Control of vortex shedding around a circular cylinder using bubble tabs in the laminar flow regime

Abstract

Vortex induced vibration (VIV) is the major cause of several catastrophic disasters due to fatigue failures induced by drag and lift forces in aerodynamic systems. This study investigates the control of VIV phenomenon through passive bubble tab(s) having a small diameter (d) relative to the main circular cylinder (D) in a two-dimensional (2-D) flow domain. Using ANSYS Fluent computational software, flow analysis was conducted at a Reynolds number (Re) of 80 for various bubble tab configurations at different spacing ratios (x/D) and diameter ratios (d/D). The drag coefficient, the velocity and pressure contours, along with the flow streamlines in eachcase were studied. The results indicated the optimized tab(s) positions for different spacing ratios, diameter ratios, and  configurations. The study effectively established that passive bubble tabs can potentially control VIV associated with flows around a circular cylinder. Keywords: Vortex Shedding; Drag Coefficient; Circular Cylinder; Bubble Tab(S); Spacing Ratio; Diameter Ratio.