Vortex-induced vibration of two side-by-side cylinders with a small gap in uniform flow

Vortex-induced vibrations of two elastically mounted and rigidly coupled circular cylinders in side-by-side arrangement in steady flow are investigated numerically. The vibration of the cylinders is limited to the cross-flow direction only. The threedimensional Navier-Stokes equations are solved using the Petrov-Galerkin Finite element method and the equation of motion is solved using the fourth order Runge Kutta method. It is well known that when the gap between two stationary side-byside cylinders is very small, the flow between the two cylinders is biased towards one cylinder and the lift force on each cylinder is significantly smaller than that of an isolated single cylinder. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a small gap ratio of 0.5 between the two cylinders on the lock-in regime and the amplitude of the vibration of two side-by-side cylinders in a fluid flow. Simulations are carried out for a constant mass ratio of 2, a constant Reynolds number of 1000 and a range of reduced velocities. It is found that in the lock-in range of the reduced velocity, the two cylinders vibrate about their balance position with high amplitudes. Outside the lock-in regime the flow from the gap becomes biased towards one cylinder, which is similar to that from the gap between stationary cylinders.