Proceedings of the ASME 2013 32nd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering
OMAE2013
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON FLOW AROUND CIRCULAR CYLINDERS WITH LOW
ASPECT RATIO
Rodolfo T. Gonalves
(rodolfo_tg@tpn.usp.br)
Guilherme R. Franzini
(gfranzini@usp.br)
TPN Numerical Offshore Tank
Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Escola Politcnica University of So Paulo
So Paulo, SP, Brazil
ABSTRACT
Experiments were carried out in a recirculating water
channel regarding the flow around stationary circular cylinders
with low aspect ratio piercing the water free surface. Eight
different aspect ratios were tested, namely , 0.2, 0.3,
0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0; this range corresponds to aspect ratio
related to circular offshore systems, such as spar and
monocolumn platforms. Force was measured using a six
degree-of-freedom load cell and Strouhal number is inferred
through the transverse force fluctuation frequency. The range of
Reynolds number covers 10,000 < Re < 50,000. PIV
measurements were performed in some aspect ratio cases,
namely 0.3, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 for Reynolds number equal to
43,000. The results showed a decrease in drag force coefficients
with decreasing aspect ratio, as well as a decrease in Strouhal
number with decreasing aspect ratio. The PIV showed the
existence of an arch-type vortex originated in the cylinder free
end.
Keywords: stationary circular cylinder, free-surface
piercing cylinder, low aspect ratio, PIV, force measurements,
Strouhal number
1. INTRODUCTION
The flow field around stationary low aspect ratio cylinders,
, where is the immersed length of the cylinder and
is the diameter, is much less understood than the classical case
of infinite length cylinder, in which the flow can be assumed as
bi-dimensional. Most publications on this subject refer to flow
June 9-14, 2013, Nantes, France
OMAE2013-10454
Guilherme F. Rosetti
(guilherme.feitosa@tpn.usp.br)
Andr L. C. Fujarra
(afujarra@usp.br)
around surface-mounted low aspect ratio cylinders. As can be
seen in Figure 1, the three-dimensional structures formed
behind the cylinder significantly change the wake downstream
and consequently modify the forces and pressure field on the
cylinder.
Downstream of the low aspect ratio cylinder, the wake is
characterized by a pair of counter-rotating streamwise vortices
originating from the free end and denominated tip-vortices, as
can first be seen related in Okamoto & Yagita (1973) and
Kawamura et al. (1984). Additionally, Roh & Park (2003)
showed that the tip vortices are originated on the upper surface
of the free end.
Another couple of counter-rotating streamwise vortices
generated over the free end of a cylinder with were
visualized by Park & Lee (2000) through a particle tracer
technique and light sheet; these structures are detached from the
separation region at the circumferential leading edge of the free
end, one for each side of the wake, and they are in counter-
rotating with the respect to the tip-vortices. These two couples
of vortex were visualized using PIV - particle image
velocimetry technique and can be found in Sumner et al.
(2004), Adaramola et al. (2006) and Rostamy et al. (2012), for
cylinders ranging from ; and Pattenden et al.
(2005), for cylinder with . More recently, Palau-
Salvador et al. (2010) presented a comparison between
experimental and numerical results (LES large eddy
simulations) for a cylinders with and .
In the offshore scenario, the low aspect ratio cylinders have
attracted attention due to circular platforms, such as spar and
1 Copyright 2013 by ASME
monocolumn, the main dimensions of which are increasing.
The flow around these types of platforms promotes the
phenomenon of VIM - vortex-induced motion. This
phenomenon can also occur in platforms with more than one
column as semi-submersibles and TLP tension leg platforms.
More details about the VIM in offshore platforms can be found
in detail in Fujarra et al. (2012). VIM promotes vortex-
shedding around the platforms and, consequently, motions
amplitudes approximately one length of the characteristic
length of the body subject to VIM; even so, the aspect ratio of
these system are low, i.e. . Spar platforms ranging
from , see examples in van Dijk et al. (2003)
and Roddier et al. (2008); monocolumn platforms ranging from
, see examples in Cueva et al. (2006) and
Gonalves et al. (2010); and aspect ratio of semi-submersible
columns ranging from , see examples in Waals
et al. (2007) and Gonalves et al. (2012). The aspect ratio of
these systems confirms the importance of better understanding
the flow around finite height cylinders.
(a)
(b)
Figure 1 Models of the flow around a low aspect ratio
circular cylinder: (a) Kawamura et al. (1984) and (b)
Pattenden et al. (2005).
In the offshore scenario described previously, the
cylindrical structures pierce the free surface. The flow around
surface-mounted cylinders and cylinders piercing free surface
are different due to the boundary conditions. In the first one, the
cylinder can be immersed in the boundary layer formed at the
surface bottom, and also the bottom can be considered as a
stationary boundary condition; in the latter one, the boundary
condition is moving due the free surface and it can change in
high velocities due to wave formation.
There are few works about flow around stationary
cylinders considering the free-surface effects in the wake. Hay
(1947) studied low aspect ratio cylinders piercing the free
surface and also studied the influence on the forces and in the
water elevation, behind and in front of the cylinder. But the
author did not study the vortex shedding effects. More recently,
Chaplin & Teigen (2003) revisited the work by Hay and
showed the effect of the aspect ratio in the water elevation
around the cylinder and the importance of considering a Froude
number based on the submersed length of the cylinder
. They reported a limit of in which the free
surface effects can be neglected.
In this work, stationary low aspect ratio cylinder piercing
the free surface were investigated. Special focus was placed on
the flow around in the free end and immediately behind the
cylinder where the flow recirculates, through using PIV.
Another approach was taken to understand the aspect ratio
influence in the forces around the cylinder (streamwise, x, and
transverse, y, directions) and vortex shedding frequency. The
last study was conducted using force measurements. The
greatest difference between the present work and the ones
presented in the literature is the extremely low aspect ratio
tested, ranging from , and the pierced free-
surface characteristic of the cylinder. The accompanying work
by Rosetti et al. (2013) complements the present work by
means of a URANS - unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-
Stokes calculations for the cylinder with .
2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
All the experiments were carried out in a recirculating
water channel at the NDF Fluid & Dynamics Research Group
Laboratory facility of USP University of So Paulo, Brazil.
The dimension of the test section is 7500x700x700mm and the
flow has low levels of turbulence (less than 2%). The pump
system can operate with good quality with free-stream
velocities up to 0.40m/s. Further details concerning the water
channel can be found in Assi et al. (2005).
The model was made of PVC - polyvinyl chloride with
external diameter =125mm and was placed at the centerline of
the channel. A 6-DOF degree-of-freedom - load cell ATI,
Mini40 model was used to acquire the hydrodynamic forces.
The uncertainty of the measured forces was 1/200N. The data
was acquired along 180s with sample frequency of 100Hz.
Figure 2 presents a scheme of the experimental arrangement.
Figure 4 and Figure 5 present the experimental setup for
force measurements and the free-surface visualization picture
for cylinders with and for Re=43,000,
respectively. The coordinate system is also presented in these
figures.
Bi-dimensional PIV was used aiming at quantifying the
flow around the cylinder. 345 snapshots were acquired at
sample frequency of 14.8Hz. Further details regarding the PIV
facility can be found in Korkischko & Meneghini (2011). Two
different planes were chosen to be measured: a horizontal mid-
span plane at , and a vertical centre plane at
; see details in Figure 3.
The free-end cylinder was kept constant above the water
channel bottom, the distance was around =460mm, i.e. larger
than sufficient for there being not boundary layer effect
due to the bottom. The changes in the aspect ratio were made
2 Copyright 2013 by ASME
changing the water level, , of the water channel. The blockage
of the experiments was =0.18, where is the water
channel width, value below the critical blockage value of 0.2, z
as presented in Griffith et al. (2011).
Water channel lateral x

x
U W TOP VIEW

z
z
Load cell
x
y x
L Free surface

U H Free end SIDE VIEW

h Figure 4 Free-surface visualization for cylinder with
, Re = 43,000, and .

Water channel bottom

Figure 2 Experimental setup and dimensional parameters.
z
z
y
x
Free-surface
plane x

PIV horizontal
plane
(a)
z y
Free-surface
z
x plane

y x

PIV vertical
plane
(b)
Figure 3 PIV measured plane positions: (a) horizontal Figure 5 Free-surface visualization for cylinder with
mid-span plane at , and (b) vertical centre plane , Re = 43,000, and .
at .

3 Copyright 2013 by ASME

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS coefficient, as well as, the root mean square of force
In this section, the experimental results obtained through coefficients and average of Strouhal number were evaluated for
load cell measurements and PIV are presented. each Re condition. The averaged mean streamwise force
coefficient and standard deviation are presented in Figure 8
3.1. FORCE MEASUREMENTS with respect to aspect ratio; they were calculated through the 40
The streamwise, , and transverse, , non- points sampling for the Re range experimented. The same
dimensional forces are defined as: procedure was applied to other coefficients.
Re = 39 000
1.5
Original Signal
(1) Filtered Signal 0,05Hz<f<1,00Hz

Cx
1
(2)

where and are the streamwise and transverse forces,

0.5
respectively. They were obtained from the 6-DOF load cell. 0 20 40 60 80 = 39 000
Re 100 120 140 160 180 (a)
0.4 Time [s]
The vortex shedding frequency, , was inferred from the Original Signal
frequency related to the largest peak energy in the PSD power Filtered Signal 0,05Hz<f<1,00Hz
0.2
spectrum density of the , so the Strouhal number can be
calculated as:

Cy
0

-0.2
(3)
-0.4
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
The original signal from the load cell was filtered using a Time [s] (b)
windowing process to avoid very high and very low frequencies Figure 7 Time history of force coefficients for cylinder
which there are not physical meaning. The interest frequencies with and Re = 43,000: (a) streamwise and (b)
ranging from 0.05Hz up to 1Hz. Figure 6 and Figure 7 present transverse direction.
an example of time histories for and , for cylinder
with and , respectively.
Re = 43 000
1.5
Original Signal 1
Filtered Signal 0,05Hz<f<1,00Hz

0.8
Cx

1
x

0.6
C

0.4

0.5
0 20 40 60 80 = 43 000
Re 100 120 140 160 180 (a) 0.2
0.4 Time [s]
Original Signal
Filtered Signal 0,05Hz<f<1,00Hz 0
0.2 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0
L/D

Figure 8 Averaged values and respective standard

Cy

deviation for a range of 10,000 < Re < 50,000 in function of

-0.2
cylinder aspect ratio.
-0.4
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 The values of decrease with decreasing aspect ratio,
Time [s] (b) except for , as presented in Figure 8. The standard
Figure 6 Time history of force coefficients for cylinder deviations are largest for the lowest aspect ratio, and
with and Re = 43,000: (a) streamwise and (b) . This can be explained due to the high value of
transverse direction. in those aspect ratio conditions, . As discussed in
Chaplin & Teigen (2003), the free-surface resistance force
Forty (40) different velocities were carried out for each
aspect ratio condition. The velocities correspond to a range of increase from . The is approximately and
10,000<Re<50,000. Averages of the mean streamwise force for and , respectively. The typical

4 Copyright 2013 by ASME

value for infinite cylinder is , as presented in Khalak & below it the vortex shed is symmetrical, see for example Palau-
Williamson (1996); on the other hand, a value of was Salvador et al. (2010). In Palau-Salvador work, the same
obtained for a surface-mounted cylinder in Iungo et al. (2012). happened for a cylinder with , but with intermittent
The values of non-dimensional streamwise force shedding, sometimes alternated and sometimes symmetrical.
fluctuation is practically constant, for On the other hand, it is not possible to determine only one
cylinders with , but with a decrease for dominant frequency for cylinder with , as presented
, as presented in Figure 9. in Figure 13.
0.25
0.4

0.35
0.2

Strouhal Number (St)

0.3

0.25 0.15
Cx rms

0.2
0.1
0.15

0.1 0.05

0.05
0
0 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0
3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 L/D
L/D
Figure 11 Averaged values and respective standard
Figure 9 Averaged values and respective standard
deviation for a range of 10,000 < Re < 50,000 in function of
deviation for a range of 10,000 < Re < 50,000 in function of
cylinder aspect ratio.
cylinder aspect ratio.

The values of non-dimensional transverse force fluctuation

is practically constant, for cylinders
with , but with a decrease for , as
presented in Figure 10. The typical value for infinite cylinder is
for 6,000 < Re < 13,000, as presented in Khalak
& Williamson (1996).
0.2
0.18
0.16

0.14
0.12
Cy rms

0.1
0.08
0.06

0.04
0.02 Figure 12 PSD distribution for force in the transverse
0
direction in function of Re and for cylinder with
3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 .
L/D
Figure 10 Averaged values and respective standard
The values of showed a marked decrease with
deviation for a range of 10,000 < Re < 50,000 in function of decreasing aspect ratio, as presented in Figure 11. This behavior
cylinder aspect ratio. was observed by other authors, e.g. Sakamoto & Arie (1983).
Sumner et al. (2004) found a value of for cylinders
The Strouhal number is calculated from the peak frequency
with , and Iungo et al. (2012) of for
obtained from PSD of the transverse force. Figure 12 and
. Those authors also reported a decrease in when
Figure 13 show a colormap of the PSD of transverse force
the free end approached; the value of was reported
varying with Re for cylinders with and ,
by Iungo et al. (2012). The works by Fox & West (1993) and
respectively. It is possible to determine a dominant frequency
Park & Lee (2000) also related this behavior.
for a cylinder with , as presented in Figure 12. It is not
It is interesting to note that for it was not
possible to say if these alternated shedding is from a Krmn
possible to define a dominant frequency. This fact is due to the
street, once in the literature this value of is critical and

5 Copyright 2013 by ASME

three-dimensional structures formed downstream the cylinder
for these aspect ratio conditions, but it is possible to note that
these structures have lower shedding frequency.
longitudinal recirculation region is observed for both cases, but
reattachment of the separated flow on the free surface varies
with . The reattachment positions for each can be seen
in Table 2, including the results for the mounted-surface
cylinders by Palau-Salvador et al. (2010).

Table 1 Position of the core of the horizontal recirculation

region (bubbles) behind the cylinder in function of aspect
ratio.

Work
0.3 - -
0.5 0.5-0.6 0.5-0.6
Present work
1.0 0.7-0.8 0.4
2.0 1.2-1.3 0.35
Palau-Salvador 2.5 1.4 0.35-0.4
et al. (2010) 5.0 1.6 0.3-0.35

Table 2 Reattachment positions in the vertical plane in

function of aspect ratio.

Figure 13 PSD distribution for force in the transverse Work

direction in function of Re and for cylinder with
0.3 1.1
.
0.5 1.2
Present work
1.0 1.8
2.0 >1.8
3.2. FLOW VISUALIZATION
Palau-Salvador 2.5 3.0
In this section, PIV flow visualizations were performed for
et al. (2010) 5.0 3.6
Re = 43,000. Two different planes were visualized for cylinders
with , 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3, namely a horizontal mid-span
The core of the longitudinal recirculation region also varies
plane at , and a vertical centre plane at .
with , but it is positioned closer to the free end at
Time-averaged mean velocities and turbulence quantities from
and , as can be seen in Table 3.
the PIV measurements are presented and compared for both
aspect ratio cylinders. All mean and fluctuating velocities were
Table 3 Position of the core of the longitudinal
made non-dimensional with the incident flow velocity . The
recirculation region behind the cylinder in function of
turbulence or fluctuating velocities are calculated as the root
aspect ratio.
mean square of the instantaneous velocity.
Figure 15 shows contours of the mean streamwise velocity
together with streamlines in the horizontal plane at mid Work
span length of the cylinder, . The streamlines for 0.3 0.8 0.2 0.7
show the typical picture of the flow around a 0.5 0.8-0.9 0.3 0.6
Present work
circular cylinder, i.e. separation around 80 from the stagnation 1.0 0.9 0.6-0.7 0.6-0.7
point and the formation of a separation bubble on either side of 2.0 0.8-0.9 1.6 0.8
the symmetry plane. The bubble length at mid span length Palau-Salvador 2.5 0.8 2.0 0.8
reduces significantly with the decreasing aspect ratio, as can be et al. (2010) 5.0 0.9 4.0 0.8
seen in Table 1, including the results for the mounted-surface
cylinders by Palau-Salvador et al. (2010). For , a Figure 17 and Figure 19 show contours of streamwise,
fairly clear bubble still exists, but the bubble length is reduced. , and transversal, , fluctuations in the horizontal
The effects of the free end are clearly present already and they mid span length plane, respectively. For , starting
are much stronger for the lowest aspect ratio cylinder, in which from the point of the flow detachment from the cylinder wall, a
the free-end effects on the longitudinal recirculation region separated shear layer develops bordering the separation bubble,
distort the bubble in the horizontal plane. For , it is and in this shear layer streamwise fluctuations are generated by
difficult to find the bubbles in the horizontal plane. shear and flapping such that they are the highest in this region.
Figure 16 shows contours of the mean streamwise velocity The separation bubble is shorter and distorted for lower aspect
together with streamlines in the vertical centre plane, ratio cylinders such that the shear layer is weaker and is
y . The incident flow moves below the free-end cylinder, lower. The origin and behavior of the transversal fluctuations
separating at the leading edge. Behind the cylinder, a large are distinct, as the region of high fluctuations is located around

6 Copyright 2013 by ASME

the centre plane behind the cylinder. For , the . The streamwise vorticity is thus important to low
transversal fluctuations are associated with the shedding motion aspect ratio cylinders, and may be the source of the alternating
behind the cylinder, be they alternating or symmetrical, and at forces since the low aspect ratio cylinders do not present von
the border of the separation bubble also by the flapping of the Krman street, i.e. alternating vortex shedding. The numerical
shear layer caused by the shedding; it is the same behavior results by Rosetti et al. (2013), for a cylinder with ,
related by Paulau-Salvador et al. (2010) for and showed the presence of two pair of vortices formed at the free-
. For lower aspect ratio cylinder, , see end that fold around the trailing edge of the cylinder and are
Figure 19 (b-d), the shedding is suppressed and the transversal up-washed by the flow meeting the arch-type vortices.
fluctuations are smaller. It can be verified that a von Krman
street is not present for , confirming previous works
in the literature.
Figure 18 and Figure 20 show contours of streamwise,
, and vertical, , fluctuations in the vertical centre
plane, respectively. The maximum values of are found in
the thin separated shear layer bordering the small recirculation
region below the free-end cylinder, as can be seen in Figure 18.
A second region of high values of is found behind the
cylinder, but detached from it. This region is not aligned with
the shear layer bordering the longitudinal recirculation region
but it is in an orientation similar to the region of high
Figure 14 Distribution of vorticity in the flow regime
shown in Figure 20. These results are in agreement with those
associated with a hemisphere. Source: Savory & Toy (1986).
by Palau-Salvador et al. (2010), that showed a different
situation for the longer cylinder case, , compared
The results of this paper, for very low aspect ratio
with , in which the are not as large and
, showed a distinct behavior for , in which the
appear to be generated more by shear layer bordering the
vortex shedding in the horizontal plane decreases. In these
longitudinal recirculation zone so that the region of high
cases, probably the symmetrical vortex shedding is present, due
fluctuations is aligned with this
to an arch-type vortex formation, as can be seen in the vorticity
In our results, is possible to observe that the fluctuation
results in both planes. An interesting way to look at the flow
velocities are smaller with decreasing aspect ratio in both
around very low aspect ratio cylinders is looking at the flow
measured planes, vertical and horizontal.
around a hemispherical mounted-surface as e.g. in Taniguchi et
Figure 21 and Figure 22 show contours of mean vertical,
al. (1982), Savory & Toy (1986) and Tamai et al. (1987). A
, and transversal, , vorticity in the horizontal distribution of vorticity in the flow regime associated with a
mid span length plane and vertical centre plane, respectively. In hemisphere can be seen in Figure 14. This way, the
general, the flow field in the horizontal plane, as can be seen in recirculation region, or bubbles, behind the very low aspect
Figure 21, consists of two symmetric vortices with positive or ratio cylinder acts to alter the shape around it to become similar
negative values with respect to the wake center plane, to a hemispheric. This favors the formation of the arch-type
. For and , the maximum vorticity peaks vortex. This assumption, together with the streamwise vorticity
occur at in the region behind the cylinder; on the due to the trailing vortices, formed in the tip and ledge of the
other hand, for lower aspect ratio, and , free end cylinder, can be used to explain the source of the
the maximum occurs at . The vertical vorticity, forces that allows a monocolumn platform , as
, decreases with decreasing aspect ratio, this fact presented in Gonalves et al. (2010), has amplitudes around
corroborates that the vortex shedding diminishes in the one diameter when submitted to the VIM phenomenon. The
horizontal plane for decreasing aspect ratio. In Park & Lee works on VIV of spheres can also help to understand this
(2004), the maximum vertical vorticity peaks occur at behavior, see e.g. Govardhan & Williamson (1997, 2005),
for a cylinder with ; moreover, for cylinder Jauvtis et al. (2001) and Schouveiler & Provansal (2002), since
with radiussed tip or hemispherical tip this length increases the main source of the forces in the transverse direction is due
at . to the interaction of the trailing vortices with streamwise
Looking at the transverse vorticity, , in Figure 22, vorticity. We are now working to better understand the VIV of
the shear layer below the free-end cylinder is visible. This very low aspect ratio cylinders, as can be seen in a preliminary
remains fairly steady for approximately below and work by Gonalves et al. (2013).
behind and above the free end for all aspect ratios. The results
showed that for , the entire wake is contaminated
with three-dimensional effects due to the free end.
Some recent papers on the subject of the free-end flow by
Roh & Park (2003), Pattenden et al. (2005) and Rainer et al.
(2008) showed a flow topology consisting of two pairs of
counter-rotating streamwise vortices for cylinder with

7 Copyright 2013 by ASME

 (a) (a)

(b) (b)

(c) (c)

(d) (d)
Figure 15 Time-average streamlines and contours of mean Figure 16 Time-average streamlines and contours of mean
velocity component in the horizontal plane at velocity component in the vertical centre plane at
for Re=43,000: (a) , (b) , for Re=43,000: (a) , (b) , (c)
(c) and (d) . and (d) .

8 Copyright 2013 by ASME

 (a) (a)

(b) (b)

(c) (c)

(d) (d)
Figure 17 Contours of root mean square of streamwise Figure 18 Contours of root mean square of streamwise
fluctuations in the horizontal plane at fluctuations in the vertical centre plane at
for Re=43,000: (a) , (b) , (c) for Re=43,000: (a) , (b) , (c)
and (d) . and (d) .

9 Copyright 2013 by ASME

 (a) (a)

(b) (b)

(c) (c)

(d) (d)
Figure 19 Contours of root mean square of transverse Figure 20 Contours of root mean square of vertical
fluctuations in the horizontal plane at fluctuations in the vertical centre plane at
for Re=43,000: (a) , (b) , (c) for Re=43,000: (a) , (b) , (c)
and (d) . and (d) .

10 Copyright 2013 by ASME

 (a) (a)

(b) (b)

(c) (c)

(d) (d)
Figure 21 Contours of mean vertical vorticity in Figure 22 Contours of mean transverse vorticity
the horizontal plane at for Re=43,000: (a) in the vertical centre plane at for Re=43,000: (a)
, (b) , (c) and (d) , (b) , (c) and (d)
. .

11 Copyright 2013 by ASME

4. GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
Experiments were carried out in a recirculating water
channel regarding the flow around stationary circular cylinders
with very low aspect ratio, , piercing the water
free surface.
Force measurements were conducted using a 6-DOF load
cell. The Reynolds ranged from 10,000 < Re < 50,000. The
forces in the streamwise direction, x, decrease with decreasing
aspect ratio, from for to for
In the lowest aspect ratio cases, the behavior is different
because of the high influence of the forces due to the free-
surface effects. The forces in the transverse direction are
practically constant, , for cylinders with
. The decrease of transverse forces for
is due to the three-dimensional behavior of the wake
in these conditions, in which the trailing and arch-type vortices
are predominant. The higher three-dimensional behavior of the
wake is also responsible for the decrease in the Strouhal
number, from for to for
PIV flow visualizations were performed for Re = 43,000.
Two different planes were visualized for cylinders with
, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3, namely a horizontal mid-span
plane at , and a vertical centre plane at
The visualizations showed two recirculation regions: the first
one below the free-end cylinder, and the second one behind the
cylinder characterizing a recirculation bubble. These
recirculation regions are responsible for forming the arch-type
vortex around it; these structures together with the trailing
vortices (with main vorticity streamwise) are the main
responsible for the transverse force around the low aspect ratio,
fact confirmed by the low frequency shedding behavior
observed. The fluctuation velocities confirm that there were not
von Krmn street for . wake of a finite circular cylinder of small aspect ratio.
The flow around very low aspect ratio cylinders
may be similar to the flow around a hemisphere. To confirm
this conjecture, PIV measurements in the vertical xy plane must
be performed. Another way to prove this is performing
numerical simulations, as done by our group, which can be seen
in Rosetti et al. (2013), and reconstructing the three-
dimensional structures behind low aspect ratio cylinders.
Once the studies cited previously have been conducted, it
is possible to better understand the VIM in cylindrical offshore
structures, and try to mitigate this phenomenon.
NOMENCLATURE
Water density
Mean transversal vorticity
Mean vertical vorticity
Cylinder diameter
Non-dimensional streamwise force
Mean non-dimensional streamwise force
Non-dimensional streamwise force
fluctuation
Non-dimensional transverse force
Non-dimensional transverse force fluctuation
Cylinder diameter
Froude number based on cylinder diameter
Froude number based on submersed cylinder
length
Vortex shedding frequency
Streamwise force
Transverse force
Gravity acceleration
Water level of the water channel
. Submersed cylinder length
Aspect ratio
Reynolds number
Strouhal number
Incident flow velocity
Mean streamwise velocity
Streamwise velocity fluctuation
Transverse velocity fluctuation
Vertical velocity fluctuation
Water channel width
. Streamwise direction
Transverse direction
Vertical direction
. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank Eng. Dr. Ivan Korkischko and Eng.
Csar M. Freire for their help in performing the tests. The
authors thank Prof. Dr. Julio R. Meneghini for his help in the
discussions. The authors would also like to acknowledge
FAPESP and CAPES for the financial support.
REFERENCES
1. ADARAMOLA, M. S., AKINLADE, O. G., SUMNER, D.,
BERGSTROM, D. J. & SCHENSTEAD, A. J. Turbulent
Journal of Fluids and Structures, Vol. 22, pp. 919-928,
2006.
2. ASSI, G. R. S., MENEGHINI, J. R., ARANHA, J.A., &
COLETO, W. G. P. Design, assembling and verification of
a circulating water channel facility for fluid dynamics
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