Numerical simulation of vortex-induced vibration of elastic cylinder

Abstract

Study of the flow around a bluff body and its effect on the flow induced vibration is relevant to design of bridges, tall buildings and similar structures. The flow around bluff bodies, arranged in tandem where one of the bodies is in the wake region of the seconds one, was studied using numerical simulation. This phenomenon is related to the response of bluff bodies immersed in fluid flow and is known as Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV). Vortex energy extraction is of interest to this work. This paper presents the results of a 2D numerical simulation of the wake interaction of two circular cylinders at low Reynolds number using ANSYS Fluent Workbench. The upstream cylinder is stationary, while the downstream elastic cylinder can be affected by the vortices in the wake of the first cylinder. The paper reports the behaviour of the elastic cylinder through a CFD model, with a focus on harnessing the vortical energy. Also discussed is the theoretical maximum energy that can be harvested by this method. For validation purposes, the modelled amplitude of the oscillation is compared to published data in literature. The results show that the motion of elastic cylinder can be modelled as a simple mass spring damper model.