Dynamic characteristics of an inclined flexible cylinder undergoing vortex-induced vibrations

A series of experimental tests were conducted on vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) of a flexible inclined cylinder with a yaw angle equals 45° for investigating the response characteristics in a towing tank. The flexible cylinder model was 5.6m in length and 16mm in diameter with an aspect ratio of 350 and a mass ratio of 1.9. The Reynolds numbers ranged from about 800 to 16,000.The strain responses were measured directly in both cross-flow (CF) and in-line (IL) directions and corresponding displacements were obtained using a modal approach. The dynamic response characteristics of the inclined flexible cylinder excited by vortex shedding was examined from the aspect of strain response, displacement amplitudes, dominant modes, response frequencies and drag force coefficients. The experimental results indicated that the CF response amplitude could be up to a value of 3.0D and the IL one more than 1.1D. The dominant modes were from 1 to 3 in CF direction and 1 to 5 in IL direction. And it was found that dominant frequencies increased linearly with the reduced velocity. The multi-modal response of the flexible inclined cylinder model excited by VIV was observed and analyzed. Moreover, the values of drag coefficients were in the range of 0.9–2.6.