Wake structures of two spheres in tandem arrangement at various gaps for Re = 300

The virtual boundary method is extended to a 3D application and used to simulate the flow field of two spheres in tandem arrangement for a Reynolds number of 300. The wake structures and flow spectra at various gaps are investigated. The numerical results show that for small gaps (≈1.5), due to the mutual suppress between the wakes of the two spheres, the full flow field is stable and axisymmetric. As the gap is increased to 2.0, an asymmetric but stable flow is constructed through a certain bifurcation. The downstream wake structure is characterized by a double-thread vortex structure that comprises two slender parallel vortex tubes. The double-thread structure has a planar symmetry at gap 2.0. The hairpin-shape vortices are periodically shed from the downstream sphere at gap 2.5, but the planar symmetry persists. The vortex structures at gaps ranging from 3.0 to 4.0 are irregular and the flow field is undergoing a kind of 3D transition. It is up to the large gap 5.0 that the hairpin-shape structures are reconstructed behind the upstream and the downstream sphere, and the planar symmetry is resumed. All these numerical computations were performed on an SGI Origin3900 machine at the Center for Engineering and Scientific Computation of Zhejiang University.

Wake structures of two spheres in tandem arrangement at various gaps for Re = 300

The virtual boundary method is extended to a 3D application and used to simulate the flow field of two spheres in tandem arrangement for a Reynolds number of 300. The wake structures and flow spectra at various gaps are investigated. The numerical results show that for small gaps (≈1.5), due to the mutual suppress between the wakes of the two spheres, the full flow field is stable and axisymmetric. As the gap is increased to 2.0, an asymmetric but stable flow is constructed through a certain bifurcation. The downstream wake structure is characterized by a double-thread vortex structure that comprises two slender parallel vortex tubes. The double-thread structure has a planar symmetry at gap 2.0. The hairpin-shape vortices are periodically shed from the downstream sphere at gap 2.5, but the planar symmetry persists. The vortex structures at gaps ranging from 3.0 to 4.0 are irregular and the flow field is undergoing a kind of 3D transition. It is up to the large gap 5.0 that the hairpin-shape structures are reconstructed behind the upstream and the downstream sphere, and the planar symmetry is resumed. All these numerical computations were performed on an SGI Origin3900 machine at the Center for Engineering and Scientific Computation of Zhejiang University.