Wake structures and vortex-induced vibrations of a long flexible cylinder—Part 2: Drag coefficients and vortex modes

Drag coefficients and vortex structures in the wake of a vertical long flexible cylinder vibrating at low mode numbers are presented in this paper. A model with an external diameter of 16 mm and a total length of 1.5 m giving an aspect ratio of about 94 was used to perform more than 100 runs in which Reynolds numbers ranged between 1200 and 12 000. Only the lower 40% of its length was exposed to the water current in the flume and applied top tensions varied from 15 to 110 N giving fundamental natural frequencies in the range from 3 to 7.1 Hz. Reduced velocities based on the fundamental natural frequency up to 16 were reached. The mass ratio was 1.8 and the combined mass-damping parameter about 0.05. The largest drag coefficients were found related to the largest x – y synchronised motions. Digital particle image velocimetry was used to investigate the vortex structures in the wake of the cylinder model. Two modes of vortex shedding were observed, depending on the response branch and the position along the length of the model at which the interrogations were performed.