Flow mechanisms around step cylinders
Date & Time: Thursday, 10.10.2024, at 14:15.
Speaker: Dr. Cai Tian
Topic: “Flow mechanisms around step cylinders”
Abstract: Cylindrical structures with abruptly changed cross-sections are widely used in various fields of marine engineering, such as lazy wave risers, top-tensioned risers, and the underwater buoyancy components of floating platforms. The step cylinder serves as the basic unit of these structures. Different from uniform cylinders, which have been studied extensively for decades, the flow mechanisms around step cylinders with strong three-dimensional effects still need to be better understood. Nowadays, the shape design of the related structures is mainly based on laboratory experiments with trial and error, which is costly, time-consuming, and leads to unstable hydrodynamic performance. This hinders the optimization and application expansion of variable cross-section cylindrical structures. In this presentation, I will present my research on the flow mechanisms of step cylinders, focusing on vortex formations, vortex interactions, and structural loads.