Numerical investigations of turbulent flow past a rectangular cylinder with active flow control

The objective of the present research was to investigate the effects of rotating circular cylinders to control high intensity wind load. This research used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate high Reynolds number gust-like wind load condition for a transient duration of 12 seconds across a three-dimensional rectangular cylinder with dimension of 240x15x7 meters and aspect ratio (Breadth/Height) of 2.3. An array of 20 circular cylinders was positioned along the leading edges of the rectangular bridge cylinder. The research analyzed turbulent flow characteristics across the top and bottom deck surfaces and the development of wake region during two cases: 1) stationary cylinders and 2) rotated cylinders at 400 RPM or velocity ratio of lambda = 1.33. The Strouhal number flow characteristics of 0.08 and 0.17 for aspect ratio of 2 to 3 analyzed in this study were found to be in agreements with published literature.