Fluid Mechanics Seminar: Harish Dixit

When fluid flows past a stationary cylinder, we find the well known von Karman vortex street where vortices downstream of the cylinder align themselves in a zig-zag or anti-symmetric arrangement. If the cylinder oscillates in the direction of the mean flow, experiments have revealed that symmetric shedding is also possible.

In this talk, I will discuss our recent numerical efforts to understand various vortex shedding patterns that emerge for an in-line oscillating square cylinder. The result of a systematic parametric study by varying the frequency and amplitude of cylinder motion will be presented. At least two new modes of vortex shedding were discovered along with chaotic shedding. Towards the end of the talk, I will discuss our efforts at understanding these patters through a linear stability analysis on an oscillating base state.

Bio: Harish Dixit completed his Ph.D. at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore before coming to UBC for a postdoc in Mathematics under the supervision of G.M. Homsy. He is now Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at IIT Hyderabad. Dr. Dixit is interested in a wide range of scientific problems, ranging from collective motion of ants, problems driven by surface tension to large scale atmospheric flows.