Revue des Energies Renouvelables SMEE10 Bou Ismail Tipaza (2010) 21 26

Observations of the wind tunnel blockage effects on the

mean pressure distributions around rectangular
prisms in smooth and grid turbulent flows
N. Amrouche1*, R. Dizene1 and A. Laneville2
1

Laboratoire de Mcanique Avance, Facult de Gnie Mcanique et Gnie de Procds

Universit des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene, Alger, Algrie
2

Dpartement de Gnie Mcanique, Universit de Sherbrooke,

2500 Boulevard de lUniversit, Sherbrooke, Qubec, Canada

Abstract - This paper deals with the modification of the pressure distributions due to the
constraining effects of the walls when a stationary prism is tested in a channel. These
constraining effects are often defined as solid and wake blockages. In this paper, attention
is then paid to the side wall pressure distributions (partly the source of transverse
vibrations since the wake vorticity is organized over the side wall) in the case of twodimensional rectangular prisms exposed to smooth and grid turbulent flows. Conditions
are examined for which similitude is lost and correction techniques are not expected to
perform well. An experimental set-up is developed to preserve the additional similitude
criteria of grid turbulent flows.

1. INTRODUCTION
This paper deals with the modification of the pressure distributions due to the
constraining effects of the walls when a stationary prism is tested in a channel. These
constraining effects are often defined as solid and wake blockages.
Solid blockage is due to the reduction of the flow area in the channel test section by
the presence of the prism: the resulting increase of the flow velocity is observed to be
much less severe (about one-fourth according to [1], than the one predicted by the direct
application of continuity.
The wake downstream a rectangular prism has a lower mean velocity than that of the
oncoming free stream: the shear layers from the separation points of the prism as well as
the vorticity shed in the wake are related to the velocity shear between the flows outside
and in the wake. The modification of this velocity shear caused by the increase of the
flow velocity outside the wake is associated with wake blockage.
Although these blockage effects modify the values of the force and moment
coefficients of the stationary prisms, their impacts also extend to the determination of
onset conditions of instabilities such as galloping.
Previous contributions have dealt with the effects of blockage on the drag force or
the pressure distribution on the frontal and base surfaces of rectangular prisms but few
considered the effect of blockage on the side wall pressure distribution or the force
transverse to the flow. Moreover, the combined effects of blockage and turbulence level
contained in the oncoming flow are not well known.
In this paper, attention is then paid to the side wall pressure distributions (partly the
source of transverse vibrations since the wake vorticity is organized over the side wall)
*

nouriamr@yahoo.fr ; rd_2006diz.anis@yahoo.fr ; Andre.Laneville@USherbrooke.ca

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N. Amrouche et al.

in the case of two-dimensional rectangular prisms exposed to smooth and grid turbulent
flows. Conditions are examined for which similitude is lost and correction techniques
are not expected to perform well. An experimental set-up is developed to preserve the
additional similitude criteria of grid turbulent flows.

2. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH
In the case of rectangular prisms (geometrically defined by H , d , L , respectively
the side, the frontal and the long axis dimensions) mounted in a square test section
channel ( with area dimension C ) and exposed to uniform flows (fluid defined by ,
the density, and , the dynamic viscosity) with and without superimposed grid
turbulence defined by the variables U , u ' , v' , w ' , L x , L y , L z (respectively the

mean flow velocity, the three velocity fluctuations components and the three turbulent
length scales), the independent similitude criteria are:
H / d , L / d , L d / C (or S / C ), Reynolds, u ' / U ,
v' / U v/U, w ' / U , L x / d , L y / d and L z / d

In low turbulence uniform flows, called smooth flows, only the four first
independent criteria prevail: the effect of blockage or the ratio S / C can be evaluated by
changing the model size d and adjusting the flow velocity to maintain the Reynolds
number. This approach is mostly adopted in previous works and remains valid as long
as the ratio L / d is sufficiently large to reduce the importance of the effect of the
channel walls boundary layers interacting with the ends of the model.
In turbulent flows, the effect of modifying d in order to evaluate the effect of
blockage modifies the values of the three turbulent length scale ratios. The only
alternative consists in keeping the flow characteristics constant and by moving two of
the channel walls in order to modify C instead of d . This is an originality of the
present research project: two false walls are mounted inside the channel test section to
generate a smaller channel around the model within the test section. This approach
allows keeping constant all the independent similitude criteria while varying the
blockage ratio. Since the local mean pressure ( p ) distributions were of interest, the
similitude criteria is the usual pressure coefficient ( C p = ( p p ) (0.5 U 2 ) ). Force
coefficients can obviously be deduced from the pressure distributions.
Six families of rectangular prisms (with H / d = 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0) were
tested under five different solid blockage ratios ( S / C = 6.6%, 9%, 12%, 15% and 20%)
and three types of flows (smooth flow, grid turbulent flow with 5 % and 10 %
intensities). The Reynolds number was set to exceed 5104. The value of H / d was the
result of different sizes of the side walls: the frontal and base walls dimension was kept
constant ( d = 12 cm).
Pressure taps were machined on all the models surfaces: a higher concentration of
taps (18 to 24 taps according to the length H ) was selected in the case of the side walls
in order to examine the influence of blockage on the force transverse to the flow. The
models were mounted inside the wind tunnel test section and two false walls were
displaced within the test section to generate the constraining effects.

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3. RESULTS
The two first set of figures shows the case of a rectangular prism with a short
afterbody, that is H / D = 0.6 in smooth flow. The complete pressure distribution (Fig.
1) measured under five blockage configuration is observed to remain similar from the
point of stagnation to the point of separation ( 0 z / D 0.5 ) and to progressively
loose its similitude on the side wall ( 0.5 z / D 1.1 ) and the base area
( 1.1 z / D 1.6 especially for S / C > 10 %.
The detailed pressure distribution on the side wall ( 0 x / H 1.0 ) (Fig. 2) shows
that the location of the minimum pressure shifts towards the separation point: a pressure
recovery follows.
The comparison between the S / C = 6.56 % and 15 % or 20 % indicates that
similitude is lost on the side wall pressure distribution even in the case of short after
body prisms in smooth flow.

Fig. 1: Effect of S / C on the complete pressure

distribution, on the 3 faces of the prism
The next figure (Fig. 3) shows the effect of a grid turbulence superimposed to an
otherwise smooth flow.
Three levels of turbulence are applied in this case and a longer after body prism
( H / D = 2) is subjected to a constant blockage value ( S / C = 9 %).

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Fig. 2: Effect of S / C on side wall pressure

Fig. 3: Effect of Turbulence on the pressure recovery

SMEE2010: Observations of the wind tunnel blockage effects on the mean pressure

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The slight pressure recovery observed in smooth flow conditions becomes much
more important as the level of turbulence is increased.

4. CONCLUSIONS
The main results are:
The effects of blockage for a given grid turbulent flow, are not limited to a simple
increase of the mean flow velocity: reattachment of the shear layer may occur.
For a given blockage condition, the effects of superimposed turbulence on the
oncoming flow may also cause an earlier reattachment of the shear layer on the side
wall (especially again in the case of prisms with H / d > 1 .
The dimensionless pressure distribution over the surface of the model facing the
flow is weakly influenced by the independent variables, H / d , S / C and the turbulence
levels; the distribution resembles that of a flat plate normal to the flow. Similitude is
preserved in this region and the effect of increasing blockage is to lower the static
pressure at the separation point.
In the case of prisms with H / d > 1 , similitude is lost for the pressure distributions
on the side wall since blockage induces an earlier reattachment of the shear layer over
this region. This conclusion can be extended to the base area.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge the NSERC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Council of Canada for the support to the authors.

REFERENCES
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Thermomechanics, Czech Republic, Prague, 30 June - 3 July 2008.

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