Two-way fluid-structure interaction simulation for steady-state vibration of a slender rod using URANS and LES turbulence models

Abstract Anisotropic distribution of the turbulent kinetic energy and the near-field excitations are the main causes of the steady state Flow-Induced Vibration (FIV) which could lead to fretting wear damage in vertically arranged supported slender rods. In this article, a combined Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Computational Structural Mechanic (CSM) approach named two-way Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) is used to investigate the modal characteristics of a typical rod's vibration. Performance of an Unsteady Reynolds-Average Navier-Stokes (URANS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence models on asymmetric fluctuations of the flow field are investigated. Using the LES turbulence model, any large deformation damps into a weak oscillation which remains in the system. However, it is challenging to use LES in two-way FSI problems from fluid domain discretization point of view which is investigated in this article as the innovation. It is concluded that the near-wall meshes whiten the viscous sub-layer is of great importance to estimate the Root Mean Square (RMS) of FIV amplitude correctly as a significant fretting wear parameter otherwise it merely computes the frequency of FIV.