Research on fluid elastic vibration of cylinder arrays by computational fluid dynamics (Analysis of two cylinders and a cylinder row)

Abstract

Fluid elastic vibration of tube bundles is one of the most important factors that must be considered in the design of heat exchangers. Since this phenomenon is caused by the interaction between flow and structure, and is hence very complex and sensitive in nature, the design criteria established through many experiments, based on envelopes of the scattered data, have been the only reliable tools for the designers. The authors have developed an accurate CFD technique to solve this moving boundary problem. The fluid elastic vibration problems of two cylinders and a cylinder row are simulated using the CFD technique. The characteristic phenomena of vortex shedding, coupled with two-cylinder motion and fluid elastic instability of a cylinder row are successfully simulated.