Fluid-Elastic Instability in Tube Bundles and Effect of Flow Regime Transition

Author(s):  
In-Cheol Chu ◽  
Heung June Chung ◽  
Young Jung Yun

Fluid-elastic instability characteristics in an air-water two-phase cross-flow have been experimentally investigated using two different arrangements of cantilevered straight tube bundles. Rotated triangular array tube bundle is for the supplementary test of the existing work, and normal square array tube bundle is for the investigation of fluid-elastic instability in higher p/d condition. The present paper provides the experimental results of the tube vibration response, hydrodynamic mass, damping ratio, and fluid-elastic instability. As the two-phase gap velocity increased, the fluidic-elastic instability occurred in the lift direction and a strongly coupled tube motion was found. The damping ratio was very dependent on the void fraction, as in the previous works. For a low void fraction flow, the fluid-elastic instability could be predicted by using Connors’ equation. However, the fluid-elastic instability in a high void fraction flow was quite different. The transition between the two fluid-elastic instability regions almost coincided with the flow regime transition criteria from a continuous bubbly flow to an intermittent flow.

Author(s):  
Joaquin E. Moran ◽  
David S. Weaver

An experimental study was conducted to investigate damping and fluidelastic instability in tube arrays subjected to two-phase cross-flow. The purpose of this research was to improve our understanding of these phenomena and how they are affected by void fraction and flow regime. The working fluid used was Freon 11, which better models steam-water than air-water mixtures in terms of vapour-liquid mass ratio as well as permitting phase changes due to pressure fluctuations. The damping measurements were obtained by “plucking” the monitored tube from outside the test section using electromagnets. An exponential function was fitted to the tube decay trace, producing consistent damping measurements and minimizing the effect of frequency shifting due to fluid added mass fluctuations. The void fraction was measured using a gamma densitometer, introducing an improvement over the Homogeneous Equilibrium Model (HEM) in terms of density and velocity predictions. It was found that the Capillary number, when combined with the two-phase damping ratio (interfacial damping), shows a well defined behaviour depending on the flow regime. This observation can be used to develop a better methodology to normalize damping results. The fluidelastic results agree with previously presented data when analyzed using the HEM and the half-power bandwidth method. The interfacial velocity is suggested for fluidelastic studies due to its capability for collapsing the fluidelastic data. The interfacial damping was introduced as a tool to include the effects of flow regime into the stability maps.


Author(s):  
Joaquin E. Moran ◽  
David S. Weaver

An experimental study was conducted to investigate two-phase damping in tube arrays. The objective was to compare different measurement methodologies in order to obtain a more reliable damping estimate. This will allow for improved guidelines related to failures due to fluidelastic instability in tube bundles. The methods compared were the traditionally used half-power bandwidth, the logarithmic decrement and an exponential fitting to the tube decay response. The working fluid used was Refrigerant 11 (Freon), which better models the real steam-water problem, as it allows for phase change. The void fraction was measured using a gamma densitometer, introducing an improvement over the traditional Homogeneous Equilibrium Model (HEM) in terms of velocity and density predictions. The results obtained by using the half-power bandwidth method agree with data previously reported for two-phase flow. The experiments showed that the half-power bandwidth produces higher damping values than the other two, but only up to a certain void fraction. After that point, the results obtained from the three methods are very similar. The exponential fitting proved to be more consistent than the logarithmic decrement, and it is not as sensitive as the half-power bandwidth to the frequency shifting caused by the change in added mass around the tube. By plotting the damping ratio as a function of void fraction, pitch mass flux and flow regime, we were able to verify that damping is more dependent on void fraction and flow regime than on mass flux.


2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego N. Venturi ◽  
Waldir P. Martignoni ◽  
Dirceu Noriler ◽  
Henry F. Meier

Two-phase flows across tube bundles are very commonly found in industrial heat exchange equipment such as shell and tube heat exchangers. However, recent studies published in the literature are generally performed on devices where the flow crosses the tube bundle in only a vertical or horizontal direction, lacking geometrical fidelity with industrial models, and the majority of them use air and water as the working fluids. Also, currently, experimental approaches and simulations are based on very simplified models. This paper reports the simulation of a laboratory full-scale tube bundle with a combination of vertical and horizontal flows and with two different baffle configurations. Also, it presents a similarity analysis to evaluate the influence of changing the fluids to hydrogen and diesel in the operational conditions of the hydrotreating. The volume of fluid (VOF) approach is used as the interface phenomena are very important. The air/water simulations show good agreement with classical correlations and are able to show the stratified behavior of the flow in the horizontal regions and the intermittent flow in the vertical regions. Also, the two baffle configurations are compared in terms of volume fraction and streamlines. When dealing with hydrogen/diesel flow using correlations and maps made for air/water, superficial velocity is recommended as similarity variable when a better prediction of the pressure drop is needed, and the modified superficial velocity is recommended for prediction of the volume-average void fraction and the outlet superficial void fraction.


Author(s):  
Muhao Zhang ◽  
Liang-ming PAN ◽  
Peng Ju ◽  
Mamoru Ishii

In order to investigate the structure parameters evolution characteristics during flow regime transition process in slug flow, the vertical upward slug flow experiment in a wide range of liquid superficial velocity (0.03 < jl < 1.6 m/s) were conducted in a tubular test section with the inside diameter of 25.4 mm. Impedance void meters were employed to measure the void fraction of separated two parts corresponding to Taylor bubble and liquid slug. The present research studied the evolution of length ratio and void fraction in slug unit by keeping the liquid superficial velocity constant while increasing gas flow rate. New structure of slug unit in strong relation with transition process was observed. In specific, it was realized that the proportion of such special structure unit played an important role in transition from slug flow to churn-turbulent flow. The existing transition criteria from slug flow to churn-turbulent flow in upward two-phase flow (entrance effects model, flooding model, wake effects model, bubble coalescence model and Helmholtz instability model) were compared with the experimental identified results obtained by a new objective flow regime identification method, ReliefF-FCM algorithm. The results indicate that the transition model based on the wake effects could be the most appropriate choice to describe the mechanism of transition from slug flow to churn-turbulent flow in present experimental conditions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Enrique Julia ◽  
Basar Ozar ◽  
Abhinav Dixit ◽  
Jae-Jun Jeong ◽  
Takashi Hibiki ◽  
...  

This study has investigated the axial development of flow regime of adiabatic upward air-water two-phase flow in a vertical annulus. The inner and outer diameters of the annulus are 19.1 mm and 38.1 mm, respectively. The hydraulic diameter of the flow channel, DH, is 19.0 mm and the total length is 4.37 m. The flow regime map includes 72 flow conditions within a range of 0.01 m/s<⟨jg⟩<30 m/s and 0.2 m/s<⟨jf⟩<3.5 m/s, where ⟨jg⟩ and ⟨jf⟩ are, respectively, superficial gas and liquid velocities. The flow regime has been classified into four categories: bubbly, cap-slug, churn, and annular flows. In order to study the axial development of flow regime, area-averaged void fraction measurements have been performed using impedance void meters at three axial positions corresponding to z/DH=52, 149, and 230 simultaneously, where z represents the axial position. The flow regime indicator has been chosen to be statistical parameters from the probability distribution function of the area-averaged void fraction signals from the impedance meters, and self-organized neural networks have been used as the mapping system. This information has been used to analyze the axial development of flow regime as well as to check the predictions given by the existing flow regime transition models. The axial development of flow regime is quantified using the superficial gas velocity and void fraction values where the flow regime transition takes place. The predictions of the models are compared for each flow regime transition. In the current test conditions, the axial development of flow regime occurs in the bubbly to cap-slug (low superficial liquid velocities) and cap-slug to churn (high superficial liquid velocities) flow regime transition zones.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 544-544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang Young Son ◽  
Jeffrey S. Allen ◽  
Kenneth O. Kihm

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
In-Cheol Chu ◽  
Heung June Chung ◽  
Chang Hee Lee

Fluid-elastic instability characteristics of a U-tube bundle were experimentally investigated in air-water two-phase flow. A total of 39 U-tubes were arranged in a rotated square array with a pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.633. Vibration responses of four U-tubes were measured with three-axis accelerometers. Two sets of experiments were performed to investigate the onset of fluid-elastic instability, and the damping and hydrodynamic mass of the U-tube. The experiments were performed for a void fraction of 70–95%. Fluid-elastic instability was clearly observed in an out-of-plane mode vibration. The effect of a primary side flow on the vibration of U-tube was investigated separately. The damping ratio of the present U-tube was higher than the damping ratio of the cantilever tubes in the literature. The hydrodynamic mass of the U-tube was generally in accordance with the hydrodynamic mass of the cantilever tubes in the literature. The instability constant (K) of the Connors equation was assessed with a simplified effective gap velocity, and the fluid-elastic instability constant was 8.5.


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