Investigation of the gap vortex street in densely packed tube arrays in axial flow using CFD and experiments

Axial flow in tube bundles with small pitch-to-diameter ratio, a geometry encountered in nuclear reactor cores and heat exchangers, often displays periodic fluctuations. A significant velocity discrepancy between the inter-cylinder gap and subchannel center originates from the difference in through-flow area, feeding an instability. As it is associated with velocity-shear, it is similar to the Kelvin-Helmholtz type and the term 'gap instability' is adopted. A vortex street arises and structural vibration of the cylinders might develop due to the fluctuating pressure. Numerical simulations of this phenomenon were performed. The computational domain was constructed to match the most important geometrical features of an experimental setup. The bundle consists of 7 steel tubes in triangular array, placed in a hexagonal conduit. A flexible segment made of silicone is embedded in the central tube, with both extremes clamped to the steel parts of the cylinder. In the experiment, data of the fluctuating velocity was gathered using laser Doppler anemometry measurements. As first step, a completely rigid structure was considered. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations were used to test if this particular geometry also triggers the gap vortex street, which was the case. The phenomenon clearly appears as oscillations of the velocity components. Subsequently, fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations, taking into account the flexible part, allowed to assess the effect of the fluctuating flow field on the structure. A comparison between one-way and two-way coupled simulations was made.