The Effect of Plate Length on the Behaviour of Free-to-Rotate VIV Suppressors With Parallel Plates

Experiments have been carried out on free-to-rotate parallel plates fitted to a rigid section of circular cylinder to investigate the effect of plate length on the stability of this type of VIV (vortex-induced vibration) suppressor. Measurements of the dynamic response and trajectories are presented for models with low mass and damping which are free to respond in the cross-flow and streamwise directions. It is shown that, depending on a combination of geometric and strucutral parameters, parallel plates might not be able to completely suppress VIV for the whole range of reduced velocities investigated. Plates with length between 1.0 and 2.0 diameters showed instabilities and induced high-amplitude vibrations for some specific reduced velocities. Rotational friction was increased for a second run and all plates stabilised and suppressed VIV for the whole range of reduced velocities tested. An undesirable steady lateral force was also observed to occur for all configurations. Experiments with a plain cylinder in the Reynolds number range from 1,000 to 20,000 have been performed to serve as reference.