On the aeroelastic behaviour of rectangular cylinders in cross-flow

An experimental and numerical study of the aeroelastic behaviour of elongated rectangular and square cylinders is presented. The main results are for a rectangular section with an aspect ratio of 2. The experiments were performed with a flexible cylinder clamped at both ends. This configuration leads to unusual lock-in of the vortex shedding with different bending modes, although the final steady oscillations occur in the fundamental mode. The galloping regime is also investigated, and the effect of free-stream turbulence intensity. Critical velocities are detected which do not correspond to calculations using the quasi-steady theory. A simple modelling of galloping is proposed to better fit the experiments, but it is shown that some of the configurations, in turbulent flow, are probably interacting with the vortex shedding and make the modelling inefficient. Numerical simulations on a 2-D rectangular section are presented and the resulting wall pressure distributions are analysed using the proper orthogonal decomposition technique. Indicators are proposed in order to link the proper functions with their contribution to the aerodynamic force components, and then a classification of the proper shapes of the decomposition is done. It is shown by comparison between the static case and forced oscillations, in the galloping range, that secondary vortices inside the shear layer become symmetrical and their effect on the forces is cancelled. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.