Numerical Study of the Influence of Initial Condition in Vortex Induced Vibration of a Circular Cylinder With Two Degree of Freedom

The vortex-induced vibration (VIV) is a classical problem in ocean engineering. Intensive research on this field for flow around a circular cylinder has been observed, due to practical application, mainly the design of risers, cables and pipelines with free span. The relevance of this phenomenon is related to the structure failure, consequence of large displacement or fatigue. In the present study the influence of initial condition on the vortex induced vibration (VIV) of a circular cylinder with two degree of freedom is investigated by the numerical solution of the slightly compressible formulation of Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes equations. An upwind and Total Variation Diminishing (TVD) conservative scheme is used to solve the governing equations written in curvilinear coordinates. The k–ε turbulence model is used to simulate the turbulent flow in the wake of the cylinder. Two different initial conditions have been tested, free-stream and continuous reduced velocity increase (using the previous reduced velocity as initial condition for the next value). Results for the phase angle, amplitude, frequency, and lift coefficient are presented. The numerical results have been compared with experimental data of Jauvtis and Williamson [1]. The results indicate that the history of cylinder movement has a important impact in the amplitude oscillation observed in-line and cross-flow, principally in the reduced velocity range associated with the upper branch. Results obtained for the initial and lower branch seems to be independent of the initial condition. Further investigation are necessary to understand the difference observed such as the absence of the jump in the cross-flow oscillation between the initial and upper branch and the absence of in-line oscillation for reduced velocity in the range of 1–4 and the peak of in-line oscillation at reduced velocity 6.0.