The Orbital Movement and the Damping of the Fluidelastic Vibration of Tube Banks Due to Vortex Formation: Part 3—Damping Capability of the Tube Bank Against Vortex-Excited Sonic Vibration in the Fluid Column

Abstract

The damping criterion previously proposed by Chen 1964/1968 is evaluated with respect to a series of existing units using various fuels. The critical value of this criterion, which was given by Chen as 600 for the ideal case with uniform velocity distribution, has been found to be about 2000 for the tube bank heat exchangers in boiler units. The reason for this difference appears to lie in the degree of uniformity of the velocity distribution over the streaming section. Since the velocity distribution in the boiler units cannot be uniform at all, the vortex streets formed in the tube bank will disturb each other. A large damping will thus arise. The damping criterion can thus be employed to design a sonic vibration-free tube bank through proper consideration of tube spacings, Reynolds number, and Strouhal number.