Two-dimensional numerical simulations are conducted to examine the effects of tripping wires on the hydrodynamic properties of a stationary cylinder in uniform and shear flows at a fixed Reynolds number of 100. Three sets of numerical tests are carried out:
symmetric and asymmetric tripping wire arrangements in a shear flow;
symmetric arrangement of tripping wires of various diameters in a uniform flow; and
symmetric arrangement of tripping wires placed at a range of distances from the cylinder in a uniform flow. The results of each test are described in terms of hydrodynamic forces and vortex shedding frequency.
Vortex induced vibration (VIV) takes place when a fluid flow passes an elastically mounted bluff body. Earlier studies of VIV focused primarily on the suppression of this phenomenon to minimize its damage caused to engineering structures such as bridges and offshore pipelines. In recent years, a shift towards developing viable renewable energy technologies has led to a technology that harnesses energy from the typically harmful phenomenon of VIV (Raghavan, 2007; Bernitsas et al., 2008; Nishi et al., 2012). Since the amount of energy produced by a VIV energy harnessing system is directly related to the amplitude of the transverse oscillations associated with VIV, which in turn depends on the lift force acting on the bluff body, recent research has been focusing on maximizing the amplitude of lift fluctuation and enhancing the motion induced by the fluctuating lift.