Strictly Sinusoidal Flow Around a Stationary Cylinder

The forces exerted upon a cylinder subjected to a purely sinusoidal flow (no mean flow) are analyzed. The analysis considers flows in which symmetrically located vortex pairs are formed and shed from the cylinder. The flow field is described using potential flow theory and the lumped-vortex model is incorporated to handle the growth of the vortices. The instantaneous locations and strengths of the vortices are calculated. This information is used with the extended Blasius theorem in order to determine the forces acting upon the cylinder. The vortex growth behavior is compared to that obtained by experiments in which similar flows are observed.