Global aerodynamic instability of twin cylinders in cross flow

This paper comprises an in-depth physical discussion of the flow-induced vibration of two circular cylinders in view of the time-mean lift force on stationary cylinders and interaction mechanisms. The gap-spacing ratio T/D is varied from 0.1 to 5 and the attack angle α from 0° to 180° where T is the gap width between the cylinders and D is the diameter of a cylinder. Mechanisms of interaction between two cylinders are discussed based on time-mean lift, fluctuating lift, flow structures and flow-induced responses. The whole regime is classified into seven interaction regimes, i.e., no interaction regime; boundary layer and cylinder interaction regime; shear-layer/wake and cylinder interaction regime; shear-layer and shear-layer interaction regime; vortex and cylinder interaction regime; vortex and shear-layer interaction regime; and vortex and vortex interaction regime. Though a single non-interfering circular cylinder does not correspond to a galloping following quasi-steady galloping theory, two circular cylinders experience violent galloping vibration due to shear-layer/wake and cylinder interaction as well as boundary layer and cylinder interaction. A larger magnitude of fluctuating lift communicates to a larger amplitude vortex excitation.