Dynamics and Heat Transfer in the von Kármán Wake of a Rectangular Cylinder

Abstract

A numerical method has been used to solve completely the full equations for the motion of a viscous, heat‐conducting, incompressible fluid flowing through a channel past a rectangular cylinder. The dynamics of the unsteady flow were made visible by means of a number of different types of contour plots, and selected ones are presented and discussed to illustrate various newly discovered features of the von Kármán vortex street. In addition, the heat transfer was measured from the heated rear of the cylinder to the colder fluid, with data presented in the form of Nusselt number correlated with Reynolds number. Corrections are derived for blockage, and Prandtl number scaling is discussed.