Mechanism analysis on fluidelastic instability of tube bundles in considering of cross-flow effects

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. Keywords: Fluid-elastic instability, Tube bundle, Cross-flow, Critical velocit