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23 June 2025

Acoustic Modal Characteristics of Pump Tower Structures Based on Fluid–Structure Coupling Effects

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State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science and Engineering, Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrodynamics Science Experiments and Simulations, 2nd Edition

Abstract

This study investigated the acoustic modal characteristics of pump tower structures under fluid–structure coupling effects through a finite element analysis. Compared with the dry condition, filling the internal pipelines with liquid causes the first three natural frequencies to decrease by 17.12%, 16.80%, and 19.50%, respectively, while full external immersion (wet mode) further reduces them by 15.60%, 15.10%, and 5.30%. As the liquid level in the surrounding storage tank increases from 0% to 100%, the first-mode frequency falls from 6.07 Hz to 5.13 Hz (a 15.5% reduction), the second-mode from 14.71 Hz to 12.48 Hz (15.1%), and the third-mode from 19.69 Hz to 18.63 Hz (5.5%). Mode-shape distributions remain qualitatively similar across liquid levels, although local deformation magnitudes decrease by up to 21.0% for the first mode and 18.3% for the second mode. These quantitative findings provide a theoretical and technical basis for predicting dynamic responses of pump tower structures in complex fluid environments.

1. Introduction

1.1. Research Background and Significance

The dynamic characteristics of pump tower structures in fluid environments play a crucial role in industrial applications, especially in petroleum, chemical engineering, marine transportation, and energy sectors. Vibrations induced by fluids can compromise equipment stability, potentially resulting in structural damage or safety hazards [1]. Therefore, an in-depth investigation into the modal characteristics of pump towers, particularly considering fluid interactions and liquid level variations, holds significant theoretical and engineering value [2].

1.2. Research Status

With the advancement of computational technologies and finite element methods, the demand for precision in structural dynamic analysis has increased. Traditional modal analyses, often based on dry modes, neglect the influence of surrounding fluids. However, actual working conditions involve internal and external fluid interactions, necessitating wet modal analysis for more accurate dynamic predictions [3]. Research into fluid–structure coupling began early, and recent developments in computational fluid dynamics and finite element methods have significantly enhanced this field. Structural components of hydraulic machinery exhibit different modal behaviors compared to structures in air due to fluid effects, which introduce added mass, damping, and stiffness. Among these, added mass notably dominates the variation in natural frequencies [4]. Wang X. et al. [5] conducted an experimental and numerical study on the buckling behavior of nearly perfect cylindrical shells under axial compression, revealing how geometric imperfections and manufacturing defects reduce the critical loads, and providing correction factors that inform mesh design and numerical validation methods for shell structures. Lu Y. et al. [6] performed a fluid–structure interaction simulation addressing cavitation suppression in submarine propellers under oceanic conditions, uncovering the complex coupling between vapor bubble dynamics and blade vibration; their use of turbulence modeling, dynamic meshing, and fluid–solid boundary treatment offers valuable guidance for defining the coupling interface between internal piping and external fluid domains in pump-tower analyses. In terms of fluid level influence, Chiba [7] systematically studied the relationship between liquid levels and the natural frequencies of cylindrical shells, establishing a quantitative correlation model. Ning Dezhi et al. [8] examined the hydrodynamic behavior of anti-sloshing structures in liquid tanks and demonstrated the nonlinear effect of fluid level on natural frequency. Zhou Ling et al. [9] used LMS Virtual. Lab to analyze the modal properties of multi-stage centrifugal pumps under different fluid conditions. These combined studies validate finite element models through experiments and clarify how liquid level, mesh strategy, turbulence model, and boundary treatment affect low- and high-order modal predictions.

1.3. Research Objectives and Methods

This study focuses on a pump tower structure and employs finite element analysis to examine the impact of fluid presence and liquid level variation on its modal characteristics. Key objectives include
  • Analyzing the influence of internal and external fluid on modal behavior via dry and wet modal simulations.
  • Investigating the effect of decreasing liquid level on the structure’s natural frequencies and mode shapes.
  • Studying variations in the relative positions of identical mode shapes at different liquid levels.

2. Model Development and Validation

2.1. Research Object

The primary object of this study is a tower structure composed mainly of a pipeline system and a pump tower. The pipeline system consists of two pumps and two pipelines, with the pump tower serving as the support and connecting structure. The top of the tower is fixed to a storage tank, which facilitates the inflow and outflow of liquid through the pipeline system.
The pipelines are made of 304L stainless steel, while the pump tower is constructed from aluminum alloy.
The physical properties of the materials used are listed in Table 1:
Table 1. Material properties.

2.2. Simulation Tools and Methods

2.2.1. Structural Modal Analysis

This paper mainly conducts constrained modal simulation on the finite element model of the pump tower. The modal analysis technique is used to identify the vibration characteristics of the structure. The calculation can be divided into free modal analysis and constrained modal analysis. Among them, constrained modal analysis needs to consider the forces and constraints on the structure under actual working conditions. Therefore, during modeling, reasonable boundary conditions such as loads and supports should be applied to accurately reflect the real working conditions [10]; since the storage tank is directly and fixedly connected to the top of the pump, a fixed constraint is applied to the top of the pump, and a frictionless constraint is applied to the central area of the base [11].
Dry modal analysis (without fluid immersion) and wet modal analysis (with fluid immersion) are studied, respectively. The dry modal calculation uses the Modal module in ANSYS Workbench 2021 R2, and the wet modal calculation uses the Modal Acoustics module [12].
The velocity and pressure of the liquid within the pump tower vary over time, and the flow field is calculated using the CFX module in ANSYS for an unsteady analysis. The computation employs the RNG k–ε turbulence model, with the inlet boundary defined as a pressure inlet and the outlet as a mass flow outlet, and a convergence criterion of 10−5 is set to ensure accuracy.

2.2.2. Mesh Independence Verification

To validate the mesh independence, three mesh schemes (A, B, and C) were compared under dry modal conditions for the first- and second-order natural frequencies. The comparison is summarized in Table 2:
Table 2. Dry modal frequencies for mesh schemes A, B, and C.
As shown, the frequencies converge as follows: Scheme A → Scheme B → Scheme C. Scheme C’s values of 7.30 Hz and 7.72 Hz serve as the reference converged frequencies. Scheme B differs by only 0.27% (first order) and 0.78% (second order) from Scheme C, both within 1%, indicating sufficient accuracy. Scheme A’s errors (2.05% and 3.89%) are larger and not acceptable. Considering computation time and precision, Scheme B is adopted for all subsequent dry modal analyses.

2.2.3. Experimental Method

In order to ensure the accuracy of the simulation data, this paper compares it with excitation test data from the pump tower.
All experimental data in this study were obtained from laboratory vibration excitation tests conducted on the pump tower structure. A sweep-frequency excitation was applied using an electromagnetic shaker, with the excitation force directly acting on the flange at the bottom of the tower. The shaker model was XYZ-2000 (Hangzhou Zhibo Vibration Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou, China), with a maximum excitation force of ±1 kN, operating within a frequency range of 5 Hz to 50 Hz and a sweep rate of 1 Hz/s.
A total of 11 tri-axial accelerometers were arranged as follows: six accelerometers were evenly distributed along the height of the pump tower sidewall to measure vibrations perpendicular to the wall surface; two accelerometers were mounted on the top flange to record horizontal vibrations; and three accelerometers were placed along the outer wall of the internal pipeline—at the inlet, middle, and outlet—to measure radial responses. All sensors used were Kistler 8762B capacitive tri-axial accelerometers (Sinocera Piezotronics, Inc., Yangzhou, China), with a measurement range of ±50 m/s2.
Data acquisition was performed using a NI PXI-1042Q chassis (Pansino Tech, Beijing, China) equipped with NI PXI-4472B data acquisition cards, with a sampling rate set to 5000 Hz to ensure accurate capture of dynamic responses. The collected acceleration signals were processed using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to extract the Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) and identify the natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes, completing the modal parameter identification.
This test configuration and measurement setup provided comprehensive coverage of the critical vibration regions of the pump tower structure and served as a reliable experimental basis for validating the subsequent numerical model.
Figure 1 shows the comparison between the first-order longitudinal and transverse mode shapes of the pump tower and the experimental results. Figure 2 shows the comparison between the second-order longitudinal and transverse mode shapes and the experimental results. In the figures, the left side represents the experimental results, and the right side shows the simulated mode shape cloud diagrams.
Figure 1. Comparison of first-order modes.
Figure 2. Comparison of second-order modes.
The natural frequencies of the wet mode of the pump tower and those from experiments are shown in Table 3 below:
Table 3. Comparison between experimental and simulated frequencies (wet mode).
Based on the above comparison, the following conclusions can be drawn:
The simulated natural frequencies of the wet mode of the pump tower are basically consistent with the experimental results. The error of the first-order mode natural frequency is less than 5%, while the second-order frequency shows a relatively large error, From Table 3, it can be seen that the second-order modal errors in this study are 21.6% and 24.2%, which are higher than the approximately 10% reported in reference [13]. The main reasons for the increased errors may include differences in the selection of model damping parameters, insufficient mesh density, and the treatment of fluid–structure coupling boundaries. The first-order and second-order mode shapes of the pump tower are consistent with the experimental results. The first-order mode is horizontal unidirectional swinging, and the second-order mode is alternating opposite swinging.

4. Conclusions

In this paper, based on the fluid–solid coupling effect, the acoustic modal characteristics of a pump tower structure under different liquid levels are studied. Through a finite element analysis and comparison with experimental data, the following main conclusions are drawn:
  • Influence of Fluid on the Modal Characteristics of the Pump Tower: the vibration characteristics of the pump tower structure vary significantly under different fluid environments. The internal liquid in the pipeline has a much greater influence on the mode shapes and natural frequencies than the external liquid. By comparing dry and wet modal conditions, it is found that wet modes, which fully consider the added mass and damping effects of the fluid, exhibit significantly lower low-order natural frequencies compared to dry modes. Meanwhile, the mode shapes in wet modes also present smoother and more global deformation distributions.
  • Influence of Liquid Level Variation on the Modal Characteristics of the Pump Tower: as the liquid level gradually increases, the natural frequencies of the pump tower show a continuous downward trend. Particularly in the 50% to 75% liquid level range, the effect of fluid added mass is most significant, and the frequency variation in low-order modes (such as the first and second modes) is especially obvious. In addition, liquid level changes also affect the mode shapes, causing slight adjustments in local displacement distributions and deformation magnitudes.
  • Influence of Liquid Level on Local Mode Shapes: under varying liquid levels, local mode shapes of the pump tower also change accordingly. Especially in the connection regions between the pump units and pipelines, the amount and location of deformation change with increasing liquid level. Moreover, liquid level variation can lead to the redistribution of vibration energy across different parts of the structure, which may affect the overall vibration coordination and cause local stress concentrations. The higher the mode order, the lower the frequency reduction rate caused by liquid level rise.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, Y.L. and A.X.; methodology, Y.L.; software, Y.Z.; validation, Y.Z. and Y.L.; formal analysis, Y.Z.; investigation, W.S.; resources, Z.W.; data curation, Y.Z.; writing—original draft preparation, A.X.; writing—review and editing, Y.L.; visualization, W.S.; supervision, Y.L.; project administration, Z.W.; funding acquisition, Z.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by the Joint Open Research Fund Program of State 381; the Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering and Tsinghua-Ningxia Yinchuan Joint 382; and the Institute of Internet of Waters on Digital Water Governance (sklhse-2024-Iow07).

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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