Vortex-Induced Vibration of a Cylinder Spring-Supported in a Narrow Channel: Influence of Spring Stiffness on the Interaction of Cylinder Vibration and Unsteady Fluid Flow

This paper deals with the nonlinear interaction between vortex-induced vibration of a spring-supported cylinder and unsteady fluid flow in a narrow channel. In particular, we remark the stiffness of the spring with which the cylinder is supported, and investigate the influence of the stiffness on the above nonlinear interactions. Such a problem becomes very important in micro systems where the force acting on a surface area can’t be neglected compared with that acting on a volume, and the flow is laminar at low Reynolds number. In this paper, the motion of the cylinder and the fluid velocity are synchronously measured with an angular displacement meter and a PIV system. Furthermore, the theoretical results are obtained by solving the simultaneous equations governing motion of the cylinder and fluid flow numerically, in order to compare with the experimental results. Finally, we examine the unsteady fluid force acting on the cylinder theoretically.Copyright © 2005 by ASME