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2014 Chinese Ocean Engineering Society and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
DOI 10.1007/s13344-014-0044-1 ISSN 0890-5487
(Received 17 December 2012; received revised form 27 May 2013; accepted 23 July 2013)
ABSTRACT
In this paper, vortex-induced vibrations of a cylinder are simulated by use of ANSYS CFX simulation code. The
cylinder is treated as a rigid body and transverse displacements are obtained by use of a one degree of freedom spring
damper system. 2-D as well as 3-D analysis is performed using air as the fluid. Reynolds number is varied from 40 to
16000 approx., covering the laminar and turbulent regimes of flow. The experimental results of (Khalak and Williamson,
1997) and other researchers are used for validation purposes. The results obtained are comparable.
Key words: vortex-induced vibrations; ANSYS CFX; flow induced vibrations; fluid structure interaction
1. Introduction
Vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) occur when fluid crosses over a cylinder due to transverse and
inline forces that are generated due to vortex formation. Vortices are formed at a certain frequency and
if the vortex shedding frequency coincides with the natural frequency of the cylinder, resonance will
occur. VIVs occur in different engineering structures such as heat exchangers which are subjected to
VIV as a result of cross flow induced vibrations over the exchanger tubes. Offshore risers in petroleum
exploration also suffer from vortex-induced vibrations. Different researchers have contributed to the
prediction and analysis of VIV in literature like Brika and Laneville (1993), Khalak and Williamson
(1997) and Bearman (2000). Khalak and Williamson (1997) obtained the response of an elastic
cylinder with a low mass ratio of 2.4. They identified two separate regimes of high amplitude
resonance labeled as upper and lower branches of response in contrast to a single amplitude response
curve which was previously supposed by Sarpkaya (1979). Bearman (2000) gave a detailed review of
experimental work on VIV and addressed the VIVs from bluff bodies and showed that vortex shedding
frequency coincides with natural frequency of the structure over a wider band of reduced velocities if
displacement is high. Bearman (2000) conducted study on free and forced vibrations and stated that
forced vibration experiments allow the individual control of reduced velocities and displacement ratios.
VIVs depend upon several parameters including mass ratio (ms), added mass and mass damping
parameter (ms). Khalak and Williamson (1997) obtained data for three different mass ratios from low
to high and concluded that the range of reduced velocity is narrowed with the increasing mass ratio.
The damping effect was also studied with different damping ratios, and high upper branch amplitude
was observed with lower damping ratio. Khalak and Williamson (1997) also studied the effect of
combined mass damping parameters (ms) on the response and observed that upper branch amplitude
has a larger dependence upon the combined mass damping parameter while lower branch amplitude
does not show much dependence. The distinction between the lower and upper branch of Khalak and
Williamson (1997) is attributed to different modes of oscillation as given by the study of Williamson
and Roshko (1979). Khalak and Williamson (1997) observed from the plot of non-dimensional
frequency response versus reduced velocity that for higher damping ratios the frequency ratio (ratio of
frequency of oscillation to the natural frequency of cylinder) was close to 1 but for lower damping
ratios (e.g 2.4) the ratio was roughly around 1.5. Williamson and Roshko (1979) identified two modes
of oscillation in synchronization region i.e 2P and 2S modes. In the 2S mode, one vortex is formed in
each half cycle of vibration and occurs during initial branch of the response and is associated with
large amplitudes whereas for 2P mode two vortices are formed at each half cycle and occurs at upper
and lower branch. Khalak and Williamson (1997) showed that for low (ms) type transition from initial
to upper branch is hysteretic and from upper to lower branch is intermittent. For high ms the transition
from initial branch to lower branch is hysteretic. These transitions are associated with jump in
displacement and frequency.
Wanderley et al. (2008) performed a numerical simulation of vortex-induced vibrations using a
two-dimensional numerical scheme by solving RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes) equations.
Their results agreed well with the results of previous researchers at the initial and upper branch of
displacement response, but not so close to the lower branch level, and they attributed this disagreement
to the three-dimensional effects, the addition of artificial dissipation term, and the turbulence scheme
used. In a subsequent work, Wanderley et al. (2008) solved RANS equations using an upwind and
TVD (Total Variation Diminishing) scheme of Roe (1984) and Sweby (1984). They verified the code
results by duplicating the data and flow conditions of Khalak and Williamson (1997), by taking a
damping ratio of 0.00542 and mass ratio of 2.4. The reduced velocity was varied from 2 to 15
corresponding to a Reynolds number varying from 2000 to 12000. The present work is an attempt to
simulate VIV for flow over an elastic rigid cylinder by taking the same flow parameters as that of
Khalak and Williamson (1997) using ANSYS CFX. These results are validated to the experimental and
numerical results of previous researchers. ANSYS CFX is a commercially available CFD (Computational
Fluid Dynamics) simulation package having advanced turbulence schemes and numerical algorithms
and can accurately predict the experimental data by employing the latest CFD and FSI (Fluid Structure
Interaction) techniques. Previously, not many papers are found in literature in which CFX is used to
validate VIV data. Kuehlert et al. (2008) validated the data for a single tube with 2-DOF (Degree of
Freedom) flow induced vibration with experimental results of Hover et al. (1998) by employing RANS
turbulence scheme in 2D. Kuehlert et al. (2008) varied the fluid properties and free stream velocity
while increasing the reduced velocity and keeping Reynolds number constant at 3800. Spring and
damper combination was used to support the tube. Their simulated data for the displacement and
frequency response agreed well to that of Hover et al. (1998).
2. Non-Dimensional Parameters
The following non-dimensional parameters used in this simulation are listed in Table 1.
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3. 2D Simulation
The laminar case was setup in CFX with an extruded 2D mesh. CFX meshing was used to mesh
the domain. The domain and the mesh are shown in Fig. 1. The mesh is refined in the wake region while
coarser mesh is used near the outer walls of the domain. The mesh is extruded one element in z
direction. ANSYS CFX is intrinsically a 3D solver and therefore 2D planar geometries cannot be
imported into ANSYS CFX. This can be called a quasi 2D case. For this simulation, the length in the
extruded direction is almost equal to the diameter of the cylinder. This convention provides reasonable
accuracy. This should be noted that 2D simulation is intrinsically a 3D simulation. 2D simulation
should be referred here as quasi-2D simulation, because certain length of cylinder is considered in z
direction which can calculate the drag and lift coefficients using the projected area (diameter of
cylinder multiplied by length of cylinder) and the projected force at the fluid structure boundary using
CFX force functions. The data in Table 2 is obtained using the quasi-2D simulation not planar 2D
simulation. Inflation layers were used at the cylinder wall and the outer walls to resolve the boundary
layer at the walls. No slip condition at cylinder wall is used while free slip condition is used at the
upper and lower boundaries. Front and back sides of the domain are given symmetry conditions which
make this setup two dimensional. The left side was specified as velocity inlet while the right side as the
outlet pressure. An initial velocity profile was also specified for the domain that helps in achieving the
steady state efficiently. The fluid properties and velocity were varied to keep the Reynolds number
constant. This setup was run for five cases with Reynolds numbers equal to 40, 100, 200 and 1000.
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The lift and drag coefficients were obtained using the intrinsic force function in CFX.
Fig. 2 shows the contours of streamlines over the cylinder for Re=40. The two vortices are formed
due to boundary layer separation at Re=40 while pressure gradients are clearly visible at the leading
and trailing edge of the cylinder. Fig. 2 shows the development of laminar vortices pair at Re=40.
These elliptic vortices have clearly defined the boundary with characteristic dimensions. a is the
distance from the trailing edge of the cylinder to the center of the vortex, l is the recirculation length of
vortex, and b is the center to center distance of the vortex pair. The characteristic dimensions of the
vortices have much significance in the dynamics of the vortex. These parameters are used in the
calculation of average velocity of the vortex ring, as this is not the focus of the current research topic, a
comprehensive description is avoided. The parameters are quoted for the validation of CFD results.
The reader can consult Akhmetov (2009) and Green (1995) for further details. These dimensions are
measured from the present simulation and they are comparable to the results of Wanderley et al. (2008)
and that of previous researchers as given in Table 2, which gives a comparison of these dimensions
with data in literature and it can be seen that data compares well with those of previous researchers.
Fig. 3 shows a plot of lift and drag coefficients obtained for Re=200 from the present study. Fig. 4
shows the contours of velocity for Re=100. The convergences from one of the cases for Re=2000 and
3D are shown in Fig. 20 and Fig. 21 in Appendix B.
Table 2 Characteristic dimensions of two vortices formed at Re=40 from previous researchers and present study
Reference Cd l/d a/d b/d () Comments
Sphaier and Rengel (1999) 1.610 2.23 0.7200 0.579 54.06 FVM
Wanderley et al. (2008) 1.560 2.29 0.7300 0.600 53.79 FDM
Present 1.546 2.20 0.7147 0.590 52.40 CFX
Table 3 shows a comparison of drag (Cd) and lift (Cl) coefficients from the present study and
previous literature for Reynolds numbers 100, 200 and 1000. It can be seen from Table 3 that results
for Cl for Re=100 and 200 are closer to the results of Li et al. (2011) while Cd and Cl at Re=100 agrees
well with the data of Wanderley et al. (2008). Values of Cd obtained from the present simulation are a
little larger than those of previous researches (Wanderley et al., 2008; Norberg, 2003).
Abu Bakar IZHAR et al. / China Ocean Eng., 28(4), 2014, 541 556 545
Fig. 3. Dynamic plot of drag and lift coefficients for Re=100 (present simulation).
From the plots of Cd and Cl, we can perform a discrete FFT analysis to find the frequencies. The
frequencies of Cd and Cl can be observed from the frequency amplitude plot at Re=100 shown in Fig. 5.
The peak of Cl corresponds to the amplitude axes on the left while Cd peak corresponds to the
amplitude axes on the right and it can be observed from the plot that the frequency for Cd signal is
546 Abu Bakar IZHAR et al. / China Ocean Eng., 28(4), 2014, 541 556
about twice that of Cl signal. The Strouhal frequency at Re=2000 is determined in a similar manner by
using DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) for velocity signal and it can be seen from Fig. 6 that a peak
is formed at the frequency of 4.66 Hz.
Table 3 Data comparison from previous researches at Re=100, 200 and 1000
Reynolds
Reference Cd Cl Comments
number
100 1.30 0.25
Wanderley et al.
200 1.27 0.51 FDM
(2008)
1000 0.96 0.22
100 0.32
Norberg (2003) 200 0.53 Experimental
1000 0.08
100 1.36 0.32
Sphaier and Rengel FEM
200 1.35 0.67
(1999) (10079 nodes)
1000 1.60 1.70
100 1.350 0.363
Li et al. (2011)
200 1.342 0.690
100 1.49 0.20
Present study 200 1.34 0.46 CFX
1000 1.04 0.52
The Reynolds number for the flow over cylinder in our case is defined as:
Ud
Re , (1)
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where is the fluid density (kg/m3), d is the diameter (m) of the cylinder over which the fluid flows
externally, U is the incoming free stream velocity of the fluid (m/s), and is the dynamic viscosity of
the fluid (Pa-s).
For the case of Re=2000, the free stream inlet velocity was taken as 22 m/s. The diameter of the
cylinder was taken as 2 m. Therefore, substituting these values into Eq. (2) yields the Strouhal number
fd 4.66 1
St 0.2119 , (2)
U 22
where f is the Strouhal frequency.
4. 3D Simulation
The 3D model representation is clearly shown in Fig. 7. One way unsteady coupling was
implemented between fluid and structure fields to calculate the displacements. The structural solver
was implemented in Mathematics. Runge K-5 solution routine for ordinary differential equations was
developed. The details are given in Appendix A. The fluid force data at each step was imported from
CFX to Mathematica where structural field was calculated using Eq. (16). The step size for the
structural case was calculated by dividing the period of oscillation of the cylinder into 20 steps for
numerical accuracy. This should be clear that flexibly rigid cylinder was assumed with an equivalent
system stiffness and damping and hence deflection profile along the span of cylinder was not
considered.
This should be cleared here that 2D simulation is intrinsically a 3D simulation. 2D simulation
(Section 3) should be referred here as quasi-2D simulation, because certain length of cylinder is
considered in z direction which can calculate the drag and lift coefficients using the projected area
(diameter of cylinder multiplied by length of cylinder) and the projected force at the fluid structure
boundary using equations in Table 1. The data in Table 2 are obtained using the quasi-2D simulation
not planar 2D simulation. Similar is the case of 3D simulation in Section 4, the mass of the cylinder
was calculated by use of the length and mass ratio of the cylinder. Therefore, 3D and 2D simulations
are not differentiated in geometric sense.
4 yL 2 yL
EI A 0, (3)
xL4 t 2
where xL is the direction along the length of the beam, yL is the direction of displacement perpendicular
to xL, and A is dimensionless displacement. From the separation of variables, the solution to Eq. (3) can
be written as:
yL ( xL , t ) X ( xL )T (t ) , (4)
where t is temporal variable.
Fig. 7. Distributed spring damper system for a free-free beam for 3D analysis.
simulation. As the reduced velocity increases, the speed reaches a value at which fs (vortex shedding
frequency) becomes closer to fn (natural frequency) of the structure which causes the frequencies to
synchronize. The vortex shedding frequency (fs) and the tube oscillation frequency (f) becomes close to
the natural frequency (fn) and the ratio f*=f/fn becomes close to unity which is known as lock-in or
synchronization phenomenon.
Fig. 10. Comparison of present calculated data with previous researches found in literature.
Fig. 13. Phase lag between the lift and displacement as function of reduced velocity (Ur).
This behavior can be seen in Fig. 15 which shows a plot of frequency ratio versus the reduced
velocity. With reference to Fig. 15, the line with triangles is the frequency ratio of vortex shedding of
stationary cylinder normalized with the natural frequency of cylinder in air, the line with diamonds is
the frequency ratio for vibrating cylinder of specific mass of 2.4 and the line with squares is the
frequency ratio of vibrating cylinder of specific mass of 10.3 normalized with the natural frequency in
air. Similarly, Fig. 16 shows the plot of frequency ratios obtained by normalizing the frequencies with
the natural frequency of cylinder in water (fnw). It is obvious from Fig. 15 and Fig. 16 that as the
specific mass increases, the frequency response becomes closer to the natural frequency and the ratio
gets closer to unity. This behavior is evident from the plots of Fig. 17 and Fig. 18 taken from Khalak
and Williamson (1997). Fig. 19 shows the amplitude profile as a function of the reduced velocity for a
specific mass of 10.3 from the present study and Khalak and Williamson (1997). It can be seen that
upper and lower branches from the present simulation and Khalak and Williamson (1997) are not
much close whereas the initial branch and the desynchronization branches of the response are
comparable and a generalized trend of amplitude response can be seen. This is also obvious from Fig.
19 that upon increasing the specific mass the range of the reduced velocity over which the response
(upper and lower branches) extends is clearly reduced when compared to amplitude response at
specific mass of 2.4 in Fig. 10.
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Fig. 15. Frequency ratio (normalized with fna) for ms=2.4 from the present simulation.
Fig. 16. Frequency ratio (normalized with fnw) for ms=2.4 from the present simulation.
Fig. 17. Frequency ratio from Khalak and Williamson (1997) for ms=2.4.
Fig. 18. Frequency ratio from Khalak and Williamson (1997) for ms=10.3 and 20.4.
554 Abu Bakar IZHAR et al. / China Ocean Eng., 28(4), 2014, 541 556
Fig. 19. Comparison of amplitude profile against reduced velocity for ms=10.3.
5. Concluding Remarks
It can be concluded after observing the data obtained from this simulation that ANSYS CFX can
predict the vortex-induced vibrations behavior considerably well. The SAS-SST turbulence scheme
available in CFX used for this simulation is well suited to this type of case. It can be seen from this
study that a better amplitude response could be achieved if small increments in the reduced velocity
were used along with a finer grid but these could be used at the case of computationally expensive cost.
Future work can be extended to fluid structure interaction simulation available in CFX using rigid
body solver along with a grid refinement study.
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Appendix A
The structural side was solved by employing Runge K5 method for the system of the first order
ordinary differential equations. Eq. (14) was represented by a system of the first order ODE. The
system is as follows:
F cv ku
f1 x, u , v v; f 2 x, u , v . (15)
m
The displacement u and velocity v are calculated as:
7 k11 32k31 12k41 32k51 7k61
ui1 ui 90
(16)
v v 7 k12
32 k 32
12 k42 32k52 7k62
i1 i
90
where,
k1i hf i x, u , v ;
h k k
k2 i hf i x , u 11 , v 12 ;
2 2 2
h 3k11 k21 3k12 k22
k3i hf i x , u ,v ;
4 16 16
h k k
k4 i hf i x , u 31 , v 32 ;
2 2 2
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Fig. 21. Turbulence and wall scale convergence for Ur=3. (3D case).