The effect of mass-damping and aspect ratio on flow-induced vibration of a class of three-dimensional bluff bodies

This thesis presents extensive experimental work on flow-induced vibrations (FIV) of three-dimensional bluff bodies, such as oblate spheroids. The main contribution examines how fluid-structure parameters—including damping ratio, mass ratio, and body geometry—affect the dynamic response of elastically mounted bodies immersed in water. A further part of the thesis explores active control of FIV using Bayesian optimisation, a machine-learning algorithm that automatically searches for an optimal rotation-based control law to regulate the motion of a submerged three-dimensional bluff body.