Energy transmission at subcritical Reynolds numbers for the wake-induced vibration of cylinders in a tandem arrangement

Abstract

A variety of cylinder configurations are used in civil engineering applications; however, upstream structures can disturb incoming flows and cause the instability of downstream structures. In this study, the wake-induced vibrations (WIV) of two tandem cylinders were numerically simulated at subcritical Reynolds numbers. The effectiveness of the numerical method was demonstrated by comparing with previous experimental results. The energy transmission during the occurrence of WIV was investigated in detail, and the effect of the damping ratio on energy transmission was further studied. The results showed that the WIV of the downstream cylinder can effectively absorb flow energy, and the absorbed energy fluctuates and roughly increases over time. When compared with vortex-induced vibration, a downstream cylinder can absorb more energy during the occurrence of WIV, and the absorbed energy increases as the reduced velocity of the incoming flow increases. In addition, although structural damping reduces the vibration amplitude, it promotes the energy transmission in WIV, and the power of the flow force and the power coefficient linearly increase as the damping ratio increases.