Fluidelastic vibration of cylinder arrays in axial and cross flow: State of the art

Abstract In this paper a critical assessment is presented of the state of the art for flow induced vibrations of cylinder arrays in cross and axial flow. The paper begins with a short historical review for cross flows in which the milestone contributions which have advanced our understanding of the flow induced vibration phenomena involved and/or our predictive ability are highlighted. The main conclusions from the study are as follows. In the case of axial-flow-induced vibration, the absence of separated flow regions has contributed towards the development of analytical predictive tools. Despite this, the designer's ability to predict vibration amplitude—in the absence of any special supporting information—is not much better than within one order of magnitude. The designer may predict the onset of fluidelastic instabilities, which generally occur at very high flow velocities, with greater confidence. In contrast, in the case of cross-flow-induced vibration, the complexity of the flow has encouraged more heuristic approaches to be adopted. In an attempt to unify and clarify the sometimes contradictory researcher's claims facing the designer, the state of the art in this case is discussed with the aid of a new classification of the flow induced vibration phenomena involved. It is concluded that, although the physical understanding of cross-flow-induced vibration phenomena is not good, useful design guidelines do exist. These, despite being based on insufficiently tested precepts, are capable of predicting vibration characteristics—in the absence of special supporting data—to within a factor of 2–10.