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The purpose of this paper is to present investigations on the significant influence of the tube material and fin density on fluid elastic instability and vortex shedding in a parallel triangular finned tube array subjected to water cross flow.

The experiment was conducted on finned tube arrays with a fin height of 6 mm and fin density of 3 fins per inch (fpi) and 9 fpi. A dedicated setup has been developed to examine fluid elastic instability and vortex shedding. Nine parallel triangular tube arrays with a pitch to tube diameter ratio of 1.78 were considered. The plain tube arrays, coarse finned tube arrays and fine finned tube arrays each of steel, copper and aluminium materials were tested. Plain tube arrays were tested to compare the results of the finned tube arrays having an effective tube diameter same as that of the plain tube.

A significant effect of fin density and tube material with a variable mass damping parameter was observed on the instability threshold. In the parallel triangular finned tube array subjected to water cross flow, a delay in the instability threshold was observed with an increase in fin density. For steel and aluminium tube arrays, the natural frequency is 9.77 Hz and 10.38 Hz, which is close to each other, whereas natural frequency of the copper tubes is 7.40 Hz. The Connors’ stability constant K for steel and aluminium tube arrays is 4.78 and 4.87, respectively, whereas it is 5.76 for copper tube arrays, which increases considerably compared to aluminum and steel tube arrays. The existence of vortex shedding is confirmed by comparing experimental results with Owen’s hypothesis and the Strouhal number and Reynolds number relationship.

This paper’s results contribute to understand the effect of tube materials and fin density on fluid elastic instability threshold of finned tube arrays subjected to water cross flow.

This paper aims to analyze the effect of fin geometry on mechanisms of flow induced vibration. Finned tube arrays are used in a heat exchanger to increase its efficiency. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the effect of geometric parameters of the fin fluid elastic instability and vortex shedding. In this paper, the effect of fin height, fin density and tube pitch ratio for parallel triangular tube array on fluid elastic instability and vortex shedding is analyzed.

Experimental analysis was carried out on a parallel triangular finned tube array with a pitch ratio of 1.79 subjected to water crossflow. The experimentation aims to study fluid elastic instability and vortex-induced vibration mechanism responsible for flow induced vibration for finned tube array. A fully flexible finned tube array of the copper tube was used with its base diameter of 19.05 mm and thickness of 2 mm. Over the tube surface, crimped fins of height 6 mm and the same material are welded spirally with fin density 8.47 mm and 2.82 mm. Experimental analysis was carried out on a test setup developed for the same. The results obtained for the finned tube array were compared with those for the plain tube array with the same base tube diameter.

For parallel triangular tube array of copper material, test results show that critical velocity increases with an increase in fin pitch density for low pitch tube array. Before the occurrence of instability, the rate of growth in tube vibrations is high for plain tubes compared to that with fin tubes. The results based on Owen’s hypothesis show vortex shedding before the occurrence of fluid elastic instability. The effect of fin geometry on vortex-induced forces is analyzed. For the tube array pattern understudy, the values of Conner’s constant K for coarse fin-tube and fine fin tube array are obtained, respectively, 6.14 and 7.25.

This paper fulfills the need for research on the effect of fin geometry on fluid elastic instability and Vortex shedding on a tube array subjected to water cross flow when the pitch ratio is less than two, i.e. with a low pitch ratio.