Simulation of viscous flow around a circular cylinder near a moving ground

• Main Author: Bimbato,Alex Mendonça
• Publication Date: 2009
• Other Authors: Pereira,Luiz Antonio Alcântara, Hirata,Miguel Hiroo
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering (Online)
• Download full: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-58782009000300010
• topic: moving ground; near wake structure; aerodynamic loads; vortex method

The objective of this paper is to study the vortex shedding from a circular cylinder near a moving ground; this is done using the Vortex Method. A moving ground has been widely used in the field of experimental vehicle aerodynamics, especially of high-performance racing cars, to properly consider the ground effect on the vehicles aerodynamic. In experimental work as well as in numerical simulations, the ground plane develops a boundary layer that interferes with the body viscous wake, leading to not so precise results. A ground moving with the incoming flow velocity, however, does not allow the development of a boundary layer. The results of our numerical simulations show that the critical drag behavior is directly related to a global change in the wake structure of the cylinder in the ground effect. Comparisons with experimental data are encouraging.