Karman vortex shedding - Friend or foe of the structural dynamicist?

Abstract

An analysis including the coupling between Karman vortex shedding and body motion has been performed for rectangular cross sections. The analysis shows how the Karman vortex shedding can eliminate the largeamplitude response caused by so-called galloping or stall flutter over significant portions of the reduced velocity region. However, in the absence of the galloping and stall flutter phenomenon, i.e., for conditions where the cross section has positive aerodynamic damping, the Karman vortex shedding will be the flow phenomenon causing divergent oscillations.