An attempt to scale the vibrations of water pipes

The goal of the paper is to provide an estimation of the vibrations of a water pipe subjected to standard turbulent excitations. Firstly, a simplified expression of the acoustic pressure generated by a standard valve or orifice is proposed. It is based on the hydraulic pressure drop and a Strouhal number. Secondly, a theoretical analysis of Fluid-Structure Interaction yields a screening expression of the structure velocity Power Spectral Density (PSD), as a function of the acoustic pressure source. Field data are used for validation. It is shown that cavitation-induced vibration can be directly identified by plotting the structure velocity PSD in non-dimensional form.