Influence of Rounded Corners on Flow Interference Due to Square Cylinders Using Immersed Boundary Method

The influence of rounded corners on the aerodynamic forces and flow interference has been studied in detail for a uniform flow past two side-by-side arranged square cylinders. The Reynolds number (Re) based on the cylinder diameter (D) and free stream velocity (U∞) is 100. Numerical simulations are carried out for seven different transverse gap ratios (T/D), each with a minimum and maximum corner radius. An inbuilt finite difference code with staggered arrangement of flow variables is used to discretize the governing equations. The concept of immersed boundary method (IBM) is employed to simulate flow around rounded corners using the regular Cartesian grids. The computational code was validated for flow past an isolated circular cylinder, square cylinder, and two equal sized circular cylinders and the results were found to be in very good agreement with available literatures. In the present study, results in terms of the mean and rms values of lift and drag coefficients, Strouhal number, phase diagrams, and contours of streamlines and vorticity are presented. As the corner radius is increased, a reduction in the drag force is observed. There exists a significant effect of gap ratio and corner radius on the phase angle of lift and drag coefficients. Three different flow patterns, namely the single bluff body flow, biased gapside flow, and two independent bluff body flows, were observed from this study.