Numerical analysis of drag and lift forces acting on a group of square cylinders at various staggered arrangements

Two-dimensional numerical investigation is conducted for incompressible fluid flow around staggered square cylinders at different arrangements. The in-house code is firstly validated for flow around a single square cylinder by comparing the results with results present in literature and fair agreement is obtained. The calculations are carried out for several values of Reynolds numbers (Re) ranging from 1 to 120. Aerodynamic features, involving the lift (CL) and drag (CD) coefficients, are predicted and analyzed for three arrangements. Besides, the physical parameters and the flow pattern in the wake are presented by varying the Reynolds number. Sensitivity of the CL and CD values to the change in the arrangement of the square cylinders is analyzed. The numerical outcomes of the present study demonstrate that changing the arrangements of cylinders dramatically the fluctuation of the lift and drag coefficients values relatively to each square cylinder. Moreover, computation analysis reveals that the CD and CL evolutions depend significantly on the different cylinder combinations and the variation of Reynolds number as well.