Experimental and Numerical Study of Blockage Effects on Flow Characteristics around a Square-Section Cylinder

The flow around a square-section cylinder was investigated by means of experiments and numerical simulations at a Reynolds number of 1,000. The effects of wall confinement on the flow characteristic were studied. The characteristic relationships between the vortex size in the wake, the vortex shedding frequency and the fluid forces on the cylinder are presented for different values of blockage ratio. As a result, it was observed that presence of wall confinement suppressed the vortices in wake, and increased the vortex shedding frequency and the drag force on the cylinder.