Experimental Study on Vortex-Induced Vibration of Floating Circular Cylinders With Low Aspect Ratio

Experiments regarding vortex-induced vibration on floating circular cylinders with low aspect ratio were carried out in a recirculation water channel. The floating circular cylinders were elastic supported by a set of linear springs to provide low structural damping on the system. Eight different aspect ratios were tested, namely L/D = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0. These aspect ratios were selected to cover the aspect ratio range of the main offshore circular platforms, such as spar and monocolumn. The aims were understanding the VIM of such platforms; due to this, the cylinders were floating, or m* = 1. The range of Reynolds number covered 2,800 < Re < 55,400. The amplitude results showed a decrease in amplitude with decreasing aspect ratio in both directions. The frequency results confirm a different behavior for cylinders with L/D ≤ 0.5; in these cases, the cylinder free-end effects were predominant. The resonant behaviour was no longer observed for L/D ≤ 0.2. The decrease in Strouhal number with decreasing aspect ratio is also verified. All the results presented here complement the work presented previously for stationary circular cylinder with low aspect ratio presented by Gonçalves et al. (2013), Experimental Study on Flow around Circular Cylinders with Low Aspect Ratio, OMAE2013-10454.