Effect of angle of incidence on wake and dynamic characteristics of surface-mounted square prism at low Re

Purpose This study aims to numerically investigate the three-dimensional (3D) unsteady wake characteristics of flow past surface-mounted finite height square prism at different values of aspect ratio (AR), angle of incidence (θ) and Reynolds number (Re). Design/methodology/approach Finite volume method (FVM) based commercial software ANSYS Fluent 2023 R1 has been used to solve the governing equations of fluid flow. The present study considers three-dimensional laminar incompressible viscous fluid flow. Findings Time-averaged streamlines with coefficient of pressure contours have been presented in different planes and the topological characteristics have been explained. Instantaneous vortical structures around the prism have been visualised with the help of iso-Q surfaces. In order to support the results quantitatively, variation of mean value of drag coefficient (Cdmean) has been presented for different values of angle of incidence and Re. Vortex shedding frequency has been analysed with the help of Fourier spectra. Originality/value The below discussed results show the importance of AR, angle of incidence and different values of Re for flow past surface-mounted square prism of finite height on the downstream wake. Effect of AR has been studied for three values, namely, 3, 4 and 5 and two representative values of angle of incidence (0° and 45°). The angle of incidence has been considered from 0° to 45° in steps of 7.5° for three values of AR. In addition, influence of Re has also been examined for five values in the range from 40 to 200 for fixed AR.