Flow and air-entrainment around partially submerged vertical cylinders

Abstract

In this study, a partially submerged vertical cylinder is moved at constant velocity through water, which is initially at rest. During the motion, the wake behind the cylinder induces free-surface deformation. Eleven cylinders, with diameters from D=1.4 to 16 cm, were tested under two different conditions: (i) constant immersed height h and (ii) constant h/D. The range of translation velocities and diameters are in the regime of turbulent wake with experiments carried out for 4500<Re<240000 and 0.2<Fr<2.4, where Re and Fr are the Reynolds and Froude numbers based on D. The focus here is on drag-force measurements and relatively strong free-surface deformation up to air-entrainment. Specifically, two modes of air-entraiment have been uncovered: (i) in the cavity along the cylinder wall and (ii) in the wake of the cylinder. A scaling for the critical velocity for air-entrainment in the cavity has been observed in agreement with a simple model. Furthermore, for Fr>1.2, the drag force varies linearly with Fr.