A Preliminary Study of Flow and Acoustic Phenomena in Tube Banks

Abstract

Experiments have been performed in a low turbulence wind tunnel to investigate the effect of tube pitch to diameter ratios, depth of bank, and Reynolds number on the parameters associated with resonant acoustic vibration in in-line tube banks. Results indicate that the depth of a bank is a significant factor in acoustic response characteristics and both the vortex shedding hypothesis and the turbulent buffeting hypothesis are shown to be inadequate for certain configurations. A combination of both hypotheses together with energy levels in the turbulence spectrum is suggested, although no definitive proof is offered.