The Phenomenon of Flow Through Four Circular Cylinders Arranged in a Line Square
Banta Cut (a*)- Fazri Amir (a*)- Teuku Azuar Rizal (a*)- Intan Yusup (a*)- Arif Manuel Sidauruk (a*)- Luthfi Hakim (b*)

a) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Samudra University, Langsa City, Aceh 24415, Indonesia
b) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Islamic Majapahit University, Mojokerto, 61363, Indonesia

Abstract

The application of circular cylinders is prevalent in various engineering fields, such as in underground pipe networks, offshore structures, and shell tube heat exchangers. Numerous studies have identified the presence of drag force (CD) and lift force (CL) that occur when fluid flows past an arrangement of cylinders. Consequently, further research was conducted using numerical simulations to investigate methods for reducing CD and CL in these circular cylinder configurations.
This study focused on four circular cylinders arranged in a square formation. The main cylinder has a diameter (D) of 25 mm, while the disturbing body (DB) diameter (d) is 4 mm. The cylinder arrangement is placed in a narrow channel with a square cross-section measuring 300 mm in height and 1500 mm in length, leading to a blockage ratio of 25 percent. The tests were conducted at Re is 50.000. Three configurations of the DB were examined, positioned at angles of 0, 90, and 270 degrees in front of the two upstream cylinders, with a gap distance (G/D) of 0.16 relative to the circular cylinder. This numerical simulation study was performed using 2D Unsteady RANS with Ansys 2022 R2 software, employing a structured mesh type and the k omega SST turbulence model.
The results indicate that the distance (L/D) and the use of DB significantly affect the drag and lift forces in the arrangement of the four staggered circular cylinders. Specifically, the addition of DB around the two upstream cylinders at angles of 0, 90, and 270 degrees proved to be highly effective in reducing both CD and CL for cylinder 3 and cylinder 4

Keywords: Circular cylinder- disturbing body- k omega SST- coefficient of drag- coefficient of lift

Topic: Technology and Engineering