Nonlinear dynamics of imperfectly-supported pipes conveying fluid

In this paper, the nonlinear dynamics of a pipe imperfectly supported at the upstream end and free at the other and conveying fluid is investigated. The imperfect support is modelled via cubic translational and rotational springs. The equation of motion is obtained via Hamilton’s principle for an open system, and the Galerkin method is used for discretizing the resulting partial differential equation. The dynamics of a system with either strong rotational or strong translational stiffness is examined in details. Numerical results show that similarly to a cantilevered pipe, the system undergoes a supercritical Hopf bifurcation leading to period-1 limit cycle oscillations. The Hopf bifurcation may, however, occur at a much lower flow velocity compared to the perfect system. At higher flow velocities, quasi-periodic and chaotic-like motions may be observed. The amplitude of transverse displacement is generally much higher than that for a cantilevered pipe, mainly due to large-amplitude rigid-body motion. In addition, effects of the mass ratio, internal dissipation, hardening- or softening-type nonlinearity, as well as concentrated- or distributed-type nonlinearity on the dynamics of the system are examined.