Modeling of fluid-induced vibrations and identification of hydrodynamic forces on flow control valves

Dynamics and vibration of control valves under flow-induced vibration are analyzed. Hydrodynamic load characteristics and structural response under flow-induced vibration are mainly influenced by inertia, damping, elastic, geometric characteristics and hydraulic parameters. The purpose of this work is to investigate the dynamic behavior of control valves in the response to self-excited fluid flow. An analytical and numerical method is developed to simulate the dynamic and vibrational behavior of sliding dam valves, in response to flow excitation. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed model, the simulation results are validated with experimental ones. Finally, to achieve the optimal valve geometry, numerical results for various shapes of valves are compared. Rounded valve with the least amount of flow turbulence obtains lower fluctuations and vibration amplitude compared with the flat and steep valves. Simulation results demonstrate that with the optimal design requirements of valves, vibration amplitude can be reduced by an average to 30%.

Effect of Mass Ratio on Hydrodynamic Response of a Flexible Cylinder

The effect of the mass ratio on the flow-induced vibration （FIV） of a flexible circular cylinder is experimentally investigated in a towing tank. A Tygon tube with outer and inner diameters of 7.9 mm and 4.8 mm, respectively, was employed for the study. The tube was connected to a carriage and towed from rest to a steady speed up to 1.6 m/s before slowing down to rest again over a distance of 1.6 m in still water. Reynolds number based on the cylinder＇s outer diameter was 800-13,000, and the reduced velocity （velocity normalized by the cylinder＇s natural frequency and outer diameter） spanned from 2 to 25. When connected, the cylinder was elongated from 420 mm to 460 mm under an axial pre-tension of 11 N. Based on the cylinder＇s elongated length, the aspect ratio （ratio of the cylinder＇s length to outer diameter） was calculated as 58. Three mass ratios （ratio of the cylinder＇s structural mass to displaced fluid mass, m＊） of 0.7, 1.0, and 3.4 were determined by filling the cylinder＇s interior with air, water, and alloy powder （nickel-chromium-boron matrix alloy）, respectively. An optical method was adopted for response measurements. Multi-frequency vibrations were observed in both in-line （IL） and cross-flow （CF） responses; at high Reynolds number, vibration modes up to the 3rd one were identified in the CF response. The mode transition was found to occur at a lower reduced velocity for the highest tested mass ratio. The vibration amplitude and frequency were quantified and expressed with respect to the reduced velocity. A significant reduced vibration amplitude was found in the IL response with increasing mass ratios, and only initial and upper branches existed in the IL and CF response amplitudes. The normalized response frequencies were revealed to linearly increase with respect to the reduced velocity, and slopes for linear relations were found to be identical for the three cases tested.