LAUSR

A fluid-conveying cantilever pipe is likely to lose stability by flutter when the fluid is conveyed at certain critical velocity. In the present work, in order to avoid instability and reduce the possibility of unbounded vibrations, parametric studies and numerical investigations were carried out to fine-tune the fluid-conveying cantilever pipe by using a sliding mass and a sliding spring. To elucidate the flow mechanism, mathematical and classical formulations have been implemented using Hamilton’s principles and the numerical experimentation has been carried out using finite element method. Parametric studies on the critical velocity of fluid have been carried out in which various parameters such as the position and stiffness of the spring and position of the sliding mass were considered. The results revealed that when the discrete spring was provided in the first half of the conduit from the support, there was a significant improvement in the flutter velocity and providing only lumped mass with or without spring would not enhance the critical flutter velocity.