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An experimental investigation on the vortex/wake-induced force of double unequal-diameter cylinders in tandem was performed. In the experiment, the upstream-to-downstream cylinder diameter ratio was 1.569, and the gap spacing ratio between the cylinder models ranged from 3 to 8. Under uniform flow with Reynolds number up to 11 328, the strains caused by the vortex/wake-induced vibrations were measured for the double flexible cylinders. Based on the measured strains, the displacements were reconstructed with the mode superposition method. Then, the vortex/wake-induced forces were obtained inversely. Subsequently, the time-varying excitation and added mass coefficients were identified by the forgetting factor least squares method. The results show that the wake-induced force coefficient and excitation coefficient of the downstream cylinder are smaller than those of the single cylinder, while the added mass coefficient becomes larger. In addition, the downstream cylinder under frequency capture can absorb a higher proportion of energy from the wake to excite larger vibration amplitudes, especially in the in-line direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) of a flexible cylinder subjected to multi-directional flows have been studied based on a wake oscillator model. The multi-directional flow comprises two slabs of flows in different directions, with each slab having a uniform uni-directional profile. The dynamics of the flexible cylinder is described based on the linear Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, and a wake oscillator model is uniformly distributed along the cylinder to model the hydrodynamic force acting on it. The dynamics of the coupled system has been solved numerically using the finite element method, and simulations have been conducted with the cylinder subjected to multi-directional flows with different angles between the two slabs. A large number of different initial conditions have been applied, and more than one steady-state response has been captured. The steady-state responses exhibit two different patterns: one is characterized by two waves traveling in opposite directions, while the other is dominated by a single traveling wave. The cross-flow VIV primarily occurs in the local cross-flow direction, and a transition of its vibrating direction happens at the interface of the two flows. Such transition is not observed in the inline VIV, and significant vibrations at the double frequency appear in both local cross-flow and inline directions. Energy analysis shows that this transition is boosted by a specific energy transfer pattern between the structure and the flow, which excites the vibration of the cylinder in some directions while damps it in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The vortex-induced vibration (VIV) response performances of a two-degree-of-freedom circular cylinder with different surface roughnesses were numerically investigated in this work. Four typical roughnesses values of 1 × 10−4, 5 × 10−3, 1 × 10−2, and 2 × 10−2 were examined for the range of the reduced velocity (Vr = 1–20). The VIV response characteristics including the vibration amplitude, vibration frequency, VIV trajectory, vortex shedding flowing pattern, and hydrodynamic force for different rough cylinders were systematically compared. The numerical results showed that the VIV response of roughness cylinder experiences five evolutions as Vr increases, including five typical X–Y trajectories: centrosymmetry, "M" or "W," "dough twists" or "candy," "∞," and asymmetrical ∞, exhibiting three vortex shedding flow pattern: S mode, C + S mode, and SS mode (a pair of symmetric vortices along the x-axis) under certain conditions. The VIV response was sensitive to the roughness in regime IV and regime V. Furthermore, the normalized vibration frequency of the rough cylinder was an integer multiple of the oscillatory flow frequency, except for the Vr ranged from 6 to 7. The vibration frequency in in-line (IL) direction was consistent with the frequency of the oscillatory flow, which was immune to the change of roughness. Additionally, when roughness was equal to 2 × 10−2, the reduction of maximum vibration amplitude in the cross-flow direction reached 31.2%, comparing with smooth cylinder, whereas the maximum vibration amplitude in the IL direction increased only by 6.2%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this comparison study is to verify and clarify whether the energy competitive force model has significant benefits in eliminating the influence of certain factors on the hydrodynamic coefficient. The typical cases with the smaller Keulegan–Carpenter (KC) number (KC = 31) and larger KC number (KC = 178) under the maximum reduced velocity of 6.5 with the prominent VIV responses are selected for analysis. The characteristics of the ortex-induced vibration (VIV) response, the hydrodynamic force, and the corresponding spatiotemporal coefficients in typical cases are revealed, compared, and discussed. The results suggest that the energy competition force model cannot avoid spatial-temporal distribution characteristics of the hydrodynamic coefficients. Drag and excitation coefficients with energy roles under Sarpkaya's and energy competitive force models are affected by the VIV response and wake effects in an oscillatory flow. The larger coefficients are witnessed under the smaller KC number. When the KC number increases from 31 to 178, the mean drag coefficients decrease from 2.25 to 1.73, and the mean excitation coefficients in in-line (IL) and cross-flow (CF) directions decrease from 1.42 and 1.44 to 0.60 and 0.81, respectively, under the energy competition force model. Changes in wake effects under a larger KC number lead to distinctive differences in drag and excitation coefficients during the acceleration and deceleration phases. Through a quantitative comparative analysis, the current identified drag and excitation coefficients under the energy competition force model can obtain a more accurate prediction result. The present work shows that there exists the blindness in the selection of coefficients within the framework of the energy competition force model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A frequency capture phenomenon in which the dominant response frequency of the downstream cylinder is the same as that of the upstream cylinder despite the differences in their physical characteristics was recently experimentally identified. The mechanism of this phenomenon is investigated by flow around two cylinders with unequal diameters undergoing flow-induced vibrations (FIV) using the open-source code OpenFOAM. Two FIV systems, a large stationary/vibrating upstream cylinder and vibrating downstream cylinder, are used for the simulation. The cylinders are free to vibrate in both the in-line and cross-flow directions. The forgetting factor least squares algorithm is applied for the time-varying excitation mechanism analysis. Simulation results show that the response of the downstream cylinder has a larger amplitude and contains multi-frequency components than the vortex-induced vibration of an isolated cylinder, making its trajectory more complicated. Simulations confirm that the frequency capture phenomenon is induced by the action of the upstream shedding vortex on the downstream cylinder. The energy transfers from vorticity to the structure when the frequency capture phenomenon occurs. The response of the downstream cylinder comprises a significant component of the vortex shedding frequency of the upstream cylinder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three-dimensional characteristics of the flow past four square cylinders in an in-line square configuration, with five spacing ratios ranging from 1.4 to 5, were studied in depth in this study. Direct numerical simulation of the spectral/hp element method was employed at Re = 150 and 200. The onset and evolution of various unstable modes were expounded in detail by means of three-dimensional vortices, energy curves, wake patterns, and force coefficients. At each spacing, the three-dimensional instability and the corresponding flow pattern were comprehensively analyzed to illustrate transitional features. Except for the existence of unstable mode A and mode B when spacing was considerably small and large, for most of the intermediate spacing ratios, the vortex structures were dominated by mode C instability, whose flow patterns all appeared as anti-phase synchronization. Through the evolution of flow patterns over time, the three-dimensional effects were already observed at a low Reynolds number of 150 because of the influence of the gap flow and the mutual interference of the wake. Under the transitional spacing for Re = 200, multiple modes were interfering fiercely with each other and appeared as chaotic states. Compared with other bluff body forms, the four square cylinders generated numerous discrepancies and new modal transitions in three-dimensional cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]