• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 2006

Fluid-elastic instability in an air-water two-phase cross-flow has been experimentally investigated using two different arrays of straight tube bundles: normal square (NS) array and rotated square (RS) array tube bundles with the same pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.633. Experiments have been performed over wide ranges of mass flux and void fraction. The quantitative tube vibration displacement was measured using a pair of strain gages and the detailed orbit of the tube motion was analyzed from high-speed video recordings. The present study provides the flow pattern, detailed tube vibration response, damping ratio, hydrodynamic mass, and the fluid-elastic instability for each tube bundle. Tube vibration characteristics of the RS array tube bundle in the two-phase flow condition were quite different from those of the NS array tube bundle with respect to the vortex shedding induced vibration and the shape of the oval orbit of the tube motion at the fluid-elastic instability as well as the fluid-elastic instability constant.

• 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%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.124-132
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• 2009

Experiments have been performed to investigate fluid-elastic instability of tube bundles, subjected to twophase cross flow. Fluid-elastic is the most important vibration excitation mechanism for heat exchanger tube bundles subjected to the cross flow. The test section consists of cantilevered flexible cylinder(s) and rigid cylinders of normal square array. From a practical design point of view, fluid-elastic instability may be expressed simply in terms of dimensionless flow velocity and dimensionless mass-damping parameter. For dynamic instability of cylinder rows, added mass, damping and the threshold flow velocity are evaluated. The Fluid-elastic instability coefficient is calculated and then compared to existing results given for tube bundles in normal square array.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.1948-1966
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• 1991

Two-phase cross-flow exists in many shell-tube heat exchangers such as condensers, reboilers and nuclear steam generators. To avoid problems due to excessive vibration, information on vibration excitation in two-phase cross-flow is required. Fluid-elastic instability is discussed in this paper. Four tube bundle configurations were subjected to increasing flow up to the onset of fluid-elastic instability. The tests were done on bundles with one flexible tube surrounded by rigid tubes. The fluid-elastic instability behavior is different for intermittent flows than for bubbly flows. For bubbly flows, the observed instabilities satisfy the relationship V/fd=K(2.pi..zeta. m/rho. $d^{21}$)$^{0.51}$ in which the minimum instability factor K was found to be 2.3 for bundles of p/d=1.22. The lowest critical velocities for fluid-elastic instability were experienced with parallel-triangular tube bundles. For intermittent flow, the observed instabilities did not follow the forgoing relation-ship. Significantly lower flow velocities were required for instability..

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.841-848
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• 2009

A simple model to analyze non-linear density-wave instability in a sodium-cooled helically coiled steam generator is developed. The model is formulated with three regions with moving boundaries. The homogeneous equilibrium flow model is used for the two-phase region and the shell-side energy conservation is also considered for the heat flux variation in each region. The proposed model is applied to the analysis of two-phase instability in a JAEA (Japan Atomic Energy Agency) 50MWt No.2 steam generator. The steady state results show that the proposed model accurately predicts the six cases of operating temperatures on the primary and secondary sides. The sizes of three regions, the secondary side pressure drop according to the flow rate, and the temperature variation in the vertical direction are also predicted well. The temporal variations of the inlet flow rate according to the throttling coefficient, the boiling and superheating boundaries and the pressure drop in the two-phase and superheating regions are obtained from the unsteady analysis.

• 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.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.1019-1028
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• 2002

The instability of two-phase loop thermosyphons was investigated experimentally and analytically. Three orifice type inserts were used to study the effect of change in the pressure drop in the flow channel of the TLT on the flow instability and temperature fluctuation. It is observed that a decrease in the size of the orifice insert from 3.7 mm (no insert) to 0.71 mm drastically reduced the fluctuation of the temperature, especially at the evaporator section of the TLT. With the orifice type insert of 0.71 mm for the TLT, the overall temperature fluctuation was almost completely eliminated, especially at higher power input to the TLT The analysis based on the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability theory seems to predict reasonable well the loop stability state of the TLT with experimentally determined constant factors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.463-468
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• 1997

This paper presents a theoretical approach of the instability criterion from stratified to nonstratified flow in horizontal pipe at cocurrent flow conditions. The new theoretical instability criterion for the stratified and nonstratified flow transition in horizontal pipe has been developed by hyperbolic equations in two-phase flow, Critical flow condition criterion and onset of slugging at cocurrent flow condition correspond to zero and imaginary characteristics which occur when the hyperbolicity of a stratified two-phase flow is broken, respectively. Through comparison between results predicted by the present theory and the Kukita et al.[1] experimental data of pipes, it is shown that they are in good agreement with data.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.408-414
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• 2002

The instability of two-phase loop thermosyphons (TLTs) was investigated experimentally. Three orifice type inserts were used to study the effect of change in the pressure drop in the flow channel of the TLT on the flow instability and temperature fluctuation. It is observed that a decrease in the size of the orifice insert from 3.7mm (no insert) to 0.71mm drastically reduced the fluctuation of the temperature, especially at the evaporator section of the TLT With the orifice type insert of 0.71 mm for the TLT, the overall temperature fluctuation was almost completely eliminated, especially at higher power input to the TLT.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.682-687
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• 2004

Y-junction microchannels are widely used as a flew mixer. Fluids are entered from two branch channels and merged together at a combined channel. In this study, we suggest a simple method to create the fluid digitization using flow instability phenomena. Two immiscible liquids (water/oil) are infused continuously to each Y-junction inlets. Because of the differences in fluid and flow properties at the interface, oil droplet is formed automatically followed by flow instability. In order to clarify the hydrodynamic aspects involved in oil droplet formation, a quantitative flow visualization study has performed. Highly resolved velocity vector fields are obtained by a micro-PIV technique, so that detail flow structures around the droplet are illustrated. In this study, fluorescent particles were mixed with water only for visualization of oil droplet and velocity field measurement in water flow.