A fluid-structure interaction model for stability analysis of shells conveying fluid

In this paper, a fluid structure interaction model for stability analysis of shells conveying fluid is developed. This model is developed for shells of arbitrary geometry and structure and is based on incompressible potential flow. The boundary element method is applied to model the potential flow. The fluid dynamics model is derived by using an inflow/outflow model along with the impermeability condition at the fluid shell interface. This model is applied to obtain the flow modes and eigenvalues, which are used for the modal representation of the flow field in the shell. Based on the mode shapes and natural frequencies of the shell obtained from an FEM model, the modal analysis technique is used for structural modeling of the shell. Using the linearized Bernoulli equation for unsteady pressure on the fluid shell interface in combination with the virtual work principle, the generalized structural forces are obtained in terms of the modal coordinates of the fluid flow and the coupled field equations of the fluid structure are derived. The obtained model is validated by comparison with results in the literature, and very good agreement is demonstrated. Then, some examples are provided to demonstrate the application of the present model to determining the stability conditions of shells with arbitrary geometries. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.