126

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2016

Investigation of a wake formation for flow over a

cylinder using Lagrangian coherent structures
Ali Bahadir Olcay
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Yeditepe University,
Istanbul, 34755, Turkey
Email: bahadir.olcay@yeditepe.edu.tr
Abstract: In this study, flow over a cylinder was investigated to understand the physics of fluid
motion in the wake region. Eulerian velocity field attained from computational fluid dynamics
model while Lagrangian information obtained from finite time Lyapunov exponent fields
illustrated how a vortex formation takes place once it is detached from the cylinder.
Keywords: wake evolution behind the cylinder; Lagrangian coherent structures; LCSs.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Olcay, A.B. (2016) Investigation of a wake
formation for flow over a cylinder using Lagrangian coherent structures, Progress in
Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp.126130.
Biographical notes: Ali Bahadir Olcay received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in Mechanical
Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
and Southern Methodist University, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Mechanical Engineering at Yeditepe University.

Introduction

Flow field over a blunt body has attracted many researchers

attention due to the wake region taking place behind the
body. The wake region becomes responsible for lower
pressure at the downstream and this pressure variation
between upstream and downstream eventually results in
large drag.
In earlier work of Roshko (1952), wake development
behind circular cylinder has been studied. They used a low
speed wind tunnel to investigate the flow behind the
cylinder for Reynolds number from 40 to 10,000. They
reported that in the ranges of 40 to 150, 150 to 300, and 300
to 10,000, the wake patterns are stable, transitory
and irregular, respectively. Saiki and Biringen (1996)
investigated stationary as well as moving cylinders in
uniform flow at low Reynolds number using a virtual
boundary technique. They compared separation angle, drag
coefficient and Strouhal number with previous experimental
and numerical results and concluded that virtual boundary
technique provides promising results for steady and
unsteady flow problems. Recently, Benim et al. (2008)
investigated turbulent flow over a circular cylinder by
employing RANS, URANS, LES and DES. Their findings
showed that while two dimensional RANS were under
predicting drag coefficient obtained from experiments for a
wide range of Reynolds number, two dimensional URANS
was over predicting drag coefficients.
The physics of the fluid motion in the wake of the flow
over cylinder is the primary focus of the present study.
Wake formation has been investigated using the Lagrangian

Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

coherent structure (LCS) method to understand how the

wake forms behind the cylinder. Specifically, emphasis will
be on how the separated shear layer forms the wake and
once the vortex is formed, how it grows and becomes part
of the vortex street at the downstream.

Numerical simulation

2.1 Numerical model

Flow over cylinder is simulated using the flow domain
shown in Figure 1(a). In the figure, the x-y plane represents
two-dimensional domain with dimensions of 50D in length
and 20D in height and D is the cylinder diameter. To
simulate the flow field over the cylinder, a uniform
horizontal inlet velocity, U, was provided over the left side
of the domain while ambient pressure conditions were
specified over the domains right side boundary. Symmetry
was defined over the upper and the lower part of the domain
and the no-slip condition was applied to the wall of cylinder
to consider viscosity as shown in Figure 1(a).
The domain was discretised for both x and y directions
with increased mesh density around the cylinder wall and
behind the cylinder at the downstream as shown in
Figure 1(b) so that wall gradients can be properly resolved
during the flow evolution process. 45,760 quadrilateral cells
were employed for the solution domain. The two
dimensional, unsteady, incompressible Navier-Stokes
equations with zero swirl given in equation (1) were used to
simulate the flow evolution.

Investigation of a wake formation for flow over a cylinder using Lagrangian coherent structures
Figure 1

u x u y
+
=0
x
y
2u
u x
u
u
1 p
2u
+ ux x + u y x =
+ 2x + 2x
x
t
x
y
y
x

(1)

(a) The solution domain (b) The solution domain

showing 45,760 quadrilateral cells placed with
increased mesh density around the cylinder wall and
behind the cylinder at the downstream (see online
version for colours)
50D

u y
u y
u y 1 p
2u y 2u y
+ ux
+ uy
=
+ 2 + 2
t
x
y
y
y
x

The non-dimensional number used to characterise the flow

UD
field is the Reynolds number (Re) defined as Re =

where U is the inlet velocity, D is the cylinder diameter, is

the fluid density and is the dynamics viscosity of the fluid.
In this study, Reynolds number is taken to be 10,000 so that
boundary layer remains laminar since it is less than critical
Reynolds number of 300,000 and Karman vortex street is
expected to appear at the downstream (i.e., behind the
fD
cylinder). Strouhal number (Sr) defined as Sr =
, where
U
f is vortices shedding frequency, is another non-dimensional
number which describes the flow field oscillations due to
the vortex shedding frequency.
Table 1

127

40D
Symmetry
y
Inlet

Outlet

20D

Wall

Symmetry

Convergence analysis and model validation results

for domain size of 50D by 20D with 45,760 elements

Flow features

Present results

Literature results
(Williamson, 1996)

at Re = 104

80.50

800

Sr at Re = 104

0.19

0.2

Flow features

Present results

Literature results*

Cd at Re = 10

1.24

1.17

Cd at Re = 1.56 104

1.26

1.18

1.27

1.19

Cd at Re = 2.92 10

Source: *Data extracted from Figure 8 of

Benim et al. (2008)

Domain and grid convergence analysis have been performed

to determine domain and mesh sizes. The separation angle
(), drag coefficient (Cd) and Sr were used to monitor
domain and space convergence. Domain convergence was
tested for three different domain sizes with L = 25D and
W = 10D, L = 50D and W = 20D, L = 100D and W = 40D,
where L and W are the domain length and width,
respectively. The domain size of 50D by 20D resulted in
0.66% and 3% differences from documented and Sr
number as in Table 1. Grid convergence was tested for three
different meshes with elements of 24,880, 45,760 and
92,000. , Sr and Cd for 45760 elements showed only
0.59%, 1.18% and 1.62% differences from that of 92,000
elements, respectively. Model also has been tested at
different Re and results are given in Table 1.

2.2 LCSs technique

A fluid particles trajectory at position x0 at time t0 is given
as the solution of the initial value problem,
x ( t ; t0 , x 0 ) = V ( x ( t ; t0 , x0 ) , t )

(2)

x ( t 0 ; t0 , x 0 ) = x 0

where x(t; t0, x0) is the position of the fluid particle at time t
which was at x0 at time t0 and V is the velocity of the fluid
particle at time t, which was at x0 at time t0. The velocity
field on the right hand side of equation (2) can be derived
from the CFD solution of the flow problem. The solution to
the initial value problem given by equation (2) can be
treated as a flow map t0t0 +T (x0 ) that describes the position
information of the fluid particle at time t = t0 + T which was
initially (i.e., at t = t0) at x0. The flow map can be expressed
as

t0t0 +T ( x0 ) = x ( t0 + T ; t0 , x0 ) .

(3)

The finite time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) is then defined

as

128

A.B. Olcay

tT0 (x)

1
ln max
|T |

(4)

where max is the maximum eigenvalue of

( t t +T (x) ) ( t t +T (x) )
0
0

(5)

0
0

where ( )* implies the adjoint (transpose) operation. It can

be shown (Shadden et al., 2005) that the separation of
particles advected by the flow is proportional to e
Figure 2

tT ( x )|T |
0

downstream. Stable manifolds shown in the upstream

divides the flow field in two regions. Fluid initially between
the stable manifolds is enforced to remain in the wake
region later in time while fluid initially outside the stable
manifolds continues to flow as the free stream without being
affected by the viscous effects near the wall region.
Unstable manifolds of the downstream, on the other hand,
identify vortex boundaries of the vortices in the Karman
vortex street as well as joining the forming vortices.

Stable and unstable manifolds showing transport

barriers in the flow over a cylinder at t* = 0.50

Unstable
manifolds

Stable
manifolds

Note: Both stable and unstable manifolds have the same

integration length of |T| = 50.

When distance between two moving fluid particles in a flow

field are considered, FTLE can be seen as a finite time
average measure of the maximum expansion rate of particle
pairs advected by the flow. Besides, the ridges in the FTLE
field characterise LCS. Shadden et al. (2005) have shown
1
and therefore,
that the flux across a LCS varies with
|T |
for large |T| LCSs can be treated as transport barriers in the
flow, and thus material lines. Typically, once the velocity
field data [e.g., right side of equation (2)] is integrated
forward and backward in time, one can calculate LCSs of
the solution domain. When LCSs are obtained, the stable
manifolds named as repelling LCSs (i.e., T > 0) and
unstable manifolds named as attracting LCSs (i.e., T < 0) at
the solution domain can be identified. This technique can be
used to identify wake development behind a circular
cylinder because the formulation applies well for
unsteady flows. LCSs calculations were performed with the
help of ManGen software (http://mmae.iit.edu/shadden/
LCS-tutorial/mangen.html). ManGen gives the FTLE field
through equation (4) for the flow domain formed by a grid
of massless particles using advected velocity field.
Computation of was performed with a uniform grid of
0.005D resolution and at the location of 1 x/D 8 and
1.50 y/D 1.50 to produce sharp ridges for the attracting
and repelling LCS in the current investigation. The data as
obtained from LCS identified the boundaries of the growing
wake as shown in Figure 2. Specifically, repelling LCS
calculated by taking |T| = 50 identified upstream while
attracting LCS obtained by taking |T| = 50 revealed the

Results and discussion

Once the upstream fluid meets with a blunt body, fluid

moves over the surface of the body until it loses all of its
momentum. Then, flow separates from the wall and forms a
wake region. In this study, flow over a cylinder has been
studied to investigate wake formation which causes a large
pressure drop across the body.
The ridges seen in plots of Figure 3 are referred to LCSs
and act as flow barriers. Specifically, fluid residing on the
upper (or left) side of these LCSs is not allowed to cross
these lines. Similarly, fluid residing on the lower (or right)
side of these LCSs cannot cross these ridges to pass to the
upper (or left) side. Evolution of the first several vortices is
fundamentally different from the rest of the vortices.
Specifically, Figure 3(a) shows the first two vortices
rotating in opposite directions at t* = 0.10. In here, t* is the
non-dimensional time defined as the ratio of the
instantaneous time to the total simulation time. It is also
seen that the unstable manifold at y/D = 0 and 0.5 x/D
8.0 separates the upper flow (y/D > 0) from the lower flow
(y/D < 0). These rotating vortices grow in size by drawing
more fluid in until the horizontal unstable manifold, y/D = 0
and 0.5 x/D 8.0, shows a wavy behaviour as shown in
Figure 3(b). Right after the first two vortices detach from
the cylinder, third and forth vortices first form, then grow
and finally detach from the cylinder and move in the
downstream direction. The evolution of the sixth and the
seventh vortices are given in Figure 3(c) while Figure 3(d)
demonstrates the evolution of the eighth and ninth vortices.
The vortex shown in Figure 3(d), which was born as a
consequence of boundary layer separation, starts to draw the
surrounding fluid towards its centre and continues to draw
during its evolution. Starting with this vortex (i.e., ninth
vortex), evolution of vortices is predominantly governed by
fluid entrainment in an organised way. To describe a typical
evolution process of this nature, the evolution of the ninth
vortex right after the boundary layer separation is depicted
in Figures 3(d) and 3(e). More specifically, as is observed in
Figure 3(e), the ninth vortex grows gradually by entraining
more and more fluid towards its central region. Physically,
fluid downstream the cylinder moves back towards the low
pressure region, i.e., towards the cylinder, while pushing the
already formed preceding vortex, in this case, the eighth
vortex. This process can be seen clearly in Figure 3(e). At
later times, Figure 3(e) the growing vortex is pushed
upward and further deformed by the ridge of LCS. This may
be attributed to the fact that time came for the tenth vortex

Investigation of a wake formation for flow over a cylinder using Lagrangian coherent structures
to form and while developing will also be drawn into it. It
may then be imagined that the ridge somehow pushes the
ninth vortex up for the sake of opening room for the newly
emerging tenth vortex. In the meantime, it should be noted
that the centres of the eighth and ninth vortices get closer to
each other due to the lower pressure just behind the cylinder
(x/D 1 and y/D 0). Finally, the ninth vortex shown in
Figure 3(e) detaches from the cylinder and starts to travel in
the downstream direction by Biot-Savart induction.
Figure 4(a) illustrates the pressure contour plot at
t* = 0.42. It can be seen that while pressure gradient is small
in the vicinity of the vortex centre, pressure variation
becomes significant in the upstream and downstream sides
Figure 3

129

of the ninth vortex [enlarged plot is given in Figure 4(b)].

Arrows are superimposed on the pressure contour plots to
show the route of the fluid before it is entrained by the
vortex. The growing vortex actually pulls fluid from
surroundings and gets larger in volume. This in return
reduces the pressure in the region from where the fluid is
entrained. Once the vortex is formed, Biot-Savart induction
provided by shear layer associated with the flow separation
drives the vortex in the downstream direction. Lastly, the
velocity field together with the LCS structure is plotted in
Figure 5. Velocity vectors marking fluid particles demonstrate
how surrounding fluid is drawn into the vortex centre
through the entrainment path.

Time evolution1 of vortex formation behind the cylinder at (a) t* = 0.10, (b) 0.23, (c) 0.35, (d) 0.40, (e) 0.43
First vortex

Second vortex

(a)

(b)
Fifth vortex

Initial formation of ninth

vortex

Seventh vortex

Fifth vortex

Seventh vortex

Sixth vortex

Eighth vortex
Sixth vortex

(c)

(d)

Ridge causing deformation of

ninth vortex

Formation of
tenth vortex

(e)
Note: Short animation of this simulation can be accessed at http://youtu.be/LCY5txrQ4Ek.

130
Figure 4

A.B. Olcay
(a) Pressure contour plot of flow over cylinder at
t* = 0.42 (b) Enlarged view of the pressure contour plot
for ninth vortex
LCSs

LCSs

(a)

References
Benim, A.C., Pasqualotto, E. and Suh, S.H. (2008) Modelling
turbulent flow past a circular cylinder by RANS, URANS,
LES and DES, Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics,
Vol. 8, No. 5, pp.299307.
Roshko, A. (1952) On the Development of Turbulent Wakes from
Vortex Streets, PhD thesis, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, California Institute of Technology, California,
USA.
Saiki, E.M. and Biringen, S. (1996) Numerical simulation of a
cylinder in uniform flow: application of a virtual boundary
method, Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 123, No. 2,
pp.450465.
Shadden, S.C., Lekien, F. and Marsden, J.E. (2005) Definition
and properties of Lagrangian coherent structures from
finite-time Lyapunav exponents in two-dimensional aperiodic
flows, Physica D, Vol. 212, Nos. 34, pp.271304.
Williamson, C.H.K. (1996) Vortex dynamics in the cylinder
wake, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., Vol. 28, pp.477539, DOI:
10.1146/annurev.fl.28.010196.002401.

Nomenclature
CFD

(b)
Note: Grey thick lines show the LCSs.
Figure 5

Velocity vector field of flow over cylinder at t* = 0.42

Notes: Grey thick lines show the LCSs. Every fifth

velocity vector is shown in the figure.

Computational fluid dynamics

Diameter of the cylinder [m]

FTLE

Finite time Lyapunov exponents

LCS

Lagrangian coherent structure

Re

Reynolds number

Instantaneous time [s]

ttotal

Total time for flow simulation [s]

t*

Non-dimensional time defined as t* = t/ttotal

Uniform inlet velocity

|T|

Integration time length [s]

t0t0 +T ( x0 )

Flow map describes the position information of

the fluid particle at time t = t0 + T

tT0 (x)

The finite time Lyapunov exponent defined as

1
tT0 (x)
ln max
|T |

Density of fluid

Dynamics viscosity of fluid