scholarly journals Sensitivity of the damping controlled fluidelastic instability threshold to mass ratio, pitch ratio and Reynolds number in normal triangular arrays

2018 ◽  
Vol 331 ◽  
pp. 32-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz de Pedro Palomar ◽  
Craig Meskell
2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandeep R. Desai ◽  
Aslam A. Maniyar

An experimental program was carried out by subjecting normal square finned tube arrays to gradually increasing water cross flows. In all, total six tube arrays were tested—three having pitch ratio 2.1 and remaining three of pitch ratio 2.6. Under each category, three arrays tested were: plain array, coarse finned array, and fine finned array. The objective of the research was to determine the fluid velocity at which each of the six arrays becomes fluidelastically unstable. The experiments were started with tests on plain arrays to establish them as a datum case by comparing their test results with published results on plain arrays having lower pitch ratios. This was then followed by testing of finned arrays to study the effect of fins on the instability threshold. The tubes were subjected to a gradually increasing flow rate of water from 10 m3/h to the point where instability was reached. The results of the present work are compared with author's earlier published results for parallel triangular arrays in water. The research outcomes help to study the effect of pitch ratio, tube array pattern, and fin density on the instability threshold. The results show that instability is delayed due to the addition of the fins. It is also concluded that normal square arrays should be preferred over parallel triangular arrays to avoid fluidelastic vibrations. The vortex shedding behavior studied for all the arrays shows that small peaks before fluidelastic instability are due to vortex shedding.


Author(s):  
Marwan Hassan ◽  
David S. Weaver

The shut-down of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) has been attributed to damaging streamwise Fluidelastic Instability (FEI) of the steam generator tubes, a phenomenon which has traditionally been assumed not to occur. This has generated a significant research effort to better understand this phenomenon and to develop appropriate design criteria for its prevention. Most current design codes are based on Connors criterion for FEI which neglects both streamwise FEI and the effects of tube array pattern and pitch ratio. It is becoming clear that array geometry and pitch ratio are important determining factors in FEI, especially in the streamwise direction. This paper presents an extension of the theory of Lever and Weaver to consider arrays of flexible fluid-coupled tubes which are free to become unstable in both the transverse and streamwise directions. This simplified modelling approach has the advantages of being very tractable for numerical parametric studies and having no need for experimental data input. Previous research by the authors has shown that the predictions of this model agree very well with the available experiments for parallel triangular arrays for both transverse and streamwise FEI. In this paper, the results of such studies are presented for the both transverse and streamwise FEI for square inline and normal triangular arrays and compared with the authors’ previous results for parallel triangular arrays. It is shown that FEI is strongly influenced by array geometry, especially for small pitch ratio arrays operating at low values of the mass damping parameter. The results show good agreement with the available experimental data.


2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marwan Hassan ◽  
David Weaver

The simple tube and channel theoretical model for fluidelastic instability (FEI) in tube arrays, as developed by Hassan and Weaver, has been used to study the effects of pitch ratio and mass ratio on the critical velocity of parallel triangular tube arrays. Simulations were carried out considering fluidelastic forces in the lift and drag directions independently and acting together for cases of a single flexible tube in a rigid array and a fully flexible kernel of seven tubes. No new empirical data were required using this model. The direction of FEI as well as the relative importance of fluid coupling of tubes was studied, including how these are affected by tube pitch ratio and mass ratio. The simulation predictions agree reasonably well with available experimental data. It was found that parallel triangular tube arrays are more vulnerable to streamwise FEI when the pitch ratio is small and the mass-damping parameter (MDP) is large.


Author(s):  
Pornchai Nivesrangsan ◽  
Somsak Pethkool ◽  
Kwanchai Nanan ◽  
Monsak Pimsarn ◽  
Smith Eiamsa-ard

This paper presents the heat transfer augmentation and friction factor characteristics by means of dimpled tubes. The experiments were conducted using the dimpled tubes with two different dimpled-surface patterns including aligned arrangement (A-A) and staggered arrangement (S-A), each with two pitch ratios (PR = p/Di = 0.6 and 1.0), for Reynolds number ranging from 9800 to 67,000. The experimental results achieved from the dimpled tubes are compared with those obtained from the plain tube. Evidently, the dimpled tubes with both arrangements offer higher heat transfer rates compared to the plain tube and the dimpled tube with staggered arrangement shows an advantage on the basis of heat transfer enhancement over the dimpled tube with aligned arrangement. The increase in heat transfer rate with reducing pitch ratio is due to the higher turbulent intensity imparted to the flow between the dimple surfaces. The mean heat transfer rate offered by the dimpled tube with staggered arrangement (S-A) at the lowest pitch ratio (PR = 0.6), is higher than those provided by the plain tube and the dimpled tube with aligned arrangement (A-A) at the same PR by around 127% and 8%, respectively. The empirical correlations developed in terms of pitch ratio (PR), Prandtl number (Pr) and Reynolds number, are fitted the experimental data within ±8% and ±2% for Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor (f), respectively. In addition, the thermal performance factors under an equal pumping power constraint of the dimple tubes for both dimpled-surface arrangements are also determined.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Mahon ◽  
Craig Meskell

Fluidelastic instability (FEI) produces large amplitude self-excited vibrations close to the natural frequency of the structure. For fluidelastic instability caused by the damping controlled mechanism, there is a time delay between tube motion and the resulting fluid forces but magnitude and physical cause of this is unclear. This study measures the time delay between tube motion and the resulting fluid forces in a normal triangular tube array with a pitch ratio of 1.32 subject to air cross-flow. The instrumented cylinder was forced to oscillate in the lift direction at three excitation frequencies for a range of flow velocities. Unsteady surface pressures were monitored with a sample frequency of 2 kHz at the mid plane of the instrumented cylinder. The instantaneous fluid forces were obtained by integrating the surface pressure data. A time delay between the tube motion and resulting fluid forces was obtained. The nondimensionalized time delay was of the same order of magnitude assumed in the semi-empirical quasi-steady model (i.e., τ2 = 0.29 d/U). Although, further work is required to provide a parameterized model of the time delay which can be embedded in a model of damping controlled fluidelastic forces, the data already provides some insight into the physical mechanism responsible.


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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 827 ◽  
pp. 357-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Yao ◽  
R. K. Jaiman

We present an effective reduced-order model (ROM) technique to couple an incompressible flow with a transversely vibrating bluff body in a state-space format. The ROM of the unsteady wake flow is based on the Navier–Stokes equations and is constructed by means of an eigensystem realization algorithm (ERA). We investigate the underlying mechanism of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a circular cylinder at low Reynolds number via linear stability analysis. To understand the frequency lock-in mechanism and self-sustained VIV phenomenon, a systematic analysis is performed by examining the eigenvalue trajectories of the ERA-based ROM for a range of reduced oscillation frequency $(F_{s})$, while maintaining fixed values of the Reynolds number ($Re$) and mass ratio ($m^{\ast }$). The effects of the Reynolds number $Re$, the mass ratio $m^{\ast }$ and the rounding of a square cylinder are examined to generalize the proposed ERA-based ROM for the VIV lock-in analysis. The considered cylinder configurations are a basic square with sharp corners, a circle and three intermediate rounded squares, which are created by varying a single rounding parameter. The results show that the two frequency lock-in regimes, the so-called resonance and flutter, only exist when certain conditions are satisfied, and the regimes have a strong dependence on the shape of the bluff body, the Reynolds number and the mass ratio. In addition, the frequency lock-in during VIV of a square cylinder is found to be dominated by the resonance regime, without any coupled-mode flutter at low Reynolds number. To further discern the influence of geometry on the VIV lock-in mechanism, we consider the smooth curve geometry of an ellipse and two sharp corner geometries of forward triangle and diamond-shaped bluff bodies. While the ellipse and diamond geometries exhibit the flutter and mixed resonance–flutter regimes, the forward triangle undergoes only the flutter-induced lock-in for $30\leqslant Re\leqslant 100$ at $m^{\ast }=10$. In the case of the forward triangle configuration, the ERA-based ROM accurately predicts the low-frequency galloping instability. We observe a kink in the amplitude response associated with 1:3 synchronization, whereby the forward triangular body oscillates at a single dominant frequency but the lift force has a frequency component at three times the body oscillation frequency. Finally, we present a stability phase diagram to summarize the VIV lock-in regimes of the five smooth-curve- and sharp-corner-based bluff bodies. These findings attempt to generalize our understanding of the VIV lock-in mechanism for bluff bodies at low Reynolds number. The proposed ERA-based ROM is found to be accurate, efficient and easy to use for the linear stability analysis of VIV, and it can have a profound impact on the development of control strategies for nonlinear vortex shedding and VIV.


1989 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Lever ◽  
G. Rzentkowski

A model has been developed to examine the effect of the superposition of turbulent buffeting and fluid-elastic excitation on the response of a single flexible tube in an array exposed to cross-flow. The modeled response curves for a 1.375-pitch ratio parallel triangular array are compared with corresponding experimental data for the same array; reasonably good qualitative agreement is seen. Turbulence is shown to have a significant effect on the determination of the stability threshold for the array, with increasing turbulent buffeting causing a reduction in the apparent critical velocity. The dependence of turbulence response on mass ratio is also found to yield a slight independence between mass and damping parameters on stability threshold estimates, which may account for similar experimental findings. Different stability criteria are compared, and an attempt is made to provide some guidance in the interpretation of response curves from actual tests.


Author(s):  
Anna Lyhne Jensen ◽  
Henrik Sørensen ◽  
Jakob Hærvig

Abstract Interaction between the wakes of two cylinders in side-by-side configuration creates interesting flow phenomena. The nature of the wake depends on the Reynolds number and the transverse pitch distance between the cylinders. The flow over two side-by-side cylinders of equal diameter is simulated in 3D at Reynolds number 5000 using Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The centre-to-centre transverse pitch ratio is varied and the flow behind the cylinders is classified into either a bi-stable flow regime with biased gap flow or a regime with parallel vortex streets. Furthermore, representative instantaneous flow fields, Strouhal number and the time varying drag coefficient C′D are presented.


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