Direct numerical simulation of effects of small angle of incidence on Honji instability

This paper concerns Honji instability generated around a circular cylinder in an oscillatory flow with a small oblique angle. In this study, direct numerical simulation has been conducted for an oscillatory flow past a stationary cylinder with small incidence angles (α) of 5° and 10° at KC number of 2 and β number of 200. The three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are solved using the Petrov-Galerkin finite element method. Flow structures around the cylinder are visualized through using streamlines, velocity vectors and vorticity contours. Honji instability has been captured at both chosen inclination angles. However Honji vortex pairs are asymmetric at α = 5° and 10° due to the inclination of the oscillation direction and can only be observed during the flow reversal. It is also found that the flow inclination appears to suppress the three-dimensional instability.