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    Fluid-Elastic Instability of In-Line Tube Arrays in Cross-Flow

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    Matt

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    Fluid-elastic instability of in-line tube arrays in cross-flow A. Lowdon and N. Tonks Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK ‘T. S. Wilkinson, Mathematical Services Department, NEI Parsons Ltd., Newcastle upon Lyne, UK Indirect contact heat exchangers usually contain arrays of closely spaced parallel, circular, flexible tubes. Under certain conditions the fluid cross-flow causes the tubes to vibrate, producing noise problems and tube damage due to tube collisions, wear at the supports, or fatigue, A mathematical ‘model is developed for an in-line tube array, using the unsteady fluid force coefficients due to Tanaka and Takahara, in which it is assumed that the fluid forces acting om a tube arise only from its own ‘motion and that of ies four nearest neighbors. An iterative solution algorithm, which differs from that of Tanaka and Takahara, is presented to predict the velocity for the onset of whirling vibrations ogether with the corresponding frequency and mode shape for various array sizes. Tw0 extensions ‘of the model are considered. In the first the effect of the diagonally positioned tubes is incorporated; in the second the fist row is madeiled by using unsteady fluid farce caefficients for a single raw. It is found that for practical array sizes, both modifications have negligible effect on the velocity for the onset of whirling vibrations Keywords: heat exchanger, fluid brations. cross-flow. tube arrays Introduction As heat exchanger design has become more sophisti- cated in terms of size, temperature, and variety of fluids used, there has been a significant increase in the number of equipment failures due to flow-induced vi- brations. Failures can be very expensive, since they ‘may result in the closing down of costly process plant and power-generating stations, Indirect contact heat exchangers usnally contain ar- rays of closely spaced, flexible, circular tubes with a fluid flowing at right angles to the length of the tubes. Under certain conditions the transverse fluid flow causes the tubes to vibrate, producing noise problems and tube damage due to collisions, wear at the supports, or fatigue. The designer's difficulty is due to the in: adequacy of design data on the ranges of flaw velocity to be avoided. The designer can only attempt to avoid tube damage by using a large number of supports to ‘Address reprint requests to Dr. Lowdon a the Department of Math- ‘matics andl Computing, British Gas Enginecring Research Station, Killingworth. Newcastle upon Tyne, NE99 11H, UK. Received 1 June 1989: accepted 23 March 1990 518 Appl. Math. Modelling, 1990, Vol. 14, October stic instability, unsteady fluid dynamic forces, flow induced vi- increase the natural frequencies of the tubes or by adding constraints during a period of commissioning. Darmaged Lubes are plugged with wooden rods, but a ‘more tubes are lost, there comes a time when the ef- ficiency is so low that the whole plant must be closed down while the heat exchanger is repaired The five mechanisms that are thought to be respon- sible for flow-induced vibrations are turbulent buffet- ing, vortex shedding, acoustic resonance, jet switch- ing, and fluid-etastic instability. These mechanisms have been reviewed in the literature by numerous authors including Pettigrew,’ Paidoussis,? and Weaver and Fitzpatrick.’ It is generally recognized that fluid-elastic instability is the mechanism with the greatest potential for damage to heat exchanger tube banks. This was highlighted in a review paper by Paidoussist in which 32 practical cases ot {low-induced vibration problems in heat exchangers and nuclear reactors were reported OF the 33 cases that were attributed to cross flow in duced vibrations, fluid-elastic instability was certainly, or very likely. involved in ten and possibly in a further six. When a tube in a tube array, in a cross-flow, is displaced from its equilibrium position, a fluid force, ‘due to the asymmetry of the flow field, may be exerted ‘on the tube. If the ratio of fluid force to tube support (© 1999 Ratterworth- Heinemann damping is sufficiently large, the tube will vibrate with a large-amplitude whirling motion. The whirling vibra tion develops quite abruptly when the cross-flow ve- locity exceeds a critical value and occurs at the tube natural frequency. arly work on the fluid-elastic instability of a tube Tow in cross-flow was carried out by Connors? in which ic fuid-elastic displacement mechanism was iden- tified and evaluated. A stability criterion for predicting the onset of large-amplitude whirling vibrations was derived hy using quasi-steady fhuid dynamic force coef. ficients and was verified by dynamic stability tests on flexibly mounted tubes. Drawing upon Connors’s arguments, Blevins® recast the observations in terms of a coupled vibration of an infinite tube row. He assumed that the displacements of alternate tubes were 180° out of phase. This model did not give any information about the frequency of oscillation. Tonks er al.’-" extended the Blevins model for an infinite tube row to yield the frequency of whirling oscillations and incorporate a more general phase re- lationship between adjacent tubes. Lhe model was then applied, without the imposed phase relationship. to finite tube rows bounded by fixed tubes. The model was developed further and applied to symmetrically spaced, staggered finite and infinite tuhe arrays. Sta- bility criteria for predicting the onset of large-ampli- tude whirling vibrations and the corresponding fre- quencies were obtained for each system, together with the corresponding mode shapes. The above work was based upon quasi-steady fluid dynamic force coefficients obtained for a single tube row and assumed to be independent of the cross-flow velocity of the fluid. The stability criteria derived by using such coefficients are not always consistent with the experimental data that are available for tube arrays, Consequently, Tanaka and Takahara! developed an alternative model that 1s based upon unsteady fluid dynamic force coefficients that are assumed to be func- tions of the tube geometry and the cross-flow velocity of the fluid. In all of the models. the assumption is made that the forces acting on any tube arise only from its own ‘motion and that of its immediately adjacent neighbors, In the case of in-line tube arrays, the contribution from tubes occupying positions diagonally upward and downward iy assumed to be negligible Tanaka and Takahara''-"* carried out an expei mental program to measure the unsteady fluid dynamic force coefficients for both single-row and multirow in-line tube arrays. They produced graphs of the am- plitude and phase of each of the different force coef- ficients versus reduced velocity. Using these coeffi cients, mathematical models were devised for both single-row and multirow tube arrays.'"-!® These were then solved to yield the minimum velocity for the onset of whirling instability together with the associated mode shapes In this paper the mathematical model for an in-line tube array is developed by using the unsteady fluid Fluid-elastic instability of tube arrays: A. Lowdon et al. Figure 1. Indine tube array force coefficients of Tanaka and Takahara." As the coefficients depend upon flow velocity, an iterative ‘Scheme must De used to solve the equations of the system. A solution algorithm is devised for solving the array model that differs from that used by Tanaka ct al." Various tube array sizes are investigated, and the mode shapes. frequencies. and critical velocities are obtained for each. The array model assumes the effect of the tubes diagonally upward and downward to be negligible (Figure 1). The model is extended to incorporate the effect of these diagonal tubes, and a quantitative estimate of their importance is obtained, Finally, owing to the high activity that is observed in the inlet region of a tube bank," the array model is altered to allow the first row to be modelled by using single-row coefficients. In both cases the results ob- tained are compared with those for the standard five- tube model. Unsteady fluid dynamic forces Chen" considered the unsteady fluid dynamic force acting on a cylinder to consist of an inertia force due to the added mass of the fluid surrounding the tube, along with fluid damping and stiffness forces in phase with cylinder velocity and displacement, respectively. A typical component of force acting on a tube in the xvdirection due to the motion of a neighboring tube p in the x-direction was derived by Chen'® as Fup = 1p? w where p is the fluid density, D is the tube diameter, V 4s the cross-tlow gap velocity (Figure 1), and Cry, Cros and Cj, are inertia, damping, and stiffness force coef. ficients, respectively. If the displacement of tube p is eft Cupp + PDVC ppp + IDV "Cink p ap = Rel Appl. Math. Modelling, 1990, Vol. 14, October 519 Fluid-elastic instability of tube arrays: A. Lowdon et al. where f is the tube natural frequency, then Fao $0¥* [Cin ~ Con + iCop=" |p 2) where a v DT B) Equation (2) can be written Fy, = eV2CO)r,, where C(v) is a complex function of the nondimen- sional reduced velocity defined by equation (3). CC) is one of the unsteady fluid dynamic force coefficients obtained experimentally by Tanaka and Takahara."! The coefficients are presented in the form of graphs of, absolute value and phase against reduced velocity. As yet, no theoretical models exist for determining unsteady fluid dynamic force coefficients as a function of array geumetty and cross-flow velocity. Model tests must be carried out over a wide range of cross-flow velocities for a fixed tube spacing. Any variation of geometry necessitates a new set of experiments, Equations of motion of the tubes Itis assumed that the forces acting on a cylinder arise only from its own motion and that of its four nearest neighbors. For a square, in-line array with pitch-to- diameter ratio y = 1.33 as used by Tanaka and Takahara (Figure 1), the tubes positioned obliquely upward and downward from tube O (A, B,C, E in Figure 1) are almost three times farther away than the nearest neighbors L, R, U, D. The above assumption would therefore seem to be justified. This model will be referred to as the standard model. By taking x and y perpendicular and parallel to the tree stream, respectively, and adopting the notation of Tanaka et al, the fluid dynamic forces per unit length of cylinder are B= pV (0,L,R,UD OL RUDI F, = IpV*HLx(0, LR, UD), O,L,R, UD) whete O, L, R, U, Dave ay defined in Figure 1. The functions g and fr are nonlinear. However, for small oscillations about the equilibrium position it is possible to perform a linear analysis. Retaining only linear terms in the Taylor series expansions of the functions gives F= keV? S Curnxe + Cony) “ ) B= 5 02S Comer + Conny where p= 1.2, 3,4, $ refer to 0, 1, R, U, D. re- spectively, and Cxpx, Cxprs Crpy, Crpy are the un- steady fluid dynamic force coefficients. The first, sec- ‘ond, and third subscripts indicate the direction of the force, the position of the vibrating cylinder and the 520 Appl, Math. Modelling, 1990, Vol. 14, October direction of the cylinder vibration, respectively. For example, Cycy is associated with the force in the x direction induced by the left-hand cylinder vibrating in the y-direction. Imposing the flow field symmetries as outlined in Tanaka and Takahara’ gives, for a gen- eral tube O, Feo = $0V7B, and Fy, = bpV "Be ©) where Bi = Croxto + Create + Xe) + Cruxty + Cxpan + Caryn ~ Ye) 7) and = Crovyo + Crue ~ tx) + Croryu + Crono + Cruse + yn) 8) For an isotropic tube O the equations of motion due to Fy, and Fy, are 0 {Fo + 2erio + w"yo) = IpV’ (10) where m iy the mass per unit lemgtl of the tube, £ is the coefficient of viscous damping, and wis the circular natural frequency of the tube. Assuming a solution of the form (io + Barto + oxo) = seV"B, 40 ~ Foe" ay Yo= Foe" «2 where A is complex, equations (9)-(12) yield Liq = pVBy/2m aa LYo = pV*B:/2m (14) where L = 4° + 2¢od + o? and B, and Bs represent ‘By and B2 with the tube displacements replaced by theit amplitudes. Equations (13) and (14) represent the mo- tion of a general tube O. Applying these to each tube of the array in turn generates the equations of the sys- tem. It is assumed that the array is bounded by fixed tubes in line with, and with the same spacing as, those in the array. Stability analysis Applying equations (13) and (14) to a particular tube array results in the eigenproblem (C-Ala=0 «sy where i is the column matrix of the amplitudes of the tube displacements and the elements of the complex coefficient matrix C are functions of the reduced ve- locity ». The eigenvalues of the matrix C are obtained in the form a + ib, so A = 2ImLipV? = a + ib a6) Letting A =u + io requires u < 0 for stable oscil- lations. If a < 0, the system damping dissipates all of the energy imparted by the impinging flow. As the cross-Hlow velocity 1s increased, the dissipation is re- duced until 4. becomes positive, corresponding to the onset of large-amplitude whirling vibrations. At the transition from stable to unstable oscillations, 4 ~ 0, A = ig, and the motion is purely oscillatory. This is, known as neutral stability: «7 is the neutral circular frequency of oscillation. Equating real and imaginary parts in equation (16) gives a7) Fh Oime) =h ag) Equations (17) and (18) yield (2) -2e¢(2) -1=0 0 Solving as a quadratic in (wie) yields 2B liga ye CAB yea + By 20) Equations (3), (18), and (20), along with w = 2a, yield the reduced velocity equation. = atom) * 1 ” G + Ga? +b ep where Q is the mass damping parameter 2nmdipD*. Since a and b are functions of », an iterative method is used to solve equation (21) to give the value of at neutral stability. Further manipulation of equations (3) and (17) leads to an expression for the frequency ratio (the ratio of, neutral frequency to tube natural frequency) in the age? 7 =(-5)" The mode shape at neutral stability is obtained from the corresponding eigenvector U. The displacement 1 associated with the element i of the eigenvector is given by = 22) y= mer 3) The complex eigenvector is expressed in exponential form so that i ey where 6, is the phase angle in the appropriate quadrant of the complex plane and r; is the modulus normalized so that the largest value is unity. Thus ty = netron 25) and taking the real part gives ty = ecos(or + 6) 26) The x- and y-components of the tube displacement are given by yy) = (5608 (ot + Oy ty. 60S (OT + Bsn) en where N is the number of tubes in the array and j = Lee. Fluid-elastic instability of tube arrays: A. Lowdan et al Iterative scheme An outline of the iterative scheme is given in Figure 2. The fluid force coefficient graphs of Tanaka and Takahara" are discretized, and cubic spline tits are obtained to fit the data points for the reduced velocity range 1-100, The reduced velocity is put equal to 1, and the cubic splines are evaluated to give the fluid force coefficients, which are used to construct the com- plex coefficient matrix. The eigenvalues and eigen vectors of the matrix are obtained, but from equation (18), only eigenvalues with positive imaginary parts are INPUT 0, 1 WO. OF ROWS) AND NO. OF" COLINAS FIT CUBIC SPLINES To THE FLUID FORCE STTPULATE & REDUCED) VELOCITY + EVALUATE CUBIC SPLINES ESTABLISH THE COMPLEX COEFFICIENT MATRIX” ‘COMPUTE THE EIGENVALUES AND EIGENVECTORS OF © INeREWENT TEST EACH EIGENVALUE, ITH POSITIVE IMAGINARY VELOCITY EQUATION (21) 100 ANY OF THE EIGENVALUES REPRODUCE THE INPUT VALUE OF + 2 vs ISOLATE THE. EIGENVECTOR CORRESPONDING| To EACH CHOSEN EIGENVALUE (AND OUTPUT THE RELEVANT DATA Figure 2. Flowchart of the iterative solution technique Appl. Math. Modelling, 1990, Vol. 14, Octuber 521 Fluid-elastic instability of tube arrays: A. Lowdon et al. retained. Each of these eigenvalues in turn is substi- tuted into equation (21), with Q ~ 20.8 and Z ~ 0.0016" to see whether the current value of reduced velocity is reproduced. If none of the eigenvalues reproduces, the current value, the reduced velocity is increased, the cubic splines are evaluated, and the process is re~ peated. When an eigenvalue 1s found that reproduces the reduced velocity, the iteration is terminated. The current value of the reduced velocity vq is the mini mum value at which the whirling instability occurs, The eigenvalue yields the corresponding frequency ra- tio, and the eigenvector yields the associated mode shape. If the iteration process is continued for values ot the reduced velocity greater than v,, further whirling instabilities can be identified. COYw CEO Figure 3. 2 by 3 tube array poOoyC eee ae o pe fo ee < ¢ « | 8 eae | Hoo 4 +o a) comer ° ° oy 1 o eo | +o et | ot 0 | Figure 4. Complex coefficient matrix fora 2 by 3 array 522 Appl. Math. Modelling, 1990, Vol. 14, October Results and discussion ‘The model can be applied to any m row by n column (m by n) in-line tube array. Figure 3 illustrates the square 2 by 3 tube array with pitch to-diameter ratio of 1.33, and Figure 4, with C, D, and E replaced by 0, gives the complex coefficient matrix. Table | illustrates the characteristics for a range of small arrays. It shows that the introduction of more tubes destabilizes the system and that the tubes vibrate at their natural frequency as reported by Tonks.’ Fig- ure 5 shows the mode shapes for the 4 by 4 and 5 by 5 cases. The amplitude of vibration increases slightly from the first row to the second row and then decreases, with distance into the array, as observed in practice.” Alternate rows are approximately 180° out of phase as reported by Tanaka et al."'6 Table 1. Characteristics for various array size (standard model) Aaya _o ” 5 2by2 057 074 —«25672—1.001 Zbys —-oats = ogt2 saa) 1.001 5ey2 Toluca bee tt Soya -oaes Oana baar2 «1.001 Soya bes haa dues too) bya “oes ate? tom ‘bya “606 © O85 2a0Ks 1.001 Sbys 0573103022589 —1.001 C= a auvt Gy cdeontain® > = at Gusist0-Gq,yoos?8)e0s"8 = a6 Gq ysinre Sg gcontoron'9 Fa Guy 6 Cus 4 unditurbed tube centre 085 276 of « cycle @ Fluid-elastic instability of tube arrays: A. Lowdon et al. = |} DS] SS oa R = ! = @ Figure Normalized made shapes for finite tube arrays (standard madel) Extensions to the model Diagonal tube effects In the standard model it is assumed that the forces produced by the motion of the diagonally positioned tubes (A, B, C, E in Figure 1) are negligible in com- parison with those generated by tubes 0, L, R, U, D. ‘This is a basic assumption in the mathematical model and should therefore be investigated. In this section the standard atray model is modified to include dhese tubes and so obtain an estimate of their importance. The diagonal rows EOB and COA in Figure 1 are modelled separately as two single rows through which fluid is flowing with gap velocity gV cos 8, where # is as illustrated in Figure 6. From the continuity of flow through the tube array the nondimensional velocity parameter q is given by a= Diy For the square, in-line array of Figure 1 the pitch-to- diameter ratio y = 1.33, @ = 45°, and rows EOB and COA have pitch-to-diameter ratio $ = 1.88. Figure 6 illustrates the local coordinate system (X, ¥) adopted for the tubes in row BOB. Figure 6, Local and global coordinate system for row E08 Appl. Math. Modelling, 1990, Vol. 14, Outuber 523 Fluid-elastic instability of tube arrays: A. Lowdon et al. ‘The transformations X|_[eos@ sina] x y|~ [sine cose|ly Fy [ cos sind [B] r,]>[-sino coso]l ry for row EOB, with 0 replaced by ~ 6 for row COA, allow the local coordinates (X, ¥) to be expressed in terms of the global coordinates (x, y) and also allow the local forces to be resolved in the global directions, (28) F 2, = 1pV2[q(cos @sin Ose + xe ‘The fluid forces produced by the motion of the diagonal tubes are added to those of the standard model, ‘AS the unsteady fluid force coefficients for a tube row with a pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.88 are unavail able from the literature, they are replaced by the quas steady coefficients given by Blevins! Eur- 42 er = 3] § ‘The fluid forces per unit length on tube O are given by Xa ~ Xa) + COs*O(y4 + Ye — Ya — Yay + y'(cos* O sin One + Ae — X4 — Xn) + sin? OCOS? Oye + Yeo — Ya — yeNEex + Bil G0) Fi, = 1pV?[q?(cos? 6 sin O(y4 + Yn — Yo~ ye) + Sin? BCOS? Oxy + xe + Gcos* Asin Hy4 + Ya — Ye — Ye) + COS* ly + Xe — Xe where B, and By are given by equations (7) and (8). The stability analysis and solution algorithm are the same as for the standard model with the additional fluid forces incorporated in the complex coefficient matrix. ‘The matrix for the 2 by 3 array is given in Fégure 4 Results and discussion Table 2 contains the characteristics for the range of| array sizes investigated using the standard model. In four cases the inclusion of the diagonal tubes reduces the value of y,, and in the utler Four cayes it increases the value. However, the largest change is only 0.073% of the value for the standard model. The changes in the associated frequency ratios and mode shapes are Table 2. Characteristics for various array sizes (diagonal medal) Array size a o om @ 2by2 “0572 0795 5672 1.001 bys

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