Fluid-Structure Interaction Effects Modeling for the Modal Analysis of a Steam Generator Tube Bundle

Seismic analysis of steam generator is of paramount importance in the safety assessment of nuclear installations. These analyses require, in particular, the calculation of frequency, mode shape, and effective modal mass of the system eigenmodes. As fluid-structure interaction effects can significantly affect the dynamic behavior of immersed structures, the numerical modeling of the steam generator has to take into account FSI. A complete modeling of heat exchangers (including pressure vessel, tubes, and fluid) is not accessible to the engineer for industrial design studies. In the past decades, homogenization methods have been studied and developed in order to model tubes and fluid through an equivalent continuous media, thus avoiding the tedious task to mesh all structure and fluid subdomains within the tube bundle. Few of these methods have nonetheless been implemented in industrial finite element codes. In a previous paper (Sigrist, et al., 2007, “Fluid-Structure Interaction Effects Modeling for the Modal Analysis of a Nuclear Pressure Vessel,” J. Pressure Vessel Technol., 123, pp. 1–6), a homogenization method has been applied to an industrial case for the modal analysis of a nuclear rector with internal structures and coupling effects modeling. The present paper aims at investigating the extension of the proposed method for the dynamic analysis of tube bundles with fluid-structure interaction modeling. The homogenization method is compared with the classical coupled method in terms of eigenfrequencies, eigenmodes, and effective modal masses.