Splitter-plate proximity-induced transitions in flow-induced vibration of a triangular prism

Abstract

The effect of a splitter-plate downstream of an elastically mounted equilateral triangular prism on flow-induced vibration is numerically investigated at Reynolds number Re = 100, mass ratio m* = 10, damping ratio ζ = 0.005, cylinder-plate gap G* = 0.3, and various angle of attacks α = 0°–60°. The α = 0° and 60° correspond to vertex and edge of the cylinder facing the free stream. Under the effect of the splitter plate, a single transition from vortex-induced vibration (VIV) to proximity-induced galloping (PIG) in the vibrational response for an axisymmetric circular cylinder is reported, whereas, for the present non-axisymmetric triangular prisms, the varying α exhibits four proximity-induced transitions: VIV to modified VIV at smaller α = 0° and 25°, VIV to PIG at α = 35°, distinct VIV-galloping to combined PIG-galloping at α = 40°, and asymmetric to symmetric-galloping at larger α = 60°. The plate results in more symmetric vibration for high α ≥ 35°, while a reduction is observed for α ≤ 25°. The gap-flow leads to onset (α = 35°) and enhancement (α = 40°) of afterbody re-attachment on the prism, which significantly enhances the galloping instability and vibrational amplitude. A reduction in galloping instability leading to a slight reduction in amplitude is found for α = 60° prism. The study shows that the presence of the splitter-plate downstream influences near-wake structure and far-wake vortex shedding modes, which lead to stabilizing and destabilizing near-wake flow and distinct vibrational characteristics—depending on the angle of attack (α).