Stationary and flow-induced vibration of two elliptic cylinders in tandem by immersed boundary-MRT lattice Boltzmann flux solver

Abstract

Numerical method, combining immersed boundary method and multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann flux solver, is used to carry out flow-structure interaction problems in this paper. Without dynamic mesh technique and body fitted grid re-generation, the flow-structure interaction problems can be solved by Cartesian mesh in order to simplify calculation process and save computation time. The accuracy and rationality of this method are verified by comparison of force coefficients, vibration amplitudes and flow characteristics with previous numerical results. Numerical simulations of two stationary and flow-induced vibration elliptical cylinders in tandem are carried out in laminar flow. For two stationary elliptical cylinders, the existing of downstream elliptical cylinder effectively prevents the unsteady characteristic of upstream wake at small gap spacing. With the increase of aspect ratio, the critical gap augments. After reaching the critical gap, the upstream force coefficients decrease and the downstream ones increase as aspect ratio increasing. Flow characteristic presents three regimes, including steady flow, shear layer attachment and 2S shedding vortex and 2S or C(2S) shedding vortex. For two flow-induced vibration elliptical cylinders, in comparison with stationary simulations, upstream transverse vibration responses are strengthened and downstream ones are strengthened at larger gap spacing and aspect ratio. The in-line vibration responses are both weaken, especially for downstream bluff body. Flow characteristic show different flow-regimes: (a) shear layer attachment for upstream and 2S shedding vortex for downstream; (b) 2S shedding vortex for upstream and C(2S) shedding vortex for downstream; (c) 2S shedding vortex for upstream and vortex pair presenting in the downstream wake. Greater L/D and AR, the effects of upstream wakes on downstream elliptical cylinder are more intense.