Experimental and numerical analyses of airflow around two cylinders angled to the direction of wind

Abstract

The analyses aim to determine aerodynamic force coefficients in the case of airflow around two smooth or rough cylinders positioned at different angles to the direction of wind velocity. Such systems, for instance, may be part of a tubular water slide. The results were compared with the values of the interference coefficient of the cylinders arranged in a row included in Eurocode EN 1991 part 4. The aerodynamic forces of the cylinder systems were determined on the basis of experimental tests conducted in a wind tunnel. To verify the above results, CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulations were prepared. An important observation is that for the angle of yaw β = 0◦, the negative component of the lift force (lateral) fy is shown, while for the other cases, the situation is opposite and the lateral force points outside the gap (upward). The second is that the results of aerodynamic drag for rough cylinders arranged in a row and calculated according to EN 1991 part 4 may be underestimated. The flow around the pair of smooth cylinders is quite different from that of the rough ones, because during the experiment the first falls into the critical flow regime, while the second has supercritical characteristics.