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The flow around roughened circular cylinders and the wake behind them were studied in a wind tunnel flow using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method. The Reynolds number ranged from 5140 to 11800, and the real diameter of the cylinders including surface roughness ranged from 15.06 to 17.34 mm. The flow properties and forces around the roughened cylinders was evaluated by means of Strouhal number and coefficient of drag. The wake was analysed by means of mean velocities along the cylinder centreline, its width and the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) method. The added surface roughness was found to decrease the wake length and increase the wake width at lower Reynolds numbers. At higher Reynolds numbers, the added surface roughness did not decrease the wake length, but did increase the wake width, although with less effect. The POD analysis showed changes in the higher modes of the flow. The kinetic energy of the first two modes covers up to 50% of the total kinetic energy; the first two modes in the case of the smooth cylinder have the lowest kinetic energy, whereas the first two modes in the case of the roughest cylinder have the highest kinetic energy. The similarity between the POD modes of the smooth and roughened cylinders might be due the fact that the actual Reynolds number range was below the transitional one. • Added surface roughness decreases the wake length and increases the wake width at lower Reynolds numbers. • Added surface roughness decreases the Strouhal numbers at lower Reynolds numbers. • The cylinder drag was increased at higher surface roughnesses. • The kinetic energy of the first two POD modes cover up to 50% of the total kinetic energy. • The absolute kinetic energy is increasing with increasing surface roughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emerging rectangular obstacle placed in a laminar boundary layer developing under a free-surface generates three vortical structures: a horseshoe vortex (HSV) in front of the obstacle, a wake downstream and two lateral recirculation zones at its sides. The present work investigates, through PIV measurements, the effect of the obstacle elongation (length over width ratio L ∕ W) on the HSV, which is partly indirect through the modification of the two other vortical structures. Horizontal velocity fields in the near-bottom region show that an increase of the obstacle elongation leads to a higher adverse pressure gradient in front of the obstacle, and in consequence, to the longitudinal extension of the HSV. This modification of geometry, in turn, impacts the vortex dynamics of the HSV. On top of that, maps of spectra and oscillation direction obtained from velocity fields indicate that each of the three structures (HSV, wake and lateral recirculation zones) exhibits a proper oscillation frequency. As the oscillation associated to the wake is energetically dominant and is strong enough to travel upstream, it impacts the HSV dynamics for sufficiently short obstacles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]