Apparent and effective drag for circular cylinders oscillating transverse to a free stream

This communication brings forward the concept of an effective drag for circular cylinders undergoing controlled or self-excited oscillation transverse to a free stream. A relationship between the effective drag and the apparent drag customarily measured by force transducers, is derived on the basis of the average rate of energy dissipation in the fluid. The effective drag is employed to gain insight into the fluid dynamics of vortex-induced vibrations using available data from the published literature. It is shown that the effective drag varies almost continuously as a function of the true reduced velocity except for a sudden decrease near conditions of maximum amplitude. The variation displays similarities but also important differences among independent experiments, which highlight the importance of various influencing parameters whose effect on the free response is currently not well understood. Some evidence is found that self-excited oscillations occur at points in the frequency–amplitude space where the effective drag is comparatively low avoiding the region where energy transfer from the fluid to the structure is most efficient. A total energy balance is employed to reveal the effect of mechanical damping on the free response which indicates that the amplitude scales with the inverse of the square root of damping in conformity with experimental data. The dimensionless damping parameters proposed by Vandiver are examined in light of the present analysis, and alternative empirical formulas are suggested for organizing the free vibration response.