Flow around a Rectangular Cylinder Placed in a Channel with a High Blockage Ratio under a Subcritical Reynolds Number

With the depletion of fossil energy sources, clean energy has become a growing concern for scholars. Vortex-Induced Vibration Aquatic Clean Energy (VIVACE), a device that uses water flow energy to generate electricity, has attracted much attention for its broad applicability and other advantages. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) experiments were conducted to improve the efficiency of the VIVACE device in low-velocity areas. The present study investigated the effects of the Blockage ratio (Br), Reynolds number (Re = ρU0D/μ), and Aspect ratio (Ar = B/D, width-to-height) of rectangular cylinders on flow characteristics. The influence of the Ar, Br, and Re on the flow field structure was systematically analyzed in terms of the time-averaged flow field, Reynolds shear stress, space–time correlation, vorticity field, and water pressure characteristics. The vorticity field was deconstructed by Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD). The results show that the first two orders of POD modal energy accounted for 75% of the total energy, indicating that the first two modes can be used to identify the large-scale vortex structure. The main water pressure frequency and vortex shedding frequency (f) had a high degree of consistency. Thus, vortex shedding was the main cause of wall water pressure fluctuations. Given the blockage effect, the shear layer’s development spanwise was restricted. Moreover, the blockage effect increased the local flow velocity and accelerated the vortex shedding. The dimensionless time-averaged flow velocity U/U0 increased to 1.5, and the frequency of vortex shedding increased by approximately 25% when the Br increased from 0.067 to 0.25. The frequency increased by 25% when the Ar decreased from 0.5 to 0.2. The experimental results also provide a new idea for optimizing the VIVACE device.