PARAMETRIC INSTABILITY IN METALLIC BELLOWS SUBJECTED TO SEISMIC EXCITATION

摘要

This paper investigates the parametric instability of a metallic bellows filled with fluid and subjected to the variance of dynamic internal pressure due to an earthquake. The axial stiffness of the bellows varies due to the variation in internal static fluid pressure, and this stiffness variation induces a parametric instability in the bellows. A finite element model describing a bellows connected to a pipe is developed to examine the question of whether parametric instability is excited in such bellows by earthquake motion, which is not the harmonic vibration. Numerical simulations and experiments were carried out using the acceleration recorded by past recorded actual earthquakes. We find that indeed parametric instability may appear in the bellows when the natural frequency of the pipe is close to the predominant frequency component of the earthquake, though the earthquake motion is not harmonic.