Abstract
Numerical simulations are conducted for laminar flow past a sphere rotating In the transverse direction, in order to investigate the effect of the rotation on the characteristics of flow over a sphere. The Reynolds numbers considered are Re=100, 250 and 300 based on the free-stream velocity and the sphere diameter, and the rotational speeds are in the range of $0{\leq}{\omega}{\leq}1$, where ${\omega}^{\ast}$ is the maximum velocity on the sphere surface normalized by the free-stream velocity. At ${\omega}^{\ast}=0$ (without rotation), the flow past the sphere experiences steady axisymmeoy, steady planar-symmetry and unsteady planar-symmetry, respectively, at Re=100, 250 and 300. However, with rotation, the flow becomes planar-symmetric for all the cases investigated and the symmetry plane is orthogonal to the axis of the rotation. The flow is also steady or unsteady depending on both the Reynolds number and the rotational speed, and the vortical structures behind the sphere are significantly modified by the rotation. For example, at Re=300, hairpin vortices completely disappear in the wake at ${\omega}^{\ast}=0.4\;and\;0.6$, and at ${\omega}^{\ast}=1$ vortical structures of a high frequency are newly generated due to the shear layer instability. It is also shown that with increasing rotational speed, the time-averaged drag and lift coefficients increase monotonically.
