A Parametric Study of the Resonance Mechanism of Two Tandem Cylinders in Cross-Flow

Abstract

A parametric study has been performed to investigate the effect of cylinder diameter on the acoustic resonance mechanism of two tandem cylinders exposed to cross-flow in a duct. Three spacing ratios corresponding to different flow regimes inside the “proximity interference” region are considered, L∕D=1.5, 1.75, and 2.5, where L is the spacing between the cylinders and D is the diameter. For each spacing ratio, six cylinder diameters in the range of D=7.6–27.5mm have been tested. For small diameter cylinders, the acoustic resonance mechanism of the tandem cylinders seems to be similar to that observed for single cylinders; i.e., it occurs near frequency coincidence as the vortex shedding frequency approaches that of an acoustic resonance mode. However, for larger diameter cylinders, the resonance of a given acoustic mode occurs over two different ranges of flow velocity. The first resonance range, the precoincidence resonance, occurs at flow velocities much lower than that of frequency coincidence. The second resonance range, the coincidence resonance, is similar to that observed for single and small diameter tandem cylinders. Interestingly, the observed precoincidence resonance phenomenon is similar to the acoustic resonance mechanism of in-line tube bundles. It is shown that increasing the diameter of the tandem cylinders affects several flow parameters such that the system becomes more susceptible to the precoincidence resonance phenomenon. The occurrence and the intensity of the precoincidence resonance are therefore strongly dependent on the diameter of the cylinders.