Vortex Excited Oscillations of Yawed Circular Cylinders

Abstract

Yawed cylinders are cylinders inclined forward or backwards in the plane of the flowing fluid. They are used in many practical situations such as braced frame members and raked marine piles. This paper describes an examination of three aspects of the yawed cylinder-fluid interactions over a range of yaw angles ±45° from the vertical for the Reynolds number range 2,000 < Re < 20,000. viz. 1. Establishment of the stability criteria of vortex-excited oscillations. 2. Measurement of ‘steady’ drag forces and equivalent drag coefficients. 3. Visualization of the local flow over stationary and oscillating cylinder. After a brief review of previous experimental and theoretical work, the results of the three items listed above are presented and discussed. Vortex-excited oscillations were recorded in the in-line and crossflow directions throughout the range of yaw angles and the results of items 2, 3 were used to justify the forms of the stability criteria proposed for these oscillations.