On the Fluid Structure Interactions of a Wire-Wrapped Pin Bundle

Presently there exist no experimental methods readily available to characterize the comprehensive motion of wire-wrapped pins for the purpose of measuring fluid structure interactions. Specifically, the dearth of capabilities lies in the need to capture pin-to-pin interactions within the bundle that do not have visual access. This study leverages recent previous efforts that have demonstrated the successful use of a distributed strain sensor to characterize the motion of a single wire-wrapped pin under fluid flow and expands through the use of multiple instrumented pins to characterize the simultaneous motion of pin-to-pin interaction. The outcome of this study demonstrates the direct measurement of pin-to-pin contact, rubbing, and interaction over a range of relevant flow rates on a 19-pin wire-wrapped bundle.