Experimental Investigation of Vortex-Induced Vibrations on Yawed and Inclined Flexible Cylinders

An experimental setup was built to investigate the Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV) phenomenon on yawed and inclined flexible cylinders, in which five yaw angles θ = 0°, 10°, 20°, 30° and 45° and five azimuth angles ß = 0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, and 180° were combined. The experiments were carried out in a towing tank facility at Reynolds numbers from 1800 to 18000, comprising vibrations up to the eighth natural mode. Time histories of displacements were recorded using a submerged optical system that tracks 17 reflective targets. A modal decomposition scheme based on Galerkin's method was applied, aiming multimodal behavior investigations. Such an approach allowed the analysis of the modal amplitude throughout time, revealing interesting results for such a class of VIV tests. The flexible cylinder total response is generally a combination of two or more modes. Only for azimuths 0°, 90°, and 180°, a unimodal response was observed for the two first lock-in regimes. The frequency response showed that, when the response was multimodal, non-dominant modes can follow the vibration frequency of the dominant one. Assuming a priori the Independence Principle (IP) valid to define the reduced velocities (Vr), it was observed that the resonance region was restricted to 3 <= Vr <= 8 for the tested cases, indicating that the IP can be at least partially applied for flexible structures. As the literature scarcely explores the simultaneous yawed and inclined configurations, the present work may contribute to further code validation and improvements regarding the design of slender offshore structures.

Characterising Modal Behaviour of a Cantilever Beam at Different Heating Rates for Isothermal Conditions

The effect of temperature on structural response is a concern in engineering applications. The literature has highlighted that applied temperature loads change the system vibration behaviour. However, there is limited information available about temperature impacting the dynamic response. This paper investigated the heating rates effects on modal parameters for both with crack and without crack conditions in a cantilever beam. A beam subjected to three heating rates was considered: 2, 5, and 8 °C/min. The first one was assumed as a slow heating rate while the others were assumed as moderate and high, respectively. This controlled rate of heating was achieved by using a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) temperature controller. The results showed that heating at different rates has little impact on modal parameters. While this effect is minimal at lower temperatures and more evident at higher temperatures. The results of temperature ramped at 2, 5, and 8 °C/min were compared with the numerical and analytical results only for all the isothermal conditions. It was observed that the beam natural frequency and its modal amplitude decrease with the increase in temperatures and crack depths. Therefore, it is concluded that the rate of heating can make a slight impact on the dynamics response of any mechanical system.

A stable tripole vortex model in two-dimensional Euler flows

An exact solution of a stable vortex tripole in two-dimensional (2-D) Euler flows is provided. The stable tripole is composed of an inner elliptical vortex and two small-amplitude lateral vortices. The non-vanishing vorticity field of this tripole, referred to as here as an embedded tripole because of the closeness of its vortices, is given in elliptical coordinates $(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707},\unicode[STIX]{x1D708})$ by the even radial and angular order-0 Mathieu functions $\text{Je}_{0}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707})\text{ce}_{0}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D708})$ truncated at the external branch of the vorticity isoline passing through the two critical points closest to the vortex centre. This tripole mode has a rigid vorticity field which rotates with constant angular velocity equal to $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}_{0}\text{Je}_{0}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{1})\text{ce}_{0}(0)/2$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{1}$ is the first zero of $\text{Je}_{0}^{\prime }(\unicode[STIX]{x1D707})$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D701}_{0}$ is a constant modal amplitude. It is argued that embedded 2-D tripoles may be conceptually regarded as the superposition of two asymmetric Chaplygin–Lamb dipoles, separated a distance equal to $2R$, as long as their individual trajectory curvature radius $R$ is much shorter than their dipole extent radius.

Dynamic Response Control of a Wind-Excited Tall Building with Distributed Multiple Tuned Mass Dampers

Dynamic response control of a wind-excited tall building installed with distributed multiple tuned mass dampers (d-MTMDs) is presented. The performance of d-MTMDs is compared with those of single tuned mass damper (STMD) and MTMDs installed at top of the building. The modal frequencies and mode shapes of the building are first determined. Based on the mode shapes of the uncontrolled and controlled building, the most suitable locations are identified for the dampers, in that the TMDs are placed where the modal amplitude of the building is the largest/larger in a particular mode, with each tuned to the modal frequency of the first five modes. The coupled differential equations of motion for the system are derived for the cases with the STMD, MTMDs, and d-MTMDs and solved numerically. Extensive parametric studies are conducted to compare the effectiveness of the three control schemes using STMD, MTMDs, and d-MTMDs by examining the variations in wind-induced responses. The mass ratios, damping ratios of the devices, number of TMDs, and robustness of the TMDs are the parameters of investigation. It is concluded that the MTMDs exhibit improved performance when compared with the STMD. The use of d-MTMDs is most efficient among the three schemes because it can effectively control wind-induced response of the building, while reduced space is required in the installation of the TMDs, as they are placed at various floors.

A Modified Nonlinear Modal Synthesis Scheme for Mistuned Blisks with Synchronized Switch Damping

In the authors’ previous work (MSSP 2017), we show that the synchronized switch damping based on negative capacitor (SSDNC) is a good candidate for vibration suppression of tuned blisks. In this paper, we consider the mistuned case and propose an efficient numerical approach to accelerate the required statistical analysis. Although SSDNC is a type of nonlinear piezoelectric damping, through an in-depth nonlinear modal analysis, we show that the modal information of the system remains unchanged with respect to the nonlinear modal amplitude. Based on this, an accelerated nonlinear component modal synthesis (NCMS) method is proposed to predict and further analyse the dynamic characteristics of the nonlinear system. The precision and efficiency of the proposed method is compared with that of the multiharmonic balance method. The stochastic characteristics of the blisk are studied with two sources of mistuning. The first one is random stiffness mistuning and the second one is capacitance mistuning. The investigation is carried out with different mistuning levels and under different engine-order excitations. The results show that the NCMS method can accurately predict the forced response of the mistuned blisk with SSDNC, and the calculation cost can be considerably reduced. Two advantages of the SSDNC technique applied to the mistuned blisk have been revealed in the statistical view. The first one is that the SSDNC can suppress the amplified vibration induced by the mistuning of the blisk significantly. The second one is that the vibration-suppression performance of SSDNC is insensitive to the mistuning of the blisk and that of the electrical circuits.