3 Flow past a cylinder

As a final example we will compute the direct and adjoint modes of a two-dimensional flow past a cylinder. We will investigate a case in the subcritical regime (Re = 42), below the onset of the Bernard-von Kärmän vortex shedding that is observed when the Reynolds number is above the critical value Rec ≃ 47; this analysis is important because it allows us to study the sensitivity of the flow, much like that reported by Giannetti and Luchini ( J. Fluid Mech., 2007; 592:177-194). Due to the more complex nature of the flow and the more demanding computational time that is required, only some basic information will be presented in this section, mainly to show the potential of the code for stability analysis.

The files for this section can be found in the Cylinder directory.

The mesh is shown in figure 9 along with a detailed view around the cylinder. This mesh is made up of 782 quadrilateral elements.


pict
Figure 9: Mesh used for the direct stability analysis


Note: It is important to note that stability and transient growth calculations in particular, have a strong dependence on the domain size as reported by Cantwell and Barkley (Physical Review E, 2010; 82); moreover, poor mesh design can lead to incorrect results. Specifically, the mesh must be sufficiently refined around the cylinder in order to capture the separation of the flow and abrupt variations in the size of the elements should be avoided.

 3.1 Computation of the base flow
 3.2 Stability analysis
  3.2.1 Direct
  3.2.2 Adjoint