A new analytical approach for modeling the added mass and hydrodynamic interaction of two cylinders subjected to large motions in a potential stagnant fluid

A potential theory is presented for the problem of two moving circular cylinders, with possibly different radii, large motions, immersed in an perfect stagnant fluid. We show that the fluid force is the superposition of an added mass term, related to the time variations of the potential, and a quadratic term related to its spatial variations. We provide new simple and exact analytical expressions for the fluid added mass coefficients, in which the effect of the confinement is made explicit. The self-added mass (resp. cross-added mass) is shown to decrease (resp. increase) with the separation distance and increase (resp. decreases) with the radius ratio. We then consider the case in which one cylinder translates along the line joining the centers with a constant speed. We show that the two cylinders are repelled from each other, with a force that diverges to infinity at impact. We extend our approach to the case in which one cylinder is imposed a sinusoidal vibration. We show that the force on the stationary cylinder and the vibration displacement have opposite (resp. identical) axial (resp. transverse) directions. For large vibration amplitudes, this force is strongly altered by the nonlinear effects induced by the spatial variations of the potential. The force on the vibrating cylinder is in phase with the imposed displacement and is mainly driven by the added mass term. The results of this paper are of particular interest for engineers who need to understand the essential features associated with the vibration of a solid body in a still fluid.