An experimental study of fluidelastic instability and draf force on a tube in two-phase cross flow

Abstract

Two-phase cross flow over heat exchanger tubes creates vibrations which contribute greatly to the wear on the tubes. Fluidelastic instability is a major mechanism by which tubes can fail. In this work, the fluidelastic instability of a tube placed in an array subjected to two-phase cross flow has been studied. For the determination of fluidelastic instability, a triangular tube array was used. The tubes were made of acrylic and were 2.2 cm or 2.37 cm in diameter and 20 cm in length. Eighteen tubes and 4 half tubes formed 5 rows with a pitch to diameter ratio of 1.4. All of the tubes except the test tube were rigidly supported at the text section wall. The test tube was flexibly supported with two cantilever beams. By installing cantilever beams horizontally and vertically, drag and lift direction tube vibration were studied. Parameters of tube mass, structural stiffness, natural frequency, and pitch to diameter ratio were varied. The drag coefficients on a rigidly held tube in an array subjected to two-phase cross flow were measured. The tube in an array was located at displaced positions as well as at the normal position in order to study the variation of fluid force as the tube vibrates. In the experiments, gap Reynolds numbers up to 1 x 10{sup 5} were obtained, while void fraction was varied from zero to 0.5. The drag coefficients in two-phase flow are much higher than those in single phase flow. The ratio of two-phase to single phase drag coefficient decreases as Reynolds number increases. The drag coefficient on a tube in an array increases as the tube is displaced in the direction of flow. The drag coefficient increases rapidly when the tube is displaced more than a certain critical distance.