Experimental investigation on coupled cross-flow and in-line vortex-induced vibration responses of two staggered circular cylinders

Abstract

In order to better understand the vortex-induced vibration mechanism of multiple cylinders, this article takes a relatively simple case of two staggered circular cylinders as the embarkation point and investigates their vortex-induced vibration characteristics by model test. The experimental Reynolds number ranges from 22,000 to 88,000. The in-line gap L is set as 3.0 D, 3.6 D, 4.2 D and 5.5 D in turn, and the cross-flow gap T is set as 0.7 D, 1.1 D, 1.5 D, 1.9 D, 2.3 D and 2.7 D, respectively. By measuring the vibrating response in model test, the response differences between the two staggered cylinders and the isolated cylinder and the effects of the gaps are discussed. The results indicate that the variation trend of response of the upstream cylinder with reduced velocity is basically similar to that of the isolated cylinder. However, the downstream cylinder shows some great differences. When the in-line gap ratio L/ D is 3.6, the cross-flow amplitude curve of downstream cylinder changes from “single peak” to “double peaks” with the increase in cross-flow gap ratio T/ D, and in-line amplitude curve even shows four different kinds of forms. When L/ D is increasing, maximum amplitudes of the downstream cylinder in two directions also show an increasing trend, and the wake galloping phenomenon even appears in some conditions. Generally, the case of staggered cylinders is a generalized combination of two circular cylinders in tandem and side-by-side arrangements, and this article has extended the research scope of the double-cylinder vortex-induced vibration to arbitrary flow direction.