Sensitivity Analysis of a Generic Wake-Body Model for the Vortex-Induced Vibration of a Rigid Circular Cylinder Using Monte Carlo Simulations
A Monte Carlo analysis using pseudo-random sampling is carried out with the objective of determining the relative importance of each of k = 5 independent input parameters appearing in a typical wake-body model for the vortex-induced vibration of an elastically-mounted rigid circular cylinder in uniform flow. For simplicity, the marginal probability distribution of each parameter is assumed to be a uniform distribution. Furthermore, the standard deviation of each distribution is assumed to be the same. The choice of the uniform distribution is also a reflection of the fact that exact forms for the distributions are not known. The sensitivity analysis indicates that the most important factor from the point of view of the predicted steady-state amplitude of oscillation of the cylinder yo is parameter M, which represents the scaling of the effect of the wake on the structure.