Synchronization of vortex shedding from a cylinder under rotary oscillation (Q1390167)

We present a numerical study of the unsteady two-dimensional, incompressible flow past a circular cylinder under rotary oscillation. Our aim is to simulate the synchronization or phase-locking phenomena via an explicit time-marching algorithm for the governing equations. Associated with the stream function \((\psi)\)-vorticity \((\omega)\) formulation of the Navier-Stokes equations, the Poisson equation for \(\psi\) is solved by a Fourier-finite analytic separation-of-variable approach. As for the vorticity transport equation, spatial discretization is performed by means of finite differences in which the convection terms are improved by an ENO (essentially non-oscillatory)-like data reconstruction process. The interior vorticity is then updated by an explicit, second-order Runge-Kutta method. As an application, we examine the possibility of reducing drag by means of rotary oscillation.