Eigenvalue analysis on fluidelastic instability of a rotated triangular tube array considering the effects of two-phase flow

Abstract

Fluidelastic instability is a key issue in steam generator tube arrays subjected in two-phase flow. Lots of experimental analyses were conducted on fluidelastic instability of a tube array subjected to air-water cross-flow. However, there is seldom theoretical analysis to calculate the critical velocity. Therefore, considering the effect of two-phase flow, the fluidelastic instability of a rotated triangular tube array was studied in this paper. A mathematical model of a tube array with unsteady fluid force model was set up. A program based on the model was written, and an experiment was carried out to verify the correctness of the program. The results of this program were in good agreement with the experimental data. Using this program, the critical velocity of fluid-elastic instability considering the effect of two-phase flow was determined by the eigenvalue analysis. This paper investigated the critical velocities of fluid-elastic instability for void fraction ranging from 0% to 90% with five tube natural frequencies, respectively. The results show that void fraction and tube natural frequency are the key factors in fluidelastic instability, which have an obvious effect on the critical velocity of fluidelastic instability.