Vortex-induced Vibration Response Research Articles

Study on the Influence of Wind Fairing Parameters on the Aerodynamic Performance of Long-Span Double-Deck Steel Truss Suspension Bridge

A long-span double-deck steel truss suspension bridge is easy to produce vortex-induced vibration (VIV) at low air velocity, which affects bridge service life. Additional aerodynamic measures play a role in suppressing VIV by changing the aerodynamic shape, which is a common control method. As the main aerodynamic measure to suppress the VIV response, wind fairing is widely used in engineering practice. In order to obtain the optimal additional position and shape parameters of the fairing, Huangjuetuo Yangtze River Bridge is the research target. Through the combination of a wind tunnel test and numerical simulation, the VIV response of the original and fairing section is studied. Based on data analysis, it is revealed that these additional fairings to the upper chord can significantly reduce the VIV response. When the shape parameters of the fairing are h/D = 1/4 and l/D = 1, the VIV inhibition efficiency is the highest, which can reach 65.51%. By analyzing the flow distribution, it can be seen that VIV is caused mainly by vortex separation in the upper bridge board area. Although this wind fairing does not change the original vortex shedding forms, it changes the first separation point and movement direction of the airflow, making the vortex scale generated by the airflow smaller and the vorticity lower, thus effectively suppressing VIV.

Vibration Characteristics and Structural Optimization of Pipeline Intelligent Plugging Robot under Turbulent Flow Field Excitation

Pipeline maintenance technology based on pipeline intelligent plugging robot (PIPR) has become an effective method for failure accident prevention of high-pressure subsea oil and gas pipelines. However, during the plugging operation, the vortexes and pressure fluctuation are presented under turbulent flow field excitation, which may lead to vortex-induced vibration and failure of the plugging operation. Therefore, in order to ensure the reliability of pipeline plugging, the vibration characteristics are analyzed using numerical simulation, providing guidance on the structural optimization of PIPR’s end face. Firstly, the flow field characteristics under different PIPR’s end faces are investigated. Secondly, an experimental scheme is designed based on Latin Hypercube Sampling Design (LHSD) optimized by greedy strategy. A mathematical model of the end face’s parameters and pressure gradient is established using a back propagation (BP) neural network. Then, an improved whale optimization algorithm (IWOA) is proposed to optimize the end face’s parameters to minimize the pressure gradient of the flow field. Finally, the experimental study is performed to observe the turbulent flow field and pressure fluctuation to validate the optimization results. The results demonstrate that the PIPR’s end face has a great influence on the vortex-induced vibration response. After structural optimization, the average pressure gradient of the optimal PIPR’s end face has decreased by 84.69% and 54.55% before and after the plugging process, compared to the original end face. This study can provide a reference for pipeline plugging operations, which is significant for preventing pipeline failure accidents.

Numerical simulation of the vortex-induced vibrations of a 4:1 rectangular cylinder subjected to yaw uniform currents

The practical engineering structures are not always perpendicular to the wind but often in skew positions. This yawed configuration may lead to more complex three-dimensional flow characteristics and different vortex-induced vibration (VIV) responses. However, the related study is very inadequate. Therefore, comprehensive numerical investigations of the VIV characteristics of a 4:1 rectangular cylinder have been conducted using the three-dimensional (3D) Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) at five different yaw angles (β = 0°, 5°, 10°, 20°, 30°). An innovative method for creating 3D meshes was introduced, demonstrating a good agreement with the experimental results while significantly reducing the mesh number, and consequently the computation time. The VIV response, pressure distribution, aerodynamic force, flow field, and energy input/output were analyzed for various yaw angles. The results demonstrate that the periodic boundary conditions on the spanwise domain side is more reliable than those of the wall boundary conditions. The velocity component parallel to the cylinder axis can be ignored in the analysis of elastically-mounted rectangular rigid cylinders for β up to 30°. If only considering the perpendicular axis velocity component, the amplitudes and lock-in regions for β = 5°, 10°, 20°, and 30° are highly consistent with those of β = 0°, which have effectively validated the accuracy of Independence Principle in evaluating the VIV of a 4:1 rectangular cylinder.

High-fidelity simulations of airfoil vortex-induced vibrations: from 2D to blade-like aspect ratios

Large edgewise vibrations due to vortex shedding can be suffered by a wind turbine blade when the rotor is stopped or idling and there is massively separated flow. High-fidelity simulations of these vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) with a full-blade model are very computationally expensive, and so currently reported results of this type are limited to short time series or reduced parameter spaces, far from being sufficient to predict the lock-in range and other characteristics of a full-scale blade response to VIV under real conditions. This computational cost has led researchers to, alternatively, study VIV using simplified approaches, like simulations of 2D and short-span airfoil sections. To help bridge the gap between expensive full-blade and short-span airfoil section simulations, in this work the VIV response of an airfoil section is obtained for three different aspect ratios —from 2D to a blade-like aspect ratio—, using CFD simulations coupled with a one-degree-of-freedom structural oscillator model. The results obtained show that inside the lock-in range the airfoil’s initial VIV response is very similar for all aspect ratios studied, despite notable differences in the Strouhal number obtained. In contrast, outside lock-in the aerodynamic forces vary substantially from one case to another.

Experimental and numerical study on vibration response, VIV mechanism and aerostatic coefficients of triple-separated decks under different vertical distances

In this study, aerodynamic interference effects (AIE) on the vibration response, aerostatic coefficient (AC) and vortex-induced vibration (VIV) mechanism of the triple-separated decks under different incoming wind directions and vertical distances were investigated via wind tunnel tests and numerical simulations, respectively. The test results show that the AIE increases the displacement of VIV, and the VIV responses reaches maximum value under S/H = −1.0 (S is the vertical distance between the centers of RB and HB decks, and H is the height of RB deck) when the RB deck is on the windward side (the maximum displacements of VIV are 193.86% and 37.30% higher than the case of single RB deck and S/H = 0.0, respectively). The pressure distribution and flow structure show that the scale of vortex that alternately shed off from the tail of the deck becomes stronger and the fluctuating pressure coefficient increases under AIE, which increase the VIV amplitude of the RB deck and cause the VIV of HB decks. The experimental and numerical results indicated that the aerostatic coefficients (AC) of the leeward girder are more affected by the AIE. The interference factor (IF) of drag coefficient (CD) is far less than 1.0 under the case of F-5 (S/H = 0.0).

Experimental investigation on hydrodynamic characteristics of water intake riser undergoing vortex-induced vibration in uniform flow

With the development of ocean engineering, freely hanging water intake riser (WIR) has aroused widespread interests. The WIR with one free end would be easier to deflect remarkably, along with more complex vortex-induced vibration (VIV) responses and hydrodynamic forces. To elucidate the VIV characteristics of WIR under uniform flow, a series of VIV experiments for a scaled WIR model are carried out. Then a hydrodynamic identification method for VIV along with large offset is developed. The response and hydrodynamic characteristics of the WIR in cross-flow (CF) and in-line (IL) directions are further analyzed. Results indicate that VIV displacements with higher exciting modes are unstable when uniform flow velocity gets large. The IL-to-CF dominant frequency ratio of VIV is found to be 1.0, not 2.0 in conventional VIV knowledge and the IL harmonic at nearly twice the dominant CF frequency is observed more complex for flow velocity greater than 0.3 m/s. The vortex-induced force coefficients are found to be time-varying. Moreover, it is found that within the spectrum of Reynolds number from 2 × 103 to 1.1 × 104, the drag coefficient distribution changes along the WIR model, and the average drag coefficient is in range of 1.0–1.5, which is slightly smaller than the results predicted by the other published empirical formulae.

A study on vortex-induced vibration of a long flexible catenary cable in perpendicular flow

In this paper, a numerical model based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and a single van der Pol wake oscillator model is proposed to study the vortex-induced vibration of a long flexible catenary cable with a low mass ratio. The wake model uses only one oscillator to describe the in-line and cross-flow vibration with consideration of their nonlinear coupling. An experiment on a flexible cable model in perpendicular flow is carried out to validate the proposed numerical model. Numerical results and experimental measurements are compared on the vortex-induced vibration responses including the maximum amplitude, axial tension, and vibration frequency. A sensitivity analysis of the parameters used in the numerical model has been carried out. Numerical simulations by the proposed numerical model with properly selected parameters have demonstrated that the vibration frequency and the axial tension can be well predicted, and the variation of the vibration amplitudes can also be properly captured. The lock-in phenomena and the axial tension variation of the long flexible catenary cable in perpendicular flow have been carefully studied both numerically and experimentally.

Frequency lock-in control and mitigation of nonlinear vortex-induced vibrations of an airfoil structure using a conserved-mass linear vibration absorber

We investigate the effectiveness of a vibration absorber on the vortex-induced vibration response of turbine blades during the frequency lock-in phase. A reduced-order model of a turbine blade and van der Pol oscillator is used to represent the fluid–blade interaction caused by the vortex shedding. A spring-mass-damper system is considered to model the vibration absorber. The advantage of the vibration absorber is demonstrated by simulating the nonlinear coupled four-degree-of-freedom aeroelastic system for the different sets of system parameters. We observe the dominance of a nonlinear vibration absorber over the linear vibration absorber only for the higher coupling parameter values. The analytical solution of the nonlinear coupled system is obtained through the method of multiple scales for the case of 1:1 internal resonance to identify the critical design parameters of the vibration absorber. We observe the high sensitivity of the system's frequency response to the distance of the vibration absorber from the elastic axis, along with the absorber's damping, stiffness, and mass. Finally, we perform a parametric analysis on the lock-in of the stability region to better understand the effect of the vibration absorber on the instability region.

Passively Enhanced Vortex-Induced Vibration Response of Side-by-Side Cylinders in Turbulent Flow

Passively Enhanced Vortex-Induced Vibration Response of Side-by-Side Cylinders in Turbulent Flow

Correlation and modal analysis techniques for the study of the VIV response of a twin-box deck based on 3D LES simulations

AbstractTwin-box decks are prone to vortex-induced vibration (VIV) at moderate wind speeds, and previous studies have shown a complex interplay between the flow and the two parallel box girders. OpenFOAM is used to model the aerodynamic and aeroelastic responses of the twin-box deck of the Stonecutters Bridge by means of 3D LES simulations. Two cases are thoroughly analysed under smooth incoming flow: (i) static deck and ii) heave peak amplitude response at VIV excitation. The computational data provided by the CFD simulations have been exploited aiming at better understanding the complex aerodynamic and aeroelastic phenomena taking place. First, spanwise correlation analyses are applied to understand the level of organisation of the forcing flow actions, and identify the regions of the deck affected by different flow structures. Second, three different mode decomposition techniques (POD, SPOD and DMD) are applied to the time-dependent pressure distributions, revealing the pivotal role played by the leeward box in the twin-box deck response under wind action. The modal analyses are of utmost interest in the development of Reduced Order Models (ROM) for the VIV response of twin-box long-span bridges.

Investigation of vortex-induced vibrations of rotating cylinders with different surface roughnesses

The vortex-induced vibrations of a two-degree-of-freedom rough rotating cylinder at a low Reynolds number of 200 and a mass ratio of 2.6 are investigated via numerical simulations. The relevant calculation parameters are as follows: a rotation rate between zero and one, surface roughness height between 0% and 15%, and reduced velocity between 1 and 12. It is found that reasonable rough surface and rotational motion of the smooth cylinder are two effective factors for suppressing the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) response. Conversely, a rotating cylinder with a rough surface enhances the VIV response. Four wake patterns (2S, P + S, 2P, and multiple vortices patterns) are captured. At low rotation rates, with increasing roughness height, the wake pattern develops into a multiple vortex pattern after multiple evolutions. The variation in roughness at a high rotation rate does not correlate with a change in the wake pattern. The area of the cylindrical motion trajectory is positively correlated with the roughness height, and the time-averaged dimensionless displacements of the cross-flow and in-line flow directions increase with increasing roughness height.

Numerical investigation on vortex-induced vibration of catenary riser conveying fluid under top-end heave excitation

ABSTRACT Due to the catenary shape of steel catenary risers (SCR), the heave motion of the floating platform can generate an equivalent oscillatory flow field and excite the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of SCR. Internal flow conveyed by SCR further complicates the VIV response. A semi-empirical model is improved to simulate the VIV of SCR with internal flow under top-end heave excitation. VIV characteristics such as displacement temporal–spatial distribution and amplitude spectra spatial distribution are analysed and the fatigue damage is calculated. The effects of heave period, heave amplitude, internal flow volumetric flow rate and internal flow density on VIV of SCR are discussed. The heave excitation with short period or large amplitude tends to excite high-order-mode response and enlarge the fatigue damage. The VIV response becomes less regular and the fatigue damage is reduced when the internal flow volumetric flow rate or density increases.

Energy extraction and optimization studies on vortex-induced vibration of the elastically mounted rigid cylinder using wake oscillator model

The vortex-induced vibration (VIV) response of an elastically mounted rigid cylinder from the standpoint of energy harvesting is analyzed with the aid of the wake oscillator model (WOM). A model of an elastically mounted rigid cylinder free to oscillate in the in-line (IL) and cross-flow (CF) directions subjected to different uniform flow velocities is considered and its responses under different mass ratios are predicted using the modified wake oscillator model. For modeling structure motion, the dynamic equilibrium equation, and for modeling the fluid part, the Van der Pol wake oscillator is utilized and they are coupled together to get the response in IL and CF directions. A comparative study is performed between the numerical and the experimental results and they are found to be in good agreement. The study is then probed into the scope of energy extraction from VIV which will presumably throw light into the development of VIV-based energy harvesting methods which is a potential future hope for the renewable energy sector. Parametric optimization study is carried out to determine the maximum harnessable energy from VIV. The response of the cylinder for the optimal parametric combination is analyzed in the time and frequency domain. It is observed that damping and reduced velocity play a crucial role in the energy extraction.

A Data-Driven Model for Predictive Modeling of Vortex-Induced Vibrations of a Long-Span Bridge

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of long-span bridges can be of large amplitude, which can influence serviceability. Therefore, it is important to predict the response of vortex-induced vibration to aid the management of long-span bridges. A novel data-driven model is proposed to predict the time history of the dynamic response of VIV events. Specifically, the proposed model consists of gated recurrent unit (GRU) neural networks and the Newmark-beta method. GRU neural networks can perform accurate sequential prediction, and the Newmark-beta method can complement the physical meaning of the middle output of the proposed model. To aid the accurate prediction of the amplitude of VIV events, the proposed model employs weighted mean square error as the loss function, which can put more emphasis on the amplitude. The proposed model is validated on measured VIV events of a long-span suspension bridge. The weighted mean absolute percentage error and Pearson correlation coefficient of the trained model indicate the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Analysis of the vortex-induced vibration response characteristics of riser under the soft suspension evacuation condition

This paper establishes a nonlinear dynamic model for a suspended riser under the condition of considering realistic configurations, based on the principles of virtual work and Hamilton's variational principle. The nonlinearity of the model is manifested by considering vortex-induced vibration in the cross flow (CF) and in-line (IL) directions, as well as large deformations, taking into account the variable diameter of the riser in the compliant riser system. The model is discretized using the finite element method and solved using the Newmark-β method. Experimental validation is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the model. Utilizing the parameters of a riser in a well in the South China Sea, the paper explores the influence of different environmental and structural parameters on the VIV response characteristics of a compliant riser. Results show that the vibration frequency is controlled by both the bare tube and buoyant block when the buoyant block coverage rate is 25%, which can significantly inhibit VIV. With the increase of flow velocity, the VIV energy jumps from low order to high order, and the riser mode also transitions from low order to high order. The increase in suspension length transfers the vibration energy from high to low frequency, thus realizing energy transition and mode shape transformation. With the increase in LMRP weight, the vibration and natural frequencies of the riser increase synchronously, the vibration amplitude decreases, and the mode shape remains unchanged.

Numerical investigation on the effect of bionic fish swimming on the vortex-induced vibration of a tandemly arranged circular cylinder

The effect of bionic fish swimming on the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a circular cylinder arranged in tandem at a low Reynolds number of 150 is numerically investigated in this work. The bionic fish placed upstream of the cylinder with gap ratios of 1, 3, and 5 and that located downstream of the cylinder with gap ratios of 3 and 5 are examined in the simulations that were carried out in the reduced velocity range of Ur = 2–15. It is found that both the gap ratio and the reduced velocity have a significant influence on the VIV response and wake flow structure. When the bionic fish is placed upstream, the maximum response amplitude of the downstream cylinder is much greater than that of an isolated one. Two flow regimes are identified in terms of the shear layer reattachment, i.e., the continuous reattachment and the alternate reattachment. Comparing the vortex shedding frequencies of the cylinder and the swimming fish, it is found that the frequency of the cylinder is always locked in the fish swimming frequency, and multiple frequencies occur at Ur = 5. When the bionic fish is arranged downstream, four flow regimes are observed, including the extended-body, continuous reattachment, alternate attachment, and co-shedding regimes. Furthermore, the time-mean energy transfer coefficient of the cylinder is considerably higher at Ur = 5 than that when the fish is placed upstream of the cylinder.

Experimental investigation on the vortex-induced vibration response of a lazy-wave flexible riser filled with different fluid media

This paper reports the experimental results of the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a lazy-wave flexible riser filled with different fluid media, including the water and helium as typical liquid and light gas examples. The lazy-wave configuration was produced by mounting a buoyancy module of approximately triple the riser diameter on the one-third of the riser length measured from the riser base. The VIV tests were carried out in the depth-averaged reduced velocity (U¯r) range of 9.32–23.19 using the non-intrusive optical measurement with a couple of high-speed cameras. The experimental results indicate that not only the excited mode of in-plane response but also the response amplitude is significantly adjusted when the internal fluid changes, while the excited mode of the out-of-plane response has no obvious modification. Both the water- and helium-filled risers experience the space-varying dominant frequency. However, the helium-filled riser segment possessing a higher dominant frequency is significantly shortened as compared to the water-filled one. When the internal fluid shifts from water to helium, the in-plane mode transition from the first to second becomes incomplete, and the mode transition becomes smoother as U¯r grows. It is found that the starting position of the mode transition is related to the dominant mode as well as the response direction. Then, the influenced length of the riser response from the buoyancy module and the affecting length of the riser on the buoyancy module response are quantified in terms of the spatial distribution of the dominant frequency in comparison with the natural frequencies. The in-plane response of the helium-filled riser is more vulnerable to the oscillation of the buoyancy module, and hence, the coupling between the in-plane and out-of-plane responses is weaker than the water-filled riser. When the impact of buoyancy module on the riser response is enhanced, the reverse effect is weakened.

Simulation analysis of flow field and vortex-induced vibration characteristics of submarine cable under single/parallel-laying mode

Due to the long-term erosion of current, the submarine cable buried on the seabed surface easily causes fatigue damage to the lead sheath, which gradually progresses with time. In this paper, a two-dimensional spring-damping vortex vibration model is established considering the effect of transverse flow and in-line flow. The vortex-induced vibration response of suspended submarine cables under the influence of different parameters is simulated by using the slice method based on nested grids. The simulation model is used to simulate the flow field characteristics and vortex-induced vibration response of submarine cables under single laying and parallel laying conditions. The fluid-solid coupling mechanism between fluid and structure and the interaction law of parallel laying submarine cables are analyzed. Our study overcame the difficulty in testing the vortex-induced vibration of submarine cables and provided a viable method and empirical support for investigating the vortex-induced vibration properties of submarine cables and fatigue analysis.

Direct Measurements of Vortex-Induced Vibrations on a Horizontal Flexible Cylinder in Water

Abstract This work presents experimental results on vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a horizontal cylinder with 2.69 m in length, 21 mm in diameter, and a mass ratio equal to 3.9. The experiments were carried out in a towing tank, where the flexible cylinder was towed under constant current profiles. Twenty reduced velocities were tested in a range of 1.75 < Vr < 15.79, corresponding to Reynolds numbers from 1000 to 10,000. The displacements were measured directly through a submerged optical system that simultaneously acquired the in-line and cross-flow movements of 18 reflective targets along the length. The extensive monitored section of the model enabled the application of a modal decomposition technique, which is a methodology that is still relatively unexplored through direct measurements. A comprehensive analysis was applied and the VIV responses related to amplitudes, frequencies, phase angles, and trajectories are shown and discussed in depth. The overall dynamics exhibits a multimodal response behavior, and the modal decomposition procedure has conclusively confirmed that the total amplitude comprises several modes vibrating at the dominant mode frequency. Root mean square values of response amplitude were up to 0.77D and 0.23D in the cross-flow and in-line directions, respectively. The cross-flow synchronization had a significant impact on the in-line excitation modes, and the trajectories showed coherence between motions.

A Simplified Approach to Recognize Vortex-Induced Vibration Response Using Machine Learning

The vortex-induced vibration (VIV) problem has been of critical concern for the wind-resistance of long-span bridges. Usually there are four types of approach for VIV studies: wind tunnel tests, field monitoring, computational fluid dynamics and mathematical models. However, traditional approaches have shown some limitations, such as high cost and low efficiency. In order to improve the efficiency and accuracy of VIV studies, this article has taken the VIV problem of a split three-box girder in a cable-stayed and cooperative suspension system bridge as an instance, and conducted a series of VIV wind tunnel tests. An approach based on machine learning is described that is able to serve as a complement to the wind tunnel tests. The proposed approach involves two steps: firstly, based on the dataset produced by wind tunnel tests, a clustering algorithm is introduced to separate the VIV signals automatically from other vibrations. Then, an artificial neural network is utilized to recognize the VIV response and aerodynamic force in the lock-in region directly. It is shown that the clustering algorithm can be a good tool for the recognition of VIV signals. Moreover, the proposed artificial neural network models show good ability for recognizing VIV amplitude and aerodynamic lift force.