2D case, and the characteristic von Karman vortex shedding behavior is significantly altered in the confined geometry.