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.     

Flow characteristics around a circular cylinder subjected to vortex-induced vibration near a plane boundary

Although vortex-induced vibration (VIV) has been extensively studied, much of existing literature deals with uniform flow in the absence of a boundary. The VIV flow field of a structure close to a boundary generally remains unexplored, but it can have important engineering implications, such as pipeline scour if the boundary is an erodible seabed. In this paper, laboratory experiments are performed to investigate the flow characteristics of an elastically mounted circular cylinder undergoing VIV, and a rigid plane boundary is considered to simplify the problem. The initial gap-to-diameter ratio is fixed at 0.8, and six different reduced velocities are considered. The velocity field is measured using a high resolution particle image velocimetry (PIV) system, which has several advantages over traditional PIV systems, including high sampling rate and the ability to mitigate scatter of laser light near the boundary, allowing accurate measurements at the viscous sublayer. This paper presents the vibration amplitude and oscillation frequency for different V_r; in addition, the mean velocity field, turbulence characteristics, vortex behavior, gap flow velocity, and normal/shear stresses on the boundary were measured/calculated, leading to new insights on the flow field behavior.     

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.     

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.     

Interference of vortex-induced vibration and transverse galloping for a rectangular cylinder

The phenomenon of interference between vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and galloping in the transverse degree of freedom was studied in the wind tunnel in the case of a spring-mounted slender rectangular cylinder with a side ratio of 1.5 having the short side perpendicular to the flow. The tests were carried out in a wide Scruton number range, starting from low values and increasing it in small steps by using eddy-current viscous dampers. This study helped understanding the dynamics of the interaction between the two excitation mechanisms and clearly highlighted the transition through four regimes of VIV-galloping interference. It was found that a high value of the mass-damping parameter is required to decouple the ranges of excitation of vortex-induced vibration and galloping completely, and for the quasi-steady theory to predict the galloping critical wind speed correctly. This conclusion is also relevant from the engineering point of view, as it means that structures and structural elements with ordinary mass-damping properties can exhibit sustained vibrations in flow speed ranges where no excitation is predicted by classical theories of vortex-induced vibration and galloping. Although most of the experimental tests were conducted in smooth flow at zero angle of attack, the paper also discusses the sensitivity of the results to a small variation of the mean flow incidence and to the presence of a low-intensity free-stream turbulence.     

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.     

On the study of vortex-induced vibration of a cylinder with helical strakes

While the effect of helical strakes on suppression of Vortex-Induced Vibrations (VIV) has been studied extensively, the mechanism of VIV mitigation using helical strakes is much less well documented in the literature. In the present study, a rigid circular cylinder of diameter d=80 mm attached with three-strand helical strakes of dimensions of 10d in pitch and 0.12d in height was tested in a wind tunnel. It was found that the helical strakes can reduce VIV by about 98%. Unlike the bare cylinder, which experiences lock-in over the reduced velocity in the range of 5-8.5, the straked cylinder does not show any lock-in region. In exploring the mechanism of VIV reduction by helical strakes, measurements in stationary bare and straked cylinder wakes using both a single X-probe at four different Reynolds numbers, i.e. Re=10 240, 20 430, 30 610 and 40 800, and two X-probes with variable separations in the spanwise direction at Re=20 430 were conducted. It was found that vortices shed from the straked cylinder are weakened significantly. The dominate frequency varies by about 30% over the range of x/d=10-40 in the streamwise direction while that differs by about 37.2% of the averaged peak frequency over a length of 3.125d in the spanwise direction. The latter is supported by the phase difference between the velocity signals measured at two locations separated in the spanwise direction. The correlation length of the vortex structures in the bare cylinder wake is much larger than that obtained in the straked cylinder wake. As a result, the straked cylinder wake agrees more closely with isotropy than the bare cylinder wake. Flow visualization on the plane perpendicular to the cylinder axis at Reynolds number of about 300 reveals small-scale vortices in the shear layers of the straked cylinder wake. However, these vortices do not roll up and interact with each other to form the well-organized Karman-type vortices. Flow visualization on the plane parallel to the cylinder axis shows vortex dislocation and swirling flow, which should be responsible for the variations of the peak frequency in the streamwise as well as spanwise directions.     

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.     

Suppression of vortex shedding from a rectangular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers

Small elements of circular, square, triangular and thin-strip cross-sections are used to suppress vortex shedding from a rectangular cylinder of stream-wise to transverse scale ratio L/B=3.0 at Reynolds numbers in the range of Re=V_∞B/ν=75–130, where V_∞ is the on-coming velocity of the stream, and ν is the kinematic viscosity. The relative transverse dimension of the small element b/B is fixed at 0.2. The results of numerical simulation and visualization experiment show that, vortex shedding from both sides of the cylinder can be suppressed and the fluctuating drag and lift of the cylinder can be greatly reduced, if the element is placed in a certain region referred to as the effective zone. Comparisons at a specific Reynolds number indicate that the square element produces the largest size of the effective zone, whereas the triangular element yields the smallest. Results also show that the effective zone for the square element shrinks with increasing Re and disappears at Re>130. Independent of element cross-section shape and Reynolds number, the center of the effective zone is always at X/B=2.5–3.0 and Y/B≈1.0. The mechanism of the suppression is discussed from the view points of velocity profile stability and stress distribution.     

Effect of blockage on free vibration of a circular cylinder at low Re

The effect of the blockage on vortex‐induced vibrations of a circular cylinder of low non‐dimensional mass (m^*=10) in the laminar flow regime is investigated in detail. A stabilized space–time finite element formulation is utilized to solve the incompressible flow equations in primitive variables form in two dimensions. The transverse response of the cylinder is found to be hysteretic at both ends of synchronization/lock‐in region for 5% blockage. However, for the 1% blockage hysteresis occurs only at the higher Re end of synchronization/lock‐in region. Computations are carried out at other blockages to understand its effect on the hysteretic behavior. The hysteresis loop at the lower Re end of the synchronization decreases with decrease in blockage and is completely eliminated for blockage of 2.5% and less. On the other hand, hysteresis persists for all values of blockage at the higher Re end of synchronization/lock‐in. Although the peak transverse oscillation amplitude is found to be same for all blockage (～0.6D), the peak value of the aerodynamic coefficients vary significantly with blockage. The r.m.s. values show lesser variation with blockage. The effect of streamwise extent of computational domain on hysteretic behavior is also studied. The phase between the lift force and transverse displacement shows a jump of almost 180° at, approximately, the middle of the synchronization region. This jump is not hysteretic and is independent of blockage. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

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.     

Control of mean and fluctuating forces on a circular cylinder at high Reynolds numbers

A narrow strip is used to control mean and fluctuating forces on a circular cylinder at Reynolds numbers from 2.0 × 10⁴ to 1.0 × 10⁵. The axes of the strip and cylinder are parallel. The control parameters are strip width ratio and strip position characterized by angle of attack and distance from the cylinder. Wind tunnel tests show that the vortex shedding from both sides of the cylinder can be suppressed, and mean drag and fluctuating lift on the cylinder can be reduced if the strip is installed in an effective zone downstream of the cylinder. A phenomenon of mono-side vortex shedding is found. The strip-induced local changes of velocity profiles in the near wake of the cylinder are measured, and the relation between base suction and peak value in the power spectrum of fluctuating lift is studied. The control mechanism is then discussed from different points of view. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10172087 and 10472124). The English text was polished by Yunming Chen.     

不同剪切率来流作用下柔性圆柱涡激振动数值模拟

采用浸入边界法对细长柔性圆柱在线性剪切流条件下的涡激振动进行三维数值模拟。细长柔性圆柱振动采用三维索模型模拟,其两端铰接,质量比为6,长细比为50,无量纲顶张力为496。来流为线性剪切流,剪切率从0到0.024变化,最大雷诺数为250。研究发现:剪切流作用下柔性立管横流向振动表现为驻波模式,而顺流向振动表现为行波-驻波混合模式。随着剪切率增大,振动频谱呈现多频响应,振动能量逐渐向低频转移。阻力系数平均值随着展向变化,脉动阻力系数和升力系数的均方根值均表现为“双峰”模式。流固能量传递系数沿立管轴向的分布表明,振动激励区集中于高流速区,而振动阻尼区多位于低流速区。剪切率较小时,圆柱的泻涡为平行交叉模式;剪切率较大时,圆柱的泻涡为倾斜泻涡模式,且由于泻涡频率沿立管轴向变化,尾流发生涡裂现象,形成泻涡频率不同的胞格结构。      

Active vortex-induced vibration control of a circular cylinder at low Reynolds numbers using an adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller

An adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control (AFSMC) scheme is applied to actively suppress the two-dimensional vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) of an elastically mounted circular cylinder, free to move in in-line and cross-flow directions. Laminar flow regime at Re=90, low non-dimensional mass with equal natural frequencies in both directions, and zero structural damping coefficients, are considered. The natural oscillator frequency is matched with the vortex shedding frequency of a stationary cylinder at Re=100. The strongly coupled unsteady fluid/cylinder interactions are captured by implementing the moving mesh technology through integration of an in-house developed User Define Function (UDF) into the main code of the commercial CFD solver Fluent. The AFSMC approach comprises of a fuzzy system designed to mimic an ideal sliding-mode controller, and a robust controller intended to compensate for the difference between the fuzzy controller and the ideal one. The fuzzy system parameters as well as the uncertainty bound of the robust controller are adaptively tuned online. A collaborative simulation scheme is realized by coupling the control model implemented in Matlab/Simulink to the plant model constructed in Fluent, aiming at determination of the transverse control force required for complete suppression of the cylinder streamwise and cross-flow oscillations. The simulation results demonstrate the high performance and effectiveness of the adopted control algorithm in attenuating the 2D-VIV of the elastic cylinder over a certain flow velocity range. Also, the enhanced transient performance of the AFSM control strategy in comparison with a conventional PID control law is demonstrated. Furthermore, the effect of control action on the time evolution of vortex shedding from the cylinder is discussed. In particular, it is observed that the coalesced vortices in the far wake region of the uncontrolled cylinder, featuring the C(2S)-type vortex shedding characteristic mode, are ultimately forced to switch to the classical von Kármán vortex street of 2S-type mode, displaying wake vortices of moderately weaker strengths very similar to those of the stationary cylinder. Lastly, robustness of AFSMC is verified against relatively large structural uncertainties as well as with respect to a moderate deviation in the uniform inlet flow velocity.     

An experimental study of the dynamic characteristics in boundary layer in the flow past a two-dimensional circular cylinder at subcritical reynolds numbers

An experimental study of the dynamic characteristics of flow past a two-dimensional circular cylinder is described. The fluctuationsoof wall shear stress, surface-pressure and velocity of the flow are measured with hot-film, hot-wire and pressure transducer. The frequency feature of fluctuations of wall shear stress is given. The cross-correlation functions of these fluctuations at any two points are calculated. The experimental results reveal that there is an overall syncronous fluctuation, at the shedding frequency, in boundary layer in the flow past a two-dimensional circular cylinder at subcritical Reynolds number.