Geometrically exact dynamics of cantilevered pipes conveying fluid

Abstract In this paper, the global dynamics of a hanging fluid conveying cantilevered pipe with a concentrated mass attached at the free end is investigated. The problem is of interest not only for engineering applications, but also because it displays interesting and often surprising dynamical behaviour. The widely used nonlinear models based on the transverse motion of the pipe are not able to accurately capture the dynamical behaviour of the system at very high flow velocities. Thus, a high-dimensional geometrically-exact model is developed for the first time, utilising Hamilton’s principle together with the Galerkin modal decomposition technique. Extensive numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the influence of key system parameters. It is shown that at sufficiently high flow velocities past the first instability (Hopf bifurcation), the system undergoes multiple bifurcations with extremely large oscillation amplitudes and rotations, beyond the validity of third-order nonlinear models proposed to-date. In the presence of an additional tip mass, quasi-periodic and chaotic motions are observed; additionally, it is shown that for such cases an exact model is absolutely essential for capturing the pipe dynamics even at relatively small flow velocities beyond the first instability.