Flow behavior downstream of two side-by-side circular cylinders in shallow water

Investigations of bistable flow structure past a pair of cylinders positioned side-by-side in shallow water is conducted experimentally applying dye observation and the particle image velocimetry (PIV) method. For the gap ratio of G/D = 1.25, the jet-like flow between cylinders deflects asymmetrical flow structures forming a large-scale wake as well as a small-scale wake downstream of cylinders. The small vortices around the right cylinder get closer to each other forming a larger vortex in the large-scale wake region, which leads the jet-like flow to changeover side to side. The small frequency (f = 0.352 Hz) associated with frequency of vortex shedding of cylinder with wider wake and the higher frequency (f = 0.793 Hz) which depicts the smaller wakes frequency.