Influence of thermal buoyancy on the wake dynamics of a heated square cylinder

Direct numerical simulation of the three-dimensional (3-D) wake transition of a heated square cylinder subjected to horizontal cross-flow is performed in the presence of buoyancy. In order to capture the effects of large-scale heating, a non-Oberbeck-Boussinesq model is utilized, which includes the governing equations for compressible gas flow. All computations are performed at low free stream Mach number M=0.1 using air (free stream Prandtl number, Pr=0.71) as the working fluid. The 3-D instability modes A and B, which correspond to free stream Reynolds numbers of 180 and 250, are observed with longer and shorter spanwise wavelengths, respectively, and the onset of three-dimensionality is triggered at a Reynolds number of 173. In the presence of buoyancy, baroclinic vorticity production in the near-wake plays an important role for streamwise vorticity generation. The chaotic wake of the Mode-A instability bifurcates into periodic and quasiperiodic wakes at various heating levels, expressed by the overheat ratio, epsilon=(T-w-T-infinity)/T-infinity, where T-w and T-infinity are the temperature of the cylinder surface and the ambient air, respectively. At low heating (epsilon=0.2), the 3-D Mode-A instability is suppressed leading to a two-dimensional wake flow. Further increase in heating, again brings back the three-dimensionality in the wake through Mode-E instability. The variation of thermophysical properties and the effective Reynolds number with increase in heating level around the cylinder is examined. It is shown that the effect of thermophysical properties competes with the baroclinic streamwise vorticity generation at higher levels of heating (epsilon >= 0.4) to control the 3-D modes and wake dynamics.