Study on fluidelastic instability of a tube array subjected to two-phase cross-flow

Abstract

The fluidelastic instability of a tube array subjected to two-phase cross-flow was investigated by both experimental and theoretical analyses in this paper. Firstly, two series of experiments were designed and carried out to generate the damping and fluidelastic instability data. The experimental measurements of damping ratio, natural frequency of the test tube and the critical velocity of a tube array subjected to two-phase cross-flow were conducted over a homogeneous void fraction range from 0% to 90%. Secondly, a mathematical model of a tube array with unsteady fluid force model was set up, and a computational program to calculate the critical velocity for the fluidelastic instability was written. The effects of void fraction were quantitatively investigated using computer simulation. The results of the theoretical analysis were in good agreement with the experimental data.