• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.17 no.6 s.123
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• pp.498-506
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• 2007

Using wind tunnel, experimental approaches were employed to investigate fluidelastic instability of tube bundles, subjected to uniform cross flow. There are several flow-induced vibration excitation mechanisms, such as fluidelastic instability, periodic wake shedding resonance, turbulence-induced excitation and acoustic resonance, which could cause excessive vibration in shell-and tube heat exchanges. Fluidelastic is the most important vibration excitation mechanism for heat exchanger tube bundles subjected to cross flow. The system comprised of cantilevered flexible cylinder(s) and rigid cylinders of normal square array, In order to see the characteristics of flow in tube bundles, particle image velocimetry was used. From a practical design point of view, Fluidelastic instability may be expressed simply in terms of dimensionless flow velocity and dimensionless mass-damping. The threshold flow velocity for dynamic instability of cylinder rows is evaluated and the data for design guideline is proposed for the tube bundles of normal square array.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.8
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• pp.2026-2033
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• 2019

Fluidelastic instability of a tube array is a key factor of the security of a nuclear power plant. An unsteady model of the fluidelastic instability of a tube array subjected to two-phase flow was developed to analyze the fluidelastic instability of tube bundles in two-phase flow. Based on this model, a computational program was written to calculate the eigenvalue and the critical velocity of the fluidelastic instability. The unsteady model and the program were verified by comparing with the experimental results reported previously. The influences of void fraction and the tube's material properties on the critical velocity were investigated. Numerical results showed that, with increasing the void fraction of the two-phase flow, the tube array becomes more stable. The results indicate that the critical velocities of the tube array made of stainless are much higher than those of the other two tube arrays within void fraction ranging from 20% to 80%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.364-373
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• 2004

This study investigates the fluidelastic instability characteristics of helical steam generator type tubes used in operating nuclear power plants. To obtain a natural frequency, corresponding mode shape, and participation factor, modal analyses using various conditions are performed for helical type tubes. Investigated are the effects of the number of turns, the number of supports, and the status of the inner fluid on the modal and fluidelastic instability characteristics of the tubes, which are expressed in terms of the natural frequency, the corresponding mode shape, and the stability ratio.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.1118-1124
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• 2023

Experimental study on the fluidelastic instability (FEI) of a curved tube bundle in single phase downward cross flow is investigated for the design qualification and analysis input preparation of helical coiled steam generator tubing. A 6×9 normal square curved tube array with equal and different vertical/horizontal pitch-to-diameter ratio was under-tested up to 6 m/s in term of gap flow velocity to measure the critical velocity for FEI. The critical velocity for FEI was measured at the turning point from the vibration amplitude plot along the gap flow velocity. Our test results were compared with straight tube results and published data in the design guideline. The applicability of the current design guidelines to a curved tube bundle is also assessed. We found that introducing frequency difference in a curved tube array increases the critical velocity for fluidelastic instability.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.310-316
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• 2019

Fluidelastic instability is a key issue in steam generator tube bundles subjected in cross-flow. With a low flow velocity, a large amplitude vibration of the tube observed by many researchers. However, the mechanism of this vibration is seldom analyzed. In this paper, the mechanism of cross-flow effects on fluidelastic instability of tube bundles was investigated. Analysis reveals that when the system reaches the critical state, there would be two forms, with two critical velocities, and thus two expressions for the critical velocities were obtained. Fluidelastic instability experiment and numerical analysis were conducted to obtain the critical velocity. And, if system damping is small, with increases of the flow velocity, the stability behavior of tube array changes. At a certain flow velocity, the stability of tube array reaches the first critical state, a dynamic bifurcation occurs. The tube array returns to a stable state with continues to increase the flow velocity. At another certain flow velocity, the stability of tube array reaches the second critical state, another dynamic bifurcation occurs. However, if system damping is big, there is only one critical state with increases the flow velocity. Compared the results of experiments to numerical analysis, it shows a good agreement.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.157-169
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• 2016

The structural integrity of tube bundles represents a major concern when dealing with high risk industries, such as nuclear steam generators, where the rupture of a tube or tubes will lead to the undesired mixing of the primary and secondary fluids. Flow-induced vibration is one of the major concerns that could compromise the structural integrity. The vibration is caused by fluid flow excitation. While there are several excitation mechanisms that could contribute to these vibrations, fluidelastic instability is generally regarded as the most severe. When this mechanism prevails, it could cause serious damage to tube arrays in a very short period of time. The tubes are therefore stiffened by means of supports to avoid these vibrations. To accommodate the thermal expansion of the tube, as well as to facilitate the installation of these tube bundles, clearances are allowed between the tubes and their supports. Progressive tube wear and chemical cleaning gradually increases the clearances between the tubes and their supports, which can lead to more frequent and severe tube/support impact and rubbing. These increased impacts can lead to tube damage due to fatigue and/or wear at the support locations. This paper presents simulations of a loosely supported multi-span U-bend tube subjected to turbulence and fluidelastic instability forces. The mathematical model for the loosely-supported tubes and the fluidelastic instability model is presented. The model is then utilized to simulate the nonlinear response of a U-bend tube with flat bar supports subjected to cross-flow. The effect of the support clearance as well as the support offset are investigated. Special attention is given to the tube/support interaction parameters that affect wear, such as impact and normal work rate.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.1650-1657
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• 2019

Fluidelastic instability and nonlinear dynamics of tube bundles is a key issue in a steam generator. Especially, once the post-instability motion of the tube becomes larger than the clearance gap to other tubes, effective contact or impact between the tubes under consideration and the other tube inevitable. There is seldom theoretical analysis to the nonlinear dynamic characteristics of a tube array in two-phase flow. In this paper, experimental and numerical studies were utilized to obtain the critical velocity of the flow-induced instability of a rotated triangular tube array. The calculation results agreed well with the experimental data. To explore the post-instability dynamics of the tube array system, a Runge-Kutta scheme was used to solve the nonlinear governing equations of tube motion. The numerical results indicated that, when the flow pitch velocity is larger than the critical velocity, the tube array system is undergoing a limit cycle motion, and the dynamic characteristics of the tube array are almost similar for different void fractions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.174-180
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• 2004

Failure of tube bundles due to excessive flow-induced vibrations continues to affect the performance of nuclear power plant Early experimental studies concentrated on rigid structures and later investigators dealt with elastic structures because of their importance in many engineering fields. On the other hand, much less numerical work has been carried out, because of the numerical complexity associated with the problem. Conventional approaches usually decoupled the flow solution from the structural problem. The present numerical study proposes the methodology in analyzing the fluidelastic instability occurring in tube bundles by coupling the Computational fluid Dynamics (C%) with the tube equation of motions. The motion of the structures is modeled by a spring-damper-mass system that allows transnational motion in two directions (a two-degree-of-freedom system). The fluid motion and the cylinder response are solved in an iterative way, so that the interaction between the fluid and the structure can be accounted for property. The aim of the present work is to predict the fluidelstic instability of tube bundles and the associated phenomena, such as the response of the cylinder, the unsteady lift and drag on the cylinder, the vortex shedding frequency.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.109-118
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• 2023

In this paper, the evaluation method of fluidelastic instability (FEI) of newly designed steam generator tubing in pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plants is discussed. To obtain the parameters for prediction of the critical velocity of FEI for steam generator tubes, experimental research is carried out, and the design parameters are determined. Using CFD numerical simulation, the tube array scale of the model experiment is determined, and the experimental device is designed. In this paper, 7 groups of experiments with void fractions of 0% (water), 10%, 20%, 50%, 75%, 85% and 95% were carried out. The critical damping ration, fundamental frequency and critical velocity of FEI of tubes in flowing water were measured. Through calculation, the total mass and instability constant of the immersed tube are obtained. The critical damping ration measured in the experiment mainly included two-phase damping and viscous damping, which changed with the change in void fraction from 1.56% to 4.34%. This value can be used in the steam generator design described in this paper and is conservative. By introducing the multiplier of frequency and square root of total mass per unit length, it is found that the difference between the experimental results and the calculated results is less than 1%, which proves the rationality and feasibility of the calculation method of frequency and total mass per unit length in engineering design. Through calculation, the instability constant is greater than 4 when the void fraction is less than 75%, less than 4 when the void fraction exceeds 75% and only 3.04 when the void fraction is 95%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.400-408
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• 2003

This paper investigates the vibration characteristics of steam generator (SG) U-tubes with defect. The operating SG shell-side flow field conditions for determining the fluidelastic instability parameters such as added mass are obtained from three-dimensional SG flow calculation. Modal analyses are performed for the U-tubes either with axial or circumferential flaw with different sizes. Special emphases are on the effects of flaw orientation and size on the modal and instability characteristics of tubes, which are expressed in terms of the natural frequency, corresponding mode shape and stability ratio. Also, addressed is the effect of the internal pressure on the vibration characteristics of the tube.