Experimental study on the particle accumulation phenomenon in seeded flows around a near-bottom-wall horizontal cylinder

In experiments of flows around a cylinder in a water channel, an interesting phenomenon is that a particle accumulation line obviously forms on the bottom of the channel. The present paper focuses on this phenomenon, and the formation mechanism of the particle accumulation line is in detail investigated experimentally with particle image velocimetry (PIV). The circular cylinder was set in a fully developed turbulent boundary layer with 12 gap ratios S/D ranging from 0 to 1.5 under two Reynolds numbers (1371 and 902) based on the momentum loss thickness. The possible mechanism of this phenomenon has been demonstrated with the experimental results: the separation takes place due to the interaction between the wake of the cylinder and the boundary layer of the plane wall, the gap flow separates from the wall downstream of the cylinder and causes an attachment vortex of low velocity area at about 1 to 2 cylinder diameters from the cylinder, where the particle accumulation line forms steadily.