Showing papers on "Vortex-induced vibration published in 2018"

Flow-induced vibration of D-section cylinders: an afterbody is not essential for vortex-induced vibration

Abstract: While it has been known that an afterbody (i.e. the structural part of a bluff body downstream of the flow separation points) plays an important role affecting the wake characteristics and even may change the nature of the flow-induced vibration (FIV) of a structure, the question of whether an afterbody is essential for the occurrence of one particular common form of FIV, namely vortex-induced vibration (VIV), still remains. This has motivated the present study to experimentally investigate the FIV of an elastically mounted forward- or backward-facing D-section (closed semicircular) cylinder over the reduced velocity range of significant vibration, the peak amplitude (only approximately 6 % less than that of the circular cylinder), and also the fluid forces and phases. Of most significance, this study shows that an afterbody is not essential for VIV at low mass and damping ratios.

Vortex-induced vibration of a rotating sphere

Abstract: Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a sphere represents one of the most generic fundamental fluid–structure interaction problems. Since vortex-induced vibration can lead to structural failure, numerous studies have focused on understanding the underlying principles of VIV and its suppression. This paper reports on an experimental investigation of the effect of imposed axial rotation on the dynamics of vortex-induced vibration of a sphere that is free to oscillate in the cross-flow direction, by employing simultaneous displacement and force measurements. The VIV response was investigated over a wide range of reduced velocities (i.e. velocity normalised by the natural frequency of the system): 3 U∗ 18, corresponding to a Reynolds number range of 5000 < Re < 30 000, while the rotation ratio, defined as the ratio between the sphere surface and inflow speeds, α = |ω|D/(2U), was varied in increments over the range of 0 α 7.5. It is found that the vibration amplitude exhibits a typical inverted bell-shaped variation with reduced velocity, similar to the classic VIV response for a non-rotating sphere but without the higher reduced velocity response tail. The vibration amplitude decreases monotonically and gradually as the imposed transverse rotation rate is increased up to α = 6, beyond which the body vibration is significantly reduced. The synchronisation regime, defined as the reduced velocity range where large vibrations close to the natural frequency are observed, also becomes narrower as α is increased, with the peak saturation amplitude observed at progressively lower reduced velocities. In addition, for small rotation rates, the peak amplitude decreases almost linearly with α. The imposed rotation not only reduces vibration amplitudes, but also makes the body vibrations less periodic. The frequency spectra revealed the occurrence of a broadband spectrum with an increase in the imposed rotation rate. Recurrence analysis of the structural vibration response demonstrated a transition from periodic to chaotic in a modified recurrence map complementing the appearance of broadband spectra at the onset of bifurcation. Despite considerable changes in flow structure, the vortex phase (φvortex), defined as the phase between the vortex force and the body displacement, follows the same pattern as for the non-rotating case, with the φvortex increasing gradually from low values in Mode I of the sphere vibration to almost 180◦ as the system undergoes a continuous transition to Mode II of the sphere vibration at higher reduced velocity. The total phase (φtotal), defined as the phase between the transverse lift force and the body displacement, only increases from low values after the peak amplitude response in Mode II has been reached. It reaches its maximum value (∼165◦) close to the transition from the Mode II upper plateau to the lower plateau, reminiscent of the behaviour seen for the upper to lower branch transition for cylinder VIV. Hydrogen-bubble visualisations and particle image velocimetry (PIV) performed in the equatorial plane provided further insights into the flow dynamics near the sphere surface. The mean wake is found to be deflected towards the advancing side of the sphere, associated with an increase in the Magnus force. For higher rotation ratios, the near-wake rear recirculation zone is absent and the flow is highly vectored from the retreating side to the advancing side, giving rise to large-scale shedding. For a very high rotation ratio of α = 6, for which vibrations are found to be suppressed, a one-sided large-scale shedding pattern is observed, similar to the shear-layer instability one-sided shedding observed previously for a rigidly mounted rotating sphere.

Energy harvesting from flow-induced vibration: a lumped parameter model

Abstract: The traditional models for VIVPEH (piezoelectric energy harvesting from vortex-induced vibration) are focused on a circular cylinder In the present paper, a VIVPEH model was built to solve an aero

Three-dimensional numerical investigation of vortex-induced vibration of a rotating circular cylinder in uniform flow

Abstract: The vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of an elastically mounted rotating circular cylinder vibrating in a uniform flow is studied numerically. The cylinder is allowed to vibrate only in the cross-flow direction. In the numerical simulations, the Reynolds number, the mass ratio, and the damping ratio are kept constants to 500, 11.5, and 0, respectively. Simulations are performed for rotation rates of α = 0, 0.5, and 1 and a range of reduced velocities from 1 to 13, which covers the entire lock-in regime. It is found that the lock-in regime of a rotating cylinder is wider than that of a non-rotating cylinder for α = 0, 0.5, and 1. The vortex shedding pattern of a rotating cylinder is found to be similar to that of a non-rotating cylinder. Next, simulations are performed for three typical reduced velocities inside the lock-in regime and a range of higher rotation rates from α = 1.5 to 3.5 to investigate the effect of the rotation rate on the suppression of VIV. It is found that the VIV is suppressed when the rotation rate exceeds a critical value, which is dependent on the reduced velocity. For a constant reduced velocity, the amplitude of the vibration is found to increase with increasing rotation rate until the latter reaches its critical value for VIV suppression, beyond which the vibration amplitude becomes extremely small. If the rotation rate is greater than its critical value, vortex shedding ceases and hairpin vortices are observed due to the rotation of the cylinder.

Research on Flow-Induced Vibration and Energy Harvesting of Three Circular Cylinders with Roughness Strips in Tandem

Abstract: The flow-induced vibration (FIV) of multiple cylinders is a common phenomenon in industry and nature. The FIV and energy harvesting of three circular cylinders in tandem are numerically studied by 2D-URANS simulations in Reynolds number range of 30,000 < Re < 105,000. Simulation results match well with experiments in the tested cases. Four branches of FIV are clearly captured in the amplitude and frequency ratio curves of the three cylinders with roughness, including initial branch of vortex-induced vibration (VIV), VIV upper branch, transition from VIV to galloping, and galloping. It is shown that the vortices from downstream cylinder are strongly disrupted and modified by vortices of upstream cylinder. The third cylinder is almost suppressed in VIV initial branch. The 2P vortex pattern is observed for the first cylinder in the VIV upper branch. For Re = 90,000 in the transition regime, the vortex patterns of the first and second cylinders are 2P + 4S and 2P + 2S, respectively. In the galloping branch, the shear layer motion is in synchronization with the motion of the cylinder, and the maximum amplitude of 2.8D is reached by the first cylinder. The total converted power of the three cylinders increases with U*water both in the simulation and experiment. For the three cylinders, the maximum power reaches up to 85.26 W with the increase of Reynolds number. The energy conversion efficiency is stable and higher than 35% in the starting region of VIV upper branch, and the maximum value of 40.41% is obtained when Re = 40,000.

A sharp interface immersed boundary method for vortex-induced vibration in the presence of thermal buoyancy

Abstract: We report the development of an in-house fluid-structure interaction solver and its application to vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of an elastically mounted cylinder in the presence of thermal buoyancy. The flow solver utilizes a sharp interface immersed boundary method, and in the present work, we extend it to account for the thermal buoyancy using Boussinesq approximation and couple it with a spring-mass system of the VIV. The one-way coupling utilizes an explicit time integration scheme and is computationally efficient. We present benchmark code verifications of the solver for natural convection, mixed convection, and VIV. In addition, we verify a coupled VIV-thermal buoyancy problem at a Reynolds number, Re = 150. We numerically demonstrate the onset of the VIV in the presence of the thermal buoyancy for an insulated cylinder at low Re. The buoyancy is induced by two parallel plates, kept in the direction of flow and symmetrically placed around the cylinder. The plates are maintained at the hot and col...