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Yuce & Kareem | http://dx.doi.org/10.5942/jawwa.2016.108.0141
Peer-Reviewed
A Numerical Analysis of Fluid Flow Around Circular
and Square Cylinders
MEHMET ISHAK YUCE1 AND DALSHAD AHMED KAREEM1
1Department of Civil Engineering, University of Gaziantep, Turkey
Fluid flow around bluff bodies such as circular and rectangular
(square) cross-sections is a fundamental fluid mechanics
problem and has been a popular focus of research for many
years. Several engineering applications—including offshore
structures, bridge piers, and pipelines—can be modeled as
cylinders. This study numerically investigated the flow field
around cylinders of the same characteristic length under
identical flow conditions ranging from laminar (Reynolds
number [Re] = 2) to turbulent (Re = 4 × 106). Two-dimensional
Keywords: circular cylinder, drag coefficient, flow field, shear stress transport k-omega, square cylinder
Flow around cylinders has been the topic of numerous experi-
mental and numerical investigations because of its significance in
engineering projects. Circular and square (or rectangular) cylin-
ders are widely used in mechanical, civil, and naval engineering in
such structures as offshore/onshore platforms, power lines, bridge
piers, and heat exchangers (chimneys). The flow around cylinders
exhibits numerous important physical phenomena, such as flow
separation, vortex shedding, and turbulence. Numerous practical-
interest fluid mechanical properties, including drag and lift forces,
and pressure coefficients from instigated forces, are significantly
influenced by the vortex shedding and suppression mechanism
(Bimbato et al. 2011). The drag force is the force that a flowing
fluid exerts on a body in the direction of flow; the magnitude of
this force depends, in part, on the viscosity of the fluid.
To comprehend the complexity of laminar and turbulent flows
around circular cylinders, creative and innovative techniques and
definitions have been introduced. Computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) is a useful tool to demonstrate the flow field by such aspects
as streamlines, contour lines, velocity vectors, and velocity profiles
for various flow conditions. The drag coefficient, pressure coeffi-
cient, and forces exerted on the structures can also be determined
by using CFD techniques. In the current research, the numerical
analyses were conducted using the shear stress transport k-omega
(SST k-) turbulence closure model and commercial CFD software.1
BACKGROUND
The SST k- turbulence method is a widely used and robust two-
equation eddy-viscosity turbulence model used in CFD. The model
is a combination of the k-epsilon (k-) and standard k- models.
The use of a k- formulation in the inner parts of the boundary
layer makes the model directly applicable all the way down the
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simulation analyses were performed using the shear stress
transport k-omega turbulence closure model and commercial
software. Simulation results showed good agreement with the
literature. Cylinder shape was found to significantly affect the
flow field. Under the same initial flow conditions, wake
downstream of the square cylinder was found to be much more
turbulent than that of the circular one. In addition, as Re
increased, the turbulence of the wake flow increased and its
length downstream of the cylinders increased.
wall through the viscous sublayer. Thus, the SST k- model can
be used as a low-Reynolds number (Re) turbulence closure model
without any additional damping functions. The SST formulation
converts into a k- behavior in the free stream, thereby avoiding
the common k- problem of model sensitivity to the inlet free-
stream turbulence properties. The SST k- model delivers good
performance under such conditions as adverse pressure gradients,
separating flows, and mixing layers of medium-pressure gradients
(Menter 1994, 1993). Because the SST model includes supple-
mental conveyance equations, turbulence can be more accurately
described. The transport effects of the turbulent shear stress are
composed by modifying the eddy viscosity formulation (Menter
1994, 1993).
One of the most important characteristic quantities of fluid
flow around a cylinder is the drag coefficient, CD. The drag coef-
ficient is a dimensionless quantity that is used to measure the drag
or resistance of an object in a fluid environment. Eq 1 shows the
relationship between the drag coefficient on a particle and the
drag force:
2FD
       CD   (1)
V2A
where FD is the drag force, r is the fluid density, V is the velocity
of the fluid relative to the particle, and A is the projected cross-
sectional area. The drag force acting on the wall of a cylinder is
highly dependent on the Re value. When vortex shedding takes
place behind a circular cylinder, the drag on the cylinder increases
with the Re, and the structure suffers from a periodic forcing in
the normal direction to the main streamflow. Depending on the
pressure distribution, the effects of fluid viscosity and flow sepa-
ration may be significant.
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Literature review. Numerous experimental and computational
studies in the literature have examined the flow around bluff
bodies and vortex shedding at different Re. Zdravkovich (2003,
1977) defines a succession of transitions from laminar to turbu-
lent in various regions of the flow field around cylinders.
Bai and Li (2011) simulated hydrodynamic characteristics of
circular cylinders in two-dimensional unsteady flows by using
commercial CFD software.1 The simulations used Re = 200 to
investigate the pressure distribution, drag and lift coefficients,
and Strouhal number.
Kozlov et al. (2011) simulated two-dimensional flow past a
circular cylinder for Re ranging from 5 to 200 via rapid elliptic
solvers. In this method, fast Fourier transform algorithms are used
to solve the Poisson equation in rectangular meshes with complex
geometries. In a numerical study, Rajani and colleagues (2009)
have investigated the laminar flow past a circular cylinder for Re
ranging from 100 to 400. Ong et al. (2009) investigated flows
around smooth circular cylinders with Re of 1 × 106, 2 × 106,
and 3.6 × 106 by using two-dimensional unsteady Reynolds-
averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations. They also examined
the applicability of the standard k- turbulence model for engi-
neering applications in the supercritical and upper-transition flow
regimes. Benim et al. (2007) numerically investigated turbulent
flow past circular cylinders by employing the SST k- turbulence
model with a wide range of Re.
To cover the critical flow regime, these researchers used an
array of Re ranging from 1 × 104 to 5 × 106. Park and colleagues
(1998) numerically studied flow past circular cylinders in Re
>160. Butt and Egbers (2013) showed that a circular cylinder
creates a large drag because of the difference in pressure between
the upstream and downstream flows that is created by the alter-
nating separation of flow over the surface of the cylinder. Gera
and colleagues (2010) explored two-dimensional unsteady flows
around a square cylinder with Re changing from 50 to 250 via a
finite element method. According to the observations of Sumer
and Fredsøe (1997), the flow field around circular cylinders is
symmetric at low Re values, which can be stated as the ratio of
inertial forces to viscous forces as shown in Eq 2:
Inertial force VD VD
   Re       (2)
Viscous force  µ
where V is the average flow velocity, D is the diameter of the cyl-
inder (characteristic length),  is the kinematic viscosity, µ is the
dynamic viscosity, and  is density of the fluid. As the Re increases,
flow begins to separate behind the cylinder and causes vortex shed-
ding to take place. When 40 < Re < 200, a laminar vortex shedding
occurs in the wake of the cylinder. The laminar wake transient to
turbulence takes place in the range of 200 < Re < 300. The wake
flow behind the circular cylinder grows into totally turbulent, and
a laminar boundary layer separation arises, in the subcritical
region, 300 < Re < 3 × 105 (Sumer & Fredsøe 1997).
Using the SST k- turbulence closure model, Young and Ooi
(2004) investigated the impact of variation in inlet turbulence
length scale on the flow at Re = 1.4 × 105. They inspected the
acceptability of the modified time limit of the k- model. Hölzer
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and Sommerfeld (2008) used the SST k- model to compute the
drag coefficients, which for some of the cases were found to dif-
fer from the values given by the developed correlation.
Karabelas (2010) employed large eddy simulation (LES) to cal-
culate the influence of rotation ratio on the flow parameters of a
spinning cylinder at Re = 1.4 × 105. Mustto and Bodstien (2011)
proposed a numerical model to predict flow characteristics around
a circular cylinder at Re ranging between 104 and 6 × 105. A
Lagrangian mesh-free vortex technique combined with LES was
used to simulate the large-scale motion. The average drag coef-
ficients were noted to be over-predicted. High drag coefficient
values were ascribable to the lack of a three-dimensional influence
in a two-dimensional numerical simulation. Wornom and col-
leagues (2011) carried out a computational study on flow around
a circular cylinder at the subcritical Re up to 2 × 105 by employ-
ing variational-multiscale LES.
Cao and Tamura (2008) performed a combined experimental
and numerical investigation of aerodynamic forces and vortex
shedding about a circular cylinder in a linear shear flow at sub-
critical conditions, in which Re varied from 1.0 × 104 to 3.6 × 104.
Abide and Viazzo (2005) demonstrated the utility of the com-
pact scheme projection decomposition method approach for two
benchmark problems—flow over a backward-facing step and
flow past a square cylinder. In a numerical simulation, Franke et
al. (1990) investigated laminar vortex-shedding flows around
square and circular cylinders. An experimental study on the vor-
tex formation and shedding in the near wake flow of a square
cylinder was performed by Oudheusden and colleagues (2005).
Particle image velocimetry technique was employed in the exper-
iments in which Re of the flows were 4,000, 10,000, and 20,000.
Many experimental and numerical investigations have been
conducted on the flow field and the drag coefficient of circular and
square cylinders. Many of these studies focused on only a single
shape (Butt & Egbers 2013, Bai & Li 2011, Kozlov et al. 2011,
Gera et al. 2010, Ong et al. 2009, Rajani et al. 2009, Cao & Tamura
2008, Benim et al. 2007, Park et al. 1998, Sumer & Fredsøe 1997).
Other research dealt only with laminar flows (Bai & Li 2011,
Kozlov et al. 2011, Gera et al. 2010, Rajani et al. 2009, Park et al.
1998) or turbulent flows (Ong et al. 2009, Cao & Tamura 2008,
Benim et al. 2007, Young & Ooi 2004). In the current study, the
flow field around square and circular cylinders of the same charac-
teristic length scale was studied under the same flow conditions
ranging from laminar (Re = 2) to turbulent flows (Re = 4 × 106).
MODEL SETUP
The computational domain and the boundary conditions for
the simulation of the flow around circular and square cylinders
are shown in Figure 1, parts A and B, respectively. The circular
and square cylinders are simulated with the characteristic length
scale of 1 m in the direction perpendicular to the streamflow.
The center of both cylinders is located at the end of L1 = 15 m
from the upstream end, L2 = 50 m from the downstream end
and W/2 = 4 m from each side of the open channel, where W is
the width of the open channel. Longitudinal uniform velocities
varying from 2 × 10–6 to 4 m/s were introduced at the inlet of
the flume, corresponding to Re ranging from 2 to 4 × 106. The
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outlet boundary of the channel is defined to be the pressure

FIGURE 1 Simulation domain and boundary conditions of outlet, with an average reference (gauge) pressure of 0 Pa. The
circular (A) and square (B) cylinders left- and the right-hand side walls of the flume and the cylinder
walls have a no-slip boundary condition, where flow velocity is
zero at the wall surfaces and increases to the free-stream veloc-
A ity away from the boundaries. Table 1 provides all flow condi-
L1 = 15 D L2 = 50 D
No-Slip
tions used in the analyses of the flow field associated with dif-
ferent Re, where water temperature was set to be 20°C.
The optimum mesh size was selected by a mesh independence

Outflow
study. In that study, the mesh consisted of proximity and cur-
Inflow

D W
vature; the size of the grid cells affects the outcome of the
simulation. The mesh cells used in this research were refined in
order to resolve the boundary layer separation and the wake
No-Slip
behind the cylinders in the form of the vortex street. Meshing
B is one of the most important steps in obtaining an accurate
L1 = 15 D L2 = 50 D boundary layer solution. An adequate number of nodes and
No-Slip well-organized mesh should be implemented in the boundary
layers. Figure 2 shows the geometry of the model and the qual-
ity of the mesh used for the circular cylinder; similar meshing
Outflow
Inflow

D W was used for the square cylinder. In order to improve the accu-
racy of the simulation results, 432,178 nodes and 436,186
elements were used in the domain.
No-Slip

D—characteristic length scale of 1 m in the direction perpendicular

to the streamflow
FIGURE 2 Meshed flow domain showing the geometry of the
model (A) and the quality of the mesh used for the
circular cylindera (B)
TABLE 1 Conditions of flows used in the simulation analyses

Case Re Velocity—m/s A
1 2 2× 10–6

2 4 4 × 10–6

3 15 1.5 × 10–5

4 38 3.8 × 10–5

5 160 1.6 × 10–4

6 190 1.9 × 10–4

7 250 2.5 × 10–4

8 290 2.9 × 10–4

B
9 103 10–3

10 104 10–2

11 105 10–1

12 2.5 × 105 0.25

13 106 1

14 1.5 × 106 1.5

15 2 × 106 2

16 4 × 106 4

Re—Reynolds number
aSimilar meshing was used for the square cylinder.

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NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS
Figure 3 shows spanwise velocity profiles (timelines) of flow
for both the circular cylinder (left side of the figure) and the
square cylinder (right side of the figure) for a range of Re. Each
of these timelines shows the velocity of the flow along a horizon-
tal line that is just under the water surface in the open channel.
The velocity profiles represent streamflow at different longitudi-
nal distances from the cylinders. These distances are 15, 10, 5,
and 0.65 m upstream and 0.65, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, and 49
m downstream of the center of the cylinders. In the flow field
close to the cylinders, the streamflow velocities decrease because
of the existence of obstacles, both upstream and downstream.
The influence of Re on the flow around cylinders can be clearly
observed. As the Re increases, the wake flow becomes more tur-
bulent and its length at the downstream of the cylinders increases.
In addition, the shape of the cylinder was noted to have a sig-
nificant effect on the flow field around the cylinders. Under the
same initial flow conditions, the wake that takes place at the
downstream of the square cylinder is much more turbulent than
that of the circular one (Figure 3).
The classification of flow field around circular cylinders per-
formed by Sumer and Fredsøe (1997) was considered in the
current study. The velocity profiles in Figure 3, parts A and B,
show the flow field around a circular and a square cylinder,
respectively, with Re = 4 (< 5, slow flow). The symmetry in the
velocity profiles of the flow around the circular cylinder was
clearly observed, whereas the profiles at the downstream of the
square cylinder were noted to have slightly lost their symmetry.
As shown in Figure 3, parts C and D, when the Re was increased
to Re = 38 (5 < Re < 40), the value of the flow velocity around
cylinders was significantly influenced. A pair of almost sym-
metrical vortexes was generated at the downstream of both
cylinders. (Whereas the wake of the circular cylinder extends to
~25 m downstream, the wake exceeds the limits of simulation
domain for the square cylinder.) When the Re is increased to 106
(4 × 106 > Re > 3 × 105) as shown in parts E, F, G, and H of
Figure 3, the wake behind both cylinders becomes completely
turbulent. The influence of the shape of the square cylinder
results in a large region of separated and substantially unsteady
wake flow. The length of the wake behind the circular and
square cylinders was longer than the extent of the simulation
domain. The wake behind the square cylinder was found to be
significantly broader in width than the wake of the circular
cylinder, almost reaching the boundaries of the flow domain
(Figure 3, parts E, F, G, and H).
Figure 4 contrasts flow conditions from the experimental
1997 study by Sumer and Fredsøe (left side of the figure) with
CFD simulations from the current research of water flow around
the circular cylinder (center portion of the figure) and square
cylinder (right side of the figure) for a range of Re. As shown in
Figure 4, parts A and B, at the inlet of the simulation domain
for low Re (i.e., Re = 4) there is no turbulence and no separation
creeping in the flow. For the circular cylinder, the streamlines
are straight and parallel to one another both upstream and
downstream of the cylinder. A different flow pattern, however,
is seen for the square cylinder; the symmetry is lost because of
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a sudden large flat area for the same flow conditions. When the
Re is increased to Re = 38, a fixed pair of symmetric vortexes
is seen at the wake of the cylinders (Figure 4, parts C and D).
As the figure shows, the vortex region of the square cylinder is
slightly larger and longer than that of the circular cylinder. As
Re is increased to a range of 40 < Re < 200, the von Karman
vortex street occurs, in which vortex initially develops at one
side of the cylinders and then separates and increases again at
the other side (Sumer and Fredsøe 1997, Zdravkovich 1997).
Because the walls of the simulation domain have no-slip condi-
tions, the velocity of the flow is zero relative to the solid boundar-
ies at the fluid–solid interface. Velocity profiles show that the
influence of the viscous forces between the fluid particles and the
solid side walls of the open channel have negligible or no effect on
the flow around the cylinders (Figure 3). The velocity gradually
increases away from the channel walls. The flow velocity and the
angle of separation in the wake of the square cylinder are greater
than those of the circular cylinder. As shown in Figure 4, parts E
and F, periodic irregular disturbances (eddies) occur behind the
circular and the square cylinders for Re = 290. The flow behind
the square cylinder diverges from the center line and creates a
wider wake, compared with the flow behind the circular cylin-
der. Wide wakes produce large drag coefficients (Franzluebbers
2013). When the Re is increased to 105 (300 < Re < 3 × 105),
the wake flow behind the circular cylinder becomes completely
turbulent (Figure 4, part G), and the flow in the wake of the
square cylinder turns out to be extremely chaotic (part H of the
figure). Finally, when the Re is increased even further, Re = 106
and Re = 4 × 106, the wake flow behind the circular cylinder
(Figure 4, parts I and K) is far less wide than that of the square
cylinder (Figure 4, parts J and L).
DRAG COEFFICIENT
The drag coefficient is a dimensionless quantity used in drag
equation to define the drag or the resistance of an obstacle in a
fluid flow, which is generally denoted as CD. A high drag coeffi-
cient indicates a significant hydrodynamic or aerodynamic drag
on a body. The drag coefficient is a function of the flow velocity,
the Re, the flow direction, the object positioning, the object size,
the fluid density, and the fluid viscosity.
In the current study, the drag coefficient of a square and a
circular cylinder at various Re was investigated using CFD simu-
lations. The SST k- turbulence closure model was used in the
analyses. The Re of a fluid flow around a bluff body has a sig-
nificant influence on the value of the drag coefficient. Table 2
presents the values of the drag force and the drag coefficient at
different Re. As expected, the drag coefficient values of the square
cylinder were found to be higher than those of the circular cylin-
der. Although numerous experimental and numerical studies have
been carried out on flow past circular and square cylinders, very
few have included both shapes. The current research set out to
establish the difference in drag/lift forces, vortex shedding fre-
quency, velocity distribution, and pressure distribution for these
two shapes under identical flow conditions with a comparable
length scale. Study results should aid designers in selecting their
optimum alternative among the many available to them.
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FIGURE 3 Velocity profile for circular and square cylinders for different Reynolds numbers

A Re = 4 B Re = 4

C Re = 38 D Re = 38

E Re = 106 F Re = 106

G Re = 4.0 × 106 H Re = 4.0 × 106

Re—Reynolds number

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FIGURE 4 Flow conditions around cylinders for a range of Reynolds numbers

Experimental Studya CFD Simulations: Circular Cylinders CFD Simulations: Square Cylinders

A Re = 4 B Re = 4

C Re = 38 D Re = 38

E Re = 290 F Re = 290

G Re = 105 H Re = 105

I Re = 106 J Re = 106
B

K Re = 4.0 × 106 L Re = 4.0 × 106

CFD—computational fluid dynamics, Re—Reynolds number

aSumer & Fredsøe 1997; A—laminar boundary separation; B—turbulent boundary layer separation, boundary layer is laminar; C—boundary layer
is completely turbulent at one side

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TABLE 2 Drag force and drag coefficient at different Reynolds numbers

Relative Difference Relative Difference

Total Force Total Force Drag (Hoerner 1965 & (Hoerner 1965 &
(Circular) (Square) Coefficient Drag Coefficient Drag Coefficient Circular) Square)
Re N N (Hoerner 1965) (Circular) (Square) % %
2 2.34 × 10–8 2.58 × 10–8 5.5 11.72 12.9 53 57
4 5.71 × 10–8 6.28 × 10–8 4 7.16 7.85 44 49
15 3.46 × 10–7 3.8 × 10–7 2.3 3.08 3.37 25 32
38 1.37 × 10–6 1.52 × 10–6 1.65 1.91 2.1 14 21
160 1.73 × 10–5 2.05 × 10–5 1.6 1.36 1.6 18 0
190 2.42 × 10–5 2.96 × 10–5 1.5 1.34 1.64 12 9
250 4.18 × 10–5 5.77 × 10–5 1.3 1.33 1.84 2 29
290 5.81 × 10-5 8.34 × 10–5 1.1 1.38 1.98 20 44
103 0.00065 0.0015 1 1.31 3 24 67
104 0.044 0.17 1.05 0.89 3.4 18 69
105 2.61 9 1.4 0.64 1.8 119 22
2.5 × 105 18.34 67.89 1.1 0.515 2.17 114 49
106 253.29 1,188.21 0.38 0.51 2.37 25 84
1.5 × 106 567.8 2,722.66 0.5 0.51 2.42 2 79
2× 106 1,103.95 4,362.46 0.6 0.552 2.18 9 72
4 × 106 3,779.11 21,101.26 0.7 0.47 2.63 49 73

Re—Reynolds number

Figure 5 compares the results of an experimental study per-
formed on a circular cylinder (Hoerner 1965) and the outcome
of the current investigation. At low Re, the drag coefficient for
both square and circular cylinders decreases linearly with
increasing Re. The simulation results for the circular cylinder
were seen to comply reasonably well with the experimental
outcomes. Up to Re = 1 × 102, the numerical simulations appear
FIGURE 5 Drag coefficient as a function of Reynolds number
Hoerner (1965)
Circular
Square
100
10
CD
to have overpredicted the values of the drag coefficient. The drag
coefficient value was observed to be almost constant with Re of
1 × 102 < Re < 1 × 103; as the Re increased, the drag coefficient
was found to decrease linearly with a milder slope than at low Re.
When the Re was 105 < Re < 106, the drag coefficient of the
circular cylinder decreases rapidly and then increases back to
almost the same value (Figure 5). This sharp variation in the
value of the drag coefficient is referred to as the drag crisis and is
attributable to the transition of the boundary layer from laminar
to turbulent regime, causing the separation point to move down-
stream along the surface of the cylinder. Flow past a cylinder is
significantly affected by the boundary layer and its interaction
with the local pressure gradient, as the pressure gradient changes
from negative (decreasing pressure) to positive (increasing pres-
sure). Because of these pressure differences, the force changes
sign and goes from being an accelerating force to a retarding
force, and the flow slows in response to this change. Never-
theless, in the boundary layer, the fluid flow has already ceded
some momentum due to viscous friction and viscous losses and
does not have adequate momentum to prevail over the retard-

ing force. The direction of the part of the fluid flow adjacent to
the wall in fact reverses, and the separation of flow takes place
1
(Roulund et al. 2005, Park et al. 1998, Zdravkovich 1997).
Although CFD results were found to be reasonably consistent
with the experimental study, the simulations were not able to pre-
0.1 dict the sudden dip that occurred when 105 < Re < 106. This may
1.e-01 1.e+00 1.e+01 1.e+02 1.e+03 1.e+04 1.e+05 1.e+06 1.e+07 indicate that the SST k- turbulence closure model could not pre-
Re dict the boundary layer’s transition from laminar to turbulent or
CD—drag coefficient, Re—Reynolds number the point of boundary layer separation. The disparity witnessed
between the simulation results and the experiments for the drag

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coefficient of circular cylinders was noted to vary between 2 and
25%; this research did not study flows with very low Re, and
the simulation results were not close to the experimental obser-
vations in the drag crisis. Similar differences were found in the
literature and were generally attributed to mesh sizing. The drag
coefficient increased with mesh refinement in numerical simula-
tions for Re > 1 × 104. The drag coefficient of the circular cylinder
was observed to vary from 0.17 to 0.40 at Re = 1 × 106 (Catalano
et al. 2003, Zdravkovich 1997, Shih et al. 1993).
The shape of the cylinder was noted to have a significant effect
on the value of the drag coefficient (Figure 5). For low Re values,
the simulation results for both cylinders were quite close to each
other. Values for the drag coefficient of the cylinders deviated from
each other at Re ~2 × 102. The value of the drag coefficient of the
square cylinder increased because of the variation in the conditions
of the wake flow when 102 < Re < 104. For 105 < Re < 107, the
drag coefficient fluctuated around an almost constant value.
CONCLUSION
Flow field around circular and square cylinders of the same
characteristic length scale were numerically investigated in this
study with Re from 2 (laminar flow) to 4 × 106 (turbulent flow).
Simulation analyses of the flow around the cylinders were con-
ducted by using CFD tools. Flow field and variation in the drag
coefficient of two-dimensional flow past vertical cylinders were
analyzed using commercial software and the SST k- turbulence
closure model. Vortex shedding and the wake flow developed
behind the cylinders were significantly influenced by both the
magnitude of the Re and the cylinder shape.
In general the values of the drag coefficient were found to
decrease with increasing Re. Under identical flow conditions, the
drag coefficients obtained for the square cylinder were observed
to be larger than those of the circular cylinder. The drag coeffi-
cient values determined for the circular cylinder were found to
comply reasonably well with the experimental study performed
by Hoerner (1965). However, CFD simulations were not able to
predict the sudden dip that took place when 105 < Re < 106. This
suggests that the SST k- turbulence closure model was unable
to predict the transition of the boundary layer from laminar to
turbulent or the point of separation. The discrepancy witnessed
between the simulation results and the drag coefficient experi-
ments, which was also observed by other researchers, has gener-
ally been attributed to mesh sizing. The drag coefficient was noted
to increase with mesh refinement in numerical simulations. Wake
flow behind the square cylinder was observed to be significantly
wider than that of the circular cylinder.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Mehmet Ishak Yuce (to whom
correspondence may be addressed) is an
associate professor in the Department of Civil
Engineering at the University of Gaziantep,
Gaziantep, Turkey 27310; yuce@gantep.edu.
tr. For the past eight years, he has specialized
in hydropower development and hydrokinetic
energy conversion systems. He also holds a
JOURNAL AWWA 2016 © American Water Works Association
E553
patent for hydrokinetic turbine design. Dalshad Ahmed Kareem
is a postgraduate student in the Department of Civil
Engineering at the University of Gaziantep.
ENDNOTE
1ANSYS Fluent, ANSYS, Canonsburg, Pa.
PEER REVIEW
Date of submission: 06/15/2015
Date of acceptance: 05/26/2016
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