Experimental and theoretical study on fluidelastic instability of tube bundles subjected to cross-flow in the parallel direction

Abstract

Fluidelastic instability is an important security issue for the steam generator tube bundles subjected to cross-flow. Lots of studies have been conducted on the fluidelastic instability of the tube bundles in the transverse direction. Recently, the streamwise fluidelastic instability of the tube bundles in cross-flow has been observed in some experimental studies. However, the mechanism of the fluidelastic instability in the parallel is not clear. Thus, in this paper, experimental and theoretical studies were performed to investigate the fluidelastic instability of a rotated triangular tube array subjected to cross-flow in the parallel direction. The influences of the boundary constraint condition and the void fraction of two-phase flow on the threshold of the streamwise fluidelastic instability of the tube bundles were discussed.