Vortex-induced vibration | EPFL Graph Search

In fluid dynamics, vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) are motions induced on bodies interacting with an external fluid flow, produced by, or the motion producing, periodic irregularities on this flow. A classic example is the VIV of an underwater cylinder. How this happens can be seen by putting a cylinder into the water (a swimming-pool or even a bucket) and moving it through the water in a direction perpendicular to its axis. Since real fluids always present some viscosity, the flow around the cylinder will be slowed while in contact with its surface, forming a so-called boundary layer. At some point, however, that layer can separate from the body because of its excessive curvature. A vortex is then formed, changing the pressure distribution along the surface. When the vortex does not form symmetrically around the body (with respect to its midplane), different lift forces develop on each side of the body, thus leading to motion transverse to the flow. This motion changes the nature of the vortex formation in such a way as to lead to a limited motion amplitude (differently, than, from what would be expected in a typical case of resonance). This process then repeats until the flow rate changes substantially. VIV manifests itself on many different branches of engineering, from cables to heat exchanger tube arrays. It is also a major consideration in the design of ocean structures. Thus, study of VIV is a part of many disciplines, incorporating fluid mechanics, structural mechanics, vibrations, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), acoustics, statistics, and smart materials. They occur in many engineering situations, such as bridges, stacks, transmission lines, aircraft control surfaces, offshore structures, thermowells, engines, heat exchangers, marine cables, towed cables, drilling and production risers in petroleum production, mooring cables, moored structures, tethered structures, buoyancy and spar hulls, pipelines, cable-laying, members of jacketed structures, and other hydrodynamic and hydroacoustic applications.

Experimental evaluation and modeling of fatigue of a 316L austenitic stainless steel in high-temperature water and air environments

Wen Chen

Austenitic stainless steels is used in many components of nuclear power plants, particularly in the pipes of cooling systems. Owing to power transients and to start-ups and shutdowns, these components are subjected to thermo-mechanical loadings (low-cycle fatigue LCF & high cycle fatigue HCF) and flow-induced vibration (HCF). The corresponding fatigue design curves were established with solid smooth specimens tested in air at room temperature under strain-control. However, these curves do not consider the influence of LWR water environments that were shown to reduce fatigue life. US NRC Regulatory Guide 1.207 or other national equivalents (JSME Code in Japan) then were established taking strain rate, dissolved oxygen and temperature into consideration. Besides, a significant number of issues have been recently identified, which may have an impact on fatigue life but have not been sufficiently investigated, e.g., the potential negative effects of mean stress, mean strain, surface finish, long-term static hold, specimen geometry, multiaxial stress state were sensitivities not explicitly addressed. This study was launched to assess the effect of mean stress on fatigue behavior of a 316L austenitic steel in boiling water reactor environment with hydrogen water chemistry (BWR/HWC) at 288°C. Load-controlled fatigue tests were selected as the easiest experimental technique to impose a pre-defined mean stress. The tests were carried out on hollow specimens at different stress amplitudes and mean stresses in BWR/HWC environment and in air at 288°C, the latter serving as reference environment to evaluate the life reduction induced by the BWR/HWC medium. Few tests in strain-controlled were performed to derive a consistent way to represent the data obtained with the two control modes together. The test results reported in the form of stress-life curves showed that, in LCF regime (< 1e5 cycles), positive and negative mean stresses increase and BWR/HWC environment decreases fatigue life. In the HCF regime, negative mean stress is always beneficial for fatigue life but positive mean stress decreases fatigue life in BWR/HWC. The beneficial effect of mean stress is attributed to its enhanced cyclic hardening on material, which leads to smaller strain amplitude at given stress amplitude. The load-controlled data were converted into strain-life presentation by considering the average strain amplitude over the whole loading cycles. Additionally, a modified Smith-Watson-Topper mean stress correction method was successfully used to correlate the results with and without mean stress. Finally we showed that strain energy density criteria are good alternatives to correlate all data. Crack growth rates were determined from the striation spacing on the fracture surfaces with high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM); crack initiation sites were also studied with HRSEM, and the microstructures were observed with transmission electron microscopy and electron channeling contrast imaging. From the striation spacing measurement, we concluded that BWR/HWC environment essentially reduces the number cycles needed to initiate a physical crack (crack depth < 50 microns) but modifies slightly the crack growth rate, which correlates well with a strain intensity factor and J-integral method. Life predictions were also done by a well-trained artificial neuron network that considers mechanical, environmental and material properties factors.

EPFL2020

Effect of Hydrofoil Trailing Edge Geometry on the Wake Dynamics

Amirreza Zobeiri

In the present study, the effect of a hydrofoil trailing edge shape on the wake dynamic and its interaction with the mechanical structure is investigated. This would help better describe the physical reasons for vibration reduction when using oblique and Donaldson trailing edges in comparison to a truncated trailing edge and subsequently allow its further optimization. Thus, hydrofoils with oblique and Donaldson trailing edges are tested in a high-speed cavitation tunnel at zero angle of attack and high Reynolds numbers, ReL = 5·105 – 3·106. The truncated trailing edge hydrofoil is selected as reference. A velocity survey is performed via Laser Doppler Velocimetery, LDV, and Particle Image Velocimetry, PIV. Proper-Orthogonal-Decomposition, POD, is used to extract coherent structures from PIV data. In addition, flow induced vibration measurements and high-speed visualizations are performed. Finally, the effects of a tripped boundary layer transition on the wake are investigated and compared with the natural boundary layer transition. Vortex-induced vibration is found to decrease significantly for oblique and Donaldson trailing edges in comparison to the truncated case, specially under lock-off condition. However, minimum vibration corresponds to the Donaldson trailing edge. The high-speed videos clearly show that for three tested hydrofoils the alternate vortices clearly detach from suction and pressure sides of the trailing edge. However, for the oblique and Donaldson trailing edges the location of the lower vortex detachment is obviously shifted upstream with respect to the upper one. As a result, when the upper vortex rolls up, it coincides with the passage of the lower vortex, leading to their collision. This strong interaction leads to a redistribution of the vorticity, which does not concentrate within the core of Karman vortices any more. However, the spatial phase shift between the separation point of the upper and the lower vortices is different in the case of oblique and Donaldson trailing edges due to the being free the separation point on the Donaldson curve. LDV phase-locked averaging under lock-in condition is performed for truncated, oblique and Donaldson trailing edges. The truncated trailing edge exhibits a symmetric wake. However, in the case of the oblique and Donaldson trailing edges, an asymmetric thickening of the downward near wake is observed. The stream wise velocity fluctuation shows two peaks of different amplitudes. In the case of the truncated trailing edge, the upper and lower vortices have the same core diameter, contrary to the oblique trailing edge, where a larger vortex core diameter is found for the lower vortex. In the case of Donaldson trailing edge, the LDV phase-locked averaging is performed for the tripped transition where the vibration amplitude is high enough to perform the phase-locked average. The measurements show the passage of one vortex after the collision in the near wake contrary to the oblique one. However, the passage of two vortices corresponding to the upper and lower vortex is found far from the Donaldson trailing edge. LDV measurements show that the collision of the vortices for the oblique trailing edge, observed under lock-in conditions, also prevails for the lock-off condition in the case of oblique and Donaldson trailing edges. The velocity profile comparison at the vortex formation length for three trailing edges shows that in the case of the Donaldson trailing edge, the wake width increases significantly in comparison to two other trailing edges. Moreover, the minimum stream wise and transverse velocity fluctuation profiles obtained for the three trailing edges correspond to the Donaldson trailing edge. The strong similarity of results obtained for lock-in and lock-off conditions indicates that the collision between upper and lower vortices, clearly observed under lock-in, also occurs for lock-off condition. A thicker boundary layer with laminar-to-turbulent transition occurring further upstream is observed for the pressure side of the Donaldson trailing edge in comparison with the suction side. In contrast to the truncated trailing edge, both sides have a similar boundary layer structure and a similar transition location. Moreover, a thicker boundary layer is found for the Donaldson trailing edge in comparison to the truncated case. The collision between upper and lower vortices is also observed in the case of a tripped transition. However, the vortices are shed with a larger core diameter, greater strength, and lower frequency than for the natural transition. These investigations let us believe that the collision between upper and lower vortices and the resulting vorticity redistribution is the main reason for the vibration reduction obtained with oblique and Donaldson trailing edges. This result opens the way for more effective hydrofoil geometry optimization for further reduction of flow induced vibration.

EPFL2012

Turbulent vortex shedding from a blunt trailing edge hydrofoil

Philippe Ausoni

Placed in a fluid stream, solid bodies can exhibit a separated flow that extends to their wake. The detachment of the boundary layer on both upper and lower surfaces forms two shear layers which generate above a critical value of Reynolds number a periodic array of discrete vortices termed von Kármán street. The body experiences a fluctuating lift force transverse to the flow caused by the asymmetric formation of vortices. The structural vibration amplitude is significantly amplified when the vortex shedding frequency lies close to a resonance frequency of the combined fluid-structure system. For resonance condition, fatigue cracks are likely to occur and lead to the premature failure of the mechanical system. Despite numerous and extensive studies on the topic, the periodic vortex shedding is considered to be a primary damage mechanism. The wake produced by a streamlined body, such as a hydrofoil, is an important issue for a variety of applications, including hydropower generation and marine vessel propulsion. However, the current state of the laboratory art focuses mainly in the wakes produced by hydraulically smooth bluff bodies at low Reynolds numbers. The present work considers a blunt trailing edge symmetric hydrofoil operating at zero angle of attack in a uniform high speed flow, Reh = 16.1·103 - 96.6·103 where the reference length h is the trailing edge thickness. Experiments are performed in the test section of the EPFL-LMH high speed cavitation tunnel. With the help of various measurement devices including laser Doppler vibrometer, particle image velocimetry, laser Doppler velocimetry and high speed digital camera, the effects of cavitation on the generation mechanism of the vortex street are investigated. Furthermore, the effects of a tripped turbulent boundary layer on the wake characteristics are analyzed and compared with the condition of a natural turbulent transition. In cavitation free regime and according to the Strouhal law, the vortex shedding frequency is found to vary quasi-linearly with the free-stream velocity provided that no hydrofoil resonance frequency is excited, the so-called lock-off condition. For such regime, the shed vortices exhibit strong span-wise instabilities and dislocations. A direct relation between vortex span-wise organization and vortex-induced vibration amplitude is found. In the case of resonance, the coherence of the vortex shedding process is significantly enhanced. The eigen modes are identified so that the lock-in of the vortex shedding frequency on a free-stream velocity range occurs for the first torsional mode. In the case of liquid flows, when the pressure falls below the vapor pressure, cavitation occurs in the vortex core. For lock-off condition, the cavitation inception index is linearly dependent on the square root of the Reynolds number which is in accordance with former models. For lock-in, it is significantly increased and makes clear that the vortex roll-up is amplified by the phase locked vibrations of the trailing edge. For the cavitation inception index and considering the trailing edge displacement velocity, a new correlation relationship that encompasses the lock-off and the lock-in conditions is proposed and validated. In addition, it is found that the transverse velocity of the trailing edge increases the vortex strength linearly. Therefore, the displacement velocity of the hydrofoil trailing edge increases the fluctuating forces on the body and this effect is additional to any increase of vortex span-wise organization, as observed for the lock-in condition. Cavitation developing in the vortex street cannot be considered as a passive agent for the visualization of the turbulent wake flow. The cavitation reacts on the wake as soon as it appears. At early stage of cavitation development, the vortex-induced vibration and flow velocity fluctuations are significantly increased. For fully developed cavitation, the vortex shedding frequency increases up to 15%, which is accompanied by the increase of the vortex advection velocity and reduction of the stream-wise and cross-stream inter-vortex spacings. These effects are addressed and thought to be a result of the increase of the vorticity by cavitation. Besides, it is shown that the cavitation does not obviously modify the vortex span-wise organization. Moreover, hydro-elastic couplings are found to be enabled/disabled by permitting a sufficient vortex cavitation development. The effects on the wake characteristics of a tripped turbulent boundary layer, as opposed to the natural turbulent transition, are investigated. The foil surface is hydraulically smooth and a fully effective boundary-layer tripping at the leading edge is achieved with the help of a distributed roughness. The vortex shedding process is found to be strongly influenced by the boundary-layer development. The tripped turbulent transition promotes the re-establishment of organized vortex shedding. In the context of the tripped transition and in comparison with the natural one, significant increases in the vortex span-wise organization, the induced hydrofoil vibration, the wake velocity fluctuations, the wake energies and the vortex strength are revealed. The vortex shedding process intermittency is decreased and the coherence is increased. Although the vortex shedding frequency is decreased, a modified Strouhal number based on the wake width at the end of the vortex formation region is constant and evidences the similarity of the wakes. This result leads to an effective estimation of the vortex shedding frequency.

EPFL2009