Modeling the Wake Behind Bluff Bodies for Flow Control at Laminar and Turbulent Reynolds Numbers Using Artificial Neural Networks

Abstract

The phenomenon of vortex shedding behind bluff bodies has been a subject of extensive research. Many flows of engineering interest produce this phenomenon and the associated periodic lift and drag response (Cohen et al., 2005). External flow over bluff bodies is an important research area because of its wide range of engineering applications. Although, the geometry of a bluff body can be simple, the flow behind it is chaotic and time-dependent after a certain value of Reynolds number. Forces acting on the body such as drag and lift also vary in time, and cause periodic loading on it. These forces originate from momentum transfer from fluid to the body, where their magnitudes are strongly related to the shape of the body and properties of the flow.