14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

Investigations of the flow field around different wall-mounted square cylinder stump geometries Thomas Uffinger, Stefan Becker, Antonio Delgado
Institute of Fluid Mechanics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Cauerstrasse 4, 91058 Erlangen, Germany, thomas.uffinger@lstm.uni-erlangen.de

Abstract The flow around a wall-mounted square cylinder stump in a cross flow is investigated experimentally. In addition to the basic stump geometry, two additional cases are considered. First a wedge is mounted in front of the square cylinder and second an elliptical afterbody is inserted into the recirculation area behind the cylinder. The geometries are a selection of those analyzed in acoustic measurements which have been made previously at the Institute [1]. The flow fields of the different geometries are evaluated using a 2D laser Doppler probe, sampling each measurement point from two directions to obtain 3D-data. To achieve detailed information, a high-resolution 3D-grid is used. For reliable results, it has to be guaranteed that the measurement time per point is sufficiently long. The main focus is placed on the measurement of the mean values of the three velocity components and the turbulent kinetic energy. However, the anisotropy of turbulence is also considered. Additionally, visualizations using a laser light section were performed to obtain an overview of the flow structures which can be found for the different geometries. The aim of the investigations is to correlate the measured flow fields with the above-mentioned acoustic measurements. By this means we want to find which properties of the flow have an influence on the acoustic far field. In particular, it is studied if the values of the turbulent kinetic energy directly influence the acoustic sound pressure level. The investigations are meant to provide a deeper insight into the complex mechanisms of aeroacoustics which are still not fully known. Furthermore, the experimental data are used for comparisons with numerical simulations which were carried out at the Institute [2]. The measurements provide very satisfactory results. The visualization using a laser light section clearly shows the relevant flow structures. The wall near horseshoe vortices can be seen, in addition to the flow behavior of the flow over the top of the cylinder. The laser Doppler-based velocity data confirm these results and give even more detailed information. Furthermore, the measured distributions of the turbulent kinetic energy lead to the conclusion that turbulent kinetic energy is not necessarily a basic paramter for the acoustic sound pressure level generated by the flow. In fact, the size of coherent fluctuating flow domains and the anisotropy of turbulence have a strong influence on the flow-induced sound.

Nomenclature
CAA cD D L LDA LES RANS ReD SAS SPL U U, V, W x, y, z Computational aeroacoustics Drag coefficient Cylinder side length Cylinder length Laser Doppler anemometer Large eddy simulation Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes Reynolds number based on the cylinder side length D Scale adaptive simulation Sound pressure level Inflow velocity Velocity components in cartesian coordinates Cartesian coordinates
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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

1. Introduction
As the mobility of human beings becomes more and more important, the demands on transportation systems rise at the same time. Ecological and economic issues become more relevant than they have ever been before. Among these fields of interest, aerodynamic noise is an important criterion of the quality of transportation systems, especially concerning high-speed transportation. Not only the noise to which passengers are exposed during their journey but also the noise radiated to the environment needs to be reduced as much as possible as it can cause stress or even threaten peoples health. Dominant sources of sound in conjunction with transportation systems are wall-mounted attachment parts such as pantographs of trains, car antennas and side mirrors. From a simplified point of view, they can be considered as wall-mounted cylindrical structures of finite length. Because of the relevance of the topic, both the acoustics and the flow fields around such cylinders are studied in a number of research activities. The majority of these investigations deal with the flow field around circular cylinders, partly in combination with the associated sound field [3]-[5]. The flow field around a square cylinder has been studied [6]-[8], including the effects of varying orientation towards the flow. Unfortunately, nearly all of these studies focused on two-dimensional flow fields. Concerning the threedimensional flow around wall-mounted cylinders of finite length, there are only a few data to be found concerning the fluid mechanical aspects of this setup [9], [10], [11]. To the authors knowledge, there is a total absence of data considering the flow-induced sound of a wall-mounted square cylinder in a cross-flow. The acoustic field of a wall-mounted square cylinder stump with a side length D and a length L (see figure 1) has previously been investigated experimentally at the Institute [1]. In addition to the basic stump geometry, a number of further geometries have been studied. Thereby different bodies were put in front of or behind the square cylinder (see figure 2).

Figure 1: Basic setup: wall-mounted square cylinder in a cross-flow

Figure 2: Different cylinder investigated acoustically

stump

geometries

Figure 3 shows the ranking in terms of the acoustic sound pressure level of the different geometries. It can be seen that geometries which are from the aerodynamic point of view more advantageous than others can nevertheless be louder.

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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

Figure 3: Ranking of geometries referring to the acoustic sound pressure level (U = 30 m/s)

The motivation for this work was to analyze the flow field around different cylinder geometries to gain a better understanding of aeroacoustic sound generation. It was to be checked which properties or structures of the flow field have an influence on the radiated acoustic field. Because of the above-mentioned lack of data in the literature, the flow field around the geometries displayed in figure 2a, 2b and 2c was to be evaluated using experimental methods. Furthermore, these data can be used for comparisons with the results of numerical studies that have also been carried out at the Institute [2]. The setup and the measurement equipment used for the experimental investigations are described in Section 2. The results of the measurements are presented in Section 3 and a comparison between numerical and experimental investigations is given in Section 4. Section 5 contains a short summary of this work.

2. Setup and measurement equipment

The studied geometries are displayed in figure 4, including the dimensions of their cross-sections in mm. The basic stump geometry is a square cylinder with a side length D of 20 mm and a length L of 120 mm (figure 4c). Two additional geometries are investigated. First an elliptical body is inserted into the recirculation area behind the square cylinder (figure 4a) and second a wedge is

Figure 4: Geometries used for LDA measurements: a) elliptical afterbody; b) wedge in front of the cylinder; c) unmodified cylinder (dimensions in mm)

placed in front of the cylinder (figure 4b). The selection was done based on the aeroacoustic results and represents, in addition to the basic geometry, the test cases for the quietest and loudest cylinder
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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

configuration. The investigations of the flow fields were carried out in the aerodynamic wind tunnel of the Institute. It is a closed return type of tunnel with an open measuring section. The two fans installed provide a maximum power of 400 kW and allow speeds of up to approximately 45 m/s. The rectangular cross-section of the nozzle (contraction ratio 5:1) has dimensions of 1.87 m in the horizontal direction and 1.4 m in the vertical direction. The turbulence level of the tunnel is about

Figure 5: Measurement aerodynamic wind tunnel

setup

in

the

Tu = 0.12%. The cylinder stump geometries are not placed directly on the floor of the wind tunnel. Instead, they are mounted in the center of a plate with a thickness of 12 mm which is located about 0.5 m above the tunnel floor and extends 1 m in the streamwise direction and 0.6 m in the lateral direction (see figure 5). At the leading edge of the plate a NACA 0001 profile is attached. The leading edge of the plate is located 0.5 m downstream of the nozzle exit. These measures guarantee similar conditions to those for the acoustic measurements which were done in the aeroacoustic wind tunnel of the Institute. Moreover, the boundary layer is much smaller than when the cylinder is directly mounted on the tunnel floor. In order to obtain reliable measurements in the recirculation zone of the wake flow close to the cylinder, laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) is applied as the measurement technique. In the present study, a special design of a two-component LDA probe is used. This probe is specially designed for applications in low-speed wind tunnels. At an outer diameter of 60 mm, it creates a measuring volume approximately 75 m in diameter at a working distance of about 400 mm. The detection of scattered light is in the direct backscatter mode. In order to reduce the probes frontal area exposed to the flow, the beam path is deflected with a 45 mirror. The LDA probe is attached to a highprecision traverse system that allows three-dimensional movement of the probe. An illustration of the general setup during the measurements is shown in figure 6. Since the velocity components and the turbulent fluctuations in all three coordinate directions are of interest, each measuring point has to be sampled twice. First the U and W velocity components were recorded, then the probe was rotated by 90 in order to obtain the third component V. To obtain results of high accuracy, approximately 15000 samples per measuring point are necessary in regions with high turbulence intensities. At a sampling rate of about 100-150 Hz, which can be achieved by the LDA setup under good conditions, the measuring time is about 2 min per point. Although the sampling rate was partially lower than 100 Hz and longer times would always be desirable, 2 min per point was chosen since the measuring grid of each geometry consists of some thousands of points. Following also the procedure outlined [12] for a 95% confidence
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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

Figure 6: LDA probe during the measurements

interval, the statistical uncertainty of the mean velocity in the outer flow (far from the cylinder model) is less than 0.01% of the local mean velocity. Within the wake of the wall-mounted cylinder, where mean velocities can approach zero and turbulence intensities are very high, an estimate of the mean velocity measurement uncertainty is rather arbitrary. An order of magnitude estimate for the calculated 95% confidence interval is 1% for the mean and 1.5% for the RMS value. The LDA system measures turbulence intensities as small as 0.8% in the outer flow region. This value represents a lower threshold for the measured turbulence intensity and includes all inaccuracies due to the measurement technique, wind tunnel fluctuations and traverse system vibrations. Measurements were carried out at U = 10 m/s for all three geometries and for the plain square cylinder additionally at U = 30 m/s. With the cylinder side length D these speeds result in Reynolds numbers ReD of 12.5104 and 37.6104 considering air as the medium of the flow. When carrying out measurements at a flow speed of 30 m/s, a tripping tape is placed near the upstream end of the plate in order to create a well-defined turbulent boundary layer. The inflow boundary profile is measured at a distance of 10 D upstream of the center of the cylinder. For a flow speed of 10 m/s, a displacement thickness of 0.788 mm and a momentum thickness of 0.357 mm are observed, which lead to a shape factor H12 of about 2.21, representing a laminar inflow. At a flow speed of 30 m/s, the displacement thickness is 0.449 mm and the momentum thickness 0.360 mm. The shape factor H12 is calculated as 1.25, which is fairly near the reference value of 1.4 for a turbulent boundary layer.

3. Results
Figure 7 illustrates the three-dimensional flow field of the studied geometries. In all three cases, the horseshoe vortex system caused by the adverse pressure gradient of the stagnation point can be seen in front of the cylinder. The recirculation zone and the wake behind the cylinder are also typical flow features. The behavior of the flow over the top of the cylinder is rather different for the three cases. For the plain square cylinder, the flow separates at the top leading edge and does not
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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

reattach any more. With the elliptical body mounted on the back side of the cylinder, the flow

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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

separates at the top leading edge also, but reattaches at the top trailing edge. In the case of the

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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

Figure 7: Flow visualization (by laser light section), velocity distribution and turbulent kinetic energy for a) unmodified cylinder, b) cylinder with elliptical afterbody and c) cylinder with wedge in front (U = 10 m/s)

cylinder with a wedge on the front side, no separation on the cylinder top side is evident. The drag

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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

geometry elliptical afterbody square cylinder wedge in front

SPL (dB) 78.9 65.3 58.9

cD 0.9 1.9 0.4

Table 1: Sound pressure level (U = 30 m/s) and drag coefficient (U = 10 m/s) for the different geometries

coefficient is calculated by the momentum loss based on a comparison of the distribution of the mean velocity in different planes in front of and behind the cylinder geometries. The results are summarized in table 1. The value of the drag coefficient correlates with the values of the turbulent kinetic energy k, which is also displayed in figure 7. The highest amount of turbulent kinetic energy k and the largest drag coefficient cD are observed for the flow around the unmodified cylinder. The lowest values for both the turbulent kinetic energy and the drag coefficient are found for the cylinder with the wedge in front of it. At the same time, the configuration with the wedge is the most silent one (see table 1 and figure 3). However, this does not mean that a reduction in the turbulent kinetic energy or the drag coefficient automatically causes a reduction in the sound generated by the geometry, since the configuration with an elliptical afterbody also shows a reduction in the turbulent kinetic energy and the drag coefficient in comparison with the unmodified square cylinder, but a rise in the sound pressure level. To understand this physical phenomenon, one has to look in more detail at the measured flow fields, which is done in the following. For the interpretation of the velocity fields, just one y-z plane at a distance of 2D behind the back side of the unmodified cylinder and the center plane (x-z) is used. Figure 8 displays the distribution of the mean velocity in the mentioned y-z plane for the unmodified cylinder. The velocity vectors in the center plane for the same geometry are shown in figure 9. The velocity distribution is symmetrical in the y-z plane. Vortex cores are obtained due to the periodic flow separation at the

Figure 8: Mean velocity in the streamwise direction of the unmodified cylinder at U = 10 m/s in the y-z plane

Figure 9: Vector plot and streamlines for the unmodified cylinder at U = 10 m/s (center plane)

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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

Figure 10: Mean velocity in the streamwise direction of the cylinder with an elliptical afterbody at U = 10 m/s in the y-z plane

leading edges of the cylinder which forms a vortex street behind it. The influence of the flow over the top of the cylinder is strong, as figure 9 shows. Fluctuations of the U and V components of the velocity are of about the same level and larger than fluctuations of the third component W. The velocity field for the flow around the cylinder with an elliptical afterbody is displayed in figures 10 and 11. Overall turbulence is reduced compared with the unmodified square cylinder (figure 7). The distribution of the velocity is also symmetrical in the y-z plane. However, due to the afterbody and the resulting reattachment of the roof vortex, the influence of the flow over the top of the cylinder on the recirculation area is much smaller and the vortex street behind the cylinder can

develop almost undisturbed. The velocity fluctuations are dominated by the U component whereas the fluctuations of the V and W components are lower and of about the same level.

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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

Figure 11: Vector plot and streamlines for the cylinder with an elliptical aferbody at U = 10 m/s (center plane)

The velocity field of the third investigated geometry (wedge in front of the cylinder) is shown in figures 12 and 13. In this case, the flow field is no longer symmetrical in the y-z plane (both mean and fluctuating field). Responsible for this flow characteristic is the sharp edge of the wedge. This edge produces an instability point in front of the cylinder. Usually, the oncoming flow in the wind tunnel experiments cannot be perfectly homogeneous and symmetrical with respect to the center plane. Therefore, small disturbances or inhomogeneities at the instability point or line cause nonuniform incoherent vortex formations. Furthermore, no flow separation occurs at the upper leading edges of the wedge. A roof vortex of slightly smaller size than in the case of the unmodified

Figure 12: Mean velocity in the streamwise direction of the cylinder with a wedge in front at U = 10 m/s in the y-z plane

Figure 13: Vector plot and streamlines for the cylinder with a wedge in front at U = 10 m/s (center plane)

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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

cylinder is present in the wake of the cylinder nevertheless. Turbulence levels found downstream of the cylinder are the lowest of all three geometries. The fluctuations of all velocity components are of about the same magnitude. It can be summarized that the level of turbulent kinetic energy is not a measure of the radiated sound. Moreover, conclusions cannot be drawn from the drag coefficient. The investigations show that two-dimensional flow structures of a large size, as found in an undisturbed vortex street behind the cylinder geometry, result in higher sound pressure levels. Once the influence of the flow over the top becomes stronger, the vortex street is disturbed and coherent vortex structures become smaller. This effect can be clearly seen if the wedge is added in front of the square cylinder. Then the flow field is highly three-dimensional and smaller vortices are obtained. Furthermore, if the flow field is highly three-dimensional, the fluctuations in all three coordinate directions are of about the same level (configuration with wedge in front of the cylinder). Although the magnitude of the turbulent kinetic energy is nearly equal in the case of the configuration with the elliptical afterbody and the configuration with the wedge in front of the cylinder, the second one is more silent as the fluctuations are isotropic. In the case of the elliptical afterbody, one component of the fluctuations is dominant.

4. Comparison with numerical results

In addition to the described experimental investigations, numerical studies of the same test cases were carried out at the Institute [2]. Simulations were done using the commercial software ANSYSCFX. With ANSYS-CFX, different RANS approaches and a simulation using the SAS turbulence modeling were carried out. Comparisons between experimental and numerical data for the three averaged velocity components in the case of the unmodified square cylinder are shown in figure 14. The comparisons are done in the center plane in a distance D behind the center of the cylinder. It is evident that only the unsteady SAS model guarantees a good match between measurements and numerical investigations. For the RANS approaches, the differences are much higher.

5. Summary and Conclusion

In this work, the flow fields around different wall-mounted cylinder stump geometries were experimentally evaluated and studied in detail. The analysis allows conclusions to be drawn about the acoustic behavior of the investigated cases. It is found that the level of turbulent kinetic energy is not necessarily responsible for the amount of radiated sound. Also, the drag coefficient of the

Figure 14: Comparison of experimental and numerical results for the averaged velocities U, V and W in the center plane at a distance D behind the center of the cylinder (U = 10 m/s)
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14th Int Symp on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2008

bodies cannot offer valuable clues about the sound pressure level caused. In fact, the size of coherent vortex structures and in consequence the correlation length are important indicators of the amount of radiated sound. Also, isotropy of turbulence plays a decisive role. If the fluctuations of all three velocity components are of about the same magnitude, the detected sound pressure level is lower compared with anisotropic cases. It can be summarized that the investigations presented not only allow a better understanding of the mechanisms taking place in the generation of aeroacoustic sound but also provide data for comparisons with computational fluid dynamics. The second point is important as computational aeroacoustics (CAA) fail without being based on good numerical data on the flow field.

References
[1] Becker, S.; Kaltenbacher, M.; Ali, I.; Hahn C. and Escobar, M.: Aeroacoustic Investigation of the Flow Around Cylinder Geometries - a Benchmark Test Case. In Proceedings of the 13th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, number 3511 in AIAA2007, May 21-23 2007, Rome, Italy [2] Escobar, M.; Ali, I.; Hahn, C.; Kaltenbacher, M. and Becker, S.: Numerical and Experimental Investigation on Flow Induced Noise from a Square Cylinder. In 10th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, Manchester, number 2004-3004, 2004 [3] Blake, W. K.: Mechanics of Flow-Induced Sound and Vibration. Vol. 1, Academic Press, 1986 [4] Zdravkovich, M. M.: Flow Around Circular Cylinders. Oxford University Press, 1997 [5] Norberg, C.: Fluctuating Lift on a Circular Cylinder: Review and New Measurements. Journal of Fluids and Structures, Vol. 17, pp. 57-96, 2003 [6] Norberg, C.: Flow Around Rectangular Cylinders: Pressure Forces and Wake Frequencies. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 49, pp. 187196, 1993 [7] Dutta, S.: Influence of the Orientation of a Square Cylinder on the Wake Properties. Experiments in Fluids, Vol. 34, pp. 16-23, 2003 [8] Fujita, H.: Experimental Investigations and Prediction of Aerodynamic Sound Generated from Square Cylinders. AIAA-98-2369 [9] Wang, H. F.: Flow Structure Around a Finite-Length Square Prism. 15th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, September 13-17 2004, University of Sydney, Australia [10] Sakamoto, H.: Vortex Shedding from a Rectangular Prism and a Circular Cylinder Placed Vertically in a Turbulent Boundary Layer. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 126, pp. 147165, 1983 [11] Becker, S.; Lienhart, H. and Durst, F.: Flow Around Three-Dimensional Obstacles in Boundary Layers. Journal of Wind Engineering, Vol. 90, pp. 265-279, 2002 [12] Bendat, J.S., and Piersol, A. G., Random Data Analysis and Measurement Procedures, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1986

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