Theoretical studies of internal flow-induced instabilities of cantilever pipes

Abstract

A theoretical analysis is made of the stability of a circular cross-section cantilever pipe containing an incompressible, inviscid fluid flowing uniformly and steadily in the axial direction. Beam and shell mode instabilities are examined. The study is based on the idea of obtaining a simple approximation for the fluid pressure and determining the importance of the downstream fluid behaviour. Results indicate that a pressure approximation (of the travelling wave type) can be made and that a reduction in the necessary numerical work can be achieved, with some small loss of accuracy, by making approximations to the in-plane inertia terms in the pipe equations.