New Experimental Data and Analysis for Two-Phase Flow-Induced Vibration of Tube Bundles: Preliminary Results
In the past, fluid-elastic instability in two-phase flow has been largely investigated with air-water flow. In this work, new experiments are conducted in air-water cross-flow with a fully flexible 5 × 3 normal square array having pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.4. The tubes have a diameter of 0.016 m and a length of 0.21 m. The vibrations are measured using strain gages installed on piano wires used to suspend the tubes. Experiments are carried out for void fractions from 0%–30%. A comparison of the results of the current tests with previous experiments conducted in air-water cross-flow shows that instability occurs earlier in a fully flexible array as compared to a flexible tube surrounded by rigid tubes in an array. An attempt is made to separate out the effects of structural parameters of three different experimental datasets by replotting the instability criterion by incorporating the instability constant K, in the reduced velocity parameter.