Abstract
Slender cylindrical structures such as overhead transmission lines, skyscrapers, chimneys, risers, and pipelines can experience flow induced vibration (FIV). The vortex vibrations are a type of FIV; they arise because of oscillating forces caused by flow separation and the detachment of vortices. The paper presents a brief overview of experimental research on vortex induced vibration - VIV of short, rigid cylinders elastically supported (with a small aspect ratio). This overview summarizes the basic results of the vortex vibration (VIV) which have been performed in the last five decades. These studies were mainly related to determining the influence of selected parameters - mass, damping and Reynolds number on the cylinder response, either in one direction only or simultaneously in the flow direction and transverse to the flow direction, and with the search for a map of vortex images in the trace (vortex wake pattern map).