On the static and dynamic stability of thin beam conveying fluid

Abstract

In this paper, numerical investigation of the statical and dynamical stability of aligned and misaligned viscoelastic cantilevered beam is performed with a terminal nozzle in the presence of gravity in two cases: (1) effect of fluid velocity on the flutter boundary of beam conveying fluid and (2) effect of gravity on the buckling boundary of beam conveying fluid. The beam is assumed to have a large width-to-thickness ratio, so the out-of-plane bending rigidity is far higher than the in-plane bending and torsional rigidities. Gravity vector is considered in the vertical direction. Thus, deflection of the beam because of the gravity effect couples the in-plane bending and torsional equations. The beam is modeled by Euler–Bernoulli beam theory, with the flow-induced inertia, Coriolis and centrifugal forces along the beam considered as a distributed load along the beam. Furthermore, the end nozzle is regarded as a lumped mass and modeled as a follower axial force. The extended Hamilton’s principle and the Galerkin method are utilized to derive the bending–torsional equations of motion. The coupled equations of motion are solved as eigenvalue problems. Also, several cases are examined to study the impact of gravity, beam inclination angle, mass ratio, nozzle aspect ratio, bending-to-bending rigidity ratio and bending-to-torsional rigidity ratio on flutter and buckling margin of the system.