Vortex shedding from a cylinder vibrating in line with an incident uniform flow

Abstract

A study has been made of the wake of a cylinder vibrating in line with an incident steady flow. The Reynolds number for the experiments was 190, and the vortex shedding was at all times synchronized with the vibrations of the cylinder, which were in a range of frequencies near twice the Strouhal shedding frequency for the stationary cylinder. Two distinct vortex wake patterns were encountered. The first is a complex regime in which two vortices are shed during each cycle of the vibration and form an alternating pattern of vortex pairs downstream. The second pattern is an alternating street which results from the shedding of a single vortex during each cycle of the cylinder's motion. The street geometry in the latter case shares many basic characteristics with the wake of a cylinder vibrating in cross-flow. These include the effects of vibration amplitude and frequency on the longitudinal and transverse spacing of the vortices. The results obtained from these experiments in air are in agreement with previous findings from free- and forced-vibration experiments in water at both higher and lower Reynolds numbers.