Computational Determination of the Modified Vortex Shedding Frequency for a Rigid, Truncated, Wall-Mounted Cylinder in Cross Flow

Flow around a rigid, truncated, wall-mounted cylinder with an aspect ratio of 5 is examined computationally at various Reynolds numbers Re to determine how the end effects impact the vortex shedding frequency. The existence of the wall and free end cause a dampening of the classical shedding frequency found for a semi-infinite, two-dimensional cylinder, as horseshoe vortices along the wall and flow over the tip entrain into the shedding region. This effect was observed for Reynolds numbers in the range of 50 to 2000, and quantified by comparing the modified Strouhal numbers to the classical (two-dimensional) solution for Strouhal number as a function of Reynolds number. The range of transition was found to be 220 < Re < 300, versus 150 < Re < 300 for the classical case. Vortex shedding started at Re ≈ 100, significantly above Re = 50, where shedding starts for the two-dimensional case.