A numerical simulation of VIV on a flexible circular cylinder

In this paper, numerical simulations of a flexible circular cylinder subjected to a vortex-induced vibration (VIV) are conducted. The Reynolds number for simulations is fixed at 1000. The finite volume method is applied for modeling fluid flow with the moving meshes feature. The dynamic response of a flexible cylinder fixed at both ends is modeled by the Euler–Bernoulli beam theory. The comparison between two-dimensional (2D) simulations and 3D simulations for the flexible cylinder shows that the maximum response amplitude of the cross-flow oscillation is about 0.57D for 2D rigid cylinders (modeled by a spring–damper–mass model) and 1.03D for flexible cylinders, respectively. The results from 3D simulations are closer to previous experimental results. Furthermore, the results obtained with various frequency ratios show that different wake patterns exist according to the frequency ratio, such as 2S mode, 2P mode and some more complicated modes. The wake pattern is different at various sections along the cylinder length, due to the fact that the two ends of the beam are fixed. The vibration of the flexible cylinder can also greatly alter the three dimensionality in the wake, which is our research in future work, especially in the transition region for Reynolds number ranging from 170 to 300.