Experimental study of the vortex-induced vibration of a circular cylinder considering coupling effect in along- and across-wind direction

Tower-like structures with circular section are prone to unexpected across-wind vortex-induced vibration (VIV), and the along-wind response is usually neglected due to its amplitude being much smaller than that of VIV. Recent research pertaining to tall buildings has revealed, nevertheless, that the structural responses in the along-wind and across-wind directions are coupled in a way that results in a decrease in the across-wind response at the wind speed of VIV along with an increased along-wind response. However, the impact of coupling on tower-like structures has not yet been examined. Moreover, tower-like structures with a circular cross section undergo tip-induced vibration at the wind speed higher than vortex-resonance wind speed. However, the impact of this coupling effect on the tip-induced vibration remains uncertain. In this paper, a two-degree-of-freedom rocking model wind tunnel test is carried out under low turbulence and turbulent flow to investigate the coupling effect of tower-like structures. Experiment results show that the coupling effect exists at both the vortex-resonance vibration wind speed and the tip-induced vibration wind speed. Besides, when the along-wind response is coupled with the across-wind responses, it illustrates a steady harmonic vibration with a hardened non-Gaussian characteristic, and its kurtosis decreases to 1.5. Finally, the measured tip-associated vortex shedding frequency suggests that there is a “lock-in” phenomenon of the tip-induced vibration, this new finding improves the understanding of the wind-induced response at high wind speeds.