Numerical Study of Unsteady Flow around a Square Cylinder in Compare with Circular

Cylinder
Taha Khademinezhad1, Pouyan Talebizadeh2, Hassan Rahimzadeh3
1

Departmant of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, IL, Chicago
(Email: tkhademi@hawk.iit.edu)
2
Departmant of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran (Email:
talebizadeh.pouyan@aut.ac.ir)
3
Departmant of Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran (Email:
rahimzad@aut.ac.ir)

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to investigate the vortex structures as well as lift and drag coefficients in flows around a
square cylinder in compare with circular cylinder using the commercial Fluent software. Furthermore, the effect of
the Reynolds number on the formation of the vortex structures as well as velocity field is investigated and
compared for both circular and square cylinder at different times. The results show the good agreements of the
drag coefficient, lift coefficient and the Strouhal number with the previous studies. Moreover, the results show that
the lift coefficient is increased strongly when the Reynolds number increases; however, the drag coefficient and the
Strohoul number do not change noticeably. Furthermore, increasing the Reynolds number causes that the
fluctuations in lift and drag coefficients start at an earlier time.
Keywords: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Square cylinder, Drag coefficient, lift coefficient, Strouhal
number

Introduction
Flow around bluff bodies is faced in many practical engineering applications such as parallel suspension bridges,
off-shore structures, nuclear reactor fuel rods, heat exchangers, cooling of electronic equipment and the vibrations of
radar masts. It is also applicable in the aerodynamics of buildings such as skyscrapers, cooling towers and chimney
stacks. Therefore, it is important to understand and control the flow over bluff bodies so that engineering design and
public comfort can be improved continuously. Collapsing of three out of eight natural draft cooling towers at
Ferrybridge in UK in 1965 due to aerodynamic problems, has attracted further interest in this field [1].
In general the flow around two-dimensional bluff bodies is defined by flow separations that results a wake in
downstream which in turn causes a vortex street. The location and the time dependent behavior of the vortices are
highly dependent on the cross-section of the bluff bodies. The circular cylinder is the most primary example of bluff
bodies, demonstrating rounded geometries that have the highest degree of symmetry which has studied by lots of
researchers experimentally and numerically [2-6]. For the circular cylinder, it is obvious that the Reynolds number
plays a significant role because the separation location varies due to its rounded and continuous shape. The
rectangular cylinder, in the case of the square section, is the prime example for a sharp-edged bluff body with a high
degree of symmetry. Usually in the flow around a rectangular cylinder, location of the separation is not completely
dependent to the Reynolds number because in the case of sharp-edged bodies, the separation location is fixed at the
sharp edges.
Thus, during last decade, experimental and numerical investigations has been carried out to understand flow and
heat transfer past bluff bodies, such as circular or any other geometric shapes of cylinder in cross flows.
Nevertheless, less attention has been dedicated to the flow around rectangular and specifically square cylinders,
although this phenomenon is of great interest for engineering and aerodynamic applications, especially for the fluid
structure interactions.
One of the first promising tools for solving flow across bluff bodies is discrete vortex method (DVM). Several
investigators like Kim and Flynn [7], Bergstrom and Wang [8] and Taylor and Vezza [9] employed this method to
solve the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for flow around multiple objects. Schewe [10], Liu and Kopp
[11] and Berrone et al. [12] investigated the effect of Reynolds number on a sharp-edged rectangular cylinder with
aspect ratio height/width 1:5 perpendicular to the flow. Mannini et al. [13] and Bruno et al. [14] aimed to provide a
contribution to the analysis of the 3D, high Reynolds number, turbulent, separated and reattached flow around a
fixed sharp-edged rectangular cylinder with a chord- to-depth ratio equal to 5.

In this paper, the flow pass the square and circular cylinder are simulated using the commercial Fluent software. The
effect of Reynoldss number on the produced vortices after the bluff body is investigated. The formation of vortices
after the square cylinder is investigated in compare with the circular cylinder. Furthermore, the lift and drag
coefficient as well as the Strouhal number are studied for the bodies.
Governing Equations
The basic equations governing the unsteady incompressible laminar viscous flows are the Navier-Stokes equations
and the continuity equation. The non-dimensional forms of the equations in the Cartesian coordinate system can be
written as [11]:
(1)
u
u
u
p 1 2 u 2 u
u
v

( 2 2)
t
x
y
x Re x
y
2
(2)
v
u
v
p 1 v 2 v
v
v

( 2 2)
t
x
y
y Re x
y
u v

0
(3)
x y
Drag coefficient ( C d ), lift coefficient ( C l ) and Strouhal number (St) are three important dimensionless numbers for
the problem of flow around any cylindrical objects, and they are given by:
Cd
Cl
St

2 Fd

(4)

U 2 D
2 Fl

(5)

U 2 D
fv D
U

(6)

where Fd and Fl are the resistance and lifting force of the circular cylinder, respectively. is the fluid density, and
U is the fluid inlet velocity, and f v is vortex-shedding frequency.
Statement of the problem
The schematic of the simulation region is shown in Figure 1, with the dimension of 50D20D. The diameter of
both circular and square cylinders is considered to be D, and the center of the cylinders is located at (20D, 10D). The
length downstream of the cylinders should be long enough to eliminate the influence of outlet on the flow field. A
uniform inlet velocity profile is used at the inlet boundary. The boundary conditions are formulated as:
Inlet boundary:

u U, v 0

Side boundary:

u v

0
x x
u
0, v 0
y

Cylinder surface:

uv0

Outlet boundary:

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

Figure 1. Schematic of the computational region of flow past square and circular cylinder

Mesh structure
For grid independence test, three different resolutions shown in Table 1 are considered to compare the obtained
Strouhal number (St) results.
Table 1. Grid independency test for two circular and square cylinder in the case of Re=100.

Case
I
II
III

Square cylinder
Number
Strouhal
of grids
number (St)
45982
0.140
63650
0.142
91546
0.142

Circular cylinder
Number
Strouhal
of grids
number (St)
12364
0.149
17080
0.152
29562
0.152

The Strouhal number (St) obtained from the different grids show that an increasing the grid numbers by 44%
(case II to case III) has a small influence ( 6.110 4 % ) on the Strouhal number (St). According to this refinement
study, all further simulations are performed with considering the case II grid. Finally, it should be declared that the
maximum error of the residuals to reach to the steady state solution is assumed to be of the order of 1 10 6 .
Results and discussion
In this paper, the flow over two different types of cylinder (square and circular) is studied numerically using the
Fluent software. First of all, for validating the numerical procedure, the drag coefficient, lift coefficient and Strouhal
number are compared with the previous studies for flow with Re=100. It can be seen from Table 2 that in this work
the drag coefficient, lift coefficient and Strouhal number for square cylinder are 1.59, 0.17 and 0.142 respectively,
which are in close agreement with the numerical results reported by various authors.
Table 2. The drag and lift coefficient of flow with Re = 100 for both circular and square cylinder.

Square cylinder
Author
Cd
1.43
Sohankar et al. [15]
1.44
Cheng et al. [17]
1.51
Lam et al. [19]
1.48
Berrone et al. [12]
Present study
1.59

Cl

0.15
0.15
0.18
0.17
0.17

Circular cylinder
Author
Cd
Calhoun [16]
1.33
Silva et al. [18]
1.39
Xu and Wang [20]
1.423
Wang et al. [21]
1.379
Present study
1.3

Cl

0.298
0.34
0.357
0.292

Table 3. The Strouhal number of flow with Re = 100 for both circular and square cylinder.

Square cylinder
Author
Sohankar et al. [15]
Cheng et al. [17]
Lam et al. [19]
Berrone et al. [12]
Present study

St
0.146
0.144
0.141
0.145
0.142

Circular cylinder
Author
Calhoun [16]
Silva et al. [18]
Xu and Wang [20]
Wang et al. [21]
Present study

St
0.175
0.16
0.171
0.17
0.152

In order to investigate the different regimes of the cylinder flow at different flow times, the vortex structures for
flow with Re=100 in t=5, 10, 15 and 20 second are shown in Figure 2. The formation, evolution, and shedding of the
vortex structures are captured. At the beginning of the flow, the vorticity profile shows symmetrical model, and
there is no vortex structure formed in the field (Figure 2 (a)). With the development of the flow, the symmetrical
model of vorticity transmits to asymmetrical pattern at the non-dimensional time of 10 (Figure 2 (b)). As the time
increases, the vorticity is shed behind the circular cylinder and vortex structures are formed to move downstream.
Finally, a stable arrangement of the large-scale vortex structures at the downstream positions of the flow is obtained
(Figure 2-c and 2-d).

Figure 2. Evolution of vortex structures for flow with Re = 100 at different times a) t=5s b) t=10s c) t=15s d) t=20s

Figures. 3-a to 3-d present the velocity profile near the square cylinder for different Reynolds number. As shown,
increasing the Reynolds number causes that the distribution of velocity contours decrease and they close more
together.

a)

b)

c)

d)

Figure 3. Evolution velocity contours distribution near the cylinder for flow with a) Re=75 b) Re=100 c) Re=125 d) Re=150

The time history of drag and lift coefficients for flow with
Re = 75, 100, 125 and 150 are shown in Figs. 4-a to 4-d. As it can be seen from Figure 4, by increasing Reynolds
number from 75 to 150, the drag coefficient does not change noticeably, while the lift coefficient strongly increases with
increasing the Reynolds number (the lift coefficient in Re=150 is almost 3 times bigger than lift coefficient in Re=75).
Furthermore, by increasing Reynolds number, the lift coefficient will enter into the steady status faster.

Figure 4. Time history of the drag coefficient and lift coefficient for flows with various Re numbers a) Re=75 b) Re=100 c) Re=125
d) Re=150

Figures. 5-a to 5-d present the streamline near the cylinder for flows with different Reynolds number. As can be seen,
the position of the produced vortices after the square is changed for different Reynolds numbers. Moreover, it is notable
that the produced vortices is changed regarding to the passed time.

a)

b)

c)

d)

Figure 5. Streamline near the cylinder for a) Re=75 b) Re=100 c) Re=125 d) Re=150 at t=20s

Conclusion
In this paper, the CFD simulation is performed to study the flow patterns and the vortex structure around a square
and cylindrical cylinders considering different Reynolds number. The commercial Flunet software is used in order to
solve the governing equations of motion. The results show a good agreement in the lift and drag coefficient as well
as the Strohoul number around two studied cylinders. The results show that more vortices are produced through
passing the time and increasing the Reynolds number causes that the fluctuations in lift and drag coefficients start
at an earlier time. Furthermore, the lift coefficient is increased considerably when the Reynolds number increases.
The streamlines near the cylinders show the produced vortices around the cylinders.
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