Experimental Study About the Influence of the Free End Effects on Vortex-Induced Vibration of Floating Cylinder With Low Aspect of Ratio

Experiments regarding free-end effects on vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of floating circular cylinders with low aspect ratio were carried out in a towing tank. Four cylinders with low aspect of ratio, L/D = 2 (Length / Diameter) were tested with different free end corner shape types, namely by the relation between chamfer rounding radius (r) divided by the radius of cylinder (R) (r/R = 0.0, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0). For the initial case, r/R = 0.0 represents flat tip and r/R = 1.0 the hemispherical tip. The aims were to understand the effect of different free-end types on VIV behavior of cylinders. The floating circular cylinders, i.e. unit mass ratio m* = 1(structural mass/displaced fluid mass) were elastically supported by a set of linear springs to provide low structural damping on the system and allow six degrees of freedom. The range of Reynolds number covered 3,000 ≤ Re ≤ 20,000. To conclude, cylinder with r/R = 0.25, shows lower amplitudes in transverse direction. The same occurs for the cylinder r/R = 0, but for amplitudes of vibration in in-line direction. Behaviors of the vibration frequencies in in-line and transverse direction don’t have significantly differences. Regarding force coefficient, flat tip cylinder (r/R = 0) presents higher values compared to the others however, for the lift coefficient, results converge in similar values for the same velocities that were observed higher transverse amplitudes. The visualization experiments show an expressive reduction of the recirculation bubble for r/R = 0.5 model compared with the flat tip, can therefore justify the lower values for this model obtained in draft amplitudes and drag coefficient compared with the flat tip model.