A Numerical Investigation of Vortex-Induced Vibration Response and Fatigue Damage for Flexible Cylinders Under Combined Uniform and Oscillatory Flow

Abstract

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) for flexible cylinders under combined uniform and oscillatory flow is a challenging and practical issue in ocean engineering. In this paper, a time domain numerical model is adopted to investigate the characteristics of cross-flow VIV response and fatigue damage under different combined flow cases. Firstly, the adopted VIV model and fatigue analysis procedure are validated well against the published experimental results of a 4-m cylinder model under pure oscillatory flows. Then, forty-five combined flow cases of the same cylinder model are designed to reveal the VIV response characteristics with different non-dimensional oscillation period T* and combined ratio r. The combined flow cases are classified into three categories to investigate the effect of r on cylinder’s dynamic response, and the effect of T* is described under long and short period cases. Finally, fatigue analysis is carried out to investigate how the structural fatigue damage varies with the variations of r and T*. The captured characteristics of structural response and fatigue damage are explained through the VIV mechanism analysis.