Computational study of Flow Past an Axially Aligned Spinning Cylinder*

Computational investigations are performed for flow past a spinning cylinder aligned along its axis. In this study computational findings from both RANS and LES investigations are reported and compared with available experimental results. The RANS model is based on modified energy-spectrum to incorporate the effects of swirl and rotation using a parametric characterization of the model coefficients. An efficient finite-volume algorithm is used to solve the time-averaged equations of motion along with the modeled form of transport equations for the turbulence kinetic energy and the scalar form of turbulence dissipation. The LES approach is based on a continuous turbulence model that is suitable for representing boththe subgrid scale stresses in large eddy simulation and the Reynolds stresses in theReynolds averaged Navier-Stokes formulation. Experimental data for a range of spin rates and free stream flow conditions have been obtained from a subsonic wind tunnel for flow past an axially aligned spinning cylinder.