Structure- and fluid-borne acoustic power sources induced by turbulent flow in 90° piping elbows

The structure- and fluid-borne vibro-acoustic power spectra induced by turbulent fluid flow over the walls of a continuous 90° piping elbow are computed. Although the actual power input to the piping by the wall pressure fluctuations is distributed throughout the elbow, equivalent total power inputs to various structural wavetypes (bending, torsion, axial) and fluid (plane-waves) at the inlet and discharge of the elbow are computed. The powers at the elbow “ports” are suitable inputs to wave- and statistically-based models of larger piping systems that include the elbow. Calculations for several flow and structural parameters, including pipe wall thickness, flow speed, and flow Reynolds number are shown. The power spectra are scaled on flow and structural–acoustic parameters so that levels for conditions other than those considered in the paper may be estimated, subject to geometric similarity constraints (elbow radius/pipe diameter). The approach for computing the powers (called CHAMP – combined hydroacoustic modeling programs), which links computational fluid dynamics, finite element and boundary element modeling, and efficient random analysis techniques, is general, and may be applied to other piping system components excited by turbulent fluid flow, such as U-bends and T-sections.