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.     

Numerical investigation on vortex-induced vibration of an elastically mounted circular cylinder at low Reynolds number using the fictitious domain method

A direct numerical simulation of two-dimensional (2D) flow past an elastically mounted circular cylinder at low Reynolds number using the fictitious domain method had been undertaken. The cylinder motion was modelled by a two degree-of-freedom mass–spring–damper system. The computing code was verified against a benchmark problem in which flow past a stationary circular cylinder is simulated. Then, analyses of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) responses, drag and lift forces and the phase and vortex structures were carried out. Results show that the cylinder's non-dimensional cross-flow response amplitude reaches its summit of 0.572 in the ‘lock-in’ regime. The ‘2S’, instead of the ‘2P’, vortex shedding mode is dominated in the ‘lower’ branch for this 2D low-Re VIV. A secondary oscillation is observed in the lift force when ‘lock-in’ occurs. It is shown that this secondary component changes the phase, offset the energy input by the primary component and thus reduces the cylinder responses. Effects of the Skop–Griffin parameter on cylinder responses were also investigated.     

Three-dimensional numerical simulation of vortex-induced vibration of an elastically mounted rigid circular cylinder in steady current

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of an elastically mounted rigid circular cylinder in steady current is investigated by solving the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations. The cylinder is allowed to vibrate only in the cross-flow direction. The aim of this study is to investigate the variation of the vortex shedding flow in the axial direction of the cylinder and to study the transition of the flow from two-dimensional (2D) to three-dimensional (3D) for VIV of a cylinder. Simulations are carried out for a constant mass ratio of 2, the Reynolds numbers ranging from 150 to 1000 and the reduced velocities ranging from 2 to 12. The three-dimensionality of the flow is found to be the strongest in the upper branch of the VIV response and weakest in the initial branch. The 2S and 2P vortex shedding modes are found to coexist along the cylinder span in the upper branch, leading to strong variations of the lift coefficient in the axial direction of the cylinder. The difference between the flow transition from 2D to 3D in the VIV lock-in regime and that in the wake of a stationary cylinder is identified. The transition mode B found in the wake of a stationary cylinder is also found in the wake of a vibrating cylinder. The critical Reynolds number for flow transition from 2D to 3D of a cylinder undergoing cross-flow VIV at a reduced velocity of 6 is found to be greater than that for a stationary cylinder. For a constant reduced velocity of 6, the wake flow changes from 2D to 3D as the Reynolds number is increased from 250 to 300. Some 2D numerical simulations are performed and it is found that the 2D Navier–Stokes (NS) equations are not able to predict the VIV in the turbulent flow regime, while the 2D Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations improve the results.     

剪切流下发生涡激振动的柔性立管阻力特性研究

利用缩尺模型试验的方法研究了线性剪切流下涡激振动发生时柔性立管的阻力特性.文中基于光纤光栅应变传感器测得的模型应变信息,采用梁复杂弯曲理论计算了立管的平均阻力,继而分析了阻力系数沿管长方向和雷诺数的分布特性以及涡激振动对阻力系数的放大效应,并提出了用于估算柔性立管发生涡激振动时阻力系数的经验公式.结果表明:涡激振动对阻力系数有放大效应,使得立管局部阻力系数高达3.2;平均阻力系数在1.0×104到1.2×105的雷诺数区间内的值为1.3~2.0,并随雷诺数的增大而减小.本文提出的经验公式可准确估算高雷诺数下涡激振动发生时柔性立管的阻力系数,此经验公式考虑了流速、涡激振动主导模态以及主导频率对阻力系数的影响.      

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.     

Effects of tension on vortex-induced vibration (VIV) responses of a long tensioned cylinder in uniform flows

The effects of tension on vortex-induced vibra-tion (VIV) responses for a tension-dominated long cylinder with an aspect ratio of 550 in uniform flows are experimen-tally investigated in this paper. The results show that elevated tension suppresses fluctuations of maximum displacement with respect to flow velocity and makes chaotic VIV more likely to appear. With respect to periodic VIV, if elevated tension is applied, the dominant vibration frequency in the in-line (IL) direction will switch from a fundamental vibra-tion frequency to twice the value of the fundamental vibration frequency, which results in a ratio of the dominant vibration frequency in the IL direction to that in the cross-flow direc-tion of 2.0. The suppression of the elevated tension in the fluctuation of the maximum displacement causes the axial tension to become an active control parameter for the VIV maximum displacement of a tension-dominated long riser or tether of an engineering structure in deep oceans. However, the axial tension must be optimized before being used since the high dominant vibration frequency due to the elevated tension may unfavorably affect the fatigue life of the riser or tether.     

两端铰接的细长柔性圆柱体涡激振动响应特性数值研究

目前细长柔性圆柱体涡激振动响应的研究方法主要包括实验方法、计算流体动力学方法以及半经验模型方法. 鉴于实验方法研究成本较高、计算流体动力学方法计算时间较长,本文基于尾流振子模型对线性剪切来流下两端铰接的细长柔性圆柱体涡激振动响应特性进行了半经验模型方法研究. 先建立了柔性圆柱体结构振子以及尾流振子之间的耦合模型,紧接着基于二阶精度中心差分格式对耦合模型先离散后迭代进行求解. 对不同剪切参数下柔性圆柱体涡激振动响应的振动波长、振动频率、振动位移以及响应频率随时间的变化特性等参数进行了分析. 分析结果表明:圆柱体的涡激振动响应由驻波和行波混合组成. 当无量纲弯曲刚度较小时,在圆柱体两端附近,驻波占主导;而在圆柱体中间段附近,行波占主导. 当无量纲弯曲刚度较大时,在圆柱体整个长度区间上均为驻波占主导. 随着剪切参数的增大,振动位移以及振动波长均逐渐减小,而振动频率和频率带宽均逐渐增大.      

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.     

剪切流场中含内流立管横向涡激振动特性

立管是海洋工程中输送油气或其他矿产资源的必备结构, 外部洋流引起的立管涡激振动影响着立管的疲劳寿命, 危害深海资源开发. 本文基于欧拉?伯努利梁方程, 结合半经验时域水动力模型, 建立剪切流与内流耦合作用下海洋立管涡激振动预报模型, 运用有限元方法和Newmark-β逐步积分法求解方程, 首先将数值模拟结果与实验数据进行对比, 验证模型正确性. 然后, 运用此模型, 对剪切流作用下含内流的顶张立管在不同内流速度和密度下的横向涡激振动响应特性进行研究, 主要分析了立管的横向振动模态、振动频率以及均方根位移等涡激振动参数随内流速度和密度等参数的变化规律. 结果表明, 在剪切流场中, 含内流海洋立管在横向上表现出多模态多频率的涡激振动;立管横向振动的最大均方根位移随内流速度和密度的增大而增大, 特别是当内流速度较大时, 横向最大均方根位移增大明显;立管横向振动的主导频率随内流速度和密度的增大而减小, 并且内流密度的增大同样会引起模态转换和频率转换.      

Vibration frequency and lock-in bandwidth of tensioned,flexible cylinders experiencing vortex shedding

In-water vortex-induced vibration (VIV) tests of top-tensioned, flexible cylindrical structures were conducted at Shell Westhollow Technology Center current tank. These tests revealed that the top tension and structural stiffness (both lateral and axial) can have a significant impact on vibration frequencies. During lock-in between the vortex-shedding frequency and the structure's natural frequency, the increase of the vibration frequency with flow speeds is strongly related to the rise of the axial tension. After an initial abrupt rise, the vibration frequency of a bending-stiffness-dominated structure only increased slightly during lock-in. Alternative explanations are provided on why the vibration frequency does not rise significantly but there can still exist a broad lock-in band, and why a more massive structure has a narrower lock-in bandwidth.     

Experimental investigation of the flow-induced vibration of a curved cylinder in convex and concave configurations

Experiments have been conducted to investigate the two-degree-of-freedom vortex-induced vibration (VIV) response of a rigid section of a curved circular cylinder with low mass-damping ratio. Two curved configurations, a concave and a convex, were tested regarding the direction of the flow, in addition to a straight cylinder that served as reference. Amplitude and frequency responses are presented versus reduced velocity for a Reynolds number range between 750 and 15 000. Results for the curved cylinders with concave and convex configurations revealed significantly lower vibration amplitudes when compared to the typical VIV response of a straight cylinder. However, the concave cylinder showed relatively higher amplitudes than the convex cylinder which were sustained beyond the typical synchronisation region. We believe this distinct behaviour between the convex and the concave configurations is related to the wake interference taking place in the lower half of the curvature due to perturbations generated in the horizontal section when it is positioned upstream. Particle-image velocimetry (PIV) measurements of the separated flow along the cylinder highlight the effect of curvature on vortex formation and excitation revealing a complex fluid–structure interaction mechanism.     

Suppression of vortex-induced vibration of a circular cylinder using suction-based flow control

In the present study, a flow control method is employed to mitigate vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a circular cylinder by using a suction flow method. The VIV of a circular cylinder was first reproduced in a wind tunnel by using a spring–mass system. The time evolution of the cylinder oscillation and the time histograms of the surface pressures of 119 taps in four sections of the circular cylinder model were measured during the wind tunnel experiments. Four steady suction flow rates were used to investigate the effectiveness of the suction control method to suppress VIV of the circular cylinder. The vibration responses, the mean and fluctuating pressure coefficients, and the resultant aerodynamic force coefficients of the circular cylinder under the suction flow control are analyzed. The measurement results indicate clearly that the steady suction flow control method exhibits excellent control effectiveness and can distinctly suppress the VIV by dramatically reducing the amplitudes of cylinder vibrations, fluctuating pressure coefficients and lift coefficients of the circular cylinder model. By comparing the test cases with different suction flow rates, it is found that there exists an optimal suction flow rate for the maximum VIV control. The cases with higher suction flow rates do not necessarily behave better than those with lower suction flow rates. With the experimental setting used in the present study, the suction flow control method is found to behave better for VIV suppression when the ratio of the suction flow velocity to the oncoming flow velocity is less than one.     

Application of wake oscillators to two-dimensional vortex-induced vibrations of circular cylinders in oscillatory flows

A nonlinear time-domain simulation model for predicting two-dimensional vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a flexibly mounted circular cylinder in planar and oscillatory flow is presented. This model is based on the utilization of van der Pol wake oscillators, being unconventional since wake oscillators have typically been applied to steady flow VIV predictions. The time-varying relative flow–cylinder velocities and accelerations are accounted for in deriving the coupled hydrodynamic lift, drag and inertia forces leading to the cylinder cross-flow and in-line oscillations. The system fluid–structure interaction equations explicitly contain the time-dependent and hybrid trigonometric terms. Depending on the Keulegan–Carpenter number (KC) incorporating the flow maximum velocity and excitation frequency, the model calibration is performed, entailing a set of empirical coefficients and expressions as a function of KC and mass ratio. Parametric investigations in cases of varying KC, reduced flow velocity, cylinder-to-flow frequency ratio and mass ratio are carried out, capturing some qualitative features of oscillatory flow VIV and exploring the effects of system parameters on response prediction characteristics. The model dependence of hydrodynamic coefficients on the Reynolds number is studied. Discrepancies and limitations versus advantages of the present model with different feasible solution scenarios are illuminated to inform the implementation of wake oscillators as a computationally efficient prediction model for VIV in oscillatory flows.     

Hydrodynamics of a flexible cylinder under modulated vortex-induced vibrations

Both amplitude modulation and frequency modulation of Vortex-induced Vibration (VIV) are observed in a recent model test of a flexible cylinder under oscillatory flow, but its hydrodynamics has not yet been broached in detail. This paper employs the Forgetting Factor Least Squares (FF-LS) method for identification of time-varying hydrodynamics of a flexible cylinder under modulated VIV. The FF-LS method’s applicability to accurately identify time-varying hydrodynamic coefficients is demonstrated through an elastically mounted rigid cylinder under flow with a given modulated motion. Furthermore, we propose a framework to predict instantaneous amplitude (envelope) and frequency using time-varying hydrodynamic coefficients to establish their analytical relationship. This prediction method is further extended to a highly tensioned flexible cylinder through Fourier series expansion in the spatial domain. By performing the identification procedure for all sampled data of a flexible cylinder undergoing oscillatory flow, we obtain the corresponding time-varying hydrodynamics in the cross-flow direction considering the amplitude and frequency modulation. The results show that, under modulated VIV, hydrodynamic coefficients of the flexible cylinder also show time-varying characteristics. We further investigate differences between identified hydrodynamic coefficients and those obtained from the database of a cylinder with modulated motion under flow. Prediction results using these identified time-varying coefficients reveal that the time-varying excitation coefficients mainly influence the amplitude modulation, and the time-varying added-mass coefficients contain the major information of frequency modulation. These results further suggest including the temporal derivative of the instantaneous amplitude as one determining parameter in building databases to improve the prediction of modulated VIV.     

正弦振荡来流下柔性立管涡激振动发展过程

在风浪流的作用下,海洋浮式结构物将带动悬链线立管在水中作周期性往复运动,从而在立管运动方向上产生相对振荡来流,这种振荡来流将激励立管悬垂段发生“间歇性” 的涡激振动. 在海洋工程水池中对一个4m 长的立管微段进行模型试验研究,以探索相对振荡来流作用下立管涡激振动产生的机理及其发展的物理过程. 试验通过振荡装置带动模型作正弦运动来模拟不同最大约化速度U_Rmax、不同KC（Keulegan-Carpenternumber）的相对振荡来流,利用光纤应变片测量立管涡激振动响应. 结合模态分析方法处理试验数据得到位移响应时历,继而提出相对振荡来流下柔性立管涡激振动发展的3 个阶段:建立阶段、锁定阶段以及衰减阶段. 并进一步总结了最大约化速度U_Rmax,KC 对涡激振动发展过程的影响规律. 最终获得不同最大约化速度U_Rmax下,涡激振动各发展阶段随KC 所占时间分布比例图.      

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.     

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.     

Numerical study on the suppression of the vortex-induced vibration of an elastically mounted cylinder by a traveling wave wall

In the present paper, the commercial CFD code “Fluent” was employed to perform 2-D simulations of an entire process that included the flow around a fixed circular cylinder, the oscillating cylinder (vortex-induced vibration, VIV) and the oscillating cylinder subjected to shape control by a traveling wave wall (TWW) method. The study mainly focused on using the TWW control method to suppress the VIV of an elastically supported circular cylinder with two degrees of freedom at a low Reynolds number of 200. The cross flow (CF) and the inline flow (IL) displacements, the centroid motion trajectories and the lift and drag forces of the cylinder that changed with the frequency ratios were analyzed in detail. The results indicate that a series of small-scale vortices will be formed in the troughs of the traveling wave located on the rear part of the circular cylinder; these vortices can effectively control the flow separation from the cylinder surface, eliminate the oscillating wake and suppress the VIV of the cylinder. A TWW starting at the initial time or at some time halfway through the time interval can significantly suppress the CF and IL vibrations of the cylinder and can remarkably decrease the fluctuations of the lift coefficients and the average values of the drag coefficients; however, it will simultaneously dramatically increase the fluctuations of the drag coefficients.     

海洋热塑性增强管(RTP)涡激振动数值计算

基于Van der Pol尾流振子模型和多体系统传递矩阵法(transfer matrix method for multibody systems, MSTMM), 建立了可以快速预测海洋热塑性增强管(reinforced thermoplastic pipe, RTP)振动特性和涡激振动响应的动力学模型. 仿真结果与ANSYS软件仿真结果以及文献实验数据对比, 验证了本文模型的准确性. 研究了考虑RTP立管刚性接头, 不同顶张力, 不同来流分布等情况对RTP立管涡激振动响应的影响. 计算结果表明: 流速越大, 立管涡激振动激发出的模态越高; 立管涡激振动主要受低阶模态控制; 立管的刚性接头对立管的湿模态影响较小, 但是对较高阶模态为主所激发出的涡激振动振幅分布影响较大; 剪切流对沿立管轴向的涡激振动振幅分布影响较大, 低流速能量小所引起的涡激振动幅值较小, 但是当剪切流流速达到能激发出较高阶模态时, 相比同等流速的均匀流所引起的涡激振动振幅要大.      

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.