Experimental Validation for Vortex-Induced Vibration of Circular and Square Cylinders of Low and High Mass Damping

Vortex-induced vibration (VIV), a branch of fluid structure interaction (FSI), is an efficient technique to extract power from rivers/streams at low velocity. The phenomena happens when the submerged body in the flow is elastically mounted. In present study, the response of circular cylinders having low and high mass damping and the square cylinder is analyzed experimentally. The experimental facility uses a water channel with particle image velocimetry (PIV) for flow visualization. In order to record the VIV response of these cross-sections, the experimental setup is developed using air bearings to reduce the damping and springs to simulate the spring-mass system. The high mass damping ratio circular cylinder shows two-branch response (initial and lower branch). While the response of circular cylinder with low mass damping parameter is a three-branch response. A maximum of 1.25D of amplitude is observed in the upper branch. In the initial branch, the amplitude rises quickly, while it is highest in the upper branch, and in the lower branch, it decreases gradually. The response of a square cylinder is similar to galloping. The amplitude of oscillation rises as the reduced flow velocity increases. All the responses are compared with the literature, and they resemble the same trend and characteristics.