Characteristics of the Flow around Three Circular Cylinders

A detailed experimental investigation was carried out on the characteristics of the flow around three circular cylinders arranged in line. There are three cases concerned with the behavior of the shear layers separated from the first cylinder on the downstream ones: the first is a case without reattachment (W), the second is one with reattachment (R) and the third is one rolling up in the front region of the downstream cylinders (J). The flow patterns were classified according to W, R and J as follows: patterns A(W, W), B'(W, W⇌W, , R), B(R, R), C(R, J), E(R, J⇌J, J) and D(J, J). The characteristics of these flow patterns were clarified. The results were compared with conventional results on two and four circular cylinders arranged in line.