3D flow structures behind a wall-mounted short cylinder.

A high-resolution Tomographic particle image velocimetry (Tomo-PIV), which consists of four high-resolution double-exposure CCD cameras, was used to measured three-dimensional (3D) flow structures behind a wall-mounted short cylinder of an aspect ratio 1 at Reynolds number 10,720 in a water tunnel. Based on the measured instantaneous 3D velocity distribution, 3D velocity fields, the vorticity, the Q criterion, the rear separation region and the characteristic of arch type vortex and tip vortices are first discussed. In order to evaluate 3D multi-scale wake flow structures and energetic flow structures, the 3D orthogonal wavelet multi-resolution technique and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) are applied to analyze instantaneous 3D velocity fields of Tomo-PIV. A 3D W-type arch vortex behind the short cylinder is found, which is originated by the interaction between upwash and downwash flows. The head shape of arch vortex structure is associated with the aspect ratio of the cylinder. By using the 3D orthogonal wavelet multi-resolution analysis, the instantaneous arch vortex and streamwise vortices are extracted in the large-scale structures of the wavelet level 1. It also found that the intermediate-scale upwash flows play an important role in originating the head of W-type arch vortex. Strong small-scale structures appeared in the shear layer and were contained in the intermediate-scale structures. The POD analysis indicates that the first two modes account for 13.3% of the total turbulent fluctuating energy, and the first four POD modes exhibit several large-scale streamwise vortices. • 3D short cylinder wakes are investigated by Tomographic PIV. • 3D velocity fields are analyzed by 3D orthogonal wavelet transform. • A 3D W-type arch vortex behind the cylinder is first found. • The large-scale streamwise vortex and W-type arch vortex are extracted. • The intermediate-scale upwash vortices play an essential role in W-type arch structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]