초록
Numerical simulations of laminar flow over a sphere are conducted to investigate the effect of the Reynolds number on the characteristics of vortex shedding. The Reynolds numbers considered are between 300 and 475, covering unsteady planar-symmetric and asymmetric flows. Results show that the unsteady planar-symmetric flow can be categorized into two different regimes: single-frequency regime and multiple-frequency regime. The former has a single frequency component due to periodic shedding of the vortices with the same strength in every shedding cycle, while the latter has multiple frequency components due to cycle-to-cycle variation in the strength of shed vortices with the shedding angle fixed. The multiple-frequency planar-symmetric flow, which is newly found in the present study, occurs at Re=330${\sim}$360 between the single-frequency planar-symmetric flow and the asymmetric flow. On the other hand, the asymmetric flow occurs at Re${\geq}$365, where the vortices shed from the sphere show variation both in strength and shedding angle unlike the planar-symmetric flow. Also, it is shown that the breaking of planar symmetry is closely related to the imbalance of vortical strength between a pair of streamwise vortices.