Vortex-Induced Vibration of a Circular Cylinder at Low and Subcritical Reynolds Numbers-Part I: Low Reynolds Numbers

Abstract

The vortex-induced vibration of a circular cylinder at low and low subcritical Reynolds numbers is studied numerically over wide ranges of the influencing parameters. The cylinder dynamics is modeled using a spring-damper-mass system and the fluid dynamics is simulated using the two-dimensional approximation. An implicit, collocated moving grid finite volume algorithm implemented on an unstructured triangular mesh is adopted to solve the fluid dynamic equations. The numerical simulation confirms that large-amplitude vibration occur over a certain range of frequency ratio, particularly at lower mass-damping. The large-amplitude vibration of the cylinder affects the flow and wake structure considerably and the wake takes the shape of two distinct rows of vortices. For frequency ratios out of this range, the vibration amplitude is small and the cylinder motion hardly affects the classical Karman-structure of the wake.

Keywords: Vortex-induced vibration, wake structure, vortex pattern, cylinder response, unsteady fluid forces, reduced damping, collocated grid, geometric conservation law

Cite this Article

Sintu Singha and K. P. Sinhamahapatra. Vortex-Induced Vibration of a Circular Cylinder at Low and Subcritical Reynolds Numbers – Part I: Low Reynolds Numbers. Journal of Aerospace Engineering and Technology (JoAET). 2015; 5(2): 34–59p.