Hysterical effects in flow characteristics in the wake region of group of cylinders during the passage of gradually varying unsteady flow

Abstract

In recent studies, it has been witnessed that a group of cylinders offer some distinct advantages compared to mono-pile when applied as a support structure in marine and riverine environments. It is well established that an array of cylinders presents a viable option to a single solid cylinder with lower cost, lower scour and contraction effects. Donghai Bridge offshore wind farm in China is a practical real-world example where this type of structures are of significant importance as an offshore wind turbine support structure. In the pertinent literature, an overwhelming majority of flow-body interaction investigations are studied under steady flow conditions. Furthermore, researchers mainly focus on oscillatory flow when dealing with unsteady flow and using steady state approximation for gradually varying unsteady flows. Yet, several flow conditions observed in nature such as tsunamis, meteorology driven flows, tidal currents and river hydrographs fall into the category of gradually varying unsteady flow. In this thesis, the influence of gradually varying unsteady flow around a group of cylinders (Hexagonal arrays of Circular Cylinders, HACCs) was investigated by flume experiments. The experiments are carried out in a rectangular flume with dimension 30 m in length, 1 m in width and 1.25 in depth. The bed was smooth concrete and the sides were plexiglass walls. A honey-comb pattern was used at the inlet to ensure smooth inlet conditions. The water was recirculated through a monobloc pump and the water depth was kept constant at 30 cm through entire experiments. The flow discharge is controlled via an inverter system. By entering the desired input through the pump's control unit, unsteady and steady flow conditions are repeatedly and reliably produced. Two unsteady flow cases generated with same minimum and maximum velocities, but different durations in order to investigate the effect of unsteadiness degree. The flow velocity started at 0.04 m/s and increased to a peak of 0.23 m/s. One steady case had the duration of 90 seconds, the other had 120 seconds. Same experiments also carried out under steady flow conditions for benchmarking purposes. Velocity and water depth measurements were taken with a frequency of 100 Hz. Two resistance type level meters are used, one located 2.5 meters upstream the other downstream with the same distance. Instantaneous recording of water depth and water surface are carried out. Simultaneously, velocity measurements are collected with the help of an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter. Velocity measurements are taken at both horizontal and vertical planes. In total, 290 measurement points were utilized, 140 points at horizontal plan and 150 points at vertical plan. The resolution of the measurement grid is increased near the obstacle in order to capture turbulence characteristics. The obstacle, HACC, consisted of 7 circular cylinders with a diameter of 3.4 cm. The circumambient diameter of the HACC was 16 cm and the solid volume fraction was 0.32. The HACC placed 12 m from the inlet to ensure fully developed flow conditions. Two arrangements of HACC, namely staggered and regular arrangement, in order to investigate the effect of obstacle orientation. In brief, three flow cases (steady, unsteady 90 seconds, unsteady 120 cases) and two HACC configurations are used. In total, 6 experimental runs are performed. Each experimental run consisted of 290 velocity measurement points. The analysis of collected data is started with the despiking of the raw data. The spikes in the velocity measurements are removed with a method widely used in the literature. Then the synchronization procedure is carried out. Velocity and water depth measurements are synchronized through their computer time recording. 290 velocity measurements that are recorded at different times are synchronized by the help of water surface slope measurements. Since water depth measurements are kept constant through all experiments, they are used as a benchmarking point. Finally, turbulence decomposition is done, turbulent and mean flow recordings are obtained to carry out post-processing. Experimental findings resulted in several significant conclusions. It is found that velocity deficit between wake and contraction region exhibits a hysterical character between rising and falling stages. The negative water surface slope is observed during the falling stage of the unsteady flow. This adverse pressure gradient causes earlier boundary layer separation and broader wake region. This leads to a stark shear layer rear the obstacle and higher lateral momentum transfer. During the passage of unsteady flow, counter-clockwise hysteresis is observed between depth-averaged velocity and turbulence kinetic energy. This means that for a given velocity, the falling stage produces higher turbulence compared to the rising stage. This effect was observable irrespective of the HACC arrangement. Furthermore, it was also observed that this hysterical relationship becomes more evident further downstream. The arrangement of HACC is also observed to be of importance in terms of hysteresis. It is observed that hysterical loops are less dramatic for the regular HACC. The hysteresis is mitigated by the strong bleed jets that occur in the wake region of regular HACC. It is known that due to the particular geometry of regular HACC, a significant amount of flow can go through the obstacle and create bleed flow which highly influences wake characteristics in terms of stabilizing the wake and controlling mixing process. It was concluded that the amplified bleed jets are the primary reason behind the suppressed hysterical behaviour. Another critical point that is outlined is the effect of unsteadiness on pile behaviour in terms of flow-body interaction. The pile is observed to render the pile to behave in a more streamlined manner. For a given velocity, the unsteady cases produced smaller recirculation compared to the steady case. The recirculation zone is also observed to be larger during the falling stage compared to the rising stage. Yet, this effect also seems to be less pronounced for the regular arrangement of HACC. The strong bleed jets are presumed to weaken this behaviour.