Oscillatory flow regimes around four cylinders in a square arrangement under small KC and Re conditions

Sinusoidally oscillatory flow around four circular cylinders in an in-line square arrangement is numerically investigated at Keulegan–Carpenter numbers (KC) ranging from 1 to 12 and at Reynolds numbers (Re) from 20 to 200. A set of flow patterns is observed and classified based on known oscillatory flow regimes around a single cylinder. These include six types of reflection symmetry regimes to the axis of flow oscillation, two types of spatio-temporal symmetry regimes and a series of symmetry-breaking flow patterns. In general, at small gap distances, the four structures behave more like a single body, and the flow fields therefore resemble those around a single cylinder with a large effective cylinder diameter. With increasing gap distance, flow structures around each individual cylinder in the array start to influence the overall flow patterns, and the flow field shows a variety of symmetry and asymmetry patterns as a result of vortex and shear layer interactions. The characteristics of hydrodynamic forces on individual cylinders as well as on the cylinder group are also examined. It is found that the hydrodynamic forces respond in a similar manner to the flow field to the cylinder proximity and wake interference.