Journal of Pressurized Equipment and Systems 2 (2004) 21-24

Antivibration design of tubular heat exchangers

Qi-Wu Dong

*
, Min-Shan Liu
Thermal Energy Engineering Research Center, Institute of Technology, Zhengzhou University,
97 Wenhua Road, Zhengzhou 450002, China



Abstract

Mechanism of failure caused by flow-induced vibration is studied in the paper. Discriminant formulae containing dynamic magnifi-
cation factor are given for the antivibration design of heat exchangers. Several feasible measures are presented to prevent vibration
failure in the design of heat exchangers.
Keywords: Heat exchanger; Flow-induced vibration; Judgement criterion; Antivibration design.



1. Introduction

As the production capacity in power industry, nu-
clear power plant, oil refinery, chemical fertilizer in-
dustry, chemical industry, metallurgical industry and so
on is increasing, the size of heat exchangers, as the
main process equipment, becomes larger and larger.
Accordingly, baffle pitch increases and rigidity of heat
exchangers decreases. However, to intensify heat
transfer and boost heat transfer coefficient, shellside
flow rate has to be enhanced. In recent years fatigue
fracture and wear damage caused by flow-induced vi-
bration have been common occurrences. In order to
improve the safety and stability of heat exchangers,
mechanism of vibration in heat exchangers are studied
and antivibration criterion and measures are presented
for the design of heat exchangers in the paper.

2. Mechanism of flow-induced vibration in heat ex-
changers

Failures of heat exchangers caused by flow-induced
vibration are mainly in terms of the detriments of heat
exchange tubes. Generally, there are several main
mechanisms for flow-induced vibration in heat ex-
changers as follows:

2.1. Vortex shedding
When shellside fluid flows across heat exchange
tubes, alternately varying Karman's vortex streets will
come into being downstream of tubes, which generates
periodic changing exciting forces, which direction is
perpendicular to fluid flow, and results in vibration of
tubes. When frequence of vortex shedding is close or
equal to the natural frequence of tube, violent vibration

*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: qwdong@zzu.edu.cn (Qi-Wu Dong).
will occur.

2.2. Fluid-elastic excitation
When fluid flows across tube bundle, due to the
complexity of flow condition, some certain tube in the
bank may take instant movement, thereby the flow
field around it changes and the equilibrium of forces
on adjacent tubes is broken, which makes tubes move
and begin vibrating. When flow rate increases to a cer-
tain degree, work of fluid elastic force on tube bundle
will be larger than the work consumed by damping
action of tubes, then amplitude of tube will increase
rapidly and cause tubes to collide with each other and
be destructed.

2.3. Turbulent buffeting
Turbulence is generated when shellside fluid flow
through tube bundle. In the depth of in-line and inter-
lacing arrangement of tube bundle, with irregular tur-
bulence enlarging gradually, degree of turbulent pres-
sure fluctuation augments and has heat exchange tubes
endure random fluctuating acting forces. When basic
frequence of turbulence pulsating is proximal or equal
to natural frequence of tube, fierce vibration will take
place.

2.4. Acoustic resonance
Acoustic resonance occurs only on the condition that
shell-side fluid is gas. When gas flows across tube
bundle, acoustic standing waves, which is perpendicu-
lar to both tubes and flow direction, may come into
being and be reflected repeatedly by inner wall of heat
exchanger. Meanwhile, as gas flows across tube bundle,
Karmans vortex street comes into being behind tubes.
And when frequence of vortex street accords with the
frequence of acoustic standing waves, the couple will
come and all the kinetic energy of flow media will be
transmuted to acoustic pressure waves, thereby vibra-
Qi-Wu Dong & Min-Shan Liu / Antivibration design of tubular heat exchangers 22
tion and strong noise will appear in heat exchanger.

3. Antivibration judgement criterion of heat ex-
changers

Based on Thorngrens Destruction Number for
tube vibration, antivibration judgement criterion with
dynamic modification is presented in the paper. Taking
account of dynamic shearing stress and amplitude, dy-
namic magnification factor is added in the derivation
of Thorngrens Destruction Number formulas and
the modification form of the two Destruction Num-
ber is presented as follows.
Judgement criterion for Destruction Number at
baffles:

If

1 75 . 3
1
2 2
<


=
t m m
o
BD
B A g S
L rw d
N (1)

then design is safe. In the expression, the dynamic
shearing force is assumed to act on 40% of the
cross-sectional area of tubes and is less than the al-
lowable fatigue stress of tube material, S
m.

Judgement criterion for Destruction Numberof
colliding between tubes:

If

1
) (
625 . 0
2 2 4
1
4 2
<
+

=
E C d d A g
L rw d
N
t i o m
o
CD
(2)

then design is safe. In the expression, the maximum
dynamic deflection in the middle of tube span is sup-
posed to be less than 50% of tube pitch, C
t
, in order to
prevent tubes from colliding with each other.
In Eq.(1) and Eq.(2), d
i
and d
o
refer to the inner and
outer diameter of tube respectively. r and w represent
the density and velocity of flow. B
t
is the thickness of
baffle and
1
is the factor of clearance between tubes
and baffles, which is defined as:
a
1
1
= , when
clearance is 0.4 mm (1/64 inch),
1
= 1.25; when
clearance is 0.79 mm (1/32 inch),
1
= 1.0. S
m
is the
allowable fatigue stress of tube material (which can be
acquired from ASME, Section IV). A
m
is the metal sec-
tional area of tube: ) (
4
2 2
i o m
d d A =

.C
t
stands for
the tube span.
Applying the two Destruction Number with vibra-
tion factor involved to judge actual project cases,
judgement results are more approximate to engineering
practice and more exact, which can provide judege-
ment criterion for the antivibration design of heat ex-
changers.

4. Antivibration measures in the design of tubular
heat exchangers

In order to make the design of heat exchangers safer
and more reliable, several antivibration measures and
structures are presented in the paper as follows.
(1) Implementing analysis of dynamic characteris-
tics for heat exchangers.
It is known that shellside flow rate and natural fre-
quence of heat exchange tube are the two major pa-
rameters affecting vibration of heat exchangers, and
the key parameters affecting tube vibrating are the
first-order and second-order natural frequence, so its
very necessary to implement dynamic analysis for heat
exchangers. Using finite element method, dynamic
finite element method and transfer matrix method, the
natural frequence of large tubular heat exchanger can
be calculated, and corresponding computer program is
composed to calculate the natural frequence of tube
conveniently, and to make the frequence of exciting
force apart from the natural frequence of heat ex-
changer.
(2) Changing the natural frequence of heat exchange
tube.
The most effective method is to reduce the tube span.
If tube span is reduced to half, natural frequence will
increase about four times. And natural frequence of
tubes can also be enhanced effectively by means of
supporting both ends of tubes with fixed bearing and
increasing bending modules of heat exchange tubes.
According to experiments, natural frequence of tube
can be augmented effectively on condition that heat
exchange tubes are in a state of tension stress or fit
between baffles and tubes are close to force fit. In this
way, failures caused by flow-induced vibration can be
avoided.
(3) Decreasing shellside flow rate.
The frequence of flow-excited force will decline
accordingly if crossflow flux or rate on shell-side is
reduced. In this way, failure caused by flow-induced
vibration can be avoided, but productivity of heat ex-
changers will descend at the same time. So its advis-
able to use double segmental baffles and structures
with total crossflow or divided flow, which is benefi-
cial to preventing vibration, decreasing pressure drop
and intensifying heat transfer simultaneously.
(4) Employing new type heat exchanger with longi-
tudinal flow on shellside.
In this way, flow condition can be improved and
transverse flow is transformed into longitudinal flow,
which decreases the fluid exciting force on tubes.
Therefore, not only heat transfer efficiency can be
heightened and pressure drop can be decreased, but
also flow-induced vibration can be effectively pre-
vented. This is by far the most ideal and effective
measure to prevent vibration failure (Figs. 1-3).
(5) If vibration problems mainly result from the
high flow rate in entrance or exit region, increasing
Journal of Pressurized Equipment and Systems 2 (2004) 21-24 23
nozzle size to reducing flow rate at inlet and outlet, or
installing impingement plate to avoid excessive excit-
ing forces on tubes at inlet and outlet, or even install-
ing guide shell (or distributor), or jamming the space
between tube bundle and shell and any bypass flow in
narrow spaces because high local velocities in these
regions are subjected to induce vibration failure, are all
effective measures. Figs. 4 and 5 show the structure of
jacketed tapered flow distributor and the flow field in it,
from which it can be seen that the fluid at inlet is dis-
tributed uniformly to flow along the tube bundle.
(6) If manufacture conditions permit, diminishing
the clearance between tubes and holes of baffles, or
increasing thickness of baffles, B
t
, can weaken the
shearing action between tubes and baffles. Besides,
attrition of tubes can be reduced if hardness of the heat
exchange tube material is lower than that of the baffle
material because it is easier to change the failure tube
than to change baffle plate. From the view of elastic
mechanics, effect of local stress concentration can be
enervated greatly if hole edges of baffles are cham-
fered. However, such measures mentioned above may
augment manufacturing cost and assembling difficulty
at the same time.



Heat Exchange Tube Rod-Baffle


Fig. 1. Sketch of heat exchanger with longitudinal flow of shellside fluid.

Baffle


Fig. 2. Shellside flow field in heat exchanger with typical single segmental baffle.

Rod-Baffle Rod Vortex Street


Fig. 3 Shellside flow field in heat exchanger with longitudinal flow of shellside fluid.




Fig. 4. Jacketed tapered flow distributor. Fig. 5. Contours of velocity in flow distributor.

Qi-Wu Dong & Min-Shan Liu / Antivibration design of tubular heat exchangers 24
6. Conclusion

In the paper, the mechanisms of flow-induced vibra-
tion are studied and the several main mechanisms are
introduced. The discriminant formulae for antivibration
judgement criterion are presented to provide reference
for the antivibration design of heat exchangers. Besides,
several feasible measures and structures are also sug-
gested to prevent vibration and make the design of heat
exchangers safer and more reliable. Such methods have
been used in engineering application and remarkable
effect has been achieved.

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