Effectiveness of splitter plate to control fluid forces on a circular obstacle in a transient flow: FEM computations

The reliability of the usage of a splitter plate (passive control device) downstream of the obstacle, in suppressing the fluid forces on a circular obstacle of diameter D = 0.1 m is studied in this paper. The first parameter of the current study is the attachment of a splitter plate of various lengths (L-i) with the obstacle, whereas the gap separation (GO between the splitter plate and the obstacle, is used as a second parameter. The control elements of the first and second parameters are varied from 0.1 to 0.3. For the attached splitter plates of lengths 0.2 and 0.3, the oscillatory behavior of transient flow at Re = 100 is successfully controlled. For the gap separation, 0.1 and 0.2 similar results are obtained. However, it is observed that a splitter plate of too short length and a plate located at the inappropriate gap from the obstacle, are worthless. A computational strategy based on the finite element method is utilized due to the complicated representative equations. For a clear physical depiction of the problem, velocity and pressure plots have been provided. Drag and lift coefficients the hydrodynamic benchmark values are also evaluated in a graphical representation surrounding the obstacle's peripheral surface as well as the splitter plate. In a conclusion, a splitter plate can function to control fluid forces whether it is attached or detached, based on plate length and gap separation between obstacle and plate, respectively.