Vortex shedding and three-dimensional behaviour of flow past a cylinder confined in a channel

A numerical investigation of the flow past a circular cylinder centred in a two-dimensional channel of varying width is presented. For low Reynolds numbers, the flow is steady. For higher Reynolds numbers, vortices begin to shed periodically from the cylinder. In general, the Strouhal frequency of the shedding vortices increases with blockage ratio. In addition, a two-dimensional instability of the periodic vortex shedding is found, both empirically and by means of a Floquet stability analysis. The instability leads to a beating behaviour in the lift and drag coefficients of the cylinder, which occurs at a Reynolds number higher than the critical Reynolds number for the three-dimensional mode A-type instability, but lower than a Reynolds number for any mode B-type instability. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.