Modelling low Reynolds number vortex-induced vibration problems with a fixed mesh fluid-solid interaction formulation

Abstract

The present work reports a fluid-rigid solid interaction formulation described within the frameworkof a fixed-mesh technique. The numerical analysis is focussed on the study of a vortex-inducedvibration (VIV) of a circular cylinder at low Reynolds number. The proposed numerical schemeencompasses the fluid dynamics computation in an Eulerian domain where the body is embeddedusing a collection of markers to describe its shape, and the rigid solid’s motion is obtained with thewell-known Newton’s law. The body’s velocity is imposed on the fluid domain through a penaltytechnique on the embedded fluid-solid interface. The fluid tractions acting on the solid are computedfrom the fluid dynamic solution of the flow around the body. The resulting forces are consideredto solve the solid motion. The numerical code is validated by contrasting the obtained results withthose reported in the literature using different approaches for simulating the flow past a fixed circularcylinder as a benchmark problem. Moreover, a mesh convergence analysis is also done providing asatisfactory response. In particular, a VIV problem is analyzed, emphasizing the description of thesynchronization phenomenon.