This article is concerned with the numerical analysis of reduction of fluid forces (drag and lift) and suppression of vortex shedding around two side‐by‐side square cylinders using the lattice Boltzmann method. For this purpose, a passive flow control methodology is adopted in which a flat plate (termed as the control plate) is placed at the upstream position of cylinders. The gap ratio (g) between the cylinders and the plate is varied from 0 to 4 while the height of the control plate is varied from 0.2 to 0.8 at fixed Reynolds number of 150. Different flow patterns are found in this study depending on the gap ratios and different heights of the control plate. These flow patterns are single bluff body flow, flip‐flopping flow, and antiphase vortex shedding flow patterns. The narrow gap ratio (g = 0.5) is found to have more impact in terms of force reduction and flow control as compared to larger gap ratios. This article also shows that the fluid flow parameters such as the mean drag coefficient, the Strouhal number, and rms values of drag and lift coefficients of both cylinders reduce considerably due to the control plate as compared to without the control plate. In this regard, it is found that the mean drag coefficient of upper cylinder reduces upto 45.94%, the Strouhal number of both cylinders reduces upto 18.66%, while a maximum reduction of 83.47% and 95.39% is observed in root‐mean‐square values of drag and lift coefficients of upper cylinder, respectively. Another important finding of this article is that the control plate does not suppress forces and control flow at all gap ratios and heights of control plate considered in this article. In some cases, the flow‐induced forces were found to be increasing as compared to without the control plate, and this generally happened at higher gap ratios.

The present study explores the impact of gap ratio (G) on the wake dynamics of two rectangular 5:1 cylinders placed inline at a fixed Reynolds number (Re) = 250. The lattice Boltzmann method is used for numerical simulations, and the gap ratio is varied in the range of 0.25–10. After validating the code for flow around a single square cylinder, the simulations are further carried out to explore the impact of gap ratio on the fluid flow past two inline cylinders with a similar aspect ratio = 5:1. Both the cylinders are found to face the reattachment of detached shear layers from front edges on to the side surfaces before the final separation. These reattached shear layers generate vortices on the upper and lower surface of cylinders exhibiting the reverse flow. For G < 4.5, the surface vortices appear on the first cylinder only, while for G ≥ 4.5, the surface vortices appear at both cylinders upper and lower sides. The reattachment point on the surface of the first cylinder is found to move downstream till G = 3, but after that, reverse phenomena occur with an increase in the gap ratio. The enhancement of flow induced lift results due to such separating and reattaching flow. Four distinct flow patterns appear at different gap ratios range: (a) single slender body, (b) non-fully developed duplex shedding, (c) fully developed duplex shedding, and (d) unpredictable vortex shedding. The root mean square value of drag coefficient for the first cylinder is mostly found less as compared to the second cylinder for all G. Negative pressure is observed at the upper, lower, and wake region of both bodies. However, the pressure appears to be positive at the foremost surface of second body when the flow pattern changed from fully developed duplex shedding to unpredictable vortex shedding. Strouhal of both cylinders shows distinct values corresponding to dual frequency at small gap ratios but becomes consistent at higher ones.

Rectangular cylinders have the potential to provide valuable insights into the behavior of fluids in a variety of real-world applications. Keeping this in mind, the current study compares the behavior of fluid flow around rectangular cylinders with an aspect ratio (AR) of 1:2 or 2:1 under the effect of the Reynolds number (Re). The incompressible lattice Boltzmann method is used for numerical computations. It is found that the flow characteristics are highly influenced by changes in the aspect ratio compared to the Reynolds number. The flow exhibits three different regimes: Regime I (steady flow), Regime II (initial steady flow that becomes unsteady afterward), and Regime III (completely unsteady flow). In the case of the cylinder with an aspect ratio of 2:1, vortex generation, variation in drag, and the lift coefficient occur much earlier at very low Reynolds numbers compared to the cylinder with an aspect ratio of 1:2. For the cylinder with an aspect ratio of 1:2, the Reynolds number ranges for Regimes I, II, and III are 1 $\le$ Re $\le$ 120, 121 $\le$ Re $\le$ 144, and 145 $\le$ Re $\le$ 200, respectively. For the cylinder with an aspect ratio of 2:1, the Reynolds number ranges for Regimes I, II, and III are 1 $\le$ Re $\le$ 24, 25 $\le$ Re $\le$ 39, and 40 $\le$ Re $\le$ 200, respectively. The cylinder with an aspect ratio of 1:2 is found to have the ability to stabilize the incoming flow due to its extended after-body flatness. Generally, it has been found that a cylinder with an AR of 2:1 is subjected to higher pressures, higher drag forces, higher curvatures of cross-flow rotations, and higher amplitudes of flow-induced drag, as well as higher lift coefficients and lower shedding frequencies, compared to cylinders with an AR of 1:2. In Regime III, elliptic and vertically mounted airfoil-like flow structures are also observed in the wake of the cylinders.