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

Abstract

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.