Fluid forces and vortex patterns of an oscillating cylinder pair in still water with both side-by-side and tandem configurations

TL;DR

This study investigates how two oscillating cylinders in still water interact hydrodynamically in side-by-side and tandem arrangements, revealing significant differences in fluid forces and vortex patterns through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It provides new experimental and numerical insights into the flow physics and hydrodynamic performance of oscillating cylinder pairs in still water for different configurations.

Findings

Side-by-side configuration increases drag due to gap jet effects.

Tandem configuration reduces drag and lift coefficients.

Flow visualization shows distinct vortex patterns for each configuration.

Abstract

Models of cylinders in the oscillatory flow can be found virtually everywhere in the marine industry, such as pump towers experiencing sloshing load in a LNG ship liquid tank. However, compared to the problem of a cylinder in the uniform flow, a cylinder in the oscillatory flow is less studied, let alone multiple cylinders. Therefore, we experimentally and numerically studied two identical circular cylinders oscillating in the still water with either a side-by-side or a tandem configuration for a wide range of Keulegan-Carpenter number and Stokes number $\beta$. The experiment result shows that the hydrodynamic performance of an oscillating cylinder pair in the still water is greatly altered due to the interference between the multiple structures with different configurations. In specific, compared to the single-cylinder case, the drag coefficient is greatly enhanced when two cylinders are placed side-by-side at a small gap ratio, while dual cylinders in a tandem configuration obtain a smaller drag coefficient and oscillating lift coefficient. In order to reveal the detailed flow physics that result in significant fluid forces alternations, the detailed flow visualization is provided by the numerical simulation: the small gap between two cylinders in a side-by-side configuration will result in a strong gap jet that enhances the energy dissipation and increase the drag, while due to the flow blocking effect for two cylinders in a tandem configuration, the drag coefficient decreases.