Transverse flow-induced vibrations of a sphere in the proximity of a free surface: A numerical study

Abstract

In this paper, we present a numerical study on the transverse flow-induced vibration (FIV) of an elastically mounted sphere in the vicinity of a free surface at subcritical Reynolds numbers. We assess the interaction dynamics and the vibration characteristics of fully submerged and piercing spheres that are free to vibrate in the transverse direction. We employ the recently developed three-dimensional two-phase flow-structure interaction solver to investigate fully and partially submerged configurations of an elastically mounted sphere. To begin, we examine the vortex-induced vibration (VIV) phenomenon and the vortex-shedding modes of a fully-submerged sphere vibrating freely in all three spatial directions. We systematically verify and analyze the mode transitions and the motion trajectories in the three degrees-of-freedom (3-DOF) for the Reynolds number up to 30 000. We next simulate the transversely vibrating (1-DOF) full-submerged sphere over a wide range of reduced velocities 3 ≤ U * ≤ 20, whereby the reduced velocity is adjusted by changing the freestream Reynolds number. The VIV response amplitude and the topology of the wake structure are compared with the measurements for the mode I and mode II response branches. We further look into the effect of the free surface on the FIV response of a transversely vibrating sphere in the proximity of a free surface. The response dynamics of the sphere is studied for three representative values of normalized immersion ratio (h * = h/D, where h is the distance from the top of the sphere to undisturbed free-surface level and D is the sphere diameter), at h * = 1 (fully submerged sphere with no free-surface effect), h * = 0 (where the top of the sphere touches the free surface) and h * = −0.25 (where the sphere pierces the free surface). At the lock-in range, we observe that the amplitude response of the sphere at h * = 0 is decreased significantly compared to the case at h * = 1. It is found that the vorticity flux is diffused due to the free-surface boundary and the free surface acts as a sink of energy that leads to a reduction in the transverse force and amplitude response. When the sphere pierces the free surface at h * = −0.25, the amplitude response at the lock-in state is found to be greater than all the submerged cases studied with the maximum peak-to-peak amplitude of ∼ 2D. We find that the interaction of the piercing sphere with the air-water interface causes a relatively large surface deformation and has a significant impact on the synchronization of the vortex shedding and the vibration frequency. The streamwise vorticity contours and pressure distribution are employed to understand the VIV characteristics and wake dynamics. Increased streamwise vorticity gives rise to a relatively larger transverse force to the piercing