Determination of Added-Mass Coefficients in Eccentrically Confined Square Cylinders Using Deforming-Mesh and Immersed-Boundary Methods

Accurate prediction of hydrodynamic forces on confined oscillating structures is essential in applications related to nuclear engineering, energy systems, offshore devices, and mechanical components subjected to flow-induced vibrations. In this work, two computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodologies implemented in ANSYS CFX are compared to determine the added-mass coefficients for a square cross-section cylinder confined within a square container: a deforming-mesh method (DMM) and an immersed-boundary method (IBM). Unlike previous studies restricted either to concentric square cylinders or to eccentric configurations treated with potential flow, the present study addresses eccentric confined configurations by solving the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations and focuses primarily on the prediction of added mass under strong confinement. Horizontal, vertical, and combined eccentric displacements are analyzed in detail. Mesh-independence, domain-size sensitivity, and temporal-convergence analyses are performed. Results show that both methods provide closely matching added-mass predictions over a wide range of eccentricities, with relative differences typically below 1% for moderate eccentricities, although discrepancies increase under extreme confinement. Relative to the concentric configuration, the added-mass coefficient increases by about 44% for the most eccentric vertical case and by about 87% for the most eccentric corner-approach case. Force decomposition and pressure-field analysis show that this increase is governed primarily by pressure-induced inertial effects, whereas viscous shear plays a secondary role under the conditions considered. From a practical standpoint, the immersed-boundary method reduced the computational time by approximately 92% in the most demanding case.