Investigation of turbulent flow past a yawed wavy cylinder

A large eddy simulation (LES) study was conducted to investigate the three-dimensional characteristics of the turbulent flow past wavy cylinders with yaw angles from 0° to 60° at a subcritical Reynolds number of 3900. The relationships between force coefficients and vortex shedding frequency with yaw angles for both wavy cylinders and circular cylinders were investigated. Experimental measurements were also performed for the validation of the present LES results. Comparing with corresponding yawed circular cylinders at similar Reynolds number, significant differences in wake vortex patterns between wavy cylinder and circular cylinder were observed at small yaw angles. The difference in wake pattern becomes insignificant at large yaw angles. The mean drag coefficient and the Strouhal number obey the independence principle for circular cylinders at yaw angle less than 45°, while the independence principle was found to be unsuitable for yawed wavy cylinders. In general, the mean drag coefficients and the fluctuating lift coefficients of a yawed wavy cylinder are less than those of a corresponding yawed circular cylinder at the same flow condition. However, with the increase of the yaw angle, the advantageous effect of wavy cylinder on force and vibration control becomes insignificant.     

Drag force on a free surface-piercing yawed circular cylinder in steady flow

The force distribution on a surface-piercing yawed cylinder surface differs significantly from that on a surface-piercing vertical cylinder. The established numerical model for flow past the surface-piercing yawed cylinder with yaw angles from −45° to 45° was solved by the standard large-eddy simulation (LES) methodology. Six cases at intervals of ±15° relative to the vertical were studied at the Reynolds number of 27 000 and the Froude number of 0.8 based on the cylinder diameter and free-stream velocity, among which the drag forces on four cylinders with yaw angles from −15° to 30° were tested for the validation of the LES approach. The results revealed that the time-averaged total drag coefficient for all cases increases with the increase of yaw angle compared to that of the surface-piercing vertical cylinder, even over 2.5 for the ±45°-yawed cylinders. The sectional drag coefficients for the negatively yawed cylinders are much greater than that for the vertical cylinder, and much less for the positively yawed cylinders. The unbalanced hydrostatic pressures on the inclined section are mainly responsible for those increment and decrement. Once the hydrostatic pressure was removed, the sectional drag coefficient on the mid-span of the positively yawed cylinder increases from the top section to the bottom, and decreases for the negatively yawed cylinder. The corresponding integrated total drag coefficient decreases with the increase of the yaw angle to ±15°, then increases with the further increase of the magnitude of yaw angle.     

Vortex induced vibration and vortex shedding characteristics of two side-by-side circular cylinders of different diameters in close proximity in steady flow

This paper presents results of a numerical study of vortex-induced vibrations of two side-by-side circular cylinders of different diameters in steady incompressible flow. The two-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with a SST k–ω turbulence model are solved using the Petrov–Galerkin finite element method and the Arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian scheme. The diameter ratio of the two cylinders is fixed at 0.1 and the mass ratio of both cylinders is 5.0. Both cylinders are constrained to oscillate in the transverse direction only. The Reynolds number based on the large cylinder diameter and free stream velocity is fixed at 5000. The effects of the reduced velocities of the cylinders on the vibration amplitude and vortex shedding regimes are investigated. It is found that for the range of parameters considered, collision between the two cylinders is dependent on the difference of the reduced velocities of the cylinders. Presence of the small cylinder in the proximity of the large one appears to have significant effects on the vortex shedding regime and vibration amplitude of the large cylinder.     

Experimental study on aerodynamic coefficients of yawed cylinders

This paper presents wind tunnel tests on a stationary cylinder inclined with the flow. The cylinder was positioned at different sets of yaw and vertical angles. The flow regime of the tests remained in the subcritical state. Two load cells were designed and installed to measure the aerodynamic forces, with enough sensitivity to measure vortex shedding frequencies. In this paper, the three aerodynamic force coefficients are normalized using the free stream velocity instead of its normal component. The results show that the drag coefficient and the resultant of the lift and side forces coefficients can be described by an empirical function of the incidence angle. The lift and side force coefficients remain however functions of both the horizontal yaw and vertical angles and cannot be expressed as functions of the incidence angle only. The Independence Principle was observed to become inaccurate for yaw angles larger than 40°. However, the measured Strouhal numbers indicate that the vortex shedding frequencies of a yawed cylinder can be predicted using the Independence Principle.     

Laminar boundary layer of infinitely long elliptic cylinders for an arbitrary yaw angle

Results are presented of the calculation of the laminar boundary layer on infinitely long elliptic cylinders in a supersonic perfect gas flow at an arbitrary angle of attack. It was assumed that the Prandtl number is constant and equal to 0.7, the dynamic viscosity coefficient follows a power-law variation ( T^0.76) with temperature, and there is high heat transfer at the body surface (H_1w=0.05).The calculations showed that a change of the body shape—the ellipticity coefficient =b/a—has a significant effect on the nature of the distribution and the magnitude of the local heat flux.In evaluating the thermal fluxes at the blunt leading edges, swept wings are usually considered as infinitely long yawed cylinders. In studying heat transfer at the surface of bodies of small aspect ratio at high angles of attack, wide use is made of the hypothesis of plane sections, when each section, orthogonal to the longitudinal axis of the body, is considered equivalent to a corresponding yawed infinite cylinder.By now quite detailed studies have been made of the behavior of the boundary layer on an infinitely long yawed circular cylinder with both the laminar and turbulent flow regimes for a compressible gas [1, 2]. However, there are no data on the heat transfer at the surface of a yawed infinite cylinder with arbitrary cross section, although the availability of such data is urgently needed, for example, for the proper selection of the form of the leading edges of the swept wing.This article presents the results of the calculation of the characteristics of the laminar boundary layer on the surface of infinite elliptic cylinders in a supersonic perfect gas flow. The calculations were made over a quite wide range of flight Mach number M, yaw angle , and ellipticity factor . The data presented on the distribution of the relative heat flux along the cylinder directrix may be used also for estimating the heat flux with account for the real properties of air if we know the corresponding value of the heat flux in the vicinity of the stagnation line.     

Aerodynamic control of bridge cables through shape modification: A preliminary study

This paper examines the viability of modifying bridge cable shape and surface for the purpose of controlling wind-induced vibrations. To this end, an extensive wind-tunnel test campaign was carried out on various cable shapes about the critical Reynolds number region. Cable shapes were chosen to passively modify the flow in a particular manner. Tested shapes included those which have some form of waviness, faceting and shrouding. Section models were tested using a static inclined rig, allowing them to be installed at yawed cable-wind angles for both smooth and turbulent flow conditions. The aerodynamic damping of the tested cylinders is evaluated by applying both 1- and 2-dof quasi-steady aerodynamic instability models. This allows for the prediction of regions of aerodynamic instability, as a function of flow angle and Reynolds number. Whilst the plain, wavy and faceted cylinders are predicted to suffer from either dry inclined galloping, “drag crisis” or Den Hartog galloping, the shrouded cylinder is found to be stable for all angles of attack, albeit with an increase in drag at typical design wind velocities. Finally, turbulent flow is found to introduce an increased amount of aerodynamic damping mainly by providing a more constant lift force over tested Reynolds numbers.     

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.     

Direct numerical simulation of three-dimensional flow past a yawed circular cylinder of infinite length

Direct numerical simulation of flow past a stationary circular cylinder at yaw angles (α) in the range of 0–60° was conducted at Reynolds number of 1000. The three-dimensional (3-D) Navier–Stokes equations were solved using the Petrov–Galerkin finite element method. The transition of the flow from 2-D to 3-D was studied. The phenomena that were observed in flow visualization, such as the streamwise vortices, the vortex dislocation and the instability of the shear layer, were reproduced numerically. The effects of the yaw angle on wake structures, vortex shedding frequency and hydrodynamic forces of the cylinder were investigated. It was found that the Strouhal number at different yaw angles (α) follows the independence principle. The mean drag coefficient agrees well with the independence principle. It slightly increases with the increase of α and reaches a maximum value at α=60°, which is about 10% larger than that when α=0°. The root-mean-square (r.m.s.) values of the lift coefficient are noticeably dependent on α.     

Experimental investigation on wake characteristics behind a yawed square cylinder

The wake vortical structures of a square cylinder at different yaw angles to the incoming flow ($\alpha =$0°, 15°, 30° and 45°) are studied using a one-dimensional (1D) hot-wire vorticity probe at a Reynolds number (Re) of about 3600. The results are compared with those obtained in a yawed circular cylinder wake. The Strouhal number (St_N) as well as the mean drag coefficient ($C_{D_N}$), normalized by the velocity component normal to the cylinder axis, follow the independent principle (IP) satisfactorily up to $\alpha =$40°. Using the phase-averaging analysis, both the coherent and the remaining contributions of velocity and vorticity are quantified. The flow patterns of the coherent spanwise vorticity (${\omega }_z$) display obvious Kármán vortex streets and their maximum concentrations decrease as $\alpha$ increases. Similar phenomena are also shown in the coherent contours of the streamwise ($u$) and transverse ($v$) velocities as well as the Reynolds shear stress ($uv$). The contours of the spanwise velocity ($w$) and Reynolds shear stress ($uw$), however, experience an increasing trend for the maximum concentrations with increasing yaw angle. These results indicate an enhancement of the three-dimensionality of the wake and the reduction of vortex shedding strength as $\alpha$ increases. While general similarities to the wake behind a yawed circular cylinder are found in terms of flow features, some differences between the two wakes at different yaw angles are highlighted.     

Three‐dimensional computation for flow‐induced vibrations in in‐line and cross‐flow directions of a circular cylinder

We present numerical results for in‐line and cross‐flow vibrations of a circular cylinder, which is immersed in a uniform flow and is elastically supported by damper‐spring systems to compute vibrations of a rigid cylinder. In the case of a circular cylinder with a low Scruton number, it is well‐known that two types of self‐excited vibrations appear in the in‐line direction in the range of low reduced velocities. On the other hand, a cross‐flow vibration of the circular cylinder can be excited in the range of high reduced velocities. Therefore, we compute the flow‐induced vibrations of the circular cylinder in the wide range of the reduced velocities at low and high Scruton numbers and discuss about excitation mechanisms in the in‐line and cross‐flow directions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vortex shedding from two finite circular cylinders in a staggered configuration

Wind tunnel experiments were conducted to measure the vortex shedding frequencies for two circular cylinders of finite height arranged in a staggered configuration. The cylinders were mounted normal to a ground plane and were partially immersed in a flat-plate turbulent boundary layer. The Reynolds number based on the cylinder diameter was Re_D=2.4×10⁴, the cylinder aspect ratio was AR=9, the boundary layer thickness relative to the cylinder height was δ/H=0.4, the centre-to-centre pitch ratio was varied from P/D=1.125 to 5, and the incidence angle was incremented in small steps from α=0° to 90°. The Strouhal numbers were obtained behind the upstream and downstream cylinders using hot-wire anemometry. From the behaviour of the Strouhal number data obtained at the mid-height position, the staggered configuration could be broadly classified by the pitch ratio as closely spaced (P/D<1.5), moderately spaced (1.5?P/D?3), or widely spaced (P/D>3). The closely spaced staggered finite cylinders were characterized by the same Strouhal number measured behind both cylinders, an indication of single bluff-body behaviour. Moderately spaced staggered finite cylinders were characterized by two Strouhal numbers at most incidence angles. Widely spaced staggered cylinders were characterized by a single Strouhal number for both cylinders, indicative of synchronized vortex shedding from both cylinders at all incidence angles. For selected staggered configurations representative of closely spaced, moderately spaced, or widely spaced behaviour, Strouhal number measurements were also made along the vertical lengths of the cylinders, from the ground plane to the free end. The power spectra showed that for certain cylinder arrangements, because of the influences of the cylinder–wall junction and free-end flow fields, the Strouhal numbers and flow patterns change along the cylinder.     

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.     

Cross-flow past a pair of nearly in-line cylinders with the upstream cylinder subjected to a transverse harmonic oscillation

An experimental investigation is presented for the cross-flow past a pair of staggered circular cylinders, with the upstream cylinder subject to forced harmonic oscillation transverse to the flow direction. Experiments were conducted in a water tunnel with Reynolds numbers, based on upstream velocity, U, and cylinder diameter, D, in the range 1440⩽Re⩽1680. The longitudinal separation between cylinder centres is L/D=2.0, with a transverse separation (for the mean position of the upstream cylinder) of T/D=0.17; the magnitude of the harmonic oscillation is 0.44D peak-to-peak and the nondimensional frequency range of the excitation is 0.05⩽f_eD/U⩽0.44. Flow visualization of the wake-formation region and hot-film measurements of the wake spectra are used to investigate the wake-formation process. An earlier study showed that stationary cylinders in this nearly in-line configuration straddle two very different flow regimes, the so-called shear-layer reattachment (SLR) and induced separation (IS) regimes. The present study, demonstrates that oscillation of the upstream cylinder causes considerable modification of the flow patterns around the cylinders. In particular, the wake experiences strong periodicities at the frequency of the oscillating cylinder; in addition to the usual fundamental lock-in, both sub- and superharmonic resonances are obtained. It is also observed that, although the flow exhibits regions of SLR and IS for excitation frequencies below the fundamental lock-in, for frequencies above the lock-in range the flow no longer resembles either of these flow regimes and vortices are formed in the gap between the cylinders.     

Traveling disturbance appearing in boundary layer transition in a Yawed cylinder

Boundary layers that develop over a body in fluid flow are in most cases three-dimensional owing to the spin, yaw, or surface curvature of the body. Therefore, the study of three-dimensional (3D) boundary-layer transition is essential to work in practical aerodynamics. The present investigation is concerned with the problem of 3D boundary layers over a yawed body. A yawed cylinder model that represents the leading edge portion of a swept wing and the mechanism of crossflow instability are investigated in detail using hot-wire velocimetry and a flow visualization technique. As a result, traveling disturbances having frequencies f₁ and f₂, which differ by about one order of magnitude, are detected in the transition region. The phase velocities and directions of travel of those disturbances are measured. Results for the low-frequency disturbance f₁ show qualitative coincidence with results numerically predicted for a crossflow unsteady disturbance. Nameley, F₁ travels nearly spanwise to the yawed cylinder and very close to the cylinder wall. The results for the high-frequency disturbance f₂ good agreement with the existing experimental results. The ₂ disturbance is found to be the high-frequency inflectional secondary instability that appears in 3D boundary layer transition in general. A two-stage transition process, where stationary crossflow vortices appear as the primary instability and a traveling inflectional disturbance is generated as a secondary instability, was observed. Secondary instability seems to play a major role in turbulent transition.     

Hydrodynamic forces on dual cylinders of different diameters in steady currents

Turbulent flow past two circular cylinders of different diameters is numerically investigated. The two-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are solved by using a finite element method with a k–ω turbulence closure. Following a relevant numerical model validation process, effects of cylinder gap-to-diameter ratio, the angular position of the smaller cylinder and the diameter ratio of cylinders on the vortex shedding and the forces on the cylinders are investigated using the numerical model. It is found that the relative position of the small cylinder has significant effects on the hydrodynamic force and vortex shedding characteristics of the cylinders.     

Critical Reynolds number and galloping instabilities: experiments on circular cylinders

The current paper considers large galloping-like vibrations of circular cylinders, generically inclined and yawed to the flow. The case of a round section prone to galloping is seemingly a paradox since rotational symmetry (or close to it) and classical galloping are apparently contradictory. Still there seems to be a range of wind speeds far from those for typical Kármán vortex shedding resonance where such a phenomenon does occur. Experimental results from both static and dynamic large-scale rigid cable models, presented here, show that this range coincides with the critical Reynolds number regime, where notable symmetry-breaking characteristics such as nonzero mean lift emerge. It is shown that a fundamental difference between the inclined and non-inclined cylinder aerodynamics may exist accommodating different pressure distributions and different resulting dynamic behaviours. Unsteady pressure measurements showing avalanche-like “jumps” and vortex dislocations building between cell structures in the cylinder spanwise direction are conjectured to be a key element in the unstable behaviour experienced.     

Global aerodynamic instability of twin cylinders in cross flow

This paper comprises an in-depth physical discussion of the flow-induced vibration of two circular cylinders in view of the time-mean lift force on stationary cylinders and interaction mechanisms. The gap-spacing ratio T/D is varied from 0.1 to 5 and the attack angle α from 0° to 180° where T is the gap width between the cylinders and D is the diameter of a cylinder. Mechanisms of interaction between two cylinders are discussed based on time-mean lift, fluctuating lift, flow structures and flow-induced responses. The whole regime is classified into seven interaction regimes, i.e., no interaction regime; boundary layer and cylinder interaction regime; shear-layer/wake and cylinder interaction regime; shear-layer and shear-layer interaction regime; vortex and cylinder interaction regime; vortex and shear-layer interaction regime; and vortex and vortex interaction regime. Though a single non-interfering circular cylinder does not correspond to a galloping following quasi-steady galloping theory, two circular cylinders experience violent galloping vibration due to shear-layer/wake and cylinder interaction as well as boundary layer and cylinder interaction. A larger magnitude of fluctuating lift communicates to a larger amplitude vortex excitation.     

Free circular viscoplastic fluid flow with a hydrolubricant layer in the gap between coaxial cylinders

Free circular viscoplastic fluid flow in the gap between coaxial cylinders with a hydrolubricant layer on the inner cylinder is investigated theoretically. Mathematical models of the velocities and shear stresses for the transported and lubricating fluids in the laminar flow regime are proposed.     

Large Eddy Simulation of Flow Control Around a Cube Subjected to Momentum Injection

The concept of Momentum Injection (MI) through Moving Surface Boundary layer Control (MSBC) applied to a cubic structure is numerically studied using Large Eddy Simulation at a Reynolds number of 6.7×10⁴. Two small rotating cylinders are used to add the momentum at the front vertical edges of the cube. Two configurations are studied with the yaw angle of 0° and 30°, respectively, with ratio of the rotation velocity of cylinders and the freestream velocity of 2. The results suggest that MI delays the boundary layer separation and reattachment, and thus reduces the drag. A drag reduction of about 6.2 % is observed in the 0° yaw angle case and about 44.1 % reduction in the 30° yaw angle case. In the case of 0° yaw angle, the main change of the flow field is the disappearance of the separation regions near the rotating cylinders and the wake region is slightly changed due to MI. In the 30° yaw angle case, the flow field is changed a lot. Large flow separations near one rotating cylinder and in the wake is significantly reduced, which results in the large drag reduction. Meanwhile, the yaw moment is increased about 50.5 %.     

Numerical simulation with a TVD–FVM method for circular cylinder wake control by a fairing

A water drop-shaped fairing is applied to control the wake behind a circular cylinder and to suppress the formation of Karman vortex street in this paper. The results are evaluated using high resolution CFD technique. A finite-volume total variation diminishing (TVD) approach based upon the recently proposed elemental velocity vector transformation (EVVT) method, which aims at solving the incompressible turbulent flow for irregular boundary conditions with renormalization group (RNG) turbulence model, is used to simulate the flow field around circular cylinder systems. The calculations are carried out with cylinder systems with and without fairings, while the fairings have different top shape angles within the range of $30°~90°$. The Reynolds number ranges from 1000 to 50 000. It is shown that the simulation results of present numerical method reaches good agreement with the available experimental and numerical simulation data of typical circular cylinder flow and a fixed fairing cylinder system flow. Compared with bare cylinder, the faired bluff structures can obviously reduce the lift and drag forces and alter the vortex shedding frequency. Overall, the mean drag coefficient can be reduced up to about (10–31)% and the RMS lift coefficient can be reduced up to (30–99)% for all faired systems at given Reynolds numbers. The influence of Reynolds number and attack angles on the flow field characters of bare cylinder and faired cylinders is also discussed. The faired structures with shape angles within $30°~45°$under zero-attack-angle-inflow case are considered as the optimal structures, with which the mean drag coefficient and the RMS lift coefficient can be reduced up to (26–31)% and (98–99)%, respectively. Considering the influence of attack angles on lift and drag coefficients reduction, 75° shaped faired structure may be taken as a proper option.