Forces and flow around three side-by-side square cylinders

A numerical investigation on forces and flow around three square cylinders in side-by-side arrangement is conducted at a Reynolds number Re = 150 with the cylinder center-to-center spacing ratio L/W = 1.1 ~ 9.0, where W is the cylinder side width. The flow at this Re is assumed to be two-dimensional, incompressible, and Newtonian. The flow simulation is conducted by using ANSYS-Fluent. The flow around the three side-by-side cylinders entails some novel flow physics, involving the interaction between the gap and free-stream side flows as well as that between the two gap flows. An increase in L/W from 1.1 to 9.0 leads to five distinct flow regimes, viz., base-bleed flow (L/W < 1.4), flip-flopping flow (1.4 < L/W < 2.1), symmetrically biased beat flow (2.1 < L/W < 2.6), non-biased beat flow (2.6 < L/W < 7.25) and weak interaction flow (7.25 < L/W < 9.0). The gap flow behaviors, time-averaged and fluctuating fluid forces, time-averaged pressure, recirculation bubble, formation length, and wake width in each flow regime are discussed in detail.