Experimental Investigation of the Transverse Self-Oscillations of Circular Cylinders Mounted with a Narrow Clearance in a Plane Channel

The results of an investigation of the flow past and the behavior of free bluff bodies mounted in pipes and channels with a narrow clearance, conducted in the Institute of Mechanics of Moscow State University, are presented. The drag of circular cylinders of different size and mass in a circulation-free water flow in a plane channel of rectangular cross-section was studied in the transverse self-oscillation regime. The experiments were conducted for Reynolds numbers based on the cylinder diameter 1.7 ? 10⁴ ≤ Re ≤ 7.2 ? 10⁴, relative clearances \(\bar S\) based on a cross-sectional area ranging from 0.76 to 0.9, and cylinder-to-water density ratios ρ _c /ρ ranging from 1.29 to 8.2. Only the case of intense transverse self-oscillations accompanied by impact interaction with the channel wall was considered. The dependence of the period-average cylinder drag coefficient C _x on the basic dimensionless relevant parameters is obtained. The dependence of the dimensionless self-oscillation frequency determined in 1] is refined. The kinematic and dynamic features of the flows past spheres in cylindrical pipes and cylinders in plane channels are compared in the transverse self-oscillation regime.