Experimental study of flow over a bundle of cylinders

The drag reduction by vortex fusion was investigated. A comparison of flow over a bundle of cylinders in uniform and in disturbed currents was performed in a water channel. The model was subjected to cross flow. A thin cylindrical wire located nearby upstream and leveled at half the height of the test model was used as a source of disturbance. A hydrogen bubble technique was utilized to observe the flow pattern. The accumulation of vortices at stagnating regions in front of a bundle of cylinders transformed into a counter-rotated curl at leading edges of each leading cylinder in the bundle. Measurements were carried out by a computerized data acquisition system. Drag coefficient measurements, digital spectral and fourier analyses were also performed. Results have shown that a drag reduction can be obtained by introducing a thin cylindrical wire in front of the stagnation.