Proceedings of the Tenth (2000) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference Seattle, USA, May 28-June 2, 2000

Copyright 2000 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers ISBN 1-880653-46-X (Set); ISBN 1-880653-49-4 (Vol. III); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)

Simulating Vortex Shedding at High Reynolds Numbers

P.A.B. de Sampaio Instituto de E n g e n h a r i a N u c l e a r / C N E N , Rio de Janeiro, Brazil A.L. G.A. Coutinho COPPE, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ABSTRACT The turbulent vortex shedding arising from the cross flow past a circular cylinder is analyzed using a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) procedure. In particular, no explicit sub-grid stress model is employed. Rather, the unresolved scales are dealt implicitly by a stabilized Petrov-Galerkin finite element formulation used in conjunction with a time-space adaptive scheme. The numerical results are compared with available experimental data on force coefficients and vortex shedding frequency.
KEY WORDS: vortex shedding, large eddy simulation, stabilized finite elements, adaptive methods, circular cylinder. INTRODUCTION Vortex induced vibration is a major concern in Offshore Engineering. The flow around marine structures causes vibrations that may lead to failure by fatigue. The problem is of particular importance in deep water oil exploitation systems, where risers and mooring lines can be viewed as flexible slender cylinders subjected to cross flow. Moreover, for deep water systems the variation of water currents from the ocean surface to the seabed may be large. There is some controversy among researchers on what is the most appropriate way to tackle the problem (Franciss, 1999). We think that the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) will have an increasingly important role in the analysis of the vortex-induced vibrations of these slender structures subjected to depthvarying currents. Although the coupled transient three-dimensional simulation of flow and structure needed to address the problem directly is still a colossal task, the time is ripe for paving the way towards such an ambitious goal. In this paper we tackle the more basic, but challenging problem, of simulating the turbulent vortex shedding around a stationary cylinder at the high Reynolds numbers typical of Offshore Engineering applications. A Large Eddy Simulation (LES) procedure is used to study the turbulent flow around a circular cylinder. In a Large Eddy Simulation the large turbulence scales are resolved by the discretization while the small scales are taken into account through the so-called sub-grid models. But the sub-grid model does not need to be explicit: it can be inherent to the numerical scheme. Indeed, Hughes (1995) has shown the relationship between stabilized finite element formulations and the sub-grid modeling of the unresolvable scales. Breuer (1998) has proposed the name LES without sub-grid model to what we would tentatively call LES with a numerically implicit subgrid model. What is important to bear in mind is the distinction between such an approach and a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of turbulence, where the time and space discretizations are fine enough to resolve all turbulence scales. Furthermore, note that the design of a LES with a numerically implicit sub-grid model becomes the design of the numerical method itself. This includes not only the formulation used to obtain the discretized equations, but also the adaptive schemes and other algorithms that affect the way the unresolvable scales are treated (implicitly modeled) by the computation. In this work, instead of adopting an explicit sub-grid stress model, the effect of the unresolved scales is accounted for implicitly through the use of a stabilized Petrov-Galerkin formulation. The simulation of the cross flow past a circular cylinder is performed using the adaptive parallel/vector program developed by De Sampaio and Coutinho (1999) for the analysis of incompressible viscous flow. The discretized equations are obtained using a finite element Petrov-Galerkin formulation that automatically introduces streamline upwinding and allows equal order interpolation for velocity and pressure. A remeshing scheme, guided by the estimated error on the viscous stresses, is combined with a local time-stepping procedure, leading to a time-space adaptive computation of the turbulent vortex shedding problem. Turbulent analyses with Reynolds number in the range from 104 t o 106 are presented. The quality of these analyses is assessed by comparing the numerical Drag and Lift coefficients, and the numerical Strouhal number, with available experimental data.

THE CONTINUUM AND DISCRETE MODELS We present here the finite element formulation used for the simulation of incompressible viscous flow. The problem is defined on

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the open bounded domain ~ , with boundary F, contained in the nsddimensional Euclidean space. The governing equations are the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. These equations are written using the summation convention for a =I . . . . . nsd and b=1 ..... nsd as

whilst the pressure-continuity equation is

! :xo :x---T - m : -rat+N'&:xo pa; :~;+x~ dnr~

At 8N~ 8 ~ "+1/2

PC +t

(:,o+

ub~')-'Ox~-LI't~x b ~ G ) J
d u "-=O cgx a

:uo~ : r (:'a+:U, lt+:P =0

+x.

(1)

I N,
,o,

d,-- I

8Xb

(4)

(2)

+ ~ S A t :IVi +

[//(:u:+Dtx:l] d.Q
t.:x,

:xo :x,

axoj]

where p and /2 are the fluid density and viscosity, respectively. The velocity and pressure dependent variables are denoted by u~ and p, respectively. The model is completed introducing boundary conditions and an initial velocity field. Velocity and traction boundary conditions are given data g, and ?a They are prescribed on the boundary partitions F.~ and F,~, such that F.ouF,~=F and r ~ . n F , . = ~ . Pressure and mass flux boundary conditions are associated to the mass balance and are given as ff and G on the boundary partitions Fp and F c , such that F p ~ F o = F and Fpr'~Fo=O . The continuum model is discretized using linear triangular elements to approximate velocity and pressure. Such a choice of interpolating spaces is not acceptable within the mixed-formulation framework, as it violates the Babu~ka-Brezzi condition (Brezzi and Fortin, 1991). However, the Petrov-Galerkin formulation we shall present next avoids such a difficulty through the introduction of extra stabilizing terms (Hughes, Franca and Ballestra, 1986), (De Sampaio, 1991). The formulation also leads to better approximations of convection dominated flows, for it generates streamline upwinding (Brooks and Hughes, 1982), (De Sampaio, 1991). The reader is referred to (De Sampaio and Coutinho, 1999) for a detailed description of the method used in this work. The following discretized model is obtained by least-squares minimization of the time-discretized momentum balance with respect to the velocity and pressure degrees of freedom. The pressure-continuity equation Eq. (4) results from the combination of the least-squares momentum minimization and the requirement of flow incompressibility Eq.(2). The discretized momentum balance is given by

In the above equations ft,

and ~ are the discretized fields,

interpolated using standard C o finite elements whose shape functions are denoted by N~. The superscripts n, n+1/2 and n+l indicate the time-level. Note that the terms explicitly written as summation of element integrals vanish altogether for the linear shape functions used. The problem is solved using a segregated solution procedure. Pressure is computed first, then the velocity field is updated. Eqs. (3)(4) lead to symmetric positive definite matrices, allowing the use of preconditioned conjugate-gradient solvers. Discretizations similar to that presented here have been obtained by (Zienkiewicz and Wu, 1991) following alternative approaches. The procedure can be extended to the analysis of natural convection problems with the inclusion of the energy balance and accounting for buoyancy forces in the equation of momentum (De Sampaio and Coutinho, 1999). LES WITH A TIME-SPACE ADAPTIVE PROCEDURE In this work we combine a remeshing scheme with the local timestepping algorithm introduced by De Sampaio (1993). This algorithm sets local time-steps based on the time-scales of the convection diffusion processes resolvable on a given mesh. These time-scales are estimated according to local values of velocity and physical properties, and according to the local mesh resolution. The local time-steps are chosen according to the expression,

he

(5)

a,_- = Ilu"ll
where

Air

+-'2-<-~'7~

+--Ub-c~x l ab xz )2

(URe) = Fcoth{URe l--Z-I

L t. 2 )

(6)

NReJ

D.+,,Ua _fat
O Xa

--dfI2
(3)
) dn +

Note that NRe-- :llu"tlh,//2 is the local element Reynolds number

based on the local velocity modulus and on the local element size he There are some important reasons for such a choice. First, the weighting function used to approximate the momentum balance becomes the SUPG weighting function (Brooks and Hughes, 1982) and a correct amount of streamline upwinding is introduced in the formulation. Further, note that the time-step given by Eq.(5) is appropriate to follow the time evolution of the convection-diffusion processes resolvable on a mesh with local size h, (De Sampaio, 1991). Indeed, Eq.(5)gives for pure convection A t=hJliu"ll II II whereas for

- f:,

DN

& ax,-t.ex, :x: ) + F

.(

^"

^"

E,a,..au,
LT" :x
+ Iu, o.r

:;,: +~:'~l d~

462

pure diffusion A t = p h ~ / 6 / z , Finally, Hughes (1995) has shown that there is a relationship between the time-step given by Eq.(5), also called the intrinsic time scale, and the modeling of the sub-grid (or unresolvable) scales in the context of stabilized formulations. In this work, instead of using an explicit sub-grid model, the modeling of the unresolvable scales is inherent to the stabilized formulation adopted and to the choice of Eq.(5) to evaluate the local time-steps. The role played by the stabilization terms as filters of turbulent subgrid phenomena deserves further comments. Note that if a Galerkin method is used, the computation becomes unstable due to the negative diffusion engendered by the Galerkin approximation of strong convection in coarse discretizations (note that the meaning of strong convection and coarse discretization here is relative: the Galerkin method is adequate if the local refinement and physical data is such that NRe<< 1 ). In this work, though, we are using a stabilized formulation, with local time-steps defined according to Eq.(5). Thus, comparing with the Galerkin method, we are introducing back into the approximation the amount of diffusion required to balance the negative diffusion arising from unresolvable scales (Kelly, Nakazawa and Zienkiewicz, 1980). The balancing diffusion term appears from the interaction between the non-Galerkin part of the weighting (also called the perturbation) and the convective term in Eq.(3), i.e.

The local time-stepping algorithm is used in conjunction with the remeshing scheme. This permits linking spatial and time-step refinement and naturally leads to a simultaneous time-space adaptive procedure. Indeed, whenever the remeshing scheme creates some local mesh refinement to better resolve a particular flow feature, the timestep distribution is also adapted accordingly, so that the corresponding time evolution can be appropriately followed. It is the combination of the stabilized finite element formulation, the local time-stepping algorithm, and the remeshing scheme, that defines the particular LES with a numerically implicit sub-grid model used in our computations. CIRCULAR CYLINDER IN CROSS FLOW The numerical techniques described above have been used to simulate the vortex shedding past a circular cylinder in cross flow. The problem has been non-dimensionalized using the cylinder diameter d and the free stream velocity u 0 as reference scales for length and velocity, respectively. The reference scale chosen for pressure was PUo 2 and time has been non-dimensionalized by d / u o . The simulations are parameterized by the global Reynolds number Re = t9 u o d/flt. Figure 1 depicts the analysis domain. Impermeability and non-slip velocity boundary conditions are prescribed on the cylinder surface. A uniform velocity field with u~ = u 0 and u 2 = 0 is imposed on the face AB. At faces AE and BD the boundary condition imposed is u2 = 0. Free traction and a reference pressure p = 0 are the boundary conditions prescribed at face ED. The initial condition is the velocity field with components u~ = Uo and u 2 = 0, which is specified over all analysis domain at time t = 0. Simulations of the cross flow past a circular cylinder have been performed for R e = 104, 5.104, 105, 5.105 and 106. The numerical results are assessed in terms of the drag and lift forces acting on the cylinder and of the vortex shedding frequency. The drag and lift coefficients are respectively given by C o = 2 F o / p u ~ d and
C L = 2 F L / p u ~ d , where F o and F L are the drag and lift forces on the cylinder (per unit span). The vortex shedding frequencyfis given in non-dimensionalform by the Strouhal number St = f d / u o .
B C

The above term acts as a filter that damps the growth of the numerical errors associated to sub-grid phenomena, i.e. flow features smaller/faster than the local h, and At. In particular, note that the balancing diffusion term depends on the local space-time resolution, i.e., h, and At=ct(NRe)he/llul[. Of course, the discretization required to suitably model a particular turbulent flow will be always problem dependent. Furthermore, special boundary conditions, incorporating the universal law of the wall, may be required to model turbulent boundary layers. Nonetheless, the method proposed herein is capable of following the evolution of the large/slow features resolvable in a given discretization. In this sense, it is a LES method where no explicit sub-grid modeling is introduced. It is important to note that the time-step given by Eq.(5) varies spatially according to local values of velocity, physical properties and mesh size. Therefore, we need to consider a spatially varying time-step distribution when advancing the computation in time. We employ here an algorithm which allows each degree of freedom to advance in time according to its own local time-step, whilst interpolated results are periodically output at fixed times. The reader is referred to (De Sampaio, 1993) and to (De Sampaio and Coutinho, 1999) for details regarding the local time-stepping algorithm.
The a posteriori error estimator proposed by Zienkiewicz and Zhu (1987) is used to estimate the error on the viscous stresses and to guide the remeshing. The scheme is designed to generate meshes containing a controlled number of elements, in such a way that that the error on the viscous stresses becomes evenly distributed (De Sampaio and Coutinho, 1999). The remeshing procedure is fully automatic and triggered during a transient analysis, whenever the relative variation of the estimated error exceeds a preset value of 0.01.

uo
A F

Figure 1. Analysis domain used in the simulation of cross flow past a circular cylinder: the length of the segments are AM=MB=DN=NE=AF=BC=5 d and CD=FE= 10 d.

463

The computations were performed on the Cray J90 machine installed at COPPE/UFRJ. The numerical results obtained are presented next. Figure 2 shows the time evolution of the drag and lift coefficients during the simulated transients for Re= 5.104,Re=105 . The time evolution of the number of elements used in these adaptive computations is shown in Figure 3 . Figure 4 depicts the velocity field and the adaptive mesh close to the cylinder for the Re = l0 S analysis, at time t = 80, long after the periodic behavior has been established. Note the adaptive refinement close to the cylinder. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS The rms drag coefficients and the Strouhal numbers are presented in Table 1. Despite the use of very coarse meshes in the near wall region (the minimum element size is 0.01d), the results obtained in the range from 104 to 105 are accurate enough for most engineering purposes. In this range, the drag coefficient is overestimated by about 30% with respect to the experimental data reported by Roshko (1961), whilst the Strouhal number is higher than the experimental values by about 10%.

Everything changes with a slight increase of the Reynolds number, beyond the critical value of 3.10L When this situation is reached, the boundary layer undergoes a turbulent transition and reattatches to the cylinder surface. Separation is retarded to a position behind the cylinder, at about 120 degrees. The comparatively smaller area of low pressure on the back of the cylinder explains the experimentally observed abrupt drag reduction associated to the sudden change of the point of separation. This phenomenon, called as the drag crisis, could not be captured by our computations based on coarse near wall meshes, unsuitable to model the turbulent boundary layer and its transition. It is clear that more refinement close to the wall, or the use of special wall boundary conditions, is required in order to detect the drag crisis. We also performed similar computations using the Smagorinsky model in meshes containing about 10,000 elements, but still insufficiently refined in the near wall region. The results were no better. Selvam (1997) observed a moderate reduction of the drag force in his 2D LES analyses, based on the Smagorinsky sub-grid model, using the law of the wall boundary conditions. However, it seems that an accurate simulation of drag crisis can only be accomplished using a full 3D model (Selvam, 1997). CONCLUDING REMARKS

Re

Experimental
Cd St 0.20 0.19 0.19 0.23 0.32 Cd

Numerical St
0.21 0.22 0.21 0.21 0.22

10,000
50,000 100,000 500,000 ! ,000,000

1.2

1.635 1.546 1.542 1.538 1.540

1.2
1.2 0.30-0.35 0.4

A Large Eddy Simulation procedure, combining a stabilized PetrovGalerkin formulation and adaptive time-space discretizations, was employed to compute the unsteady flow around a fixed circular cylinder. The problem was simulated at the high Reynolds numbers typical of Offshore Engineering applications, i.e. 104 to 106. In the present method, the sub-grid modeling of the unresolvable scales is inherent to the stabilized Petrov-Galerkin formulation used and to the choice of suitable local time-steps. Thus, no explicit sub-grid modeling is required. The LES procedure presented here naturally turns into a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) method, provided a sufficiently fine discretization is adopted. The results obtained are accurate enough for most engineering purposes, up to the critical Reynolds number Re=3.105, which characterizes the beginning of the so-called drag crisis. On the other hand, the accurate simulation of the drag crisis using the present method will require finer meshes, especially in the near wall region, and a full 3D model. The results obtained so far are promising, and we expect that the CFD approach proposed in this work can be further developed to address some important fluid-structure vibration problems of Offshore Engineering. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors kindly acknowledge the Center for Parallel Computation of COPPE/UFRJ for the use of the Cray J90 computer. REFERENCES Breuer, M (1998). "Large Eddy Simulation of the Subcritical Flow Past a Circular Cylinder: Numerical and Modelling Aspects", Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids, Vol. 28, pp. 1281-1302. Brezzi, F ,and Fortin M (1991). Mixed and Hybrid Finite Element Methods, Springer, New York. Brooks, A, and Hughes, TJR (1982). "Streamline Upwind/PetrovGalerkin Formulation for Convection Dominated Flows with Particular Emphasis on the Incompressible Navier-Stokes

Table 1. Computed drag coefficient (rms) and Stmuhal number.

But how can such coarse discretizations in the near wall region yield reasonably accurate predictions of the force acting on the cylinder? After all, the refinement used is insufficient to resolve the turbulent boundary layer. Moreover, no special boundary conditions introducing the universal law of the wall have been used. In order to answer that we need to consider the experimental observations regarding the flow patterns that affect the force on the cylinder (Panton, 1984). In particular, we must consider the points of separation of the boundary layer. These points roughly divide the pressure acting on the cylinder surface into high pressure, before the points of separation, and low pressure after those points. As long as the main contribution to the force on the cylinder is due to pressure, this force will strongly depend on the position of the boundary layer separation. It happens that for the sub-critical range (Reynolds numbers up to 3.105), separation occurs in the front part of the cylinder, at about 80 degrees along the cylinder surface. This explains why the force coefficients observed experimentally are nearly independent of Reynolds, although the boundary layers are getting ever more thinner with the increase of the Reynolds number. We have obtained reasonably accurate force coefficients, in the subcritical range, because our simulations predict the point of separation reasonably well, in spite of being unable to resolve the turbulent boundary layer. Of course, if we were solving a heat transfer problem, the result would be useless. This serves to remind that models cannot be judged good or bad by themselves, but only in relation to what is expected from them.

464

Equations", Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg., Vol. 32, pp. 199-259. De Sampaio, PAB, and Coutinho, ALGA (1999). "Simulation of Free and Forced Convection Incompressible Flows using an Adaptive Parallel / Vector Finite Element Procedure", Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids, Vol. 29, pp. 289-309. De Sampaio, PAB (1991). "A Petrov-Galerkin Formulation for the Incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations using Equal Order Interpolation for Velocity and Pressure", Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engrg., Vol. 31, pp. 1135-1149. De Sampalo, PAB (1993). "Transient Solutions of the Incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations in Primitive Variables Employing Optimal Local Time-Stepping", Proc. 8th Int. Conference on Numer. Meth. for Laminar and Turbulent Flow, Swansea, U.K., pp. 1493-1504. Franciss, R (1999). "Vortex Induced Vibration of Slender Structures of Offshore Vessels", D.Sc. Thesis, COPPFE/UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (in Portuguese). Hughes, TJR (1995). "Multiscale Phenomena: Green's Functions, the Dirichlet-to-Neumann Formulation, Subgrid Scale Models, Bubbles and the Origins of Stabilized Methods", Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg., Vol. 127, pp. 387-401. Hughes, TJR, Franca, LP, and Ballestra, M (1986). "A New Finite Element Formulation for Computational Fluid Dynamics: V. Circumventing the Babu~ka-Brezzi Condition: A Stable PetrovGalerkin Formulation of the Stokes Problem Accommodating Equal-Order Interpolation", Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg., Vol. 59, pp. 85-99. Kelly, DW, Nakazawa, S, and Zienkiewicz, OC (1980). "A Note on Anisotropic Balancing Dissipation in the Finite Element Method Approximation to Convective Diffusion Problems", Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engrg., Vol. 15, pp. 1705-1711. Panton, RL (1984). Incompressible Flow, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Roshko, A (1961). "Experiments on the Flow Past a Circular Cylinder at Very High Reynolds Number", J. Fluid Mech., Vol. 10, pp. 345356. Selvam, RP (1997). "Finite Element Modelling of Flow Around a Circular Cylinder using LES", J. Wind Eng.lnd.Aerdyn, Vol. 67 & 68, pp. 129-139. Zienkiewicz, OC, and Wu, J (1991). "Incompressibility without Tears How to Avoid Restrictions of Mixed Formulation", Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engrg., Vol. 32, pp. 1189-1203. Zienkiewicz, OC, and Zhu, JZ (1987). "A Simple Error Estimator and Adaptive Procedure for Practical Engineering Analysis", Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engrg., Vol. 24, pp. 337-357.

CD-CL ......

, ,f' il
V
1

I'l , I Ii t "E : I l,' , | I 'l, i ,I ,,,, ',i ~J I

J I I, ,, I , I , 1

I ,li,'~ l I I !

-2

l0

20

30

40 50 Time

60

70

80

Re=50,000

CD CL ...... 2

,
0

-1

-2 10 20 30 40 50 Time 60 70 80

Re=100,000

Figure 2. Drag (CD) and lift (CL) coefficients for Re=50,000 and 100,000.

465

Elements m

5500

5(XlO

I
I I I I I I I

4500

4000

10

20

30

40 50 'rime

60

70

80

Re=50,000

6000

Elements

5500

5000

4500

4000

10

20

30

40 50 Time

60

70

80

Re= 100,000

Figure 3. Evolution o f total n u m b e r of elements in the analysis for R e - 5 0 , 0 0 0 and 100,000.

Figure 4. Detail of the adaptive m e s h and velocity field for Re=100,000 at time t=80.

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