Investigation into the effect of vortex distribution on the flow field around a semi-submerged rectangular cylinder with different aspect ratios

ABSTRACT

Vortex distribution affects the flow field variation of offshore structures at different aspect ratios (ARs; length-to-draft). This paper investigates the relationship between the vortex distribution and flow field around a semi-submerged rectangular cylinder (SRC) at a low Reynolds number (Re = 36300) using the OpenFOAM platform. First, vortex generation is explored, and then the influence of vortex distributions on the flow field around the SRC is analyzed. The numerical results show that when the SRC pierces the free surface, the wake region is different from the Kármán vortex street due to the free surface. AR mainly affects the range of the wake region and the SRC bottom vortex. In terms of vortex generation and differences in vortex structure, the variations of the flow field around the SRC are significantly affected by the vortex at the bottom of the SRC.

KEYWORDS:

• URANS
• semi-submerged rectangular cylinder
• aspect ratios
• vortex distribution
• flow field

Acknowledgments

These supports are gratefully acknowledged. The authors appreciate the academic support from the Key Laboratory of Marine Simulation and Control.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51779029, 51939001, 52271360, 61903092), the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province, China (2023-MS-126), the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province, China (2022NSFSC0891), the Fellowship of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Grant (2022T150096).