Journal of Wind Engineering

and Industrial Aerodynamics 89 (2001) 553568

Classications of ow pattern on three circular

cylinders in equilateral-triangular arrangements
Zhifu Gu*, Tianfeng Sun
State Key Laboratory for Turbulence Research, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science,
Peking University, Beijing 100871, Peoples Republic of China
Received 18 April 2000; received in revised form 22 October 2000; accepted 3 November 2000

Abstract
Classications of ow pattern on three parallel circular cylinders in equilateral-triangular
arrangements in cross uniform ow were investigated by wind tunnel tests. The spacing ratios
were in the range of 1:74N=d45:0, where N is the distance between the centers of adjacent
cylinders, d the diameter of the cylinders. Both the experiments of pressure distributions on
three circular cylinders at Reynolds number 5.5
104 and ow visualizations at Reynolds
number 1.4
104 were carried out. It shows that the angles of incident ow strongly inuence
the ow patterns, and therefore the pressure distributions on any one of the cylinders. Due to
the interference of the shear layers and/or wakes, the most complex features of pressure
distributions can be found on the cylinder located downstream. As for the dierent levels of
interference regarding the inuence of spacing ratio, mainly four dierent aected regions, i.e.,
eects of small, transition, medium, and larger spacing can be identied. Within the small
spacing ratios, i.e., 1:74N=d42:2, three basic types of interference can be classied. The three
basic types are interference of proximity, shear layer reattachment and wake. Furthermore,
seven steps of ow pattern can be subdivided as the angles of incident ow vary from 08 to 608.
# 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Circular cylinders; Pressure distribution; Flow visualization; Wake structure; Flow pattern

1. Introduction
In many cases of engineering practice, bodies often appear in the form of groups,
e.g. groups of buildings, chimneys, stacks, chemical reaction-towers, oshore
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-10-6275-6079; fax: +86-10-6275-6079.
E-mail address: guzf@pku.edu.cn (Z.F. Gu).
0167-6105/01/$ - see front matter # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 1 6 7 - 6 1 0 5 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 9 1 - X

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platforms etc. Due to the mutual interference, the aerodynamic characteristics, such
as pressure distributions and vortex-shedding patterns on each member in the group
are completely dierent from those of an isolated one.
A circular cylinder is a typical blu body and is one of the structural components
mostly employed. Numerous investigations have been made of the ow past two
circular cylinders, which is the simplest case of group, in the last two decades. An
extensive review was given by Zdravkovich [1] and by Ohya et al. [2]. At subcritical
Reynolds numbers, many interesting and unexpected phenomena were found, such
as the biased bistable ow which occurred at specic ratios between the two circular
cylinders in a side-by-side arrangement and the uid forces that yield discontinuities
for the two cylinders in tandem and staggered arrangements at certain spacing ratios.
More detailed investigations of discontinuities of pressure distributions on two
circular cylinders in staggered arrangement were recently given by Gu and Sun [3,4].
Nevertheless, three circular cylinders in equilateral-triangular arrangement are the
typical case of cylinder group. It is extremely interesting to know whether the
aerodynamic characteristics of two circular cylinders still exist or some new features
may happen due to the eect of the third one.
Gerhardt and Kramer [5] investigated the interference eects for groups of three
or four stacks. Eastop and Turner [6] studied three cylinders positioned in a straight
line, either normal to or in the ow direction. Price and Paidoussis [7] studied the
more general case of three cylinders in a staggered arrangement. They found, in
general, that the eect of cylinder displacement on the uid forces for cylinder in a
group of three is very similar to that obtained with one cylinder in a group of two. It
has been shown that, within a reasonable degree of accuracy, the force coecients on
one of the three cylinders may be calculated using a principle of superposition from
the force coecients on one cylinder in a group of two. Sayers [8] investigated the
drag and lift coecients occurring on cylinder in a group of three equispaced
cylinders. He concluded that the angle of orientation to the free stream will strongly
inuence the force coecients acting on any one cylinder and large reversals in lift
magnitude and direction occur at certain inclination angles. Lam and Cheung [9]
studied phenomena of vortex shedding and ow interference of three cylinders in
dierent equilateral arrangements, using a dye-injection technique ow visualization
at Reynolds numbers 2.1
103 and 3.5
103. Flow patterns were shot at 108
intervals from 08 to 608. On the basis of wide and narrow wakes observed behind the
cylinders, they concluded that the bistable ow characteristic that existed at b 08
for N=d 1:2722:29 depends very much on the starting conditions. Yunseok and
Changkoon [10] reported the results of the close relationship between aerodynamic
responses and pressure distributions on three circular cylinders. More recently,
Tatsuno et al. [11] studied eects of interference among three equidistantly arranged
cylinders in a uniform ow. The static pressures around the circumference of each
cylinder were measured by rotating the cluster from 08 to 608 in steps of 58. The
results show that the eects of ow interference among the three cylinders are severe
when the spacing ratios are small. When two cylinders arranged side by side are
upstream of or behind the third one the ow patterns are not symmetrical with
respect to the uniform ow direction, and the drag or lift coecients of the two

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555

cylinders in the side-by-side arrangement are not always equal to each other at small
spacing ratios.
This paper describes the pressure distributions on three equal circular cylinders
arranged in an equilateral-triangular manner at dierent spacing ratios under
dierent angles of attack subjected to a cross uniform ow. Combined with smokewire technique ow visualization, more attention has been paid to the classications
of ow patterns and the mechanisms of interference between cylinders.

2. Experimental apparatus and data reduction

It is believed that the dierent ow patterns could greatly aect the pressure
distributions on the surface of the cylinders, especially the uctuating pressure; thus,
the pressure measurement experiments were conducted rst in a closed-return lowspeed wind tunnel. The test section is 1.2 m wide, 1 m high and 8 m long. Velocity
variation across the test section is  1% and the turbulence intensity is 0.4%. The
maximum velocity is 36 m/s. Two turntables are mounted on the oor of the test
section and they are located 1.5 and 5.5 m from the entrance of the test section,
respectively. The rst turntable is usually used for experiments in uniform smooth
ow and the second one for experiments in simulated atmospheric boundary layer
with the aid of triangle spires, barriers and roughness elements mounted from the
entrance of the test section.
Each cylinder of the group is a 640 mm long aluminum tube of 48 mm external
diameter, with a machine-nished surface. Pressure taps are provided every 108 at
mid-span of the cylinders circumferentially. The cylinders with circular end plates of
800 mm diameter on both ends, were set up vertically in the upper and lower
adjustable guide-slots. The lower guide-slots were xed on the rst turntable in the
test section. The whole assembly was then located at a distance of 1.5 m downstream
of the tunnel throat.
The measurement system of the surface pressure consisted of pressure transducers
(PDCR23d), a set of Scanivalve (SGM48), three DC ampliers (6M72), an A/D
converter and a personal computer (IBM PC/XT). Three individual transducers were
used for each cylinder such that the pressure signals at the same azimuth angle y (see
Fig. 1) of three cylinders under test were recorded simultaneously. A typical run took
about 60 s to complete the data logging of all pressure taps for three cylinders. All
tests were carried out at a wind speed of 18 m/s with a Reynolds number of 5.5
104
that is based on the diameter of a single cylinder.
The conguration of three cylinders is shown in Fig. 1 with the sign conventions of
the uid-force coecients, in which d is the diameter of the cylinder, N, the distance
between the centers of two cylinders, N=d, the spacing ratio between two cylinders,
and b, the angle of incident ow. As frequent reference will be made to the individual
cylinder, the upstream and the downstream cylinders, they are labeled as cylinders A,
B and C, respectively, in later discussion. All the results of experiments were
expressed in terms of dimensionless pressure coecients. According to the usual
practice, the measured instantaneous pressure py; t is expressed as the sum of

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Fig. 1. Congurations of three cylinders in a group together with the sign conventions of the uid-force
coecients.

time-mean pressure py and the uctuating pressure p0 y; t, where t is time. Timemean and uctuating pressure coecients Cp y and Cprms y are dened as Cp

2
2
y py  p1
=0:5rV1
and Cprms y sp y=0:5rV1
, where sp y is the root0
mean-square value of p y; t, and p1 , r V1 are the pressure, density and velocity of
oncoming ow, respectively. The drag and lift coecients, denoted by CD and CL ,
respectively, are dened conventionally and were obtained by integrating appropriately the pressure distribution around the circumference of each cylinder at mid
span.
The experiments of ow visualization were performed in an open-circuit wind
tunnel with a working-section 6 m long, 0.6 m wide and 0.6 m high. The wind ow in
this wind tunnel is generated by an axial fan located near the inlet, which is followed
by a diusion chamber and a nozzle leading to the working section. The maximum
velocity of free stream is about 36 m/s with a background turbulence intensity of
0.2%. The smoke-wire technique ow visualization was adopted. One of four wires
was placed in the front of the model and the other three wires were located behind
the model. Pictures were taken with a time-delay, between the generation of smoke
and the ash of camera, of 80 m/s. The Reynolds number, which is based on the
diameter of a single circular cylinder for ow visualization experiment is l.3
104.

3. Results and discussion

For perceiving the eect of group interference in the experiments of pressure
measurement, the pressure distribution of a single cylinder was measured rst and
then was compared with the results of three-cylinder experiments. The time-mean
and uctuating pressure distribution on a single cylinder at a Reynolds number of
5.5
104 are shown in Figs. 2(a) and 3(a), respectively. The time-mean and
uctuating pressure distribution on both sides of the cylinder are quite symmetrical

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557

Fig. 2. (ah) Time-mean pressure distributions on single and three circular cylinders in equilateraltriangular arrangement (N=d 1:7) at Re=5.5
104.

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Fig. 3. (ah) Fluctuating pressure distributions on single and three circular cylinders in equilateraltriangular arrangement (N=d 1:7) at Re=5.5
104.

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559

and show a typical laminar-separation at about y 808. It is a typical pressure

distribution on circular cylinder at subcritical Reynolds number.
In the experiments of three cylinders, seven spacing ratios, i.e., N/d=1.7, 2.0, 2.2,
2.5, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0, were used out combined with angles of incident ow b varied
from 08 to 608. To achieve the goal of this research, the increments or the steps of b
were not xed, and they were carefully adjusted to appropriate degrees depending on
the change of pressure distribution on cylinders during the test.
As for the dierent levels of interference regarding the inuence of spacing ratio,
mainly four dierent aected regions can be identied. These are eects of small,
transition, medium and large spacing.
3.1. Eect of small spacing: 1.74N/d42.0
For small spacing ratios, such as N=d 1:7, the interference between the three
cylinders is very strong and complex. The characteristics of interference vary
signicantly as the relative positions of cylinder vary with the angles of incident ow.
In the most complicated case, the separated shear layers from upstream cylinder may
interact directly with downstream cylinder at certain incident angles of ow.
According to the pressure distributions on downstream cylinder that varies with
the angle of incident ow, three basic types of interference with dierent essential
distinctions can be classied. These are ow patterns of proximity eect, shear layers
reattachment eect and wake eect. Furthermore, as the angles of incident ow vary
from 08 to 608, seven steps of ow pattern can be subdivided. It was conrmed by the
results of ow visualization, which will be described in greater detail later on. The
time-mean and uctuating pressure distributions on the three cylinders at N=d 1:7
are given for seven typical cases of incident ow in Figs. 2(b)(h) and 3(b)(h),
respectively. The pictures of ow visualization corresponding to the seven typical
cases or steps are shown in Fig. 4, except for the case of b 08 (step 1), which will be
discussed below.
In order to gure out and better understand the classication in small spacing, the
schematic illustration of the ow patterns for the various eects, including proximity
eect, shear layers reattachment eect and wake eect are given in Fig. 5.
3.1.1. Patterns of proximity eect
The characteristic of this type of eect is that the separated shear layers from each
cylinder, as well as their wakes, did not interact directly, at least in the near wake of
cylinders. Owing to dierence in angles of incidence ow, two types of ow pattern
or pressure distribution can be distinguished.
(A) Symmetric ow pattern and pressure distribution: It is expected that this type of
ow pattern and pressure distribution appears as the orientation of the group was
symmetric to the ow, i.e., b 08 and 608. The time-mean and uctuating pressure
distributions on cylinders are shown in Fig. 2(b), (h) and Fig. 3(b), (h), respectively.
Furthermore, based on the degree of stability of the pressure distributions on
cylinders as the angle of incident ow changes, the stable or unstable pressure
pattern may be identied.

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Fig. 4. Pictures of smoke-wire ow visualization for N=d 1:7 and Re=1.4
104; (a) b 08; (b) b 0:58;
(c) b 108; (d) b 158; (e) b 338; (f) b 368; and (g) b 608.

At b 08, due to the blockage eect caused by the presence of downstream

cylinders, the base pressure of cylinder A reduces to 0.5, which is much less than
that of the single cylinder case of 1. On the other hand, the minimum pressure on
the insides of both cylinders B and C increases to 1.5 due to the relatively higher
speed gap ow between the shear layers. The time-mean pressure distributions on
cylinders B and C are almost symmetric, which agree with the results given by
Tatsuno et al. [11] in the case of N=d 1:73. The areas of positive pressure
distributions on both cylinders are reduced. The uctuating pressure, which is
expressed as its root-mean-square, on the inner-side surfaces of both cylinders B and
C is strong. It is caused by the proximity eect of the shear layers separated from
both sides of cylinder A. It should be noted that there are only slight dierences
between both the time-mean and uctuating pressure coecients on cylinders B
and C.
During the tests, similar and rather stable symmetric pressure distributions were
obtained in dierent runs. It suggests, in other words, that there was no bistable
wake phenomenon as mentioned by Lam and Cheung [9].

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561

Fig. 5. Schematic illustration of the ow patterns for the various eects, including proximity eect, shear
layers reattachment eect and wake eect in small spacing.

In contrast with the results of time-mean pressure distribution, the results of

smoke-wire ow visualization at Reynolds number l.3
104 show unstable
characteristics of the ow property in this case. Three typical pictures can be picked
out in the case of b 08. They show symmetric ow pattern with respect to the freestream direction and (Fig. 4(a) case 1) asymmetrical ow patterns with the biased

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wake-ow either switching to cylinder B (Fig. 4(a) case 2) or C (Fig. 4(a) case 3),
respectively. It is somewhat in accord with the nding of Lam and Cheung [9], who
used dye-injection technique ow visualization to show the bistable ow appearing
in the range 1:275N=d52:29. The three types of ow pattern pictures caught were
rather stochastic other than the characteristic of bistability as described in Ref. [9].
The results obtained by Tatsuno et al. [11] conrmed that the bistable ow
phenomenon happened at N=d 1:39 and 1.73 and showed that the pictures of ow
patterns are asymmetrical with respect to the free-stream direction at Reynolds
number 507 (only one case). However, Tatsuno et al. [11] indicated that in the case of
N=d 1:73, there are slight dierences in pressure coecient distributions between
cylinders B and C at Reynolds number 6.2
104.
As mentioned by Tatsuno et al. [11], the bistable ow is always associated with the
cylinder with a narrow wake and experiences large drag and lift forces in comparison
with the cylinder with a wider wake. Zdravkovich and Pridden [12] described that the
intermittence of the high- and low-drag values did not cease but persisted for a
longer time at one value. Lam and Cheung [9] also reported that whether the larger
wake forms behind cylinder B or C depends on the starting conditions and that once
wide or narrow wake has been established behind a given cylinder then it remains in
this pattern. Therefore, in the authors opinion, the phenomenon of biased bistable
ow could be detected by the measurement of time-mean pressure and in this case
the phenomenon may be classied as a very unstable gap ow. More detailed
investigation of three cylinders in this phenomenon combined with the eect of
Reynolds number should be carried out.
It should be emphasized that this type of symmetric pressure distribution only
appears at very small region around b 08. As the wind angle changes a little bit,
such as b 0:58 which will be discussed in detail later, the symmetric pressure
distribution no longer exists. Thus, this type of pressure distribution is identied as
an unstable or critical symmetric pressure distribution because it is highly sensitive to
the changing of the angles of incident ow.
At b 608, the symmetric ow pattern (Fig. 4(g)), as well as pressure distributions
(Figs. 2(h) and 3(h)) with respect to the free-stream direction appear again due to the
symmetric geometrical arrangement of the three cylinders.
The stagnation point on upstream cylinders A and B turns to their inner-side
about 108, respectively, and the area of positive pressure distribution is about
58 wider than that of the single cylinder. The positive pressure area on cylinder C,
on the other hand, becomes much narrower. The base pressures of three cylinders are
almost the same but higher than that of a single cylinder. The uctuating pressure is
stronger than that of a single cylinder and the values of uctuating pressure
coecients are greater than 0.3 on most surface areas of the cylinder. At b 608, the
picture of ow visualization shows that individual wake structures formed behind
each cylinder. Due to the presence of cylinder C, the wakes of cylinders A and B
inclined outward, whereas an extremely wide wake takes shape behind cylinder C.
The symmetric pressure distribution is maintained in a rather wide area of angle of
incident ow and could be observed up to b 408. These features are signicantly
dierent from the case of b 08. In other words, this type of pressure distribution is

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563

not sensitive to the change in angles of incident ow. It, therefore, may be attributed
to the stable symmetric pressure distribution.
(B) Asymmetric distribution: At a certain region adjacent to the stable symmetric
ow pattern or pressure distribution area, e.g. b 368, the ow around each cylinder
retains its individual complete wake structure (see Fig. 4(f)). However, there is still
no direct interference between the separated shear layers, as well as the wakes, at
least in the near wake of the cylinders. It is only the serious eect of proximity, which
causes the pressure distribution to be asymmetric (Figs. 2(g) and 3(g)). The
interference between cylinders, in this case, causes the streamlines to be squeezed
and distorted.
3.1.2. Patterns of shear layer reattachment eect
The characteristic of this type of eect is that the shear layer separated from
upstream cylinder reattaches on either the outside or inside surface of the
downstream cylinder.
At the boundary regions of unstable or stable symmetric pressure distributions,
such as at b 0:58 or 338, the shear layer separated from cylinder A reattaches on
the inside or outside of cylinder C, respectively (Figs. 4(b) and 4(e)). Due to the
reattachment of the shear layer with relatively high velocity and vorticity in it, the
pressure distributions change dramatically on cylinder C (see Fig. 2(c) and (f)). A
large area of strong suction pressure forms. The peak value uctuating pressure
coecients may reach 0.4 (Fig. 3(c) and (f)). A rather strong uctuating lateral force
results, which tends towards the centerline of the group in the case of b 0:58, or
away from it in the case of b 338. During the test, a hot wire probe was placed at
the near-surface region, where a strong suction pressure was present. The signal of
velocity uctuation was sampled and processed later. A peak frequency could be
detected in the power spectrum analyses, which corresponds to a Strouhal number of
0.4. It is suggested that the appearance of the great suction on one side of cylinder C
is associated with some regular vortex shedding with rather high frequency. It is
somewhat similar to the case of two circular cylinders in staggered arrangement (e.g.
see Refs. [3,4]).
Due to the changes in orientation of incident ow, the shear layer separated from
cylinder A is somewhat away from cylinder B, the pressure distribution on cylinder B
approaches that of the single-cylinder case.
3.1.3. Patterns of wake eect
For the orientations of incident ow between these two regions of shear layer
reattachment eect, the ow patterns may be classied as wake eect. The
characteristic of this type of eect is that cylinder C is entirely or partially submerged
in the wake of cylinder A (Fig. 4(d) and (e)), which corresponds to the time-mean
pressure distribution on cylinder C with double-peak (at b 108, Fig. 2(d)) or singlepeak (at b 158, Fig. 2(e)), respectively. On the other hand, the uctuating pressure
distribution on cylinder C reveals four or two peaks respectively (Fig 3(d) and (e)).
At b 108, particularly, the double-peak pressure distribution pattern on cylinder
C is almost symmetric. It is very similar to the case of downstream cylinder of two

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circular cylinders in tandem arrangement, except that the symmetric line shifts about
308. The angle between the incident ow and the centerline of cylinders A and C is
208. It could be interpreted as the proximity eect of cylinder B that causes the wake
of cylinder A to decline about 208.
Yunseok and Changkoon [10] schematically drew six steps of ow pattern as the
angles of incident ow vary from 08 to 608. However, according to the present
experiments, step 4 corresponds to the time-mean pressure distribution of singlepeak on cylinder C, free-stream could reach the surface of cylinder C directly as it is
only partially submerged in the wake of cylinder A.
Fig. 6(a) shows the drag and lift coecients on each cylinder as the group is
rotated through 608 about its axis in small spacing N=d 1:7.
The values of drag coecient CD of cylinders A and B are close to each other and
increase slowly from 0.8 at b 08 to 1.2 at b 608. The value of CD for cylinder C
decreases from 1.0 at b 08 to its minimum value of 0.2 at b 258 and then
increases. At b 608, it is slightly less than that of cylinders A and B.
The lift force coecients CL on both cylinders A and B are small. As b > 208, the
CL of cylinder B increases slightly as the angle of incident ow increases, the reverse
is true for cylinder A, and they reach values of  0.15 at b 608, respectively.
On the other hand, CL on cylinder C changes signicantly; particularly at small b,
such as b 0:58, CL may reach a value of +0.8, but it drops to 0.2 abruptly at
b 7288, and then it maintains the same value up to b 148. It drops again and
reaches its minimum value of 1.3 at b 258, and then recovers gradually up to zero
at b 608.
In summary, the CD values of cylinders A and B have no signicant dierence and
also have no signicant changes with various angles of incident ow. The signicant
changes in drag and lift forces on cylinder C are caused by dierent eects of
interference. It is interesting that both the minimum drag and lift forces (their
absolute value) on cylinder C occur almost at the same angle of b 258; thus, a
signicant outward force results. At small values of b (b5108), a signicant resultant
force results, which is combined with rather strong lift (CL 0:8) and drag
(CD 1:0) forces. The eect of shear layer reattachment is the most serious case of
interference between three cylinders.
3.2. Eect of medium spacing: 2.54N/d43.0
As the spacing ratio increases to a certain value, such as N=d 2:5, the pressure
distributions on cylinders show rather dierent features as compared with the case of
small spacing ratios. At the medium spacing ratio, the shear layer separated from
cylinder A no longer acts on cylinder C directly and the eect of shear-layer
reattachment pressure distribution no longer exists. However, the suction area,
which is weaker than the case of shear layer reattachment in small spacing ratios, is
still present on the outer side of cylinder C; it is caused by the gap ow of relatively
high velocity adjacent to the separated shear layer of cylinder A.
The symmetric type of pressure patterns also can be expected to occur at b 08
and 608; however, they reveal that the eect of proximity reduces greatly. In the

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565

Fig. 6. (ad) Drag and lift forces on each of the three cylinders in equilateral-triangular arrangement at
dierent spacing ratios.

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region of wake eect, because of the increment of spacing ratios, the wake behind
upstream cylinder could be developed more suciently; the wake inuence on
cylinder C is stronger than the case in small spacing with respect to the uctuating
pressure.
The CD values of cylinders A and B are quite dierent (Fig. 6(c)). The values of
CD of cylinder B are about 0.4 larger than those of cylinder A regardless of changes
in the angles of incident ow until the vicinity of b 608, where their dierence is
reduced. As the spacing ratio increases further, the tendency of reducing their
dierence shifts to the early angle of incident ow.
The curve of CD of cylinder C is similar to those in small spacing ratios; however,
the minimum CD of negative value no longer exists. The CL values of cylinders A
and B are also similar to those of small spacing ratios, whereas, the CL of cylinder
C changes and the location of strong positive lift force shifts to b > 148. The
variation of lift force on cylinder C with the angles of incident ow forms a curve of
one peak and one valley with a smooth area between them. The location of the
smooth area coincides with the location of the area of minimum values for the drag
curve.
3.3. Eect of transition spacing: N/d=2.2
Between the small spacing and the medium spacing is the transition spacing
(N=d 2:2). Due to the space limitations of the paper, the changes of pressure
distributions on cylinders are not shown and discussed here. The drag curves of
three cylinders remain unchanged as those of small spacing ratios (Fig. 6(b),
whereas, the lift curves, particularly CL of cylinder C show a transition process
between the curves of small (N=d 2:0) and medium (N=d 2:5) spacing ratios.
3.4. Eect of large spacing: N/d54.0
As the spacing ratio increases up to or larger than 4, the interference on the timemean pressure distribution is reduced further, but the reverse is true for the
uctuating pressure on cylinders. It could be explained by the re-establishment of the
regular vortex shedding behind cylinders A and B; therefore, most interference on
cylinder C is caused by the eect of wake.
The curves of drag force are similar to those at medium spacing ratios but are
more smooth (Fig. 6(d)). At the vicinity of b 608, the values of CD of the three
cylinders are closer to each other. The CL curves of cylinders A and B are rather
symmetric. The CL curve of cylinder C changes gradually and looks like one
period of sine wave, which is similar to or agrees well with the result reported by
Tatsuno et al. [11].
The contours of CD and CL of cylinder C are presented in Fig. 7. It is shown that,
within the medium and large spacing regions, both the drag and lift coecients of
their minimum values (the absolute value) are located at the same area of
b 202308.

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567

Fig. 7. Contours of CD and CL of cylinder C with various N=d and b:

4. Conclusions
The main results may be summarized as follows:
(1) The angles of incident ow strongly inuence the pressure distributions on any
one of the cylinders.
(2) Due to the interference of the shear layers and/or wakes, the most complex
features of pressure distributions can be found on the downstream cylinder.
(3) As regards to dierent levels of interference of the inuence of spacing ratio,
mainly four dierent eect regions can be identied. These are eects of small,
transition, medium and large spacing ratios.
(4) Three basic types of interference between three cylinders and therefore the ow
patterns can be classied because of the various angles of incident ow in small

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spacing ratios. These are ow patterns of proximity eect, shear layer reattachment
eect and wake eect. Furthermore, seven ow patterns or steps can be subdivided
as the angles of incident ow vary from 08 to 608.
(5) The eect of shear layer reattachment on the downstream cylinder, which is the
most serious interference case between cylinders, yields a signicant lateral force
directed either inward or outward from the center of the cylinder group depending
on the orientations of incident ow. This phenomenon is associated with some kind
of regular vortex shedding.

Acknowledgements
The project is supported by the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of
Higher Education (China). The authors thank to the anonymous reviewers for their
useful comments and suggestions. The authors are grateful to Professor Ren Wang
for his great help in preparing the revised manuscript and to Mr. Xiangdong Zhao
for his assistance in the ow visualization experiment.

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