A Numerical Investigation of the Fluidelastic Coupling for a Cell of Flexible Tubes in a Square-in-Line Bundle Subject to Water Cross-Flow

Abstract

The unsteady flow motions and the force distribution in a normal square tube array subject to cross-flow induced vibrations are investigated by means of large-eddy simulations. The flow configuration and the operating conditions are taken from the experiments of Gosse et al. (PVP Conference, 2001). The set-up is made of 63 (9 rows and 7 columns) straight tube bundle. The tubes are arranged in a square in line pattern, and a cell of 9 flexible tubes, located in the middle of the bundle, may translate in the drag and lift directions. The LES of cross-flow induced vibrations of a cell of 9 flexible tubes in a normal square tube array is performed. A fully-coupled fluid-structure calculation is hence achieved using Code_Saturne, an open source CFD tool. Turbulence modeling is achieved using the large-eddy simulation framework based on the so-called classical Smagorinsky model. The tube dynamics is modeled by simple mass-spring-damper systems, and the motions of the fluid domain is accounted for by a moving mesh technique (Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation). The consistency of the calculations is demonstrated by comparing the numerical data to the experiments of Gosse et al. (PVP Conference, 2001) in terms of tube amplitude and flow-induced force spectra, for various gap velocities. Investigation of the spectra of the flow-induced forces then shows that the tube motions ignite the emergence of flow phenomena at constant Strouhal numbers. The fluid-structure interactions are also responsible for the existence of a series of tones at rather constant frequencies, corresponding to the vibrational modes of the flexible cell.