Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The present program is motivated by the Canadian mining and energy industries' pressing needs to access more reliable tools for modelling interactions between 'non-ideal' or 'real' cylindrical structures and fluid flow. The existing methods and tools lack considering the effects of imperfections and combined flow-induced vibration (FIV) modes -- two important aspects of many real fluid-structure systems. The existing literature hints the sensitivity of the global dynamics and stability of such systems to imperfections, as well as the occurrence of amplified-amplitude vibrations and chaotic motions due to combined FIV modes. We will take analytical and computational approaches to discover physical mechanisms leading to combined FIV modes (e.g. combined self-excited and vortex-induced vibrations) and to model the effects of imperfections, such as loose end-supports and body's initial curvature. These fundamental studies will be the cornerstone of the new FSI modelling methods and tools, including open-source software packages, that will be used to design trouble-free real-world engineering systems, such as drilling risers and tethered kites.