Energy Harvesting Potential of Aeroelastic Instability: CFD Simulations of Vortex-Induced Vibrations through Parallel Code and Industrial Solver

Abstract

In order to investigate the viability to extract energy from fluid-structure interaction as the result of aeroelastic instability, we numerically compute the canonical problem of flow past a circular cylinder. The structure is modeled as elastically mounted, supported by linear spring and damper, where it is allowed to move in transverse direction and the fluid flow is governed by non-dimensional incompressible Navier Stokes equations. The numerical simulations of such type of induced motion are very expensive in terms of computational power and time. Along with industrial solver, the current problem is simulated by parallel CFD algorithm on a cluster of Super computing Research and Education Center, RCMS, NUST, Pakistan. The dynamical model of parallel code of vortex-induced vibrations is also implemented for 3D case to give a close representation of the real scenario, where always exists some uncertainty and 2D approximation provides inaccurate predictions. To investigate nonlinear re sponse characterization, we incorporate the resulting data from numerical simulation of dynamical system, using some analytical tools of modern nonlinear dynamics and examine the presence of limit cycle oscillations. For the evaluation of scavenging power, the comparative analysis of numerical computations is accomplished, where the experimental results are considered as benchmark. The energy harvesting po tential is explored to identify the synchronization region and this study can assist in developing flow control to move the VIV response curve for maximizing output power generation.