We present direct numerical simulations results of vortex-induced vibrations of a freely
vibrating rigid cylinder with low mass-damping parameter using a spectral/hp element
method. We investigate several reduced velocities to assess the validity of the “three-branch
response” and its sensitivity to Reynolds number in the range 1000–3000. This study
addresses the numerical challenge of capturing large amplitude responses in the upper
branch and the 2P vortex shedding mode in the lower branch, which has been observed in …