Steam Generator Tube Vibrations: Experimental Determination Versus ALE Computation of Fluidelastic Forces

In heat exchanger tube bundles like in many others industrial applications, fluid structure interaction is a crucial problem to overcome. Flow-induced tube vibration in tube bundles is due to two main kinds of physical effects: (1) fluid-elastic forces caused by structure motion; (2) turbulent forces due to vortex generation at high Reynolds numbers. The second component, turbulent excitation, is independent on structure motion and may generate wear and fatigue damage while the first component may lead to fluid-elastic instability inducing high amplitude displacement and possible tube short term failure. In this context many studies are carried out in order to develop methods for the identification of critical flow velocity in tube arrays. In the present work two methods are presented: (1) the first one relies on experimental measurements, it is fitted with analytical modeling and provides fluid-elastic coefficients; (2) the second one relies on numerical simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics Codes (CFD) involving moving boundary techniques; it provides fluid force estimates and in some cases it makes it possible to simulate tube vibrations. The first part is devoted to experimental determination of fluid-elastic forces. A numerical method for prediction of fluid-elastic effects in fluid at rest is presented in the second section. Results of both methods are compared in the third part.