Tube vibration in industrial size test heat exchanger

Technical Report · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5377380· OSTI ID:5377380

Halle, H.; Wambsganss, M. W.

Tube vibration data from tests of a specially built and instrumented, industrial-type, shell-and-tube heat exchanger are reported. The heat exchanger is nominally 0.6 m (2 ft) in dia and 3.7 m (12 ft) long. Both full tube and no-tubes-in-window bundles were tested for inlet/outlet nozzles of different sizes and with the tubes supported by seven, equally-spaced, single-segmental baffles. Prior to water flow testing, natural frequencies and damping of representative tubes were measured in air and water. Flow testing was accomplished by increasing the flow rates in stepwise fashion and also by sweeping through a selected range of flow rates. The primary variables measured and reported are tube accelerations and/or displacements and pressure drop through the bundle. Tests of the full tube bundle configuration revealed tube rattling to occur at intermediate flow rates, and fluidelastic instability, with resultant tube impacting, to occur when the flow rate exceeded a threshold level; principally, the four-span tubes were involved in the regions immediately adjacent to the baffle cut. For the range of flow rates tested, fluidelastic instability was not achieved in the no-tubes-in-window bundle; in this configuration the tubes are supported by all seven baffles and are, therefore, stiffer.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 5377380
• Report Number(s): ANL-CT-80-18
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420200* -- Engineering-- Facilities
Equipment
& Techniques
DAMPING
DATA
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLOW RATE
FLUID FLOW
HEAT EXCHANGERS
INFORMATION
MATERIALS TESTING
MECHANICAL TESTS
MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS
NUMERICAL DATA
TESTING
TUBES