Fluctuating lift and drag acting on a 5:1 rectangular cylinder in various turbulent flows

In this paper, the fluctuating lift and drag forces on 5:1 rectangular cylinders with two different geometric scales in three turbulent flow-fields are investigated. The study is particularly focused on understanding the influence of the ratio of turbulence integral length scale to structure characteristic dimension (the length scale ratio). The results show that both fluctuating lift and drag forces are influenced by the length scale ratio. For the model with the larger length scale ratio, the corresponding fluctuating force coefficient is larger, while the spanwise correlation is weaker. However, the degree of influence of the length scale ratio on the two fluctuating forces are different. Compared to the fluctuating drag, the fluctuating lift is more sensitive to the variation of the length scale ratio. It is also found through spectral analysis that for the fluctuating lift, the change of length scale ratio mainly leads to the variation in the low frequency part of the loading, while the fluctuating drag generally follows the quasi-steady theory in the low frequency, and the slope of the drag spectrum at high frequencies changes with the length scale ratio. Then based on the experimental data, two empirical formulas considering the influence of length scale ratio are proposed for determining the lift and drag aerodynamic admittances of a 5:1 rectangular cylinder. Furthermore, a simple relationship is established to correlate the turbulence parameter with the fluctuating force coefficient, which could be used to predict the fluctuating force on a 5:1 rectangular cylinder under different parameter conditions.