02638762/02/$10.00+0.

00 # Institution of Chemical Engineers Trans IChemE, Vol 80, Part A, April 2002

FLOW-INDUCED VIBRATION IN HEAT EXCHANGERS

H. G. D. GOYDER
Cran eld University at RMCS, Shrivenham, Swindon, UK.

eat exchanger tube bundles may fail due to excessive vibration or noise. The main failure mechanisms are generated by the shellside uid that passes around and between the tubes. This uid may be a liquid, gas or multi-phase mixture. The most severe vibration mechanism is a uidelastic instability, which may cause tube damage after only a few hours of operation. Clearly, such extreme causes of vibration must always be avoided. In contrast buffeting due to ow-turbulence causes very little vibration. However, after many years of service such remorseless low level vibration will produce tube wall thinning, due to fretting, which may be unacceptable in a high-integrity heat exchanger. Consequently, the issues of life cycle and integrity must frequently be included in heat exchanger speci cation. This paper reviews the various mechanisms that cause vibration and noise. Particular attention is given to methods for achieving good tube support arrangements that minimize vibration damage. References to the most recent sources of data are given and good working practice for the design and operation of standard and high-integrity heat exchangers is discussed. Keywords: heat exchangers; vibration; noise; uidelastic; ow-induced vibration; tubes.

INTRODUCTION In principle, heat exchangers are simple engineering devices with no moving components. However, anyone who works with heat exchangers will agree that for a successful design all the skills of almost every engineering discipline are required. The aim of this paper is to provide the process engineer with a review of the mechanical engineering issues associated with ow-induced vibration and noise in heat exchanger tube bundles. This should enable the process engineer to feel forewarned and prepared when tackling a vibration issue. Heat exchangers are not mass-produced to a few xed con gurations. They are individually designed and crafted for a speci c process-plant duty. This is an exception to most modern engineering where mass-production and testing provides an opportunity to eliminate problems observed in prototypes. If a mistake is made in a heat exchanger design then the exchanger may fail (possibly dramatically) and a replacement exchanger must be supplied with an improved design. It can be seen that the consequences of failure are signi cant. A particular complicating issue with ow-induced vibration in tube bundles is that past experience of design and operation is not necessarily a guide for future performance. Small changes in ow rates, or mechanical design, can lead to conditions that result in the dramatic failure of a unit. This suggests that designers and operators need a good understanding of the engineering issues associated with ow-induced vibration. This paper aims to provide that understanding. The paper is divided into three parts. The rst part reviews the various mechanisms causing tube vibration 226

while the second part considers the practical issues arising from the mechanical design of the tube support system. The third part of the paper presents solutions, problem issues, and good working practice. The literature on ow-induced vibration in tube bundles is extensive. The ASME1 symposium in 1997 is a good starting point together with the books by Blevins2 and Blake3 . MECHANISMS CAUSING VIBRATION The following list of ow-induced vibration mechanisms is used by the author as a checklist when investigating the mechanical integrity of a heat exchanger. The list is organized in decreasing order of importance: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) uidelastic instability; vortex shedding; multi-phase buffeting; acoustic resonance; turbulence buffeting; hydraulic transients; environmental excitation; transmitted mechanical vibration.

The mechanisms of uidelastic instability, vortex shedding, buffeting (single and multi-phase) and acoustic resonance, all arise because of the variety of forces that act on a tube due to the shell-side cross ow. These mechanisms will be dealt with rst. The remaining mechanisms will be considered later in the paper. Figure 1 shows an example of three mechanisms (buffeting, vortex shedding and uidelastic instability) which

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Figure 1. Tube vibrational response to increasing ow velocity.

induce vibration on a laboratory tube bundle. The large amplitudes of vibration due to vortex shedding and uidelastic instability should be noted. In this study4, the uid was water and the tubes were simple cantilevers. The behaviour shown in this gure will be discussed subsequently. Figure 2 shows the typical con guration of a tube in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger. The shell-side ow is made to zigzag over the tubes with the ow direction approximately perpendicular to the tube axis. The ow is directed by baf es, which also provide a method for supporting the tubes. The tubes in the windows are often the most vulnerable tubes because they have fewer supports than the tubes in the interior of the bundle but have the full cross ow velocity. One of the main issues when assessing a tube bundle is to take data from experiments of the type shown in Figure 1, which is a single span tube bundle, and use this data for realistic tube bundles (see Figure 2), which have many spans and a variety of ow velocities. The ow inside the tubes does not cause vibration and only adds mass to the tube. It is the cross- ow outside the

tubes that gives rise to the various vibration phenomena. The ow outside the tubes is complex and it is perhaps worth noting that the forces acting on the tubes due to this crossow can give rise to every known form of ow-induced vibration. The shell side ow passes across and between the tubes in a heat exchanger leaving a low velocity, stagnant, region as a wake behind each tube. The wake is a low pressure region relative to the upstream side of the tube. The wake is not a static region but oscillates in two distinct manners. It is these two different types of oscillations that lead to the main causes of ow-induced vibration, namely uidelastic instability and vortex shedding. Fluidelastic Instability This is the most severe form of ow-induced vibration. The forces on the tube are generated by the wake moving in response to the tube displacement. As the tube moves the ow redistributes and the force on the tube associated with the redistribution enhances the tube motion. This is an example of positive feedback.

Figure 2. A heat exchanger tube bundle showing some window and interior tubes.

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GOYDER

Referring to Figure 1 it may be seen that for small ow velocities there is relatively little vibration compared to the signi cant vibration that starts at a ow velocity of about 0.21 m s1 . The ow rate of 0.21 m s1 marks a de nite threshold and beyond this threshold the uidelastic mechanism is acting. This threshold is often called the critical ow velocity, and the relationship between this critical ow velocity and the uid and tube properties is of key importance in predicting the onset of instability in tube bundles. Figure 3 shows a typical plot that gives the threshold velocity for the onset of uidelastic instability in single span tube bundles. The two axes are nondimensional properties of the uid and the tubes. The vertical axis is a nondimensional ow velocity U =f D where U is the gap velocity, f the tube natural frequency and D the tube diameter. The property plotted on the horizontal axis, 2pzm=rD2 , is a mixture of damping and mass ratios. Here m is the tube mass per unit length, z is the mechanical damping ratio (see below) and r the uid density. This plot is for a rotated triangular tube layout. Similar plots for other tube layouts may be found in Weaver and Fitzpatrick4 . These plots are based on compilations of experimental data, such as that shown in Figure 1, from which critical ow velocities have been extracted and nondimensionalized. The plot in Figure 3 is divided into a stable and unstable region. Increasing the ow velocity corresponds to moving vertically up a straight line. When the threshold line is crossed vibration is predicted. Examination of the parameters on this chart show that the designer has very little room for manoeuvre. In order to avoid vibration, without changing the tube diameter, uid properties, and ow rate, the only option is to increase the tube natural frequency, f , or to increase the damping ratio, z. Methods for managing both these tube properties are given later in the paper. The horizontal axis in Figure 3 may be divided into two ranges. Small values of the nondimensional mass-damping parameter usually correspond to liquids while large values correspond to gases. Multi-phase ows are in-between. The horizontal form of the threshold line for small massdamping values shows that damping is not important for liquids. In contrast, for gas or multi-phase ows the damp-

Here, z is the actual damping ratio for the tube and x is the distance along the tube which is of total length L. Most of the key parameters are allowed to vary along the length of the tube in order to model the varying ow conditions at different points in the heat exchanger, thus the density, r(x), the gap ow velocity, U (x), the tube energy, f2 (x), and a lift coef cient, C (x), are all functions of location x. The values of the lift coef cient, C (x), are deduced from single span tube bundles and results of compilations of data such as those presented in Figure 3. An example of the function f(x) is shown in Figure 4. The use of this assessment equation will be discussed further later in the paper. The general approach is to calculate the terms on the right hand side and then check to see if the inequality is satis ed. It can be seen that a computer-based method is usually necessary to undertake this calculation. In particular, it is not easy to determine the energy distribution, f2 (x), from hand calculations. Hand calculations are usually restricted to cases where the variables are not functions of the location within the heat exchanger. The most dif cult case to estimate, even with experience, is where there is a small ow velocity on a span with a large

ing is the main parameter controlling the threshold velocity for uidelastic instability. The plot in Figure 3 is suitable for single span tubes with a uniform cross ow velocity. The extension of this plot to heat exchangers with a range of ow velocities and a range of span lengths is an important part of the heat exchanger assessment methodology. The method is given in Goyder5 and involves integrating the uid force acting on a tube over the whole length of the heat exchanger. The integration includes the effect of tube supports by using a weighting based on the vibration energy at each location along the tube. The result of the integration is a value for the damping ratio needed to maintain stability. The following assessment equation emerges: L U (x) 2 D2 z> r(x)C (x)f2 (x)dx (1) 16p2 0 fD

Figure 3. Fluidelastic stability chart for a rotated triangular geometry.

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Figure 4. A typical mode shape for a heat exchanger tube.

f2 (x) and a large ow velocity on a span with a small f2 (x). A computer calculation in this case is essential. Vortex Shedding All wakes behind all tubes oscillate. The oscillation frequency of a wake is proportional to the ow velocity and gives rise to an oscillatory force on the tube. The oscillatory force is in the direction perpendicular to both the ow and the axis of the tube. The wake oscillation is associated with the shedding of vorticity from the stagnant region in the wake behind a tube. This vorticity is shed alternately from one side of the tube and then the other, thus, giving the oscillatory effect. When the wake oscillation frequency equals a tube natural frequency then resonance may occur and large amplitude tube vibration, perpendicular to the ow direction, is possible. A tube resonance induced by vortex shedding in a liquid can be seen in Figure 1 at ow rates of about 0.11 m s1 . The coincidence between tube natural frequency and the frequency of vortex shedding does not have to be exact6 . If the vortex shedding frequency is close to the natural frequency, then the tube motion that is generated will cause the vortex shedding frequency to change to the natural frequency, and the wake oscillation to correlate with the tube motion. This effect is called lock-in or lock-on. The conditions for lock-on are usually estimated from: 0:8f < f < 1:2f with f = St
U D (2; 3)

should now be regarded as highly suspect in the light of the detailed modern studies. The amplitude of vibration due to vortex shedding is dif cult to predict. The maximum amplitude is typically one tube diameter, but this value is not usually reached because the tube is not excited with the same ow velocity along its whole length, and because damping can act against large amplitudes. Vortex induced tube vibration can often not be avoided in gases, however, damping in gas ows is generally suf cient to prevent large amplitudes of vibration. Vortex induced vibration is, thus, of most concern in liquid ows or for gas ows where tubes have very small damping. Acoustic Resonance The cause of the very loud noise sometimes produced by heat exchangers with gas on the shellside is an acoustic resonance set up by the oscillation of the wakes behind tubes. The mechanism is very similar to that described in the last section, but, in this case, it is not the tube that is made to vibrate but the gas in the shell. The gas in the shell has acoustic resonance frequencies that depend on the speed of sound and the shell geometry. A lock-in effect occurs between the acoustic natural frequency and the wake oscillation frequency. This lock-in effect, as in the case of tube vibration, causes the wake oscillation frequency to change to the acoustic natural frequency and the wake oscillations to be correlated everywhere with the acoustic particle velocities. The whole system is thus subject to an acoustic feedback, which is the cause of the often-surprising intensity of the noise. An acoustic resonance may be suppressed by inserting acoustic baf es into the shell. These baf es change the acoustic natural frequency and mode shape thus preventing lock-in. Such baf es are dif cult to t after the construction of the heat exchanger and may interfere with the shellside ow. It is therefore important to determine if an acoustic resonance could present a problem at the design stage. Investigations into compromises with baf e geometry and shellside ow may be found in Goyder11.

where f is the tube natural frequency and f is the frequency of vortex shedding. The frequency of vortex shedding is given by the second equation in which St is the Strouhal number. Values for Strouhal numbers for a range of pitch and patterns may be found in Weaver7 et al., Ploak and Weaver8 , Ziada and Oengoren9 , and Ziada and Oengoren10 . These recent papers constitute a signi cant advance. Previous data collections were often very complex and Trans IChemE, Vol 80, Part A, April 2002

230 Buffeting

GOYDER are being assessed for uidelastic instability. The damping of a tube is a measure of its ability to absorb energy. Damping is usually expressed in terms of a nondimensional damping ratio. A value much less than one is normal; the smaller the value, the less energy absorbed in each cycle. (If the damping ratio is greater than 1.0 the damping is so large that a tube will not oscillate but just decay exponentially if disturbed.) Experiments have been undertaken on heat exchanger tubes5 to determine their damping ratio. Figure 5 shows the results of these experiments presented as a statistical distribution. It can be seen that there is a peak at about z = 0:015 and that there is a nite probability of a very small damping value. The existence of small values of damping that occur by chance is problematic. Some tubes in a heat exchanger have a probability of small damping, and thus, have a probability of suffering from uidelastic vibration. The clearance between a tube and a baf e has two important in uences. Firstly, the natural frequencies may be modi ed because the tube vibration is less constrained and secondly, the interactions between a tube and a baf e provide friction sites that dominate the tube damping. The vibration of a tube with loose supports is very complex and has not yet been fully understood. It is usual to assume that the vibration is a perturbation from the case where there is either no clearance or alternatively a very large clearance. If a tube passes through a baf e without making contact it will have a natural frequency that is much smaller than if there were no clearance (the natural frequency is inversely proportional to span length squared so a double span decreases the frequency by a factor of 4). The small natural frequency may make the tube vulnerable to uidelastic instability. The tube will thus vibrate, and consequently, its vibration amplitude will grow. The growth in amplitude will cause the tube to strike the baf e through which it passes. The impact of the tube against the baf e will cause the natural frequency to increase and may add damping. Thus, the tube vibration will be limited to an amplitude similar to the tube-to-baf e clearance. The point to note is that this vibration will continue throughout the life of the heat exchanger. If the forces generated by this persistent vibration are large then the wear may be considerable. An alternative to being loose is for the tube to be pressed against a support due to tube lack-of-straightness or baf e

All heat exchanger tubes are in constant motion due to random buffeting. Although the vibration amplitudes are small, often only a fraction of the tube wall thickness, the random vibration is remorseless and goes on throughout the life of the heat exchanger. Some wear is therefore inevitable. If all other vibration mechanisms are avoided this cause of vibration will eventually produce tube damage. Buffeting comes in two forms; single phase buffeting and multiphase buffeting. In single phase buffeting the random excitation of the tubes is due to turbulence. In a multi-phase ow the buffeting is due to the changing density of the uid impacting on the tube. Wear due to buffeting, particularly in multi-phase systems, is of considerable importance if the tube bundle will be in service for many years. Buffeting in multi-phase ows has been considered by Pettigrew et al.12 and Axisa et al.13 . OTHER DAMAGE MECHANISMS It is sometimes necessary to determine the in uence of a water hammer in a heat exchanger. A possible cause of a water hammer could be the rupturing of a tube containing high pressure gas. If this occurs, a rapidly growing gas bubble forms in the heat exchanger and sets up water hammer waves in the shellside liquid. If this type of incident is possible it is usual to include a pressure relief system in the shell side circuit. The assessment problem is to determine if the shell will rupture before the pressure relief system can vent the high pressure in the shell. This problem is described in an Institute of Petroleum14 publication. A heat exchanger may be damaged by vibration due to sources outside the vessel. For example the wind may act on a large shell and cause vibration due to vortex shedding. Alternatively, vibrating pipework or machinery may transmit mechanical vibration. If the frequency of transmitted vibration is equal to a tube natural frequency then resonance may occur and tubes can be damaged. TUBE NATURAL FREQUENCY AND DAMPING Heat exchanger tubes are supported by the tube sheet and the baf es. When the tubes vibrate the amplitude of vibration is unlimited in the span between baf es, but at the baf es it is constrained to the tube hole clearance. The loose nature of the tube support at baf es adds an important complication to tube vibration analysis. These complications will be considered in more detail below. As a rst approximation it is often assumed that the tube-to-baf e clearance is zero so that the tube can rock like a seesaw but the point at the baf e does not otherwise move. A typical shape taken up by a vibrating tube is shown in Figure 4. In this case the tube has seven spans and eight supports, shown as triangles. The supports at the ends are tube sheets while the interior supports are provided by baf es with zero clearance. This shape is called a mode shape and one mode shape is associated with each natural frequency of vibration. The function f2 (x) in equation (1) is the mode shape function squared. A tube has a sequence of natural frequencies with the lowest being the one that is usually involved in vibration. The damping of a heat exchanger tube is of primary importance when the shellside uid is a gas and the tubes

Figure 5. Experimental values for the damping ratio of heat exchanger tubes.

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FLOW-INDUCED VIBRATION IN HEAT EXCHANGERS misalignment. In this case, the support may be effective and the tube may not vibrate. In practice, this is probably a desirable con guration because the small sliding motions at the baf es generate friction forces that contribute to the damping. Some wear will, however, be inevitable.

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These support plates may have to contain windows, to allow the ow to enter the bundle. If a high integrity heat exchanger is required then a more detailed study must be undertaken in addition to the uidelastic calculation shown above. The detailed study should investigate the following issues: (1) The possibility of double span behaviour due to loose supports. This can be investigated by seeing if the tubes will suffer from uidelastic instability if any baf e is removed. If this is possible then extra baf es will be required. In very high integrity, work treble span behaviour should be investigated. (2) The magnitude of the forces acting at effective supports should be compared. It may emerge that some supports are more important than others and that when there is a small level of vibration most of the vibration is resisted by one support. This con guration would result in wear being concentrated at one location. A more favourable con guration would be for the forces at supports to be approximately equal so that wear progresses evenly at all support locations. (3) Arrangements can be made to ensure that the tubes are pressed against the supports. This can be achieved by deliberately misaligning baf es or by using bent tubes. In particular the tubes should not be perfectly straight. Similarly, the tube-to-baf e clearances can be reduced. The probability of tubes being loose has been estimated by Goyder15. (4) Baf e thickness and tube wall thickness can be made large. During sliding and impacting the volume of material removed per unit time tends to remain constant. However, if the surfaces are thick the depth wear rate will be proportionally small. Also, if the tube is thick then it has a reserve of material for wear before damage is signi cant. A simple wear method is proposed by Yetsir et al.16 . (5) The U-bend region of a heat exchanger is of particular concern and usually requires special attention. The natural frequency of a U-tube is often much lower than that of a straight tube. Arranging for supports in the U-bend may be dif cult because of the large clearances needed for assembly, poor tolerances in construction and the lack of roundness of bent tubes. Finally, the U-bend may have a complex ow eld which is dif cult to predict. Good detailed design is therefore essential. The above list of points for high integrity design can also be considered as suggestions for good working practice for standard designs. CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions may be drawn: (1) From the start, a heat exchanger should be identi ed as either standard or high integrity. A standard heat exchanger may require some tubes to be plugged after only a few years of service. A high integrity heat exchanger will require much detailed design to ensure acceptable tube wear rates after many years of service. (2) All heat exchangers should be assessed for uidelastic instability. This will require a computer calculation if

HIGH INTEGRITY AND STANDARD DESIGNS When assessing the structural integrity of a heat exchanger it is necessary to consider the duty it is undertaking. If a standard heat exchanger is being designed then it may be permissible to plug one or more tubes after the heat exchanger has been used for three or four years. This type of heat exchanger will be called a standard heat exchanger. For such an exchanger it is only necessary to ensure that the uidelastic mechanism and possibly vortex shedding mechanism (in liquid ows) is not occurring. If the tube life must be longer than a few years, or if mixing of the tubeside and shellside uid due to a tube leak is unacceptable, then a high integrity design must be considered. For a standard assessment it is convenient to determine the damping required to prevent uidelastic instability using equation (1) and then to compare this value to values measured for actual heat exchangers in Figure 5. The probability of a tube being damaged can then be determined and the technical risk accepted or rejected. For example an assessment may proceed as follows. A heat exchanger with gas on the shell side and 1000 tubes has 50 window tubes which may be vulnerable to vibration. The assessment equation, equation (1), indicates that a damping ratio of 0.003 is required to prevent uidelastic vibration. The cumulative probability for damping indicates that 15% of vulnerable tubes will have a damping smaller than this value so approximately 8 tubes may suffer from uidelastic instability. This risk is considered too large and consequently the heat exchanger is redesigned to have more supports for the window tubes. It can be seen that the use of a required damping value together with a statistical distribution of actual damping values provides a rational basis for decision making. Vibration investigations sometimes reveal that signi cant vibration is almost inevitable in the heat exchanger being considered. In this case, it may be necessary to change to a no-tubes-in-the-window design. This removes all double span tubes with a low natural frequency from the exchanger. If the remaining tubes still suffer from vibration, then intermediate support plates can be installed to raise the natural frequency until there is no signi cant vibration. Intermediate support plates only occupy the bundle crosssection and do not extend into the window regions. Consequently, intermediate support plates do not interfere with the ow, and thus, can be added with the sole purpose of controlling vibration. A common special case is where just one part of the heat exchanger is vulnerable to vibration. This is usually the case close to the inlet and outlet nozzles where high ow velocities are to be found. Two solutions are possible. Redistribute the ow using impingement plates so that the tubes do not see the full nozzle ow velocity. Perforated impingement plates allow for detailed velocity adjustments. Alternatively, add additional support plates for the tubes. Trans IChemE, Vol 80, Part A, April 2002

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GOYDER there are mixtures of large ow velocities on short spans and small ow velocities on long spans. If a heat exchanger has gas on the shellside, it is necessary to rely on the damping of the tubes to remove energy from uidelastic vibration. The damping of a heat exchanger tube has a wide statistical spread and thus any failure assessment is probabilistic. Standard heat exchangers should be checked for vortex shedding. For exchangers with liquid on the shell side vortex shedding can lead to damaging vibration due to wear after a few years in service. For exchangers with gas on the shell side vortex shedding often leads to unacceptable noise. The usual method for preventing uidelastic or vortex induced tube vibration is to decrease the baf e pitch, thus raising the tube natural frequency. A reliable method for managing vibration is to have no-tubes-inthe-window possibly with additional intermediate tube support plates. In high integrity designs, consideration must be given to tubes which are loose in their supports and the in uence of buffeting due to turbulence or multi-phase ows. To minimize tube wear and for high integrity designs, it is necessary to consider the effect of tube-to-baf e clearance, the forces between tubes and baf es, the baf e thickness and the degree to which wear is shared between supports or concentrated at one tube support location. REFERENCES
1. ASME, 1997, 4th Inter Symp Fluid-Structure Interactions, Aeroelasticity, Flow-Induced Vibration and Noise (Dallas, USA), Vols 53-1, 53-2 and 53-3. 2. Blevins, R. D., 1990, Flow-Induced Vibration (Van Nostrand Co, New York, USA). 3. Blake, W. K., 1986, Mechanics of Flow-Induced Sound and Vibration (Academic Press, UK). 4. Weaver, D. S. and Fitzpatrick, J. A., 1988, A Review of Cross-Flow Induced Vibration in Heat Exchanger Tube Arrays, J Fluids and Structures 2: 7393. 5. Goyder, H. G. D., 1992, A practical method for assessing tube vibrations in heat exchangers, ASME Winter Annual Meeting Vol 230=NE-Vol 9. 6. Zdravkovich, M. M., 1997, Flow around circular cylinders: A comprehensive guide through ow phenomena, experiments, applications, mathematical models and computer simulations (Oxford University Press, UK). 7. Weaver, D. S., Lian, H. Y. and Huang, X. Y., 1993, Vortex shedding in rotated square tube arrays, J Fluids and Struct, 7: 107121. 8. Ploak, D. R. and Weaver, D. S., 1995, Vortex shedding in normal triangle tube arrays, J Fluids and Struct, 9: 117. 9. Ziada, S. and Oengoren, A., 1992, Vorticity shedding and acoustic resonance in an in-line tube bundle. Part I: Vorticity shedding, J Fluid and Struct, 6: 271292. 10. Ziada, S. and Oengoren, A., 2000, Flow periodicity and acoustic resonance in parallel triangle tube bundles, J Fluid and Struct, 14: 197219. 11. Goyder, H. G. D., 2001, Acoustic modes in heat exchangers, ASME PVP, Vol. 420-2: 107: 114. 12. Pettigrew, M. J., Tromp, J. H. and Mastorakos, J., 1985, Vibration of tube bundles subjected to two-phase cross- ow, J Press Vess Tech, 111: 446477. 13. Axisa, F., Boheas, M. A. and Villard, B., 1985, Vibration of tube bundles subjected to steam water cross- ow: A comprehensive study of square and triangular arrays, 8th Inter Conf on Structural Mechanics in Reactor Techn (Brussels, Belgium). 14. Guidelines for the Design and Safe Operation of Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers to Withstand the Impact of Tube Failure, Institute of Petroleum, 2000.

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6) (7)

NOMENCLATURE
C D f f St U lift coef cient tube diameter tube natural frequency frequency of vortex shedding Strouhal number ow velocity

ADDRESS
Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Dr H. G. D. Goyder, Engineering Systems Department, Cran eld University, RMCS, Shrivenham, Swindon, SNG 8LA, UK. E-mail: hugh.goyder@rmcs.cran eld.ac.uk The paper was received 1 November 2001 and accepted for publication after revision 18 December 2001.

Greek symbols f mode shape r uid density z damping ratio

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