Numerical investigation on flow around circular cylinders in tandem arrangement at a subcritical Reynolds number

Three-dimensional fluid computations have been performed to investigate the flows around two circular cylinders in tandem arrangements at a subcritical Reynolds number, Re=2.2×10⁴. The center-to-center space between the cylinders was varied from twice the cylinder diameter to five times that, and the flows and fluid-dynamic forces obtained from the simulations are compared with the experimental results reported in the literature. Special attention is paid to the characteristics of the vortices shed from the upstream cylinder such as the convection, the impingement onto the downstream cylinder and the interaction with the vortices from the downstream cylinder. The effects of the vortices from the upstream cylinder on the fluid-dynamic forces acting on the downstream cylinder are discussed.     

Interference effect of an upstream larger cylinder on the lock-in vibration of a flexibly mounted circular cylinder

Experiments have been carried out to investigate the flow-induced vibration response of a flexibly mounted circular cylinder located in the vicinity of a larger cylinder and subjected to cross-flow. The interfering larger cylinder was placed upstream and had a diameter twice that of the vibrating cylinder. Complex interaction was observed between the flow over the two cylinders. The vibration responses of the flexible cylinder were classified into different regimes according to the relative positions of the two cylinders. In the-side-by-side arrangement and the tandem or near-tandem arrangement, flow-induced vibrations of the flexible cylinder were greatly suppressed. In the staggered arrangement which covered a large portion of the relative cylinder positions being investigated, vibrations of the smaller cylinder were greatly amplified. The vibration response curves were also largely modified with a broadening of the lock-in resonance range. A shift of the peak reduced velocity for maximum vibration response was also found. Flow visualizations and wake velocity measurements suggested that the modifications of the vibration responses were related to the presence or absence of constant or intermittent flow through the gap region between the two cylinders. The proposed mechanisms of flow interactions and the resulting vibration response characteristics could explain previous observations on flow-induced vibrations of two equal-sized circular cylinders reported in the literature.     

On the origin of wake-induced vibration in two tandem circular cylinders at low Reynolds number

We numerically investigate flow-induced vibrations of circular cylinders arranged in a tandem configuration at low Reynolds number. Results on the coupled force dynamics are presented for an isolated cylinder and a pair of rigid cylinders in a tandem configuration where the downstream cylinder is elastically mounted and free to vibrate transversely. Contrary to turbulent flows at high Reynolds number, low frequency component with respect to shedding frequency is absent in laminar flows. Appearance and disappearance of the vorticity regions due to reverse flow on the aft part of the vibrating cylinder is characterized by a higher harmonic in transverse load, which is nearly three times of the shedding frequency. We next analyze the significance of pressure and viscous forces in the composition of lift and their phase relations with respect to the structural velocity. For both the isolated and tandem vibrating cylinders, the pressure force supplies energy to the moving cylinder, whereas the viscous force dissipates the energy. Close to the excitation frequency ratio of one, the ratio of transverse viscous force to pressure force is found to be maximum. In addition, movement of stagnation point plays a major role on the force dynamics of both configurations. In the case of isolated cylinder, displacement of the stagnation point is nearly in-phase with the velocity. During vortex-body interaction, the phase difference between the transverse pressure force and velocity and the location of stagnation point determines the loads acting on the cylinder. When the transverse pressure force is in-phase with velocity, the stagnation point moves to higher suction region of the cylinder. In the case of the tandem cylinder arrangement, upstream vortex shifts the stagnation point on the downstream cylinder to the low suction region. Thus a larger lift force is observed for the downstream cylinder as compared to the vibrating isolated cylinder. Phase difference between the transverse load and the velocity of the downstream cylinder determines the extent of upstream wake interaction with the downstream cylinder. When the cylinder velocity is in-phase with the transverse pressure load component, interaction of wake vortex with the downstream cylinder is lower compared to other cases considered in this study. We extend our parametric study of tandem cylinders for the longitudinal center-to-center spacing ranging from 4 to 10 diameter.     

平面剪切来流作用下串列布置三圆柱流致运动特性研究

基于四步半隐式特征线分裂算子有限元方法,对Re=100时,剪切来流作用下串列三圆柱体双自由度流致振动问题进行了数值计算. 首先,与现有文献结果进行对比验证该方法的正确性. 然后,着重分析剪切率、固有频率比和折减速度三个关键参数对串列三圆柱体结构流致动力响应及流场特性的影响. 数值计算结果表明:剪切率、固有频率比与折减速度对结构振幅和运动轨迹的影响较大. 随剪切率的增大,上游圆柱最大振幅的变化与单圆柱工况类似. 中下游圆柱最大振幅会增大且会出现双向共振现象,同时,发生共振响应区域会扩大. 随固有频率比的增大,上游圆柱顺流向锁定区间范围会减小,而中下游圆柱双向锁定区间会扩大. 另一方面,均匀来流作用下,结构运动轨迹以"8"字形和不规则形状为主. 随剪切率的增大,锁定区间内运动轨迹会由"8"字形转变为"雨滴"形. 在大剪切率与高固有频率比工况下,中游圆柱体结构运动轨迹会出现"双雨滴"形状. 最后,通过对流场特性的分析,揭示了剪切来流作用下串列三圆柱结构流致运动响应的内在机理.      

Flow-induced oscillation of two circular cylinders in tandem arrangement at low Re

Results are presented for flow-induced vibrations of a pair of equal-sized circular cylinders of low nondimensional mass (m^*=10) in a tandem arrangement. The cylinders are free to oscillate both in streamwise and transverse directions. The Reynolds number, based on the free-stream speed and the diameter of the cylinders, D is 100 and the centre-to-centre distance between the cylinders is 5.5D. The computations are carried out for reduced velocities in the range 2≤U^*≤15. The structural damping is set to zero for enabling maximum amplitudes of oscillation. A stabilized finite element method is utilized to carry out the computations in two dimensions. Even though the response of the upstream cylinder is found to be qualitatively similar to that of an isolated cylinder, the presence of a downstream cylinder is found to have significant effect on the behaviour of the upstream cylinder. The downstream cylinder undergoes very large amplitude of oscillations in both transverse and streamwise directions. The maximum amplitude of transverse response of the downstream cylinder is quite similar to that of a single cylinder at higher Re beyond the laminar regime. Lock-in and hysteresis are observed for both upstream and downstream cylinders. The downstream cylinder undergoes large amplitude oscillations even beyond the lock-in state. The phase between transverse oscillations and lift force suffers a 180 jump for both the cylinders almost in the middle of the synchronization regime. The phase between the transverse response of the two cylinders is also studied. Complex flow patterns are observed in the wake of the freely vibrating cylinders. Based on the phase difference and the flow patterns, the entire flow range is divided into five sub-regions.     

Flow-induced vibration of a circular cylinder subjected to wake interference at low Reynolds number

Two- and three-dimensional numerical simulations of the flow around two circular cylinders in tandem arrangements are performed. The upstream cylinder is fixed and the downstream cylinder is free to oscillate in the transverse direction, in response to the fluid loads. The Reynolds number is kept constant at 150 for the two-dimensional simulations and at 300 for the three-dimensional simulations, and the reduced velocity is varied by changing the structural stiffness. The in-line centre-to-centre distance is varied from 1.5 to 8.0 diameters, and the results are compared to that of a single isolated flexible cylinder with the same structural characteristics, m^?=2.0 and ζ=0.007. The calculations show that significant changes occur in the dynamic behaviour of the cylinders, when comparing the flow around the tandem arrangements to that around an isolated cylinder: for the tandem arrangements, the lock-in boundaries are wider, the maximum displacement amplitudes are greater and the amplitudes of vibration for high reduced velocities, outside the lock-in, are very significant. The main responsible for these changes appears to be the oscillatory flow in the gap between the cylinders.     

Numerical simulation of flow-induced bi-directional oscillations

Flow-induced vibration (FIV) by vortex shedding behind a submerged cylinder can lead to damage of nuclear components. With respect to such a serious scenario, various experiments and numerical simulations have been conducted to predict the vibration phenomena. Especially in simulation, the immersed finite element method (IFEM) is a promising approach to solve fluid-structure interaction problems because it needs less computational resources. In this paper, two-dimensional motions of cylinders are simulated by using IFEM to obtain their vibration characteristics. Three benchmark tests such as flow past a fixed circular cylinder, in-line oscillation of a circular cylinder and flow-induced vibration with uni-directional motion are performed to verify the proposed numerical method. Furthermore, bi-directional motions of two horizontally and vertically arranged cylinders as well as that of a single cylinder in fluid flow are analyzed, and then key findings are fully discussed.     

The effect of arrangement of two circular cylinders on the maximum efficiency of Vortex-Induced Vibration power using a Scale-Adaptive Simulation model

The complex behaviour of an unsteady flow around two circular cylinders in tandem is of interest for many civil engineering applications across a wide range of aerospace, mechanical and marine applications. The present paper analyses Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV) for the flow around two circular cylinders. It has been shown that the amount of kinetic energy which can be captured by VIV is a function of the arrangement of the two cylinders. The upstream cylinder is fixed while the downstream is mounted elastically with one degree of freedom normal to the mean flow direction. The efficiency of the VIV power obtained from downstream cylinder is compared for different arrangement of the cylinders. For this purpose, the longitudinal and lateral distances between the cylinders were varied and the Reynolds number was kept constant. Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) and Shear Stress Transport (SST) CFD models are utilized to analyse the validity of the SAS turbulence model. The results indicate that both turbulence models predict the flow characteristics around the cylinders with reasonable precision; however, the predictions from SAS were more accurate compared to the SST. Based on this comparison, SAS model was chosen as a tool to analyse the VIV response of the downstream cylinder. The location of the downstream cylinder has been altered in the wake of upstream one in order to obtain the optimum efficiency of the VIV power. The results reveal that the arrangement of the cylinders can significantly change the efficiency. It is also observed that cylinders offset from one another show a higher efficiency compared to cylinders with their centres aligned.     

Flow-induced vibration of a flexibly mounted circular cylinder in the proximity of a larger cylinder downstream

A flexibly mounted circular cylinder is placed upstream of a stationary cylinder twice as large. Flow-induced vibration response of the small cylinder is measured with the interfering cylinder placed at 57 relative locations. In most situations, reduced-amplitude vibration or even no vibration is observed. Lock-in resonance remains the dominant vibration behavior, but the reduced velocity of peak lock-in is found to shift to a value higher or lower than the isolated cylinder value, depending on the lateral separation between the two cylinders. When the flexible cylinder is located just in front of the large cylinder, galloping-type vibration of very large amplitude occurs at reduced velocities above 12. Mechanisms of flow-induced vibration are discussed with the aid of flow visualizations. The present study supplements a previous paper reporting amplified vibration of the flexible cylinder with the interfering cylinder placed in various upstream locations.     

基于浸入边界-格子Boltzmann通量求解法的椭圆柱流动特性分析

基于浸入边界-格子Boltzmann通量求解法,开展了雷诺数Re=100不同几何参数下单椭圆柱及串列双椭圆柱绕流流场与受力特性对比研究。结果表明,随长短轴比值的增加,单椭圆柱绕流阻力系数先减小后缓慢上升,最大升力系数则随长短轴比值的增大而减小;尾迹流动状态从周期性脱落涡到稳定对称涡。间距是影响串列圆柱及椭圆柱流场流动状态的主要因素,间距较小时,串列圆柱绕流呈周期性脱落涡状态,而椭圆柱则为稳定流动;随着间距增加,上下游圆柱及椭圆柱尾迹均出现卡门涡街现象,且串列椭圆柱临界间距大于串列圆柱。串列椭圆柱阻力的变化规律与圆柱的基本相同,上游平均阻力大于下游阻力;上游椭圆柱阻力随着间距的变大先减小,下游随间距的变大而增加,当间距达到临界间距时上下游阻力跃升,随后出现小幅度波动再逐渐增加,并趋近于相同长短轴比值下单柱体绕流的阻力。     

Investigation of passive oscillations of flexible splitter plates attached to a circular cylinder

This paper presents a numerical study to address wake control of a circular cylinder subjected to two-dimensional laminar flow regime using single and multiple flexible splitter plates attached to the cylinder. Three different cases are presented in the study, covering cylinders with one, two and three horizontally attached splitter plates while the locations of the plates around the cylinders are varied. The length of the splitter plates was equal to the cylinder diameter and Reynolds number was 100. Due to the flexibility of the plates, the problem was modeled as a Fluid–Structure Interaction (FSI) problem and the commercial finite element software, Comsol Multiphysics, was utilized to solve this problem using Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method. Vortex shedding frequency and fluid forces acting on the cylinder are investigated, along with a comprehensive parametric study to identify the optimum arrangement of the plates for maximum drag reduction and maximum vortex shedding frequency reduction. The numerical results associated to the flexible splitter plates are also compared with the corresponding rigid splitter plate cases investigated in a previous study. Moreover, the tip amplitude of the plates and the maximum strains were measured in order to find an optimum position for placing a piezoelectric polymer to harvest energy from the flow.     

Characteristics and suppression of flow-induced vibrations of two side-by-side circular cylinders

A free-vibration experiment was conducted to examine flow-induced vibration (FIV) characteristics of two identical circular cylinders in side-by-side arrangements at spacing ratio T^⁎ (=T/D)=0.1–3.2, covering all possible flow regimes, where T is the gap spacing between the cylinders and D is the cylinder diameter. Each of the cylinders was two-dimensional, spring mounted, and allowed to vibrate independently in the cross-flow direction. Furthermore, an attempt to suppress flow-induced vibrations was undertaken by attaching flexible sheets at the rear stagnation lines of the cylinders. Based on the vibration responses of the two cylinders, four vibration patterns I, II, III and IV are identified at 0.1≤T^⁎<0.2, 0.2≤T^⁎≤0.9, 0.9<T^⁎<2.1 and 2.1≤T^⁎≤3.2, respectively. Pattern I is characterized by the two cylinders vibrating inphase^, with the maximum amplitudes occurring at the same reduced velocity Ur=10.47 almost two times that (Ur=5.25) for an isolated cylinder. Pattern II features no vibration generated for either cylinder. Pattern III exemplifies the occurrence of the maximum vibration amplitude of a cylinder at a smaller Ur and that of the other cylinder at a higher Ur compared to its counterpart in an isolated cylinder. Pattern IV represents each cylinder response resembling an isolated cylinder response; the vibrations of the two cylinders are, however, coupled inphase or antiphase. Linking maximum vibration amplitudes to fluctuating lift forces acting on fixed cylinders reveals that fluid–structure interactions between two fixed cylinders and between two elastic cylinders are not the same, even though vibration is not significant. As such, while two fixed cylinders generate narrow and wide wakes at 0.2≤T^⁎<1.7, two elastic cylinders do the same for a longer range of T^⁎ (0.2≤T^⁎<2.1). The flexible sheets effectively suppress FIV of the two cylinders in patterns III and IV, and reduce the vibration amplitude in pattern I. For the effectively controlled cases (patterns III and IV), the flexible sheet of each cylinder folds into a semicircle at the base, forming two free edges.     

Numerical predictions of low Reynolds number flows over two tandem circular cylinders

Flows over two tandem cylinders were analysed using the newly developed collocated unstructured computational fluid dynamics (CUCFD) code, which is capable of handling complex geometries. A Reynolds number of 100, based on cylinder diameter, was used to ensure that the flow remained laminar. The validity of the code was tested through comparisons with benchmark solutions for flow in a lid‐friven cavity and flow around a single cylinder. For the tandem cylinder flow, also mesh convergence was demonstrated, to within a couple of percent for the RMS lift coefficient. The mean and fluctuating lift and drag coefficients were recorded for centre‐to‐centre cylinder spacings between 2 and 10 diameters. A critical cylinder spacing was found between 3.75 and 4 diameters. The fluctuating forces jumped appreciably at the critical spacing. It was found that there exists only one reattachment and one separation point on the downstream cylinder for spacings greater than the critical spacing. The mean and the fluctuating surface pressure distributions were compared as a function of the cylinder spacing. The mean and the fluctuating pressures were significantly different between the upstream and the downstream cylinders. These pressures also differed with the cylinder spacing. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flow-induced vibrations of two circular cylinders in tandem with shear flow at low Reynolds number

The flow-induced vibrations of two elastically mounted circular cylinders subjected to the planar shear flow in tandem arrangement are studied numerically at Re=160. A four-step semi-implicit Characteristic-based split (4-SICBS) finite element method is developed under the framework of the fractional step method to cope with the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) problem. For the computational code verification, two benchmark problems are examined in the laminar region: flow-induced vibration of an elastically mounted cylinder having two degrees of freedom and past two stationary ones in tandem arrangement. Regarding the two-cylinder VIVs in shear flow, the computation is conducted with the cylinder reduced mass M_r=2.5π and the structural damping ratio ξ=0.0. The effects of some key parameters, such as shear rate (k=0.0, 0.05, 0.1), reduced velocity (U_r=3.0–18.0) and spacing ratio (L_x/D=2.5, 3.5, 4.5, 8.0), are demonstrated. It is observed that the shear rate and reduced velocity play an important role in the VIVs of both cylinders at various center-to-center distances. Additionally, in comparison with the single cylinder case, a further study indicated that the gap flow has a significant impact on such a dynamic system, leading it to be more complex. The results show that, the performances of ‘dual-resonant’ are discovered in the shear flow. A valley is formed in transverse oscillation amplitude of DC for each spacing ratio when U_r is about 6.0. For the X–Y trajectories of the circular cylinders, figure-eight, figure-O and oval shape are obtained. Finally, the interactions between cylinders are revealed, together with the wake-induced vibration (WIV) mechanism underlying the oscillation characteristics of both cylinders exposed to shear flow. Besides, the “T+P” wake pattern is discovered herein.     

Flow of wormlike micelle solutions past a confined circular cylinder

In this paper, we present the results of an investigation into the flow of a series of viscoelastic wormlike micelle solutions past a confined circular cylinder. Although this benchmark flow has been studied in great detail for polymer solutions, this paper reports the first experiments to use a viscoelastic wormlike micelle solution as the test fluid. The flow kinematics, stability and pressure drop were examined for two different wormlike micelle solutions over a wide range of Deborah numbers and cylinder to channel aspect ratios. A combination of particle image velocimetry and pressure drop measurements were used to characterize the flow kinematics, while flow-induced birefringence measurements were used to measure the micelle deformation and alignment in the flow. The pressure drop was found to decrease initially due to the shear thinning of the test fluid before increasing at higher flow rates as elastic effects begin to dominate the flow. Above a critical Deborah number, an elastic instability was observed for just one of the test fluids studied, the other remained stable for all Deborah number tested. Flow-induced birefringence and velocimetry measurements showed that observed instability originates in the extensional flow in the wake of the cylinder and appears not as periodic counter-rotating vortices as has been observed in the flow of polymer solutions past circular cylinders, but as a chaotic rupture event in the wake of the cylinder that propagates axially along the cylinder. Reducing the cylinder to channel aspect ratio and the degree of shearing introduced by the channel walls had a weak impact on the stability of the flow. These measurements, when taken in conjunction with previous work on flow of wormlike micelle solutions through a periodic array of cylinders, definitively show that the instability can be attributed to a breakdown of the wormlike micelle solutions in the extensional flow in the wake of the cylinder.     

THE FLUID AND MECHANICAL COUPLING BETWEEN TWO CIRCULAR CYLINDERS IN TANDEM ARRANGEMENT

The effect of the fluid and mechanical coupling between two flexible circular cylinders on their vortex-induced oscillations is examined in a wind tunnel. The cylinders are in a tandem arrangement and a mechanical coupling allows vibrations in phase and out of phase. The separation between the cylinders ranges between 7 and 25 diameters. When the cylinders are coupled only by fluid, the upstream cylinder behaves as an isolated one, while the downstream cylinder response depends on the separation and presents a hysteresis and three discontinuities. The hysteresis and its discontinuities agree with those of the upstream cylinder and the third discontinuity coincides with the end of synchronization of the windward cylinder. The addition of the mechanical coupling complicates the dynamic response which is greatly influenced by the separation and the coupling mode involved. The results are interpreted according to those dealing with the fluid coupling only. The effect of small-scale grid turbulence is also examined.     

Computational simulation of the flow-induced vibration of a circular cylinder subjected to wake interference

In this work, we considered the flow around two circular cylinders of equal diameter placed in tandem with respect to the incident uniform flow. The upstream cylinder was fixed and the downstream cylinder was completely free to move in the cross-stream direction, with no spring or damper attached to it. The centre-to-centre distance between the cylinders was four diameters, and the Reynolds number was varied from 100 to 645. We performed two- and three-dimensional simulations of this flow using a Spectral/hp element method to discretise the flow equations, coupled to a simple Newmark integration routine that solves the equation of the dynamics of the cylinder. The differences of the behaviours observed in the two- and three-dimensional simulations are highlighted and the data is analysed under the light of previously published experimental results obtained for higher Reynolds numbers.     

Forces on surface-piercing vertical circular cylinder groups on flooding staircase

Flooding into underground spaces has become a common threat and caused significant damages and casualties in the past decades. To improve the understanding of people walking through the flooding staircase, a 1:2-scale physical model of a staircase with rest platform was assembled. An instrument was developed to measure the hydrodynamic forces acting on individual vertical circular cylinders, as well as cylinder groups arranged side-by-side, in tandem and staggered cylinder arrays on the flooding staircase. The results show that the horizontal hydrodynamic force on a cylinder increases rapidly with the increasing of the inundated depth on the entrance of the staircase. With a side-by-side tight cylinder array, the force on the central cylinder is always larger than an isolated one. The force on the downstream cylinder in tandem cylinder array is always smaller. However, the drag coefficients of both cases are much larger than the corresponding ones in a horizontal bed channel. For the case of staggered cylinder array, the force on the downstream cylinder varies with the change of the transverse spacing and the longitudinal distance between cylinders.     

正方形排列四圆柱体绕流特性及互扰效应研究

基于计算流体动力学理论,运用大涡模拟方法对雷诺数Re=3900三维正方形排列四圆柱体结构群的绕流问题进行数值计算,主要分析来流攻角与间距比两个参数对四圆柱体结构群流体参数及流场模态的影响。结果表明:来流攻角与间距比均对四圆柱体结构群绕流特性有较强的影响;来流攻角θ=0°、22.5°、45°下,临界间距比分别为3.5、4.0、3.0;间距比的变化会导致下游圆柱表面压力系数分布发生改变;另一方面,间距比较小时,四圆柱体结构之间的互扰作用均以临近效应为主;随间距比增大,上游圆柱尾流对下游圆柱有显著影响,其互扰作用会转变尾激效应。