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Vortex development behind a finite porous obstruction in a channel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2011

Lijun Zong  and
Heidi Nepf
Lijun Zong*
Affiliation:
48-216, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Heidi Nepf
Affiliation:
48-216, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: lz248@mit.edu
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Abstract

This experimental study describes the turbulent wake behind a two-dimensional porous obstruction, consisting of a circular array of cylinders. The cylinders extend from the channel bed through the water surface, mimicking a patch of emergent vegetation. Three patch diameters () and seven solid volume fractions () are tested. Because flow can pass through the patch, directly downstream there is a region of steady, non-zero, streamwise velocity, , called the steady wake. For the patch diameters and solid volume fractions considered here, is a function of only. The length of the steady wake () increases as decreases and can be predicted from the growth of a plane shear layer. The formation of the von-Kármán vortex street is delayed until the end of the steady wake. There are two regions of elevated transverse velocity fluctuation (): directly behind the patch, associated with the wake turbulence of individual cylinders; and at the distance from the patch, associated with the formation of large-scale wake oscillation. Velocity along the centreline of the wake starts to increase only after the patch-scale vortex street is formed, and it approaches the free-stream velocity over a distance . The dimensionless length of the entire wake, , increases with patch porosity.

JFM classification

Wakes/Jets: Shear layers Wakes/Jets: Vortex streets Wakes/Jets: Wakes

Information

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 691 , 25 January 2012 , pp. 368 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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