Steady incompressible fluid flow over a bundle of cylinders at moderate Reynolds numbers

The complete Navier-Stokes equations describing the steady flow of incompre ssible Newtonian fluids normal to an array of long cylinders have been solv ed numerically using the finite difference method in terms of the stream fu nction and vorticity variables. The inter-cylinder interactions have been m imicked using the well known free surface cell model. Extensive information on the detailed structure of the flow field in terms of the surface vortic ity distribution, stagnation pressure, stream line and iso-vorticity line p lots, as well as on the values of the integral quantities, such as pressure , friction and total drag coefficients, have been obtained under wide range s of conditions as follows: 0.3 less than or equal to epsilon less than or equal to 0.99 and 0.01 less than or equal to Re less than or equal to 100. The numerical results presented herein have been validated using the approp riate theoretical and experimental results available in the literature; the match between the present predictions and the scant experimental results i s good.