Computational and Experimental study of Flow Past Axially Aligned Spinning Cylinders

Computational and experimental investigations are performed for flow past a spinning cylinder aligned along its axis with a focus on effective control, stability and target guidance of projectiles with free spinning segments. The computational investigations utilize both RANS and LES. The RANS model is based on modified energy-spectrum to incorporate the effects of swirl and rotation using a parametric characterization of the model coefficients. The LES approach is based on a continuous turbulence model that is suitable for representing both the subgrid scale stresses in large eddy simulation and the Reynolds stresses in the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes formulation. The experimental investigation was performed in a low-intensity subsonic wind tunnel for Reynolds number range of up to 60,000 and rotation numbers of up to 2 (based on cylinder diameter). Full measurement of the wake is possible since a forward mounted sting is used. Comparison of comptations findings with the experimental results will be presented.