Flow-Induced Vibration of Tube Arrays With Various Pitch-to-Diameter Ratios

1982 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Tanaka ◽  
S. Takahara ◽  
K. Ohta

Tube arrays in cross flow start to vibrate abruptly when the flow reaches at a certain velocity. The threshold flow velocity depends upon the geometrical arrangement of tubes. It is very important for practical applications to understand the relations between the threshold velocity and pitch-to-diameter ratio of tube array. Unsteady fluid dynamic forces on a tube array with a pitch-to-diameter ratio of 2.0 were clarified experimentally and the characteristics of the threshold velocity were revealed by calculating the velocity with the unsteady forces. By comparing the threshold velocities of tube arrays of pitch-to-diameter ratio of 2.0 and 1.33, the characteristics of threshold velocity with respect to pitch-to-diameter ratio were clarified.

Author(s):  
Amro Elhelaly ◽  
Marwan Hassan ◽  
Atef Mohany ◽  
Soha Moussa

The integrity of tube bundles is very important especially when dealing with high-risk applications such as nuclear steam generators. A major issue to system integrity is the flow-induced vibration (FIV). FIV is manifested through several mechanisms including the most severe mechanism; fluidelastic instability (FEI). Tube vibration can be constrained by using tube supports. However, clearances between the tube and their support are required to allow for thermal expansion and for other manufacturing considerations. The clearance between tubes may allow frequent impact and friction between tube and support. This in turn may cause fatigue and wear at support and potential for catastrophic tube failure. This study aims to investigate the dynamics of loosely supported tube array subjected to cross-flow. The work is performed experimentally in an open-loop wind tunnel to address this issue. A loosely-supported single flexible tube in both triangle and square arrays subjected to cross-flow with a pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.5 and 1.733, respectively were considered. The effect of the flow approach angle, as well as the support clearance on the tube response, are investigated. In addition, the parameters that affect tube wear such as impact force level are presented.


Author(s):  
Tomomichi Nakamura ◽  
Shinichiro Hagiwara ◽  
Joji Yamada ◽  
Kenji Usuki

In-flow instability of tube arrays is a recent major issue in heat exchanger design since the event at a nuclear power plant in California [1]. In our previous tests [2], the effect of the pitch-to-diameter ratio on fluidelastic instability in triangular arrays is reported. This is one of the present major issues in the nuclear industry. However, tube arrays in some heat exchangers are arranged as a square array configuration. Then, it is important to study the in-flow instability on the case of square arrays. The in-flow fluidelastic instability of square arrays is investigated in this report. It was easy to observe the in-flow instability of triangular arrays, but not for square arrays. The pitch-to-diameter ratio, P/D, is changed from 1.2 to 1.5. In-flow fluidelastic instability was not observed in the in-flow direction. Contrarily, the transverse instability is observed in all cases including the case of a single flexible cylinder. The test results are finally reported including the comparison with the triangular arrays.


AIAA Journal ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (12) ◽  
pp. 2475-2480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manabu Yamamoto ◽  
Koji Isogai

1984 ◽  
Vol 106 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Ohta ◽  
K. Kagawa ◽  
H. Tanaka ◽  
S. Takahara

This paper presents a method to calculate the critical flow velocity of fluidelastic vibration of tube arrays in heat exchangers. The method is based upon the modal analysis technique, which combines the fluid dynamic force caused by cross flow and the vibration characteristics of the complicated tube array to obtain its response. The analytical method enables us not only to take into account the vibration mode of tube array and nonuniformity of velocity and density distribution of cross flow, but also to estimate the effect of antivibration devices, such as spacer, connecting band, and so on. Numerical examples of constrained single-tube array, multi-tube array in reversed flow, and group of panels with spacers are described.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Feenstra ◽  
David S. Weaver ◽  
Tomomichi Nakamura

Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the flow-induced vibration response and fluidelastic instability threshold of model heat exchanger tube bundles subjected to a cross-flow of refrigerant 11. Tube bundles were specially built with tubes cantilever-mounted on rectangular brass support bars so that the stiffness in the streamwise direction was about double that in the transverse direction. This was designed to simulate the tube dynamics in the U-bend region of a recirculating-type nuclear steam generator. Three model tube bundles were studied, one with a pitch ratio of 1.49 and two with a smaller pitch ratio of 1.33. The primary intent of the research was to improve our understanding of the flow-induced vibrations of heat exchanger tube arrays subjected to two-phase cross-flow. Of particular concern was to compare the effect of the asymmetric stiffness on the fluidelastic stability threshold with that of axisymmetric stiffness arrays tested most prominently in literature. The experimental results are analyzed and compared with existing data from literature using various definitions of two-phase fluid parameters. The fluidelastic stability thresholds of the present study agree well with results from previous studies for single-phase flow. In two-phase flow, the comparison of the stability data depends on the definition of two-phase flow velocity.


Author(s):  
R. Violette ◽  
N. W. Mureithi ◽  
M. J. Pettigrew

Tests were done to study the fluidelastic instability of a cluster of seven cylinders much more flexible in the flow direction than in the lift direction. The array configuration is rotated triangular with a pitch to diameter ratio of 1.5. The array was subjected to two-phase (air-water) cross flow. Cylinder natural frequencies of 14 and 28 Hz were tested. Fluidelastic instabilities were observed at 65, 80, 90 and 95% void fraction albeit at a somewhat higher flow velocity than that expected for axisymetrically flexible arrays. These results and additional wind tunnel results are compared to existing data on fluidelastic instability.


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