New Insight on the Effects of Reynolds Number in Vortex Induced Vibration

So far, the influence of Reynolds number is not sufficiently investigated and it is often implicitly involved in the response plot versus reduced velocity. In the present article, a new dimensionless parameter α (named as “inertial-viscosity ratio”) is introduced for coordinating reduced velocity and Reynolds number. It is shown that individual Reynolds number effects can be explicitly clarified on different branches, through the coordination of α. Besides, this parameter is preliminarily shown to be capable of coordinating two systems with different structural scale, which is believed to potentially reduce the uncertainty caused by large gaps in Reynolds number between reduced model tests and prototype tests.