Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Wake development in staggered short cylinder arrays within a channel

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Experiments in Fluids Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Staggered arrays of short cylinders, known as pin–fins, are commonly used as a heat exchange method in many applications such as cooling electronic equipment and cooling the trailing edge of gas turbine airfoils. This study investigates the near wake flow as it develops through arrays of staggered pin fins. The height-to-diameter ratio was unity while the transverse spacing was kept constant at two cylinder diameters. The streamwise spacing was varied between 3.46 and 1.73 cylinder diameters. For each geometric arrangement, experiments were conducted at Reynolds numbers of 3.0e3 and 2.0e4 based on cylinder diameter and velocity through the minimum flow area of the array. Time-resolved flowfield measurements provided insight into the dependence of row position, Reynolds number, and streamwise spacing. Decreasing streamwise spacing resulted in increased Strouhal number as the near wake length scales were confined. In the first row of the bundle, low Reynolds number flows were mainly shear-layer-driven while high Reynolds number flows were dominated by periodic vortex shedding. The level of velocity fluctuations increased for cases having stronger vortex shedding. The effect of streamwise spacing was most apparent in the reduction of velocity fluctuations in the wake when the spacing between rows was reduced from 2.60 diameters to 2.16 diameters.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17
Fig. 18
Fig. 19
Fig. 20
Fig. 21
Fig. 22
Fig. 23

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

d P :

Tracer particle diameter

D :

Pin–fin diameter

D h :

Duct hydraulic diameter

E uu :

One-dimensional energy spectrum of streamwise velocity

f :

Frequency

H :

Channel height, pin–fin height

k :

Turbulent kinetic energy

L r :

Wake closure position

Re D :

Reynolds number, \( Re_{\text{D}} = U_{\max } D\nu^{ - 1} \)

S L :

Longitudinal/streamwise pin–fin spacing (X-direction)

S T :

Transverse pin–fin spacing (Y-direction)

St:

Strouhal number, \( {\text{St}} = {fDU}_{\max }^{ - 1} \)

Stk:

Stokes number, \( {\text{Stk}} = \left( {{{d_{\text{P}} \rho_{\text{P}} } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{d_{\text{P}} \rho_{\text{P}} } {18\mu }}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {18\mu }}} \right)\left( {{{U_{\max } } \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{U_{\max } } D}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} D}} \right) \)

U m :

Time-mean bulk channel velocity

U max :

Time-mean velocity through minimum array flow area

\( \overline{U} \) :

Local time-averaged streamwise velocity

u′:

Local fluctuating streamwise velocity, or RMS velocity

\( \overline{V} \) :

Local time-averaged transverse velocity

v′:

Local fluctuating transverse velocity, or RMS velocity

X :

Longitudinal/streamwise direction

Y :

Transverse direction

Z :

Wall-normal direction

ρP :

Tracer particle density

ν:

Air kinematic viscosity

μ:

Air dynamic viscosity

\( \tilde{\omega }_{Z} \) :

Instantaneous Z-vorticity

ϕ:

Phase angle

References

  • Aiba S, Tsuchida H, Ota T (1982) Heat transfer around tubes in staggered tube banks. Bull JSME 25(204):927–933

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ames FE, Dvorak LA (2006a) The influence of reynolds number and row position on surface pressure distributions in staggered pin fin arrays. Paper presented at the ASME Turbo Expo 2006, Barcelona, Spain

  • Ames FE, Dvorak LA (2006b) Turbulent transport in pin fin arrays—experimental data and predictions. J Turbomach 128(1):71–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ames FE, Nordquist CA, Klennert LA (2007) Endwall heat transfer measurements in a staggered pin fin array with an adiabatic pin. Paper presented at the ASME Turbo Expo 2007, Montreal, Canada

  • Chyu MK, Siw SC, Moon HK (2009) Effects of height-to-diameter ratio of pin element on heat transfer from staggered pin–fin arrays. Paper presented at the ASME Turbo Expo 2009, Orlando, FL

  • Delibra G, Hanjalic K, Borello D, Rispoli F (2010) Vortex structures and heat transfer in a wall-bounded pin matrix: LES with a RANS wall-treatment. Int J Heat Fluid Flow 31(5):740–753

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iwaki C, Cheong KH, Monji H, Matsui G (2004) PIV measurement of the vertical cross-flow structure over tube bundles. Exp Fluids 37(Compendex):350–363

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawson SA, Thrift AA, Thole KA, Kohli A (2011) Heat transfer from multiple row arrays of low aspect ratio pin fins. Int J Heat Mass Transf 54(17–18):4099–4109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyall ME, Thrift AA, Thole KA, Kohli A (2011) Heat transfer from low aspect ratio pin fins. J Turbomach 133(1):1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metzger DE, Haley SW (1982) Heat transfer experiments and flow visualization for arrays of short pin fins. Paper presented at the ASME Turbo Expo 1982, London, United Kingdom

  • Metzger DE, Berry RA, Bronson JP (1982) Developing heat transfer in rectangular ducts with staggered arrays of short pin fins. J Heat Transfer 104(4):700–706

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metzger DE, Shepard WB, Haley SW (1986) Row Resolved heat transfer variations in pin–fin arrays including effects of non-uniform arrays and flow convergence. Paper presented at the ASME Turbo Expo, 1986, Duesseldorf, W. Germany

  • Moffat RJ (1988) Describing the uncertainties in experimental results. Exp Thermal Fluid Sci 1(1):3–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nogueira J, Lecuona A, Rodriguez PA (1997) Data validation, false vectors correction and derived magnitudes calculation on PIV data. Meas Sci Technol 8(12):1493–1501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norberg C (1998) LDV-measurements in the near wake of a circular cylinder. In: Advances in understanding of bluff body wakes and vortex-induced vibration, Washington D.C

  • Norberg C (2003) Fluctuating lift on a circular cylinder: review and new measurements. J Fluids Struct 17(1):57–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oengoren A, Ziada S (1998) An in-depth study of vortex shedding, acoustic resonance and turbulent forces in normal triangle tube arrays. J Fluids Struct 12(Compendex):717–758

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostanek JK, Thole KA (2011) Flowfield measurements in a single row of low aspect ratio pin–fins. Paper presented at the ASME Turbo Expo 2011, Vancouver, Canada. Paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Turbomachinery

  • Ostanek JK, Thole KA (2012) Effects of Varying streamwise and spanwise spacing in pin–fin arrays. Paper presented at the ASME Turbo Expo, 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark

  • Ozturk NA, Akkoca A, Sahin B (2008) PIV measurements of flow past a confined cylinder. Exp Fluids 44(6):1001–1014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paul SS, Tachie MF, Ormiston SJ (2007) Experimental study of turbulent cross-flow in a staggered tube bundle using particle image velocimetry. Int J Heat Fluid Flow 28(3):441–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Polak DR, Weaver DS (1995) Vortex shedding in normal triangular tube arrays. J Fluids Struct 9(1):1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scarano F, Riethmuller ML (2000) Advances in iterative multigrid PIV image processing. Exp Fluids 29(Supplement 1):S051–S060

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simoneau RJ, VanFossen GJ Jr (1984) Effect of location in an array on heat transfer to a short cylinder in crossflow. J Heat Transfer 106(1):42–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szepessy S, Bearman PW (1992) Aspect ratio and end plate effects on vortex shedding from a circular cylinder. J Fluid Mech 234(1):191–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weaver DS, Lian HY, Huang XY (1993) Vortex shedding in rotated square arrays. J Fluids Struct 7(2):107–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zdravkovich MM (1997) Flow around circular cylinders—volume 1: introduction. Oxford University Press, New York, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Zdravkovich MM, Namork JE (1979) Structure of interstitial flow between closely spaced tubes in staggered array. In: Flow induced vibration, symposium presented at the national congress on pressure vessel and piping technology, 3rd, San Francisco, CA, USA, 1979. ASME, pp 41–46

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Department of Defense and the SMART fellowship program for providing funding for this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Department, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Jason K. Ostanek & Karen A. Thole

Authors
  1. Jason K. Ostanek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Karen A. Thole
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jason K. Ostanek.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ostanek, J.K., Thole, K.A. Wake development in staggered short cylinder arrays within a channel. Exp Fluids 53, 673–697 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-012-1313-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-012-1313-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation