Transition to chaos in the wake of a circular cylinder near a moving wall at low Reynolds numbers

Abstract

Floquet stability analysis has been employed to identify modes of three-dimensional (3D) instability in the flow over a circular cylinder of diameter D above a moving wall at a gap height of G = 0.2D, beyond the onset of two-dimensional vortex shedding. Two subharmonic modes (mode C1 and mode C2) and one long-wavelength quasi-periodic mode (mode QPL) are revealed. The characteristics of these 3D modes are discussed in detail. The results of 3D direct simulations show that it is the intensively nonlinear modal interactions that lead to a chaotic final flow state at higher Reynolds numbers, rather than the interference of the shear layer caused by the no-slip moving wall.