Effect of high rotation rates on the laminar flow around a circular cylinder

A two-dimensional numerical study on the laminar flow past a circular cylinder rotating with a constant angular velocity was carried out. The objectives were to obtain a consistent set of data for the drag and lift coefficients for a wide range of rotation rates not available in the literature and a deeper insight into the flow field and vortex development behind the cylinder. First, a wide range of Reynolds numbers (0.01⩽Re⩽45) and rotation rates (0⩽α⩽6) were considered for the steady flow regime, where α is the circumferential velocity at the cylinder surface normalized by the free-stream velocity. Furthermore, unsteady flow calculations were carried out for one characteristic Reynolds number (Re=100) in the typical two-dimensional (2D) vortex shedding regime with α varying in the range 0⩽α⩽2. Additionally, the investigations were extended to very high rotation rates (α⩽12) for which no data exist in the literature. The numerical investigations were based on a finite-volume flow solver enhanced by multi...