Timing of vortex formation from an oscillating cylinder

Abstract

The instantaneous structure of the near-wake of a cylinder subjected to forced oscillations is examined using particle imaging, which leads to representations of the streamline patterns and distributions of vorticity. As the frequency of excitation of the cylinder is increased relative to the inherent vortex formation frequency, the initially formed concentration of vorticity moves closer to the cylinder until a limiting position is reached; at this position, the vorticity concentration abruptly switches to the opposite side of the cylinder. This process induces abrupt changes of the topology of the corresponding streamline patterns; such topological patterns alone, however, do not properly suggest the existence and rearrangement of the vorticity concentrations. Moreover, this vorticity-switching concept persists to high values of Reynolds number, where the values of the mean base pressure coefficient and vortex formation length differ substantially from those at low Reynolds number. The switching mechanism is not significantly altered, either in an instantaneous or ensemble-averaged sense, by the presence of small-scale Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices that coexist with the large-scale (Kármá n) vortices. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.