Airfoil Vibration Due to Upstream Alternating Vortices Generated by a Circular Cylinder

Author(s):  
K. F. Luk ◽  
R. M. C. So ◽  
S. C. Kot ◽  
Y. L. Lau ◽  
R. C. K. Leung

An experimental investigation of airfoil vibration due to upstream alternating vortices was carried out in a re-circulating wind tunnel. A circular cylinder with a diameter D = 102mm was positioned upstream of an airfoil (NACA0012), with a chord length c = 200mm and a zero angle of attack placed at a gap distance S, to generate the vortex street. The circular cylinder and airfoil were arranged in tandem and the spacing ratio S/D was varied from 0.5 to 6.5 to investigate the effect of the vortices generated upstream on the vibration of the airfoil. The experiment was carried out in a free stream Re range of 1.6×105 to 2.3×105. The vortex formation region behind a single circular cylinder was measured using a hot wire anemometer and the airfoil dynamic responses were examined using a laser vibrometer. It is found that when S/D is reduced beyond a critical value, there is a rapid drop in vortex shedding frequency and a suppression in airfoil vibration. This critical S/D is found to be the normalized length of the vortex formation region behind the single cylinder. It is hypothesized that the vortex could not be formed at this location within the gap distance in the presence of the airfoil, but instead is formed behind the airfoil. Consequently, as vortex shedding is switched from upstream to downstream of the airfoil, the flow-induced vibration of the airfoil is suppressed at the same time.

Author(s):  
Md. Mahbub Alam ◽  
An Ran ◽  
Yu Zhou

This paper presents cross-flow induced response of a both-end-spring-mounted circular cylinder (diameter D) placed in the wake of a rigid circular cylinder of smaller diameter d. The cylinder vibration is constrained to the transverse direction. The cylinder diameter ratio d/D and spacing ratio L/d are varied from 0.2 to 1.0 and 1.0 to 5.5, respectively, where L is the distance between the center of the upstream cylinder to the forward stagnation point of the downstream cylinder. A violent vibration of the cylinder is observed for d/D = 0.2 ∼ 0.8 at L/d = 1.0, for d/D = 0.24 ∼ 0.6 at 1.0 < L/d ≤ 2.5, for d/D = 0.2 ∼ 0.4 at 2.5 < L/d ≤ 3.5, and for d/D = 0.2 at 3.5 < L/d ≤ 5.5, but not for d/D = 1.0. A smaller d/D generates vibration for a longer range of L/d. The violent vibration occurs at a reduced velocity Ur (=U∞/fnD, where U∞ is the free-stream velocity and fn the natural frequency of the cylinder system) beyond the vortex excitation regime (Ur ≥ 8) depending on d/D and L/d. Once the vibration starts to occur, the vibration amplitude increases rapidly with increasing Ur. It is further noted that the flow behind the downstream cylinder is characterized by two predominant frequencies, corresponding to the cylinder vibration frequency and the natural vortex shedding frequency of the cylinder, respectively. While the former persists downstream, the latter vanishes rapidly.


An experimental study was done to elucidate the Mach number effects on vortex shedding of a square cylinder (side length D = 20 mm) and thick symmetrical airfoil (NACA 0018, chord length 20 mm) arranged in tandem , at free stream Mach numbers between 0.1526 and 0.9081, and at free stream Reynolds numbers (based on the side length D ) between 0.702 x 10 5 and 4.188 x 10 5 . The spacing ratio of the central distance, L , between the square cylinder and the airfoil to the side length, D , of the square cylinder was varied from 1.125 to 5.5. It was found that the regular vortex shedding is not suppressed by steady shock waves in the local supersonic flow regions; the periodic vortex shedding is still present, irrespective of the appearance of the shock waves. When the spacing ratio is fixed, the Strouhal number behind the square cylinder is almost constant up to the critical Mach number of about 0.70, but it increases rapidly with further increase of the Mach number. However, once the shock waves are formed on both sides of the vortex formation region, various frequency components, other than the vortex shedding frequency appear; the spectral peaks lower than those of the vortex shedding frequency were identified as frequencies of an acoustic-feedback oscillation and the resonance of the wind tunnel structural system. With increasing the Mach number, the formation region becomes small and asymmetric, and the separating shear layers become wavy. These changes result in an increase of the scale and strength of the vortices and thus enhance the vortex shedding process. However, when the Mach number exceeds the critical value, the streamwise length of the formation region increases suddenly and becomes long enough to enclose the downstream airfoil. Under this circumstance, the formation region is almost symmetrical with respect to the wake axis, and shock waves are formed on the upper and lower separating shear layers. The shock waves are almost normal to the wake axis at M = 0.7512 and 0.8215, but incline to the downstream direction at M = 0.9081. Acoustic waves travelling upstream have been observed most clearly when the vortex shed from the square cylinder hits the leading edge of the airfoil at a Mach number of about 0.63, which is close to, but slightly smaller than the critical value. The mean pressure and the amplitude of the pressure fluctuations in the test section decreases and increases, respectively, with increasing the Mach number. However, the amplitude of the pressure fluctuations decreases suddenly when the steady shock waves are formed on the upper and lower separating shear layers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 493 ◽  
pp. 68-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Stevanus ◽  
Yi Jiun Peter Lin

The research studies the characteristics of the vertical flow past a finite-length horizontal cylinder at low Reynolds numbers (ReD) from 250 to 1080. The experiments were performed in a vertical closed-loop water tunnel. Flow fields were observed by the particle tracer approach for flow visualization and measured by the Particle Image Velocimetry (P.I.V.) approach for velocity fields. The characteristics of vortex formation in the wake of the finite-length cylinder change at different regions from the tip to the base of it. Near the tip, a pair of vortices in the wake was observed and the size of the vortex increased as the observed section was away from the tip. Around a distance of 3 diameters of the cylinder from its tip, the vortex street in the wake was observed. The characteristics of vortex formation also change with increasing Reynolds numbers. At X/D = -3, a pair of vortices was observed in the wake for ReD = 250, but as the ReD increases the vortex street was observed at the same section. The vortex shedding frequency is analyzed by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Experimental results show that the downwash flow affects the vortex shedding frequency even to 5 diameters of the cylinder from its tip. The interaction between the downwash flow and the Von Kármán vortex street in the wake of the cylinder is presented in this paper.


CFD letters ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
Nurul Azihan Ramli ◽  
Azlin Mohd Azmi ◽  
Ahmad Hussein Abdul Hamid ◽  
Zainal Abidin Kamarul Baharin ◽  
Tongming Zhou

Flow over bluff bodies produces vortex shedding in their wake regions, leading to structural failure from the flow-induced forces. In this study, a passive flow control method was explored to suppress the vortex shedding from a circular cylinder that causes many problems in engineering applications. Perforated shrouds were used to control the vortex shedding of a circular cylinder at Reynolds number, Re = 200. The shrouds were of non-uniform and uniform holes with 67% porosity. The spacing gap ratio between the shroud and the cylinder was set at 1.2, 1.5, 2, and 2.2. The analysis was conducted using ANSYS Fluent using a viscous laminar model. The outcomes of the simulation of the base case were validated with existing studies. The drag coefficient, Cd, lift coefficient, Cl and the Strouhal number, St, as well as vorticity contours, velocity contours, and pressure contours were examined. Vortex shedding behind the shrouded cylinders was observed to be suppressed and delayed farther downstream with increasing gap ratio. The effect was significant for spacing ratio greater than 2.0. The effect of hole types: uniform and non-uniform holes, was also effective at these spacing ratios for the chosen Reynolds number of 200. Specifically, a spacing ratio of 1.2 enhanced further the vortex intensity and should be avoided.


Author(s):  
Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh ◽  
M. Afzaal Malik ◽  
Arshad Hussain Qureshi ◽  
M. Anwar Khan ◽  
Shahab Khushnood

Flow past a blunt body, such as a circular cylinder, usually experiences boundary layer separation and very strong flow oscillations in the wake region behind the body at a discrete frequency that is correlated to the Reynolds number of the flow. The periodic nature of the vortex shedding phenomenon can sometimes lead to unwanted structural vibrations. The effect of vibrating instability of a single cylinder is investigated in a uniform flow using the power of computational methods. Fluid structure coupling procedure predicts the fluid forces responsible for structural vibrations. An implicit approach to the solution of the unsteady two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations is used for computation of flow parameters. Calculations are performed in parallel using a domain re-meshing/deforming technique with efficient communication requirements. Results for the unsteady shedding flow behind a circular cylinder are presented with experimental comparisons, showing the feasibility of accurate, efficient, time-dependent estimation of shedding frequency and resulting vibrations.


1988 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 491-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. F. Unal ◽  
D. Rockwell

Vortex shedding from a circular cylinder is examined over a tenfold range of Reynolds number, 440 ≤ Re ≤ 5040. The shear layer separating from the cylinder shows, to varying degrees, an exponential variation of fluctuating kinetic energy with distance downstream of the cylinder. The characteristics of this unsteady shear layer are interpreted within the context of an absolute instability of the near wake. At the trailing-end of the cylinder, the fluctuation amplitude of the instability correlates well with previously measured values of mean base pressure. Moreover, this amplitude follows the visualized vortex formation length as Reynolds number varies. There is a drastic decrease in this near-wake fluctuation amplitude in the lower range of Reynolds number and a rapid increase at higher Reynolds number. These trends are addressed relative to the present, as well as previous, observations.


1973 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Greenway ◽  
C. J. Wood

Experiments using a wind tunnel and a flow visualization technique in a towing tank were conducted to investigate the mechanism of vortex shedding from bevelled trailing edges. These reveal an important difference between the wake structures generated by heaving and steady motion. The suppression of vortex-excited vibration by means of bevelled trailing edges is attributed to the intermittency and rapid decay of the vortex trail resulting from an asymmetric circulation distribution in the vortex formation region.


2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Kheirkhah ◽  
Serhiy Yarusevych ◽  
Sriram Narasimhan

Wake vortex shedding topology of a cylinder undergoing vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) is investigated experimentally. Vibration measurements and flow visualization are utilized to study the connection between the cylinder response and the wake topology. The experiments were performed for two different orientations of the elliptic trajectories relative to the incoming flow at a fixed Reynolds number, moment of inertia ratio, mass ratio, and reduced velocity. Similar to the classical 2P regime, two counter-rotating vortex pairs are produced per oscillating cycle for both cases of elliptic trajectories examined here. However, significant changes in wake vortex dynamics are observed along the cylinder span. These changes include merging of vortices, which leads to shedding patterns similar to 2S and P + S modes downstream of the vortex formation region. The observed changes in vortex dynamics are accompanied by splitting of spanwise vortex filament and are attributed primarily to the changes in the local amplitude of vibrations along the span of the pivoted cylinder. It is shown that, being dependent on both the local amplitude of vibrations and vortex dynamics, the observed wake topology cannot be captured by the classical map of shedding regimes developed for VIV of one degree-of-freedom (DOF) cylinders.


Author(s):  
Göktürk Memduh Özkan ◽  
Hüseyin Akıllı

The characteristics of the flow around a 50mm circular cylinder surrounded by a permeable outer cylinder were investigated by Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and flow visualization techniques in order to control the unsteady flow structure downstream of the cylinder in shallow water. The effect of outer permeable cylinder with a porosity of β = 0.4 on the flow control was studied using five different diameters; D = 60, 70, 80, 90, 100mm. Depth-averaged free stream velocity was kept constant as U = 170mm/s corresponding to a Reynolds number of Re = 8500 and the water height was adjusted to hw = 25mm throughout the study. The results clearly showed that the outer permeable cylinder significantly affects the flow structure of the inner cylinder. It was found that by the existence of outer cylinder, the frequency of unsteady vortex shedding is reduced, vortex formation region is elongated and fluctuations are attenuated which are good indications of effective flow control. Owing to the results, optimum parameters were defined and suggested for the suppression of vortex-induced vibrations on bluff bodies.


1974 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. E. Ramberg ◽  
O. M. Griffin

The von Karman vortex streets formed in the wakes of vibrating, flexible cables were studied using a hot-wire anemometer. All the experiments took place in the flow regime where the vibration and vortex-shedding frequencies lock together, or synchronize, to control the wake formation. Detailed measurements were made of the vortex formation flow for Reynolds numbers between 230 and 650. As in the case of vibrating cylinders, the formation-region length is dependent on a shedding parameter St* related to the natural Strouhal number and the vibrational conditions. Furthermore, the near wake configuration is found to be dependent on the local amplitude of vibration suggesting that the vibrating cylinder rseults are directly applicable in that region.


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