Numerical Investigation of Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV) of a Circular Cylinder in Oscillatory Flow

Abstract

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a circular cylinder in oscillatory flow is investigated numerically in this study. The incompressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations governing fluid flow around a circular cylinder are solved using Arbitrary Langrangian-Eulerian (ALE) scheme and Petrov-Galerkin finite element method. The equation of motion is solved for the displacements of the cylinder both in the inline and cross-flow directions. The numerical model is firstly validated against the experimental results of one-degree-of-freedom VIV in cross-flow direction. It is found that both VIV frequency and amplitude vary with reduced velocity for a fixed KC number. In most of the simulated cases the vibration comprises of multiple frequencies of different amplitudes. Each frequency component is multiple times of the frequency of the oscillatory flow. Two-degree-of-freedom VIV is investigated with the same parameters used in the one-degree-of-freedom case. By examining the XY-trajectory of the vibration, it if found that the vibration follows different trajectory for different KC numbers or reduced velocities.