The effects of axis ratio on laminar fluid flow around an elliptical cylinder

An elliptical cylinder is a generic shape which represents a flat plate at its minor to major axis ratio (AR) limits of zero and infinity, and a circular cylinder at AR of unity. While incompressible flows over a streamwise flat plate (AR = 0), a cross-stream flat plate (AR = ∞), and a circular cylinder have been studied extensively, the role of AR on the detailed flow structure is still not well understood. Therefore, a numerical study was conducted to examine the flow field around an elliptical cylinder over a range of ARs from 0.3 to 1, with the major axis parallel to the free-stream, at a Reynolds number of 40 based on the hydraulic diameter. The control volume approach of FLUENT was used to solve the fluid flow equations, assuming the flow over the cylinder is unbounded, steady, incompressible and two-dimensional. It has been found that a pair of steady vortices forms when AR reaches a critical value of 0.34; below this value no vortices are formed behind the elliptical cylinder. Various wake parameters, drag coefficient, pressure and velocity distributions, have been characterized as functions of AR. The wake size and the drag coefficient are found to increase with the increase of AR. Quadratic correlations have been obtained to describe the relations of wake length and drag coefficient with axis ratio.