Fluidelastic instability of flexible tubes subjected to two-phase internal flow

Abstract The fluidelastic instability behaviour of flexible tubes subjected to internal single-phase (liquid or gas) flows is now reasonably well understood. Although many piping systems operate in two-phase flows, so far very little work has been done to study their dynamic behaviour under such flows. This paper presents the results of a series of experiments to study the fluidelastic instability behaviour of flexible tubes subjected to two-phase internal flow. Several flexible tubes of different diameters, lengths and flexural rigidities were tested over a broad range of flow velocities and void fractions in an air–water loop to simulate two-phase flows. Well-defined fluidelastic instabilities were observed in two-phase flows. The existing theory to formulate the fluidelastic behaviour under internal flow was developed further to take into account two-phase flow. The agreement between the experimental results and the modified theory is remarkably good. However, it depends on using an appropriate model to formulate the characteristics of the two-phase flows.