Laminar Flow Past Cylinder Arrays

This research is focused on the solid-fluid interaction of arrays of axisymmetric cylinders at finite Reynolds numbers (< 100). This research aims to study how the spacing and arrangement between cylinders affect the fluid flow interaction in the array and downstream flow. These experiments are conducted using a soap film tunnel, which creates a thin water film, allowing vortex generation and evolution to be captured with a high-speed camera. The fluid in this experiment is a mixture of 3% to 5% soap in water, the velocity of the film is < 0.5 m/s and the axisymmetric cylinders range between 0.1 and 0.2 mm in diameter (45 < Re < 100). The solid-fluid interaction and the vortex generation and shedding frequency will be measured for arrays of variably spaced horizontal, vertical, and diagonal offset cylinders. These will be compared to the vortex shedding frequency of flow around a single cylinder with the same characteristics and fluid parameters.