Dynamic response of a cantilevered cylinder exposed to a turbulent cross-flow and freestream turbulence

The flow over bluff bodies is typically characterized as a multi-scale flow, in which several turbulent length/time scales develop in their respective wakes, imprinting these multi-scale physics into the structure's response. Meanwhile, the presence of freestream turbulence has a direct and indirect impact on the fluctuating loads of such bodies exposed to cross-flows, the later by modifying the vortex shedding process within the bluff body wake. Experiments are carried out in a water channel, combining simultaneous measurements of particle image velocimetry of the upstream and downstream flow conditions of the cantilevered cylinder cross-flow, and structural strain measurements using Rayleigh Backscattering distributed fibre optic sensors, distributed over the surface of a rigid cylinder. Different "flavours" of background turbulence on the inflow section of the cylinder are produced by a set of turbulence-generating grids placed upstream of the body, designed to encourage the development of ${L, TI}$ turbulence parameters. The objective of this work is to explore the effect of freestream turbulence on the developing strain/loads over a cantilevered cylinder, aiming to provide more insight on the influence of the explored freestream turbulence parameters on the development of the flow induced loading events, to further optimize and possibly develop new concepts of structural design/layout of arrays of structures.