The instability of the Kármán vortex street is revisited under a spatio-temporal perspective that allows the taking into account of the advection of the vortices by the external flow. We analyse a simplified point vortex model and show through numerical simulations of its linear impulse response that the system becomes convectively unstable above a certain critical advection velocity. This crit...

We model the swimming of a finite body in a vortex street using vortex sheets distributed along the body and in a wake emanating from its trailing edge. We determine the magnitudes and distributions of vorticity and pressure loading on the body as functions of the strengths and spacings of the vortices. We then consider the motion of a flexible body clamped at its leading edge in the vortex str...

Vortex control is a new paradigm in fluid mechanics, with applications to propulsion and wake reduction. A heaving and pitching hydrofoil placed in a flow with an array of oncoming vortices can achieve a very high propulsive efficiency and reduced wake signature. The canonical example of flow with regular arrays of vortices is the Krman vortex street, and this is our model for the inflow to the...

An inviscid model for the Karman vortex street, containing vortices of uniform vorticity surrounded by irrotational fluid, is related to the wake behind a bluff body by a global analysis requiring the conservation of momentum, energy and vorticity. Some comparison is made with experimental results reported in the literature. A qualitative procedure is proposed whereby the slow evolution of the ...

We formulate a new theoretical model for the swimming of a flexible body in a vortex street. We consider the class of periodic travelling-wave body motions, in the limit of small amplitude. We calculate the output power provided to the body by thrust forces, and the input power done against pressure forces, as functions of the aspect ratio and strength of the vortex street. We then formulate tw...

Periodic vortex streets, often considered as a model for the organized structures observed in the wake of two-dimensional (2D) bluff bodies, are revisited. After the generation of the shear layers the formation of the vortices is mainly an inviscid process. An intrinsic scaling for the formation of vortex streets is found based on the invariants of motion for 2D inviscid flows; namely the kinet...

Three types of streamline topology in a Kármán vortex street flow are shown under the variation of spatial parameters. For the motion of dilute particles in the Kármán vortex street flow, there exist a route of bifurcation to a chaotic orbit and more attractors in a bifurcation diagram for the proportion of particle density to fluid density. Along with the increase of spatial parameters in the ...

A new electromagnetic energy harvester for harnessing energy from vibration induced by Kármán vortex street is proposed. It converts flow energy into electrical energy by fluid flow, vortex shedding from a bluff body and electromagnetic induction. An analytical design method for the energy harvester is developed. A prototype of the energy harvester is fabricated and tested. The prototype has a ...

Transverse amplitude responses ofa circular cylinder in cross-flow were determined as a function of reduced velocities for a variety of spring constants and damping coefficients. Maxima were found at reduced velocities of 5 and 16, and were of comparable amplitude. The first resonance, designated the "fundamental mode, " was due to normal vortex street excitation of the spring-mass system. The ...