Flow Past a Square Cylinder

This project was the final project for a graduate-level Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) course. A code was developed in Matlab to simulate the flow past a square-cylinder in a low Reynolds Number (Re) flow of up to Re~100. Under a Re of approximately Re=55, the flow converges to a steady solution, but at higher Re the flow exhibits an unsteady phenomena called the “Kármán vortex street” which is caused by vortex shedding off the cylinder. The code was further modified to allow a y-axis velocity component to the inlet velocity conditions, allowing a simulated study of the phenomena with an angle of attack to the flow. The complete analysis can be accessed in the deliverables attached below.

The animations above show the x-velocity and vorticity of the flow at Re=40.

The animations above show the x-velocity and vorticity of the flow at Re=60.

Deliverables
Final Report