Flow Pattern in the Presence of Two Nearby Circular Cylinders

Flow patterns in the presence of two identical nearby circular cylinders at Re =100 were numerically studied. We considered all possible arrangements of the two circular cylinders in terms of the distance between the two cylinders and the inclination angle with respect to the direction of the main flow. Eight distinct flow patterns were identified based on vorticity contours and streamlines, which are Base-Bleed, Biased-Base-Bleed, Shear-Layer-Reattachment, Induced-Separation, Vortex-Impingement, Flip-Flopping, Modulated Periodic, and Synchronized-Vortex-Shedding. Collecting all the numerical results, we propose a general flow pattern diagram for flows past two nearby cylinders. The perfect geometrical symmetry implied in the flow configuration allows one to use this diagram to distinguish flow patterns in the presence of two identical circular cylinders arbitrarily positioned in physical space with respect to the main flow direction.