Oscillations and translation of a free cylinder in a viscous confined flow

Abstract

An oscillatory instability has been observed experimentally on an horizontal cylinder free to move and rotate between two parallel vertical walls of distance H. The vertical motion of the cylinder, its rotation about its axis, and its transverse motion across the gap have been investigated as a function of its diameter D, its density ρs, of the mean vertical velocity U of the fluid, and of its viscosity ν. The relevant Reynolds number Re is shown to be based on the cell aperture H and on the relative velocity Vr between the fluid and the cylinder. For a blockage ratio D/H above 0.5 and Re above 20, oscillations of the rolling angle of the cylinder about its axis and of its transverse coordinate in the gap were observed together with periodic variations of the vertical velocity. For a given fluid-cylinder pair, the relative velocity Vr as well as the frequency f and the amplitude of the transverse velocity for these oscillations are nearly independent of the flow velocity U. For given cylinder density and fluid characteristics, f is also nearly independent of the ratio D/H in the range investigated. The oscillations could be observed down to values of Re as low as 30: this is lower than usual values for vortex shedding in confined geometries, which suggests that one might deal with a different instability mechanism.