Flow-Induced Vibration Analysis of Supported Pipes with a Crack

Jin-Hyuk Lee1*, Samer Masoud Al-Said2,3

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE, 2Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan, 3visiting professor
at Department of Mechanical Engineering, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE
*Corresponding author: Department of Mechanical Engineering, American University of Sharjah, PO
Box 26666, Sharjah, UAE, [email protected]

Abstract: In this paper, the effect of a crack to pipes would be practically important. Previously
the flow-induced vibration characteristics of the crack identification algorithm for a beam has
supported pipes is investigated based on been developed and verified against the
vibration method. In order to estimate the crack experimental as well as finite element (FE)
location and depth in the pipe, we need to utilize analysis results [4-7]. However, published work
the variation of the difference between the of the vibrational study on the cracked pipes
natural frequencies of the pipe conveying fluid conveying fluid flow is rather scarce.
with and without crack. The pipe is fluid loaded In this paper the vibrational behavior of the
via interaction with the fluid. Fluid loading has pipe conveying fluid flow with cracks is
two main effects on vibrating pipes: first, the numerically investigated based on vibration
fluid mass loads the pipe, meaning that the method. Simulated results will be used to help to
pipe’s natural frequencies are altered due to model the similar system mathematically.
added mass. Secondly, viscous loading is
provided to the pipe near the wall due to shear 2. Flow-Induced Pipe with Crack Model
force between the pipe and the fluid. In
COMSOL Multiphysics® Module, the In this section an overall mathematical model
Aeroacoustics and Structural physics have been describing vibration behavior of a cracked fluid-
used for frequency domain analysis. Fully conveying pipe. The cracked beam can be
developed laminar flow profile is used to modeled as two uniform Euler-Bernoulli beams
simulate the fluid flow inside a pipe. Perfectly connected by a massless torsional spring to
Matched layer is used to simulate the unbounded consider rotational discontinuity in beam’s
boundary to purely capture the fluid and the pipe deflection at the crack location. In order to
system without standing waves; hence the mode combine global effects of crack and vibration
shapes are expected to remain unchanged for characteristics, the assumed mode method and
pipes conveying fluid form ones attained from the Lagrange method are used [4].
pipes alone. The kinetic energy of the beam is obtained as
follows:
Keywords: aeroacoustic, crack, fluid-flow,
1    y x, t   L  y x, t  
2 2 

natural frequency, vibration T pipe  m 0xc  1  dx  xc  2  dx 
2   t   t  
 
1. Introduction (1)
, where Tpipe is kinetic energy of the pipe, m is
Flow-induce vibration analysis of pipes mass per unit length of the pipe, xc is the distance
conveying fluid had gained its attention as the to the crack location, y is the deflection of the
pipes are widely used in many industrial areas pipe, and L is the total length of the pipe.
such as skyscraper cooling systems, petrol and
gas transportation systems. Over the past 1  x c  2   2 y1   y1  2 
T fluid  M  0 U  2U  
 xt   t  
dx
decades, many studies have been conducted on 2    
the dynamic characteristics of pipeline systems   
subject to different loading conditions [1-3].    2 y 2   y 2  2  
  xL U 2  2U   dx  (2)
These pipes working hard on our mundane life c
  xt   t   
would be cracked as a result of various loads    
while conveying fluid, which could lead , where Tfluid is kinetic energy due to fluid inside
catastrophic event if not prevented. Hence, the pipe, M is mass per unit length of fluid, and
analyzing the vibrational behavior of the cracked

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2016 COMSOL Conference in Munich

U is fluid velocity. The potential energy of the Structural Mechanics Module. Figure 1 shows a
pipe due to strain energy is three dimensional finite element (FE) model of a
2 2  pipe conveying fluid flow.
1  x c   2 y1  L   y 2 
2

V pipe  EI 0 dx  x dx 
2   x     
 x 
2 2

c

1  2 y 2  xc 
 KR (3)
2 x 2
, where E is modulus of elasticity, I is area
moment of inertia, KR is spring coefficient due to
crack and yk (k = 1, 2) represents transverse (a)
displacement [8]. The transverse displacement
takes the form of a linear combination of
admissible function ϕki(x), and a generalized
coordinate di(t) as follows PML
n
y k x, t    ki x d i t  (4) fluid
i 1
, where the subscript k denotes the number of
divided pipes due to crack [8].
Substituting Eq. (1) – Eq. (3) into Lagrange’s Fixed (b)
equation and considering an external forcing
term, the equation of motion can be written as:
 Figure 1. (a) Geometric pipe model, and (b) meshed
M q  Kq  Fext (5) pipe model without crack where blue colored section
In Eq. (5), the external force term can be represents PML.
assumed to be a viscous drag force due to shear
stress inside the pipe wall. It can be replaced Table 1: Structure and material properties of the fluid
flow conveying pipe.
with

Fviscous  A (6) Pipe
y
, where A is surface area, ∆ʋ is the average fluid Material Copper
velocity, and ∆y is separation distance between
the wall and the center of the pipe. In Eq. (6), η Outer Diameter d 6e-2m
represents the ratio shown in Eq. (7).
F A Thickness t 5e-3m
 (7)
 y Modulus of
110GPa
, where F is a force required to maintain the Elasticity E
motion. Density ρ 8700 kg/m3
Eq. (5) can be reduced to a typical
eigenvalue/eigenvector problem which enables Poisson ratio ν 0.35
us to calculate the analytical values of natural
frequencies of the system. Pipe length L 0.5m

3. Use of COMSOL Multiphysics® Beam width w 1.2mm

Software
In order to simulate the flowing fluid inside a
The vibrational behavior of a 3D pipe pipe, the Linearized Navier-Stokes, Frequency
conveying fluid flow is investigated using the Domain interface is chosen for the study, which
commercial finite element software COMSOL solves for the acoustic variations in the pressure,
Multiphysics®. The 3D model is used based on velocity field, and temperature. Coupling the
the Aeroacoustics Module interface with the

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2016 COMSOL Conference in Munich

interfaces to structures enables vibration analysis is the mass matrix. In the frequency domain, Eq.
of the pipe in the presence of flow, such as fluid (10) takes the form
structure interaction (FSI) in the frequency   2 Mu 0  iDu 0  Ku0  F (11)
domain.
it
The pipe conveying fluid flow is made of , where u  u0 e . The undamped system has n
copper that is most common type of material due eigenvalues ωi, which satisfy the equation
to its quality, safety, and endurance. The fluid
Kuˆi  i2 Muˆi (12)
type is chosen as water. The material properties
of the system are provided in Table 1. These eigenvectors are orthogonal with respect
to M and K. This is shown in Eqs. (13) and (14).
3.1 Governing Equations uˆ Tj Muˆi  0 i ≠ j, ωi ≠ ωj (13)

The governing equations used to solve for uˆ Tj Kuˆi  0 i ≠ j, ωi ≠ ωj (14)

the frequency analysis are the continuity,
momentum, and energy equations as follows: 3.2 Geometry of the crack
i    0u  u0   M
0 iu  u  u0  u0  u      F As shown in Eq. (3), a crack can be
 0C p iT  u  T0  u0  T   C p u0  T0 represented mathematically as elastic energy.
Therefore, the local flexibility in the presence of
 0T0 ip  u  p0  u0  p  0T u0  p0 the crack can be defined as a function of the
   kT     Q (8) geometry of a crack. Figure 2 shows the crack
, where p, u, and T are the acoustic perturbations dimensions such as depth, width, and angle.
to the pressure, velocity and temperature, b
a 5˚
respectively [9]. The time derivative of the
dependent variables are replaced by iω where ω
= 2πf which is angular frequency. The stress
tensor is σ and Φ is the viscous dissipation
function which is set to zero. The right-hand side
source term M, F, and Q are mass source, Ro
volume force source, and heat source. The
default values are all zero for those sources. The Ri
variables with a zero subscripts are the
background mean flow values. Cp and k denote
heat capacity at constant pressure and thermal
conductivity, respectively and they are both zero
by default.  is the gradient or del operator. The Figure 2. Cross section of the cutaway cracked pipe
constitutive equations are the stress tensor and and the side view.
the linearized equation of state, while the Fourier
heat conduction law is included in the energy The effect of the crack geometry and location
equation [9]. can be easily investigated by parameterizing the

 
modeling process using COMSOL. In Fig. 2, a =
 2 
   pI   u  u T    B     u I 0.0025 m, b = 0.012 m, and the angle of the
 3  crack is 5˚ to the both angles, hence the total
  0 T p  0T  (9) cracked angle is 10˚. The location of the crack is
, where μ is dynamic viscosity, μB is bulk placed at the middle of the pipe length.
viscosity, I is the identity tensor, and βT is the
isothermal compressibility [9]. 3.3 Boundary conditions
Consider a pipe system, with n degrees of
freedom, described by an equation of the form The Aeroacoustic-Structure Boundary
  coupling is used to couple an Aeroacoustic
M u  D u  Ku  F (10) model, which only applies to the Linearized
, where u is the displacement vector, K is the Navier-Stokes in Frequency Domain, to the
stiffness matrix, D is the damping matrix, and M Structural Solid Mechanics component. This

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2016 COMSOL Conference in Munich

coupling can be used to model fluid structure assumptions are used for Eq. (16); fluid flow is
interaction (FSI) in the frequency domain. The Newtonian fluid for laminar case, and the no slip
coupling prescribes continuity in the condition for the flow on a hard wall inside the
displacement field between two different pipe. The No slip condition is given in Eq. (17).
domains as in Eq. (15). u0 (17)
u fluid  iusolid (15)
, where ufluid is the fluid velocity and usolid is the 3.4 Mesh and solver
solid displacement. This results in the stress
being continuous across the boundary between All domains are meshed by sweeping and
two different domains. This boundary condition boundary layers based on Free Triangle
will play an important role investigating the elements. They are chosen based on the patch
effects of the fluid to the vibration mode of the analysis which was performed for both triangle
pipe system. and quadrilateral elements. The analyses show
that the result is not sensitive to the type of
elements.

Figure 3. The development of the velocity boundary

layer in a pipe [10].

In this paper, we consider the steady, laminar,

incompressible flow of fluid with constant
properties in the fully developed region of a
straight circular pipe. The gravitational effect is
negligible. The velocity profile is to be the same
at any cross section of the pipe by assuming that Figure 4. Meshed cracked pipe.
flow in pipes is laminar for Re ≤ 2300 and that
the flow is fully developed if the pipe is The most vital section to be meshed for this
sufficiently long (relative to the entry length). In model is the crack itself since it is modeled as
order to have the entrance effect negligible, each relatively small size as shown in Fig. 4. The
end of the pipe and the fluid sections are chosen maximum size is set to 0.2744. This is because it
as perfectly matched layers (PMLs) as shown in is important to make meshes sufficiently
Fig. 1(b). PMLs provide accurate simulations of resolved in the acoustic domain. The rule of
open pipes and other models with unbounded thumb is that the minimum of ten to twelve
domains [9]. Figure 3 show the developed degrees of freedom per wavelength are needed
average velocity profile which is parabolic in for the solution to be reliable with the (default)
laminar flow. The flow velocity profile is chosen second-order elements. In the case of acoustic
as domain, at least five mesh elements per
  y 2  z 2  wavelength must be used. Thus, the mesh size
ur   Vmax 1    (16) depends on the frequencies involved. The
 2 
  Ro  numerical value of 0.2744 is used as maximum
, where Vmax is maximum velocity, Ro is the inner element size hmax which corresponds to 0.2λ,
pipe radius, y and z are radial distance from the where λ is the wavelength of the sound waves in
center to each axis (see Fig. 1 for the coordinate the acoustic domain. This is because the
system used for the system). Two other solutions to acoustics problems are wave like

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2016 COMSOL Conference in Munich

and the waves are characterized by a wavelength remains rather similar to each other, which
λ which is defined as λ = c/f where c is the speed indicates that crack does not influence the
of sound in water and f is frequency. Hence, the frequency reduction ratio.
wavelength λ has to be resolved by the mesh
[11]. Figure 4 show that the zoomed in view of
meshed crack.
The model is solved in frequency domain
and the solver is chosen for MUMPS.

4. Simulation Results

Numerical simulation yields ideal responses

with respect to the fluid loading effect and
followed by the influence due to crack to the (a)
structure. Varying the speed of the fluid flow
inside a pipe, observation is made on its effect to
the eigenfrequency.

4.1 Fluid loading and Crack effects

Due to the added mass effect induced by the

fluid inside the pipe, a significant reduction in
natural frequencies is observed. In Table 2, the
comparison of the simulation is made in vacuo
and with water inside the pipe for only the first (b)
natural frequency.

Table 2: Comparison for in vacuo and the pipe filled

with water for its eigenfrequency

eigen- eigenfrequency
frequency w/ crack

In vacuo ① 843.56 Hz ② 836.96 Hz

Filled with (c)

③ 749.63 Hz ④ 747.58 Hz
water
Percentage
decrease
11 % 10 %

The fluid added mass effect is estimated by

calculating the frequency reduction ratio δ of
each natural frequency defined as
 f  fw 
  v (18)
fv
(d)
where f v and f w are the natural frequencies in
vacuo and with fluid inside the pipe. It can be
observed that the eigenfrequency is considerably Figure 5. Eigenmodes for the cases in Table 2.
reduced by the presence of fluid inside the pipe.
It also shows that the frequency reduction ratio

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2016 COMSOL Conference in Munich

It is important to note that their eigenmodes 1. Dilena, M., Dell’Oste, M. F., and Morassi, A.,
remain unchanged. This is shown in Fig. 5 where Detecting cracks in pipes filled with fluid from
①, ②, ③, and ④ from Table 2 denote (a), (b), changes in natural frequencies, Mechanical
(c), and (d) in Fig. 5, respectively. Systems and Signal Processing, 25, 3186-3197
(2011)
4.2 Fluid flow effect 2. Eslami, G., Maleki, V. A., and Rezaee, M.,
Effect of Open Crack on Vibration Behavior of a
In order to investigate the effect of the Fluid-Conveying Pipe Embedded in a Visco-
velocity of the fluid flow within a pipe with and Elastic Medium, Latin American Journal of
without crack, frequency analysis has been Solids and Structures, 13, 136-154 (2016)
performed to calculate its eigenfrequency by 3. Petkova, S., and Kisliakov, D., Transverse
varying the maximum velocity of the fluid flow. Earthquake-Induced Vibrations of a Buried
The results have been tabulated in Table 3. Pressure Pipeline Including Fluid-Structure
The velocity of the fluid inside the pipe Interaction, Journal of Theoretical and Applied
seems to affect the natural frequency of the pipe Mechanics, 41, 49-68 (2011)
system such that as the velocity increases, its 4. Masoud, A. A., and Al-Said, S., A New
eigenfrequency decreases. However, there has Algorithm for Crack Localization in a Rotating
not been found any specific correlation between Timoshenko Beam, Journal of Vibration and
them in this work. Control, 15(10), 1541-1561 (2009)
5. Al-Said, S. M., Crack Detection in Stepped
Table 3: Comparison for different velocities of the Beam Carrying Slowly Moving Mass, Journal of
fluid flow inside the pipe for its eigenfrequency Vibration and Control, 14(12), 1903-1920
(2008)
Max. eigen- eigenfrequency 6. Al-Said, S. M., Crack identification in a
velocity frequency w/ crack stepped beam carrying a rigid disk, Journal of
Sound and Vibration, 300, 863-876 (2007)
1 m/s 749.11 Hz 747.58 Hz 7. Al-Said, S. M., and Al-Qaisia, A. A.,
Influence of Crack Depth and Attached Masses
on Beam Natural Frequencies, International
10 m/s 702.14 Hz 742.44 Hz Journal of Modelling and Simulation, 28(3),
239-247 (2008)
8. Son, I., and Yoon, H., Dynamic Stability of
Elastically Restrained Cantilever Pipe
5. Conclusion Conveying Fluid with Crack, Transactions of
KSNVE, 18(2), 177-184 (2008)
In this paper, a pipe conveying fluid flow 9. COMSOL 5.1 Acoustic Module User’s Guide.
with crack has been investigated through 10. Cengel, Y. A., and Cimbala, J. M., Fluid
numerical simulation using COMSOL Mechanics – fundamentals and Applications 3rd
Multiphysics software. Vibrational behavior of Edition, 351. McGraw Hill (2010)
the pipe system has been studied to show the 11. Lee, J. H., Bio-Inspired Hydro-Acoustic
effect of fluid within a pipe as well as that of Sensor for Sensing Directivity of Sound, Ph.D.
crack. The obtained results correspond well as Dissertation, University of Washington (2013)
expected.
The work to be done in the future would be
as follows; (1) investigation of further study of 7. Acknowledgements
the velocity of the fluid flow in greater detail, (2)
investigation of the crack location, (3) study of The authors acknowledge the support of the
dual crack effect rather than single crack, and (4) American University of Sharjah.
derivation of mathematical model that
corresponds with the simulation study.

6. References

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the 2016 COMSOL Conference in Munich