Lock-in of the vortex-induced vibrations of a long tensioned beam in shear flow

The occurrence of lock-in, defined as the local synchronization between the vortex shedding frequency and the cross-flow structural vibration frequency, is investigated in the case of a tensioned beam of length to diameter ratio 200, free to move in both the in-line and cross-flow directions, and immersed in a linear shear current. Direct numerical simulation is employed at three Reynolds numbers, from 110 to 1100, so as to include the transition to turbulence in the wake. The Reynolds number influences the response amplitudes, but in all cases we observed similar fluid–structure interaction mechanisms, resulting in high-wavenumber vortex-induced vibrations consisting of a mixture of standing and traveling wave patterns.Lock-in occurs in the high oncoming velocity region, over at least 30% of the cylinder length. In the case of multi-frequency response, at any given spanwise location lock-in is principally established at one of the excited vibration frequencies, usually the locally predominant one. The spanwise patterns of the force and added mass coefficients exhibit different behaviors within the lock-in versus the non-lock-in region. The spanwise zones where the flow provides energy to excite the structural vibrations are located mainly within the lock-in region, while the flow damps the structural vibrations in the non-lock-in region.     

Two-degree-of-freedom vortex-induced vibrations of a circular cylinder at Re=3900

The vortex-induced vibrations of an elastically mounted circular cylinder are investigated on the basis of direct numerical simulations. The body is free to move in the in-line and cross-flow directions. The natural frequencies of the oscillator are the same in both directions. The Reynolds number, based on the free stream velocity and cylinder diameter, is set to 3900 and kept constant in all simulations. The behavior of the coupled flow-structure system is analyzed over a wide range of the reduced velocity (inverse of the natural frequency) encompassing the lock-in range, i.e. where body motion and flow unsteadiness are synchronized. The statistics of the structural responses and forces are in agreement with prior experimental results. Large-amplitude vibrations develop in both directions. The in-line and cross-flow oscillations are close to harmonic; they exhibit a frequency ratio of 2 and a variable phase difference across the lock-in range. Distinct trends are noted in the force-displacement phasing mechanisms in the two directions: a phase difference jump associated with a sign change of the effective added mass and a vibration frequency crossing the natural frequency is observed in the cross-flow direction, while no phase difference jump occurs in the in-line direction. Higher harmonic components arise in the force spectra; their contributions become predominant when the cylinder oscillates close to the natural frequency. The force higher harmonics are found to impact the transfer of energy between the flow and the moving body, in particular, by causing the emergence of new harmonics in the energy transfer spectrum.     

TWO-DIMENSIONAL VORTEX-INDUCED VIBRATION OF CABLE SUSPENSIONS

Resonant responses of suspended elastic cables driven by a steady current are investigated. Phenomenological fluid force models for alternate vortex-shedding are coupled with the nonlinear partial differential equations of cable motion. Decoupled cross-flow and in-line vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) are examined first using linearized and nonlinear cable models. The linearized cable model predicts well the basic characteristics of VIV and the nonlinear cable model captures the hysteresis often observed in experiments. Next, coupled cross-flow and in-line vibrations are evaluated by considering two principal coupling mechanisms: (i) cable structural nonlinearities, and (ii) coupled fluid lift and drag. Attention is focused on a “worst-case” resonant response where the natural frequencies for cable modes in the cross-flow and in-line directions are in the same 1:2 ratio as the excitation frequencies associated with lift and drag. The inclusion of cable structural nonlinearities alone leads to coupled responses that differ qualitatively (i.e., in number and stability of periodic motions) when compared to those of the decoupled model. The inclusion of coupled fluid lift and drag produces non-planar “figure eight” motions of the cable cross-section that exhibit similar characteristics to those previously measured on spring supported cylinders.     

Shear flow induced vibrations of long slender cylinders with a wake oscillator model

A time domain model is presented to study the vibrations of long slender cylinders placed in shear flow. Long slender cylinders such as risers and tension legs are widely used in the field of ocean engineering. They are subjected to vortex-induced vibrations(VIV) when placed within a transverse incident flow. A three dimensional model coupled with wake oscillators is formulated to describe the response of the slender cylinder in cross-flow and in-line directions. The wake oscillators are distributed along the cylinder and the vortex-shedding frequency is derived from the local current velocity. A non-linear fiuid force model is accounted for the coupled effect between cross-flow and in-line vibrations. The comparisons with the published experimental data show that the dynamic features of VIV of long slender cylinder placed in shear flow can be obtained by the proposed model,such as the spanwise average displacement,vibration frequency,dominant mode and the combination of standing and traveling waves. The simulation in a uniform flow is also conducted and the result is compared with the case of nonuniform flow. It is concluded that the flow shear characteristic has significantly changed the cylinder vibration behavior.     

On the validity of the independence principle applied to the vortex-induced vibrations of a flexible cylinder inclined at 60°

The vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) of a flexible cylinder inclined at 60° are investigated by means of direct numerical simulation, at a Reynolds number equal to 500, based on the cylinder diameter and inflow velocity. The cylinder has a circular cross-section and a length to diameter aspect ratio equal to 50; it is modeled as a tension-dominated structure which is free to oscillate in the in-line and cross-flow directions. The behavior of the coupled fluid–structure system is examined for two values of the tension. Particular attention is paid to the validity of the independence principle (IP) which states that the inclined and normal-incidence body cases are comparable if the inflow velocity normal component is used to scale the physical quantities.The flexible cylinder exhibits regular VIV for both values of the tension. In the high-tension configuration, where the in-line bending of the structure remains small, the IP is shown to be valid for the prediction of the cylinder responses and the fluid forces. In contrast, in the lower-tension configuration, the behavior of the fluid–structure system deviates from the IP. It is shown that this deviation is connected to the larger in-line bending of the structure which leads to considerably different profiles of the flow velocity locally perpendicular to the body in the inclined and normal cylinder cases. Since the system behavior appears to be mainly driven by this component of the flow, the profile modification induced by the larger in-line bending results in distinct responses: multi-frequency vibrations are observed in the inclined cylinder case whereas mono-frequency oscillations of larger amplitudes develop at normal incidence.     

On shear flow single mode lock-in with both cross-flow and in-line lock-in mechanisms

A long flexible cylinder exposed to ocean currents is known to undergo vortex-induced vibration (VIV). In a spatially sheared flow the response of a riser to VIV can vary from single mode lock-in to multimodal. A new experimental facility was designed and built to investigate the above-mentioned areas. The facility consisted of a long flexible cylinder in either a uniform or a simplified vertically sheared flow. The instrumentation consisted of direct local fluid force measurement at two locations on the cylinder as well as accelerometers spaced along the cylinder axis. The simplified shear flow was a 2-slab flow, with each slab having uniform velocity. Test conditions included forcing the cylinder simultaneously at resonance in both regions to investigate modal competition issues and multimodal response patterns. Resonant VIV excitation of two different modes simultaneously, was conducted which revealed single mode lock-in of the higher frequency through an unexpected mechanism. The higher frequency mode's damping region underwent in-line excitation at four times the predicted shedding frequency that provided a power-in effect to support the dominant mode's cross-flow response.     

Effect of internal flow on vortex-induced vibration of risers

Although there are many studies dedicated to the problem of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of marine risers, VIV experiments with internally flowing fluid have not been carried out before. In order to investigate this area, the present experiment with an internally flowing fluid and external current was designed. The riser was towed in the water flume with varying internal flow speeds. The tests in still water and in a current were conducted successfully. Various measurements were obtained including the frequency responses and the time-domain tracing of in-line and cross-flow responses. The experimental results exhibit several valuable features. First, with an increase in internal flow speed, the response amplitude increases while the vibration frequency decreases. Secondly, internally flowing fluid lessens the correlation of the vibration between different sections. In addition, by plotting both in-line strain and cross-flow strain simultaneously, a figure-of-eight for bending strain is also observed, and the trajectories in different cycles are more concordant with the increase of internal flow speed.     

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.     

A linear stability approach to vortex-induced vibrations and waves

The motion induced by vortex shedding on slender flexible structures subjected to cross-flow is considered here. This phenomenon of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) is analysed by considering the linear stability of a coupled system that includes the structure dynamics and the wake dynamics. The latter is modelled by a continuum of wake oscillators, distributed along the span of the structure. In the case of uniform flows over a straight tensioned cable, VIV are found to arise as an instability related to the merging of two waves. In the case of a cable of finite length, the selection of modes that experience lock-in with the wake is found using the same stability argument. In non-uniform flows, several unstable wave systems are identified, and competition between them is discussed. Comparison is then made with existing experimental and computational data of VIV of slender structures under uniform and non-uniform flows. Phenomena previously identified in these systems, such as mode switching when the flow velocity is varied, time sharing of the response between two frequencies, or the coexistence of several regions of VIV with different dynamics in the same structure, are discussed with the help of the proposed model.     

Frequency lock-in is caused by coupled-mode flutter

The mechanism underlying the lock-in of frequencies in flow-induced vibrations is analysed using elementary linear dynamics. Considering the case of lock-in in vortex-induced vibrations (VIV), we use a standard wake oscillator model, as in previous studies, but in its simplest form where all nonlinear terms and all dissipative terms are neglected. The stability of the resulting linear system is analysed, and a range of coupled-mode flutter is found. In this range, the frequency of the most unstable mode is found to deviate from the Strouhal law when the frequency of the wake oscillator approaches that of the free cylinder motion. Simultaneously the growth rate resulting from coupled-mode flutter increases, which would lead to higher vibration amplitudes. The extent of the range of lock-in is then compared with experimental data, showing a good agreement. It is therefore stated that the lock-in phenomenon, such as in VIV, is a particular case of linear coupled-mode flutter.     

大柔性圆柱体两自由度涡激振动试验研究

基于模型试验研究了柔性圆柱体两自由度涡激振动问题, 研究了顺流向涡激振动和横向涡激振动的频率与振幅关系, 提出了考虑流固耦合的两自由度涡激振动非线性分析模型. 研究表明, 在不同的流速(雷诺数)范围, 柔性圆柱体顺流向涡激振动与横向涡激振动的频率比和幅值比是不同的; 在非锁定区, 圆柱体的顺流向振动频率与横向振动频率相同, 在锁定区, 圆柱体的顺流向振动频率是横向振动频率的两倍; 在非锁定区, 顺流向振幅与横向振幅比约为1, 而在锁定区, 顺流向振幅与横向振幅比约为1/3~2/3.      

Multi-modes approach to modelling of vortex-induced vibration

In this work the fluid–structure interactions are considered by investigating a straight but slender pipe interacting with uniform water flow. Two configurations are studied, namely vertically and horizontally positioned pipes, which are modelled as an Euler–Bernoulli beam with flexural stiffness. Both pretension and length-wise mass distribution are considered. The structure is assumed to be moving only in the direction normal to flow (cross-flow motion) hence its in-line motion is neglected. The external fluid force acting on the structure is the result of the action of sectional vortex-induced drag and lift forces. Only mean drag force is considered, with time varying lift force modelled using a non-linear oscillator equation of the Van der Pol type. The obtained coupled system of non-linear partial differential equations is simplified employing Galerkin-type discretisation. The resulting ordinary differential equations are solved numerically providing multi-mode approximations of cross-flow displacement and non-dimensional lift coefficient. The comparison between the responses of vertical and horizontal structures shows that, as expected, due to a balancing between pretension and weight, in general a higher amplitude of vibration is observed for the vertical configuration than in the same location along the pipe for the horizontal configuration in the lower part of the structure. However, lower amplitudes are obtained in the upper part of the pipe. The horizontal configuration solutions are identical in symmetrical locations along the pipe due to constant pretension. The influence of the wake equation coefficients and the fluid force coefficients on the response amplitudes has been also considered together with the length of the pipe and pretension level, and the appropriate response curves are included. Finally, for the higher mode approximations it has been shown that the vibrations level at lower frequencies is predicted reasonably well by retaining only a small subset of modes.     

Wake-induced vibrations of an elastically mounted cylinder located downstream of a stationary larger cylinder at low Reynolds numbers

Two-dimensional numerical simulations of flow past two unequal-sized circular cylinders in tandem arrangement are performed at low Reynolds numbers (Re). The upstream larger cylinder is stationary, while the downstream cylinder has both one (transverse-only) and two (transverse and in-line) degrees of freedom (1-dof and 2-dof, respectively). The Re, based on the free stream velocity U_∞ and the downstream cylinder diameter d, varies between 50 and 200 with a wide range of reduced velocities U_r. The diameter of the upstream cylinder is twice that of the downstream cylinder, and the center-to-center spacing is 5.5d. In general, for the 1-dof case, the calculations show that the wake-induced vibrations (WIV) of the downstream cylinder are greatly amplified when compared to the case of a single cylinder or two equal-sized cylinders. The transverse amplitudes build up to a significantly higher level within and beyond the lock-in region, and the U_r associated with the peak amplitude shifts toward a higher value. The dominant wake pattern is 2S mode for Re=50 and 100, while with the increase of Re to 150 and 200, the P+S mode can be clearly observed at some lower U_r. For the 2-dof vibrations, the transverse response characteristics are similar to those presented in the corresponding 1-dof case. The in-line responses are generally much smaller, except for several significant vibrations resulting from in-line resonance. The obvious in-line vibration may induce a C (chaotic) vortex shedding mode for higher Re (Re=200). With regard to the 2-dof motion trajectories, besides the typical figure-eight pattern, several odd patterns such as figure-double eight and single-looped trajectories are also obtained due to the wake interference effect.     

考虑非稳态风荷载斜拉索风雨激振响应分析

为研究自然风荷载对斜拉桥拉索风雨激振的影响,将数值模拟的非稳态风荷载作用到拉索振动微分方程中,对拉索振动响应进行了详细分析。首先,针对水线初始位置,使用最小二乘法拟合得到水线初始位置方程;接着,采用四阶Runge-Kutta法求解拉索振动响应。通过比较在非稳态风和稳态平均风作用下的拉索响应,发现在非稳态风荷载下拉索最大振幅的变化趋势并没有发生较大改变,皆是随着风速的增大先增大后减小;但拉索的整个振动过程发生了变化,伴随着节拍改变,其最大振幅也出现在不同振动周期内。此外,从风速-振幅曲线知,对频率为1 Hz,2 Hz和3 Hz的拉索,在一定风速范围内,考虑非稳态风荷载的拉索振幅反而更大,而且此时的风速范围也更大。     

Vortex-induced vibration of two elastically coupled cylinders in side-by-side arrangement

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of two elastically coupled circular cylinders in side-by-side arrangement is investigated numerically. The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are solved by the finite element method for simulating the flow and the equation of motion is solved for calculating the vibration. The mass ratio (the ratio of the mass of the cylinder to the displaced fluid mass) is 2 and the Reynolds number is 5000 in the simulations. Simulations are carried out for one symmetric configuration (referred to be Case A) and one asymmetric configuration (referred to be Case B). In both Case A and Case B, the primary response frequencies of the two cylinders are found to be the same both inside and outside the lock-in regimes. Five response regimes are found in both cases and they are the first-mode lock-in regime, the second-mode lock-in regime, the sum-frequency lock-in regime and two transition regimes. When the vibration is transiting from the first- to the second-mode lock-in regimes, the vibration of each cylinder contains both first- and the second-mode natural frequencies, and the vibrations are usually irregular. In the transition regime between the second-mode lock-in and the sum-frequency lock-in regimes, the response frequencies of both cylinders increases with an increase in the reduced velocity until they are close to the sum of the two natural frequencies. In both cases, the lower boundary reduced velocity of the total lock-in regime (the sum of the five lock-in regimes) is about 3 and the upper boundary reduced velocity is about 11 times the first-to-second-mode natural frequency ratio.     

Modal analysis of measurements from a large-scale VIV model test of a riser in linearly sheared flow

Large-scale model testing of a tensioned steel riser in well-defined sheared current was performed at Hanøytangen outside Bergen, Norway in 1997. The length of the model was 90 m and the diameter was 3 cm. The aim of the present work is to look into this information and try to improve the understanding of vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) for cases with very high order of responding modes, and in particular to study if and under which circumstances the riser motions would be single-mode or multi-mode. The measurement system consisted of 29 biaxial gauges for bending moment. The signals are processed to yield curvature and displacement and further to identify modes of vibration. A modal approach is used successfully employing a combination of signal filtering and least-squares fitting of precalculated mode-shapes. As a part of the modal analysis, it is demonstrated that the equally spaced instrumentation limited the maximum mode number to be extracted to be equal to the number of instrumentation locations. This imposed a constraint on the analysis of in-line (IL) vibration, which occurs at higher frequencies and involves higher modes than cross-flow (CF). The analysis has shown that in general the riser response was irregular (i.e. broad-banded) and that the degree of irregularity increases with the flow speed. In some tests distinct spectral peaks could be seen, corresponding to a dominating mode. No occurrences of single-mode (lock-in) were seen. The IL response is more broad-banded than the CF response and contains higher frequencies. The average value of the displacement r.m.s over the length of the riser is computed to indicate the magnitude of VIV motion during one test. In the CF direction the average displacement is typically 1/4 of the diameter, almost independent of the flow speed. For the IL direction the values are in the range 0.05–0.08 of the diameter. The peak frequency taken from the spectra of the CF displacement at riser midpoint show approximately to be equal to the Strouhal frequency. The peak frequency in IL direction was typically twice the Strouhal frequency.     

Parametric study of a two degree-of-freedom cylinder subject to vortex-induced vibrations

This numerical work is an attempt to build accurate and continuous response surfaces of two degree-of-freedom vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) of flexibly mounted cylinders for a wide range of transverse and in-line natural frequencies. We consider both the structure and the flow to be two-dimensional. The structure has a low mass damping, with the transverse and in-line mass ratios as well as the transverse and in-line damping coefficients being equal. The goal is to capture the sensitivity of the response to the change in the natural frequencies of the structure. The system is studied for a wide range of transverse natural frequency within the synchronization region. The extent of variation of the in-line natural frequency is chosen to be larger than the one of the transverse natural frequency in order to favor multi-modal responses. No preferred frequencies are emphasized within the intervals of study. The numerical technique uses a multi-element stochastic collocation method coupled to a spectral element based deterministic solver.     

A simplified method for time domain simulation of cross-flow vortex-induced vibrations

A new method for time domain simulation of cross-flow vortex-induced vibrations of slender circular cylindrical structures is developed. A model for the synchronization between the lift force and structure motion is derived from already established data for the cross-flow excitation coefficient. The proposed model is tested by numerical simulations, and the results are compared to experimental observations. When a sinusoidal cross-flow motion is given as input to the algorithm, the generated force time series are generally in good agreement with experimental measurements of cross-flow force in phase with cylinder velocity and acceleration. The model is also utilized in combination with time integration of the equation of motion to simulate the cross-flow vibration of a rigid cylinder. The resulting amplitude and frequency of motion as functions of reduced velocity are compared to published experimental results. In combination with the finite element method, the model is used to simulate cross-flow vibrations of a flexible cylinder in shear flow. Comparison with experiments shows that the model is capable of reproducing important quantities such as frequency, mode and amplitude, although some discrepancies are seen. This must be expected due to the complexity of the problem and the simple form of the present method.     

An experimental investigation of one- and two-degree of freedom VIV of cylinders

In the paper,an experiment investigation was conducted for one-and two-degree of freedom vortex-induced vibration(VIV) of a horizontally-oriented cylinder with diameter of 11 cm and length of 120 cm.In the experiment,the spring constants in the cross-flow and in-line flow directions were regulated to change the natural vibration frequency of the model system.It was found that,in the one-degree of freedom VIV experiment,a "double peak" phenomenon was observed in its amplitude within the range of the reduced velocities tested,moreover,a "2T" wake appeared in the vicinity of the second peak.In the two-degree of freedom VIV experiment,the trajectory of cylinder exhibited a reverse "C" shape,i.e.,a "new moon" shape.Through analysis of these data,it appears that,besides the non-dimensional in-line and cross-flow natural vibration frequency ratios,the absolute value of the natural vibration frequency of cylinder is also one of the important parameters affecting its VIV behavior.     

Numerical investigation of two-degree-of-freedom vortex-induced vibration of a circular cylinder in oscillatory flow

Two-degree-of-freedom (2dof) vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a circular cylinder in oscillatory flow is investigated numerically. The direction of the oscillatory flow is perpendicular to the spanwise direction of the circular cylinder. Simulations are carried out for the Keulegan–Carpenter (KC) numbers of 10, 20 and 40 and the Reynolds numbers ranging from 308 to 9240. The ratio of the Reynolds number to the reduced velocity is 308. At KC=10, the amplitude of the primary frequency component is much larger than those of other frequency components. Most vibrations for KC=20 and 40 have multiple frequencies. The primary frequency of the response in the cross-flow direction decreases with the increasing reduced velocity, except when the reduced velocity is very small. Because the calculated primary frequencies of the response in the cross-flow direction are multiple of the oscillatory flow frequency in most of the calculated cases, the responses are classified into single-frequency mode, double-frequency mode, triple frequency mode, etc. If the reduced velocity is in the range where the VIV is transiting from one mode to another, the vibration is very irregular.For each KC number the range of the reduced velocity can be divided into a cross-flow-in-phase regime (low V_r), where the response and the hydrodynamic force in the cross-flow direction synchronize, and a cross-flow-anti-phase regime (high V_r), where the response and the hydrodynamic force in the cross-flow direction are in anti-phase with each other. The boundary values of V_r between the cross-flow-in-phase and the cross-flow-anti-phase regimes are 7, 9 and 11 for KC=10, 20 and 40, respectively. For KC=20, another cross-flow-anti-phase regime is found between 15≤V_r≤19. Similarly the in-line-in-phase and the in-line-anti-phase regimes are also identified for the response in the in-line direction. It is found that the boundary value of V_r between the in-line-in-phase and the in-line-anti-phase regimes is greater than that in the cross-flow direction. They are 14 and 26 for KC=10 and 20, respectively. Maximum amplitude occurs at the boundary value of the reduced velocity between in-phase regime and anti-phase regime in both the x- and the y-directions.