skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Attention:

The NSF Public Access Repository (PAR) system and access will be unavailable from 10:00 PM to 12:00 PM ET on Tuesday, March 25 due to maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.


This content will become publicly available on September 1, 2025

Title: Single degree of freedom vortex induced vibration of undulatory seal whiskers at low Reynolds number and various angles of attack: A computational fluid dynamics study
The cross-flow vortex-induced vibration (VIV) response of an elastically mounted idealized undulatory seal whisker (USW) shape is investigated in a wide range of reduced velocity at angles of attack (AOAs) from 0° to 90° and a low Reynolds number of 300. The mass ratio is set to 1.0 to represent the real seal whisker. Dynamic mode decomposition is used to investigate the vortex shedding mode in various cases. In agreement with past studies, the VIV response of the USW is highly AOA-dependent because of the change in the underlying vortex dynamics. At zero AOA, the undulatory shape leads to a hairpin vortex mode that results in extremely low lift force oscillation with a lowered frequency. The frequency remains unaffected by VIV throughout the tested range of reduced velocity. As the AOA deviates from zero, alternating shedding of spanwise vortices becomes dominant. A mixed vortex shedding mode is observed at AOA = 15° in the transition. As the AOA deviated from zero, the VIV amplitude increases rapidly by two orders, reaching the maximum of about 3 times diameter at 90°. An infinite lock-in branch is present for AOA from 60° to 90°, where the VIV amplitude remains high regardless of the increase in reduced velocity.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2327204
PAR ID:
10570438
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Publisher / Repository:
AIP Publishing
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Physics of Fluids
Volume:
36
Issue:
9
ISSN:
1070-6631
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    A computational approach based on a k-ω delayed detached eddy simulation model for predicting aerodynamic loads on a smooth circular cylinder is verified against experiments. Comparisons with experiments are performed for flow over a rigidly mounted (static) cylinder and for an elastically-mounted rigid cylinder oscillating in the transverse direction due to vortex-induced vibration (VIV). For the static cases, measurement data from the literature is used to validate the predictions for normally incident flow. New experiments are conducted as a part of this study for yawed flow, where the cylinder axis is inclined with respect to the inflow velocity at the desired yaw angle, β = 30◦. Good agreement is observed between the predictions and measurements for mean and rms surface pressure. Three yawed flow cases (β = 15◦, 30◦, & 45◦) are simulated and the results are found to be independent of β (independence principle) when the flow speed normal to the cylinder axis is selected as the reference velocity scale. Dynamic (VIV) simulations for an elastically-mounted rigid cylinder are performed by coupling the flow solver with a solid dynamics solver where the cylinder motion is modeled as a mass–spring–damper system. The simulations accurately predict the displacement amplitude and unsteady loading over a wide range of reduced velocity, including the region where ‘‘lock-in’’ (synchronization) occurs. VIV simulations are performed at two yaw angles, β = 0◦ and 45◦ and the independence principle is found to be valid over the range of reduced velocities tested with a slightly higher discrepancy when the vortex shedding frequency is close to the natural frequency of the system. 
    more » « less
  2. Large-eddy simulations (LES) of the fluid flow over a NACA0018 airfoil at AOA =20 degrees angle of attack are performed to investigate the effect of surface morphing oscillations on the aerodynamic performance of the airfoil over a wide range of Reynolds numbers (Re = 5,000 to 500,000). These oscillations are in the form of low amplitude backward (opposite to the airfoil's forward motion) traveling wave actuations on the upper surface of the airfoil. The sharp interface curvilinear immersed boundary (CURVIB) method is used to handle the moving surface of the airfoil. The nondimensional amplitude is a*=0.001 (a*=a/L; a: amplitude, L: chord length of the airfoil) and reduced frequency (f*= fL/U; f is the frequency and U is the freestream velocity) is chosen to match the leading edge vortex shedding frequency. The results of the simulations at the post-stall angle of attack (AOA =20 degrees) show that the lift coefficient increases more than 20% and the drag coefficient decreases more than 40% within the Reynolds number range of Re = 50,000-500,000 for traveling wave actuation of amplitude, a*=0.001, and frequency, f*=8. However, the lift and drag coefficients of the actuated airfoil were similar to the baseline airfoil for Re = 5,000. 
    more » « less
  3. Vortex induced vibration (VIV) experienced during flow past a cylinder can reduce equipment performance and in some cases lead to failure. Previous studies have shown that the injection of bubbles in the flow over a cylinder typically leads to a monotonic increase in shedding frequency with void fraction, however, a satisfactory explanation for this phenomenon has not been proposed. Unexplained scatter in the data exists, including that the increase in shedding frequency is not universal. More research is needed to characterize the influence of bubbles on the wake structure, and subsequent shift in shedding frequency. To this aim, the effect of bubbles on the structure of the wake and VIV was examined over two values of Reynolds number, 𝑅𝑒𝐷 = 100, 000 and 160,000. Time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV), proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) of the wake structures, vibration of the cylinder, and bubble image velocimetry (BIV) were used to assess the flow topology changes under the influence of gas injection. Using SPOD/POD analysis in the near wake, it was found that the primary Karman shedding frequency decreased with the injection of gas, from a Strouhal number of St = 0.2 to St = 0.17−0.18; the width of the spectral peak was found to increase with void fraction. Notably, the vibration of the cylinder at the primary Karman shedding frequency was suppressed following the injection of gas, even at spanwiseaveraged volumetric qualities below 0.01%. This suppression occurred regardless of if gas was concentrated locally near the centerline of the channel, or along the span. BIV data suggests that gas accumulation in the near wake, driven by the high velocity vertical motion of gas, serves to uncouple the cylinder motion from the formation of the vortex street downstream while promoting faster wake recovery. 
    more » « less
  4. Large-eddy simulations (LES) over a NACA0018 airfoil at a low Reynolds number (Re = 50, 000) fluid flow are performed to investigate the effect of active flow control at different angles of attack (AOA = 10 to 20 degrees) using low amplitude surface morphing backward (opposite to the airfoil’s forward motion) traveling wave actuation on the suction (upper) side of the airfoil. The curvilinear immersed boundary (CURVIB) method is used to handle the moving surface of the airfoil. While our previous simulations indicated the effectiveness of traveling waves at near stall angle of attack (AOA = 15 degrees), the effectiveness of these waves at post-stall AOA such as AOA = 20 degrees is not understood. The actuation amplitude of the surface morphing traveling waves is a* = 0.001 (a* = a/L, a: amplitude, L: chord length of the airfoil), and the range of the reduced frequency (f* = fL/U, f: frequency, U: free stream velocity) is from f* = 4 to 16. The results of the simulations at the post-stall angle of attack (AOA = 20 degrees) show that the lift coefficient, CL, increases by about 23%, and the drag coefficient, CD, decreases by about 54% within the frequency range from f* = 8 to f* = 10. 
    more » « less
  5. Pinniped vibrissae possess a unique and complex three-dimensional topography, which has beneficial fluid flow characteristics such as substantial reductions in drag, lift, and vortex induced vibration. To understand and leverage these effects, the downstream vortex dynamics must be studied. Dye visualization is a traditional qualitative method of capturing these downstream effects, specifically in comparative biological investigations where complex equipment can be prohibitive. High-fidelity numerical simulations or experimental particle image velocimetry are commonplace for quantitative high-resolution flow measurements, but are computationally expensive, require costly equipment, and can have limited measurement windows. This study establishes a method for extracting quantitative data from standard dye visualization experiments on seal whisker geometries by leveraging novel but intuitive computer vision techniques, which maintain simplicity and an advantageous large experimental viewing window while automating the extraction of vortex frequency, position, and advection. Results are compared to direct numerical simulation (DNS) data for comparable geometries. Power spectra and Strouhal numbers show consistent behavior between methods for a Reynolds number of 500, with minima at the canonical geometry wavelength of 3.43 and a peak frequency of 0.2 for a Reynolds number of 250. The vortex tracking reveals a clear increase in velocity from roll-up to 3.5 whisker diameters downstream, with a strong overlap with the DNS data but shows steady results beyond the limited DNS window. This investigation provides insight into a valuable bio-inspired engineering model while advancing an analytical methodology that can readily be applied to a broad range of comparative biological studies. 
    more » « less