Flow Over A Wall-Mounted Finite-Length Square Cylinder

A conventional way of studying the flow characteristics of flow over a bluff body is by extracting the velocity distribution in horizontal planes crossing the bluff body near the bed, mid-height and close to the free-end location. The intention of selecting the planes at these levels is to examine the horseshoe vortex and the bed effect, flow separation at the mid-height, and the downwash flow from the free-end. In some cases, where a relatively short cylinder is studied along with a taller cylinder, the mid-height level of each may present very different flow structures. It is proposed in this study that a better way of selecting the planes of interest could be based on the pressure distribution imposed on the front surface of the bluff body by the approaching flow. This paper uses a sample numerical study of wall-mounted finite-length square cylinder with three aspect ratios of 1, 2 and 4, immersed in the air flow with a thin boundary layer. The horizontal planes based on the front face pressure distribution are selected and examined to show the advantage of the proposed method.