Numerical Investigation

of Two-Dimensional Laminar Flow Past

Various Oscillating Cylinder

Ankit Dekhatawala and Rupesh Shah

Abstract Two-dimensional laminar flow over oscillating cylinder is analyzed

numerically. Three different cylinder shapes namely circular, square, and ellipse are
considered for analysis. Cylinder shapes are set to oscillate at frequency ranged
such that frequency ratio (oscillating frequency/natural vortex shedding frequency,
fr) varies between 0.8 and 1.2. The oscillation amplitude is varied between 30 and
50% of the cylinder diameter at fixed Reynolds number of 185. Numerical study is
carried out using dynamic mesh features of commercial code FLUENT. Simple
harmonic motion to the cylinder is applied using user-defined function (UDF)
facility of FLUENT. The formation of anticlockwise or clockwise motion vortices
from surface of cylinder depends upon geometrical shape of the cylinder as well as
frequency ratio of oscillation at extreme positive displacement of the cylinder.
Wake pattern mode behind the surface of the cylinder is 2S mode or 2P mode.
Elliptical cylinder outperforms square and circular cylinder in terms of drag and lift
characteristics. The range of time-averaged drag coefficient is lowest. Drag and lift
increase linearly for all amplitude and frequency ratio in elliptical cylinder com-
pared to square and circular cylinder.

Keywords Frequency ratio
Lift coefficient
Drag coefficient

1 Introduction

The major concern in design of an offshore structure is calculation of fluid forces.

These forces are exerted on offshore structure due to the interaction of waves with
structure. Due to this study of cylindrical body, oscillation laterally in a free stream
is one of the important problems of fluid mechanics. Separation, vortex shedding
pattern and turbulence in a wake at relatively low flow speed are the primary

A. Dekhatawala
R. Shah (&)

Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat 395002, Gujarat, India
e-mail: rds@med.svnit.ac.com

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 261

P. Saha et al. (eds.), Advances in Fluid and Thermal Engineering,
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6416-7_25
262 A. Dekhatawala and R. Shah

physical phenomenon flow past oscillating cylinder. When circular cylinder oscil-
lation frequency equal to vortex formation frequency, the fundamental lock-in
regions occurred which is found by Williamson and Roshko [1]. They also clas-
sified the wake pattern in accordance with wavelength. Guilmineau and Queutey [2]
numerically examined vortex shedding in-line oscillation and cross-flow oscillation
from circular cylinder. As the frequency of oscillation cylinder increases relative to
natural vortex formation frequency, the primarily formed concentration of vorticity
moves nearer to the cylinder until a minimum position is reached.
Okajima et al. [3] experimentally studied flow induced in-line oscillations for
circle and rectangular-shaped cylinder of various side ratios. From flow visualiza-
tion images, they determined that the shape of body has major impact in in-line
oscillation. Dutta [4] extensively examined stationary as well as oscillating square
cylinder wake pattern in the range of Reynolds number 100–600. As the oscillation
frequency increases, the recirculation zone length behind the cylinder reduces
significantly which directly contracts the time-averaged drag force acting on
cylinder.
A very few researchers numerically studied flow over stationary elliptical
cylinder as well as rotationally oscillating elliptical cylinder by varying Reynolds
number and aspect ratio. As the steady secondary vortex shedding formed behind
the elliptical cylinder, the variation of drag and Strouhal number is noted by Joshan
et al. [5]. The local minimum RMS value of lift coefficient and local maximum
value of drag coefficient for rotationally oscillating cylinder are found at natural
vortex shedding frequency of elliptical cylinder [6].
In the present research, two-dimensional laminar flow over oscillating circular-,
square- and elliptical-shaped cylinders is examined using commercial code
FLUENT with special feature of dynamic mesh. User-defined function
(UDF) facility of Fluent is used to give simple harmonic motion to cylinder. The
purpose of the present numerical study is to identify major changes in wake pattern
and the hydrodynamic forces on the cylinder due to the change in geometrical
shape, variation of frequency, and amplitude ratio.

2 Computational Approach

In current investigation, the Navier–Stokes equations describing unsteady incom-

pressible viscous flow field for two dimensions of space are solved numerically.
Governing equations of flow physics are,
Continuity Equation:

@q @u @v
þ þ ¼0 ð1Þ
@t @x @y
Numerical Investigation of Two-Dimensional Laminar … 263

and momentum Equation:

 
@u @u2 @ ðuvÞ @p 1 @2u @2u
þ þ ¼ þ þ 2 ð2Þ
@t @x @y @x Re @x2 @y
 
@v @ ðuvÞ @v2 @p 1 @2v @2v
þ þ ¼ þ þ ð3Þ
@t @x @y @y Re @x2 @y2

where u and v are velocity components, respectively, in x- and y-directions, p is the

pressure, Reynolds number Re is defined as Re ¼ qVD l in which V is free stream
velocity of water, D is equivalent hydraulic diameter of cylinder, q is density of
water and l is dynamic viscosity of water. In the present research q ¼ 998:2kg m3
and l ¼ 0:001003 kg/m-s are consider for all cases. The oscillating motion of
cylinder is defined using UDF. The equation used to give harmonic motion in UDF
is as follows:

V ð yÞ ¼ Ax cosðxtÞ ð4Þ

where V(y) is velocity of cylinder in y-direction. A is amplitude of oscillation.

Amplitude of oscillation is determined from amplitude ratio which is defined by
Ar ¼ A=D. x is angular frequency of oscillation which defined by x ¼ 2pfe , fe is
frequency of oscillation derived from frequency ratio (fr= fe/fo). fo is vortex shading
frequency. Drag and lift are major hydrodynamic forces, which act on cylinder
surface during oscillation, respectively, in x- and y-direction. The non-dimensional
form of lift and drag forces are defined as given below

Fj
CL ¼ ð5Þ
1=2qV 2 D

Fi
CD ¼ ð6Þ
1=2qV 2 D

where CL and CD are lift coefficient and drag coefficient. Fi and Fj are drag and lift
forces in x- and y-direction, respectively.
The schematic computational flow domain for oscillating cylinder is shown in
Fig. 1. Circular-, square- and elliptical-shaped cylinders are considered in the
present investigation. The equivalent hydraulic diameter D for various geometrical
shape cylinders is 0.01 m. The computational flow domain is divided into two
parts. The 6D  6D square domain surrounding the cylinder is the first part. The
first part is meshed with dynamic mesh, which will oscillate with the cylinder. The
remaining region is the second part. Length and width of computational domain in
terms of equivalent hydraulic diameter D as well as boundary conditions used for
present analysis are shown in Fig. 1. Computational flow domain modeling and
meshing are done in GAMBIT software. FLUENT software is used for the current
numerical study.
264 A. Dekhatawala and R. Shah

Fig. 1 Schematic of computational flow domain

Unstructured mesh is generated in the first part of computational domain using

tri-elements, and the second part of computational domain is meshed using
quadrilateral elements. At inlet, velocity boundary type is assigned. Cylinder sur-
face is considered as wall, whereas oscillating motion is given to cylinder using
Eq. [4] via UDF. Pressure outlet boundary condition is set at outlet of domain in
which the gauge pressure p = 0 is adopted. Reynolds number is fixed for all
geometrical shape of cylinder, which is 185. For this, laminar viscous model is
selected. The segregated first-order implicit unsteady solver approach is selected
together with the PISO algorithm for pressure-velocity coupling. PISO algorithm is
more suitable for quick convergence and with larger time step size.

3 Numerical Validation

One of the important stages in numerical investigation is meshing. Mesh density

affects the solution. The grid independence test of oscillating cylinder is carried out
at Re = 185 and fr = 0.8, Ar = 0.2 for all geometrical shape of the cylinder. The
variation of mesh density is carried out by changing the grid points along the
cylinder surface and 6D  6D square domain side and evaluating the result of mesh
density on CD and CLrms . The number of grid points along the different geometrical
cylinder surface and square domain side are indicated by Nc and Nsl, respectively.
Tri-elements mesh (Nc  Nsl = 250  100) in 6D  6D square domain is con-
sidered for further analysis of all cases.
The current numerical study involves three geometrical shape cylinders under-
going transversally oscillating motion at various frequency ratios with various
amplitude ratio; hence, the numerical method followed here needs to be validated.
The numerical results of oscillating circular cylinder are compared with published
results of Guilmineau and Queutey [2] for Re = 185 and fr = 0.8–1.2, Ar = 0.2. The
numerical results of the current analysis are validated with the values of
Numerical Investigation of Two-Dimensional Laminar … 265

Fig. 2 Comparisons of C D
and CLrms for oscillating
circular cylinder with
Guilmineau and Queutey [2]
for Re = 185, Ar = 0.2

time-averaged drag coefficient (C D ) and root means square lift coefficient (CLrms )
values. Figure 2 shows good quantitative agreement for the values CD and CLrms
between present investigation with those obtained by Guilmineau and Queutey [2].

4 Numerical Results and Discussion

The detail quantitative information about derived variables which are the C D , CLrms
and vorticity of various geometrical shape cylinders undergoing transversally
oscillating motion at different frequency ratio with amplitude ratio are presented in
this section. The range of frequency ratio for cylinder is 0.8–1.2, while the oscil-
lation amplitude is between 30 and 50% of the cylinder equivalent hydraulic
diameter. The vortex shedding frequency (fo) of different geometrical shapes of
stationary cylinder is obtained from non-dimensional Strouhal number which is
defined as

fo D
St ¼ ð7Þ
V

Strouhal number of various geometrical shapes of stationary cylinder is obtained

from the literature. Every simulation is extended up to 100 s where periodic flow
condition is achieved.

4.1 Circular Cylinder

The full periodicity in the flow has been established when the cylinder reached to
maximum displacement so vorticity isolines contour of all cases has been taken
t = 2s/4 (when cylinder reaches at maximum positive displacement). Clockwise
266 A. Dekhatawala and R. Shah

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 3 Vorticity isolines contour for circular cylinder at Re = 185, Ar = 0.5 at t = 2s/4. a fr = 0.8,
b fr = 1 and c fr = 1.2

vortices formed from top side of all geometrical shape cylinders. Anticlockwise
vortices formed from bottom side of all geometrical shape cylinders. At fr = 0.8, the
vortex has enough time to stretch in longitudinal direction before detachment from
cylinder surface which can be observed from Fig. 3a. The resulting wake formation
mode behind cylinder is 2S mode or karman street-type wake. This flow behavior
shows good agreement with experimental studies of Williamson and Roshko [1].
When circular cylinder oscillating frequency is equal to vortex shedding frequency,
the well-known lock-in occurs. In this fundamental lock-in region, there are four
vortices are shaded during complete cycle of oscillation. Figure 3b shows that
vortex is less stretched in longitudinal direction compare to fr = 0.8 and resulting
wake formation is still 2S mode. When circular cylinder is oscillated higher than
natural vortex shedding frequency, vortex is detached from cylinder surface without
stretching in longitudinal direction which is found from Fig. 3c. The resulting wake
Numerical Investigation of Two-Dimensional Laminar … 267

(a) (b)

Fig. 4 a C D of circular cylinder, b CLrms of circular cylinder

behind the cylinder is 2P mode in which vortex pair is shaded from the wake
centerline. The similar wake pattern is obtained by Williamson and Roshko [1] for
the same conditions.
The plots of CD and CLrms for circular cylinder as a function of frequency ratio
with various amplitude ratios are shown, respectively, in Fig. 4a, b. The linear
increment in C D is found up to fr = 1 for Ar = 0.3 and 0.4, while for Ar = 0.5, it is
up to fr = 1.1. At fr > 1, the value of CD is decreased. This is due to vortex
detachment from cylinder surface quickly without stretching in longitudinal
direction. There is small linear rise in the value of CLrms up to fr = 1 and after that
sudden rise in value of CLrms for all Ar. The maximum value of CLrms is observed at
fr = 1.2.

4.2 Square Cylinder

Figure 5 shows vorticity isolines contour of transversally oscillating square cylinder

for Re = 185, Ar = 0.5 at t = 2s/4 with frequency ratio 0.8–1.2. In square shape
cylinder, clockwise vortex is formed from top left corner of square. Anticlockwise
vortex is generated from bottom left corner of square. After developing vortex from
top or bottom side of square, vortex reattached with rear vertical side of square then
elongated in longitudinal direction before detachment from square cylinder surface.
Therefore, the elongation length of vortex in longitudinal direction before separa-
tion from square cylinder surface is higher compared to circular cylinder. As the
frequency ratio increases from 0.8 to 1.2, the elongation of vortex in longitudinal
direction before detachment from square cylinder surface decreases. When square
cylinder oscillation frequency synchronized with natural vortex shedding frequency
of square cylinder, fundamental lock-in region occurred similar to circular cylinder
and two vortices are shaded during complete cycle of oscillation. The wake
268 A. Dekhatawala and R. Shah

(a)

(b)

(c)

Fig. 5 Vorticity isolines contour for square cylinder at Re = 185, Ar = 0.5 at t = 2s/4. a fr = 0.8,
b fr = 1 and c fr = 1.2

structure formation due to oscillation behind square cylinder is in 2S mode for all
frequency ratio while in circular cylinder, 2S mode wake structure up to fr = 1 and
at fr > 1, 2P mode wake structure is observed.
Figure 6a, b shows the plot of C D and CLrms for square cylinder as a function of
frequency ratio with various amplitude ratios. The value of C D for square cylinder is
higher compared to circular cylinder for all cases. The lowest value of CD is
observed at fr = 1 in square cylinder while maximum value of C D is found in
circular cylinder at the same frequency ratio. In case of circular cylinder, the value
of CLrms rises continuously with increasing frequency ratio and amplitude ratio
while the CLrms value is increasing in between fr < 1 and fr > 1 for square cylinder.
Numerical Investigation of Two-Dimensional Laminar … 269

(a) (b)

Fig. 6 a C D of square cylinder, b CLrms of square cylinder

4.3 Elliptical Cylinder

The vorticity isolines contour of oscillating elliptical cylinder shows the effect on
the flow field in Fig. 7 for various frequency ratio, Re = 185 and Ar = 0.5 at t = 2s/
4. Ellipse is streamlined object so vortices formation started at the beginning of
horizontal centerline of ellipse. When elliptical cylinder oscillates transversally at

Fig. 7 Vorticity isolines (a)

contour for elliptical cylinder
at Re = 185, Ar = 0.5 at
t = 2s/4. a fr = 0.8, b fr = 1
and c fr = 1.2

(b)

(c)
270 A. Dekhatawala and R. Shah

(a) (b)

Fig. 8 a C D of elliptical cylinder, b CLrms of elliptical cylinder

lower than natural vortex shedding frequency, vortices are stretched in longitudinal
direction up to surface of elliptical cylinder then elongated in lateral direction. As
the oscillation, frequency is equal to natural vortex shedding frequency or higher
than, vortices are stretched in lateral direction and detached vortices are concen-
trated near the rear surface of ellipse. The vortex shedding formation mode is 2S
mode for all frequency ratio.
The plots of C D and CLrms for elliptical cylinder as a function of frequency ratio
with various amplitude ratios are presented in Fig. 8a, b. C D and CLrms rise linearly
for all cases of elliptical cylinder. The maximum value of C D of and CLrms elliptical
cylinder found at fr = 1.2 for all Ar.

5 Conclusions

Numerical study of two-dimensional flow past oscillating cylinder with different

geometrical shapes is carried out using CFD code in this work. The major outcome
of current research is following
(1) Geometrical shape of the cylinder and frequency ratio of oscillation influence
anticlockwise motion or clockwise motion vortices of shedding process at
maximum positive displacement of cylinder.
(2) The vortex shedding formation mode for circular cylinder is 2S mode up to
fr  1 and 2P mode is found at fr > 1, while 2S mode wake structure found for
all fr in square and elliptical shape cylinder.
(3) The time-averaged drag coefficient value of elliptical is lowest as well as lin-
early increases with increment in amplitude and frequency ratio compared to
circular and square cylinder.
(4) Highest value of CLrms is observed in elliptical cylinder for all cases compared
to circular and square cylinder.
Numerical Investigation of Two-Dimensional Laminar … 271

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