Jump phenomena in vortex-induced vibrations of a circular cylinder at a low Reynolds number

The cross flow-induced vibrations of a circular cylinder at the Reynolds number of 150 are numerically investigated in a systematic manner in terms of a wide range of reduced velocity. The effect of the mass ratio on the cylinder behavior is studied, with three mass ratios, namely, 2, 10, and 50, being considered particularly in detail. The mass ratio is defined as the mass of the cylinder to the mass of the fluid it displaces. A sudden decrease in the vibration amplitude takes place at a certain value of the reduced velocity, accompanied by an abrupt increase in the lift coefficient and the vortex shedding frequency. The vortex shedding frequency at the upper end of the lock-in region is about 0.14 for all the mass ratios, which may mark the lower limit of the vortex shedding frequency at this Reynolds number. The jump phenomena may be ascribed to this limitation. Moreover, the vortex shedding frequency in the non-lock-in region varies slightly with the reduced velocity but is not approaching the Strouhal number for the stationary cylinder at the same Reynolds number. In fact, the frequency rises with the increasing mass ratio and reaches about 0.2 as the mass ratio is larger than 10. Besides, the vortex shedding mode does not remain "2S" for the mass ratio larger than 14 when the reduced velocity is increased to get into the non-lock-in region since the vortex shedding frequency is separate from the cylinder oscillation frequency. Published under license by AIP Publishing.