Fully Developed Laminar Flow in Curved Rectangular Channels

1976 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. C. Cheng ◽  
Ran-Chau Lin ◽  
Jenn-Wuu Ou

The Navier-Stokes equations are solved by a numerical method for steady, fully developed, incompressible, laminar flow in curved rectangular channels considering the curvature ratio effect in the formulation. Solutions are obtained for aspect ratios 1, 2, 5 and 0.5 and Dean number ranges from 5 to 715, for example, for the case of square channel. It is found that an additional counter-rotating pair of vortices appears near the central outer region of the channel in addition to the familiar secondary flow at a certain higher Dean number depending on the aspect ratio. This phenomenon is consistent with Dean’s centrifugal instability problem and the secondary flow patterns with two pairs of counter-rotating vortices have not been reported in the past. The correlation equations for the friction factor are developed. The friction factor results are compared with the available theoretical and experimental results for the case of curved square channel and the agreement is found to be good.

1985 ◽  
Vol 154 ◽  
pp. 357-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. C. Humphrey ◽  
H. Iacovides ◽  
B. E. Launder

The paper reports numerical solutions to a semi-elliptic truncation of the Navier–Stokes equations for the case of developing laminar flow in circular-sectioned bends over a range of Dean numbers. The ratios of bend radius to pipe radius are 7:1 and 20:1, corresponding with the configurations examined experimentally by Talbot and his co-workers in recent years. The semi-elliptic treatment facilitates a much finer grid than has been possible in earlier studies. Numerical accuracy has been further improved by assuming radial equilibrium over a thin sublayer immediately adjacent to the wall and by re-formulating the boundary conditions at the pipe centre.Streamwise velocity profiles at Dean numbers of 183 and 565 are in excellent agreement with laser-Doppler measurements by Agrawal, Talbot & Gong (1978). Good, albeit less complete, accord is found with the secondary velocities, though the differences that exist may be mainly due to the difficulty of making these measurements. The paper provides new information on the behaviour of the streamwise shear stress around the inner line of symmetry. Upstream of the point of minimum shear stress, our numerical predictions display a progressive shift towards the result of Stewartson, Cebici & Chang (1980) as the Dean number is successively raised. Downstream of the minimum, however, in contrast with the monotonic approach to an asymptotic level reported by Stewartson, the numerical solutions display a damped oscillatory behaviour reminiscent of those from Hawthorne's (1951) inviscid-flow calculations. The amplitude of the oscillation grows as the Dean number is raised.


1996 ◽  
Vol 314 ◽  
pp. 227-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip A. J. Mees ◽  
K. Nandakumar ◽  
J. H. Masliyah

Steady developing flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid in a curved duct of square cross-section (the Dean problem) is investigated both experimentally and numerically. This study is a continuation of the work by Bara, Nandakumar & Masliyah (1992) and is focused on flow rates between Dn = 200 and Dn = 600 (Dn = Re/(R/a)1/2, where Re is the Reynolds number, R is the radius of curvature of the duct and a is the duct dimension; the curvature ratio, R/a, is 15.1).Numerical simulations based on the steady three-dimensional Navier – Stokes equations predict the development of a 6-cell secondary flow pattern above a Dean number of 350. The 6-cell state consists of two large Ekman vortices and two pairs of small Dean vortices near the outer wall that result from the primary instability that is of centrifugal nature. The 6-cell flow state develops near θ = 80° and breaks down symmetrically into a 2-cell flow pattern.The apparatus used to verify the simulations had a duct dimension of 1.27 cm and a streamwise length of 270°. At a Dean number of 453, different velocity profiles of the 6-cell flow state at θ = 90° and spanwise profiles of the streamwise velocity at every 20° were measured using a laser-Doppler anemometer. All measured velocity profiles, as well as flow visualization of secondary flow patterns, are in very good agreement with the simulations, indicating that the parabolized Navier – Stokes equations give an accurate description of the flow.Based on the similarity with boundary layer flow over a concave wall (the Görtler problem), it is suggested that the transition to the 6-cell flow state is the result of a decreasing spanwise wavelength of the Dean vortices with increasing flow rate. A numerical stability analysis shows that the 6-cell flow state is unconditionally unstable. This is the first time that detailed experiments and simulations of the development of a 6-cell flow state are reported.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Hwa Chen ◽  
Ray Jan

The continuity equation and Navier-Stokes equations derived from a non-orthogonal helical coordinate system are solved by the Galerkin finite-element method in an attempt to study the torsion effect on the fully developed laminar flow in the helical square duct. Since high-order terms of curvature and torsion are considered, the approach is also applicable to the problems with finite curvature and torsion. The interaction effects of curvature, torsion, and the inclined angle of the cross section on the secondary flow, axial velocity, and friction factor in the helical square duct are presented. The results show that the torsion has more pronounced effect on the secondary flow rather than the axial flow. In addition, unlike the flow in the toroidal square duct, Dean’s instability of the secondary flow, which occurs near the outer wall in the helical square duct, can be avoided due to the effects of torsion and/or inclined angle. In such cases, a decrease of the friction factor is observed. However, as the pressure gradient decreases to a small value, the friction factor for the toroidal square duct is also applicable to the helical square duct.


1993 ◽  
Vol 251 ◽  
pp. 315-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shijie Liu ◽  
Jacob H. Masliyah

Steady axially invariant (fully developed) incompressible laminar flow of a Newtonian fluid in helical pipes of constant circular cross-section with arbitrary pitch and arbitrary radius of coil is studied. A loose-coiling analysis leads to two dominant parameters, namely Dean number, Dn = Reλ½, and Germano number, Gn = Reη, where Re is the Reynolds number, λ is the normalized curvature ratio and η is the normalized torsion. The Germano number is embedded in the body-centred azimuthal velocity which appears as a group in the governing equations. When studying Gn effects on the helical flow in terms of the secondary flow pattern or the secondary flow structure viewed in the generic (non-orthogonal) coordinate system of large Dn, a third dimensionless group emerges, γ = η/(λDn)½. For Dn < 20, the group γ* = Gn Dn-2 = η/(λRe) takes the place of γ.Numerical simulations with the full Navier-Stokes equations confirmed the theoretical findings. It is revealed that the effect of torsion on the helical flow can be neglected when γ ≤ 0.01 for moderate Dn. The critical value for which the secondary flow pattern changes from two vortices to one vortex is γ* > 0.039 for Dn < 20 and γ > 0.2 for Dn ≥ 20. For flows with fixed high Dean number and A, increasing the torsion has the effect of changing the relative position of the secondary flow vortices and the eventual formation of a flow having a Poiseuille-type axial velocity with a superimposed swirling flow. In the orthogonal coordinate system, however, the secondary flow generally has two vortices with sources and sinks. In the small-γ limit or when Dn is very small, the secondary flow is of the usual two-vortex type when viewed in the orthogonal coordinate system. In the large-γ limit, the appearance of the secondary flow in the orthogonal coordinate system is also two-vortex like but its orientation is inclined towards the upper wall. The flow friction factor is correlated to account for Dn, A and γ effects for Dn ≤ 5000 and γ < 0.1.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 2234-2254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhipeng Duan ◽  
Peng Liang ◽  
Hao Ma ◽  
Niya Ma ◽  
Boshu He

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to numerically investigate the flow characteristics and extend the data of friction factor and Reynolds number product of hydrodynamically developing laminar flow in three-dimensional rectangular microchannels with different aspect ratios. Design/methodology/approach Using a finite-volume approach, the friction factor characteristics of Newtonian fluid in three-dimensional rectangular ducts with aspect ratios from 0.1 to 1 are conducted numerically under no-slip boundary conditions. A simple model that approximately predicts the apparent friction factor and Reynolds number product fappRe is referenced as a semi-theoretical fundamental analysis for numerical simulations. Findings The accurate and reliable results of fappRe are obtained, which are compared with classic numerical data and experimental data, and the simple semi-theoretical model used and all comparisons show good agreement. Among them, the maximum relative error with the classic numerical data is less than 3.9 per cent. The data of fappRe are significantly extended to other different aspect ratios and the novel values of fappRe are presented in the tables. The characteristics of fappRe are analyzed as a function of a non-dimensional axial distance and the aspect ratios. A more effective and accurate fourth-order fitting equation for the Hagenbach's factor of rectangular channels is proposed. Originality/value From the reliable data, it is shown that the values of fappRe and the model can be references of pressure drop and friction factor for developing laminar flow in rectangular channels for researchers and engineering applications.


Author(s):  
Patricio I. Rosen Esquivel ◽  
Jan H. M. ten Thije Boonkkamp ◽  
Jacques A. M. Dam ◽  
Robert M. M. Mattheij

In this paper we present an efficient method for calculating the friction factor for forced laminar flow in arbitrary axially symmetric pipes. The approach is based on an analytic expression for the friction factor, obtained after integrating the Navier-Stokes equations over a segment of the pipe. The friction factor is expressed in terms of surface integrals over the pipe wall, these integrals are then estimated by means of approximate velocity and pressure profiles computed via the method of slow variations. Our method for computing the friction factor is validated by comparing the results, to those obtained using CFD techniques for a set of examples featuring pipes with sinusoidal walls. The amplitude and wavelength parameters are used for describing their influence on the flow, as well as for characterizing the cases in which the method is applicable. Since the approach requires only numerical integration in one dimension, the method proves to be much faster than general CFD simulations, while predicting the friction factor with adequate accuracy.


1980 ◽  
Vol 99 (3) ◽  
pp. 469-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob H. Masliyah

Calculations of the flow field under laminar conditions in a helical semicircular duct have been made by numerically solving the Navier–Stokes equations. With the flat wall of the duct being the outer wall, the solution of the momentum equations for Dean numbers below 105 gave, for the secondary flow, twin counter-rotating vortices of Taylor–Goertler type. However, above a Dean number of Dn = 105, two solutions were possible. One solution was similar to that obtained for Dn < 105. The other solution revealed four vortices for the secondary flow. For Dn > 105, convergence to either flow pattern depended on the initial guess used in the numerical solution. Flow visualization confirmed the possibility of the presence of both types of secondary flow patterns.


2001 ◽  
Vol 11 (04) ◽  
pp. 565-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRISTIAN A. COCLICI ◽  
WOLFGANG L. WENDLAND

We analyze a nonoverlapping domain decomposition method for the treatment of two-dimensional compressible viscous flows around airfoils. Since at some distance to the given profile the inertial forces are strongly dominant, there the viscosity effects are neglected and the flow is assumed to be inviscid. Accordingly, we consider a decomposition of the original flow field into a bounded computational domain (near field) and a complementary outer region (far field). The compressible Navier–Stokes equations are used close to the profile and are coupled with the linearized Euler equations in the far field by appropriate transmission conditions, according to the physical properties and the mathematical type of the corresponding partial differential equations. We present some results of flow around the NACA0012 airfoil and develop an a posteriori analysis of the approximate solution, showing that conservation of mass, momentum and energy are asymptotically attained with the linear model in the far field.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 936-943 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. F. Dong ◽  
M. A. Ebadian

This paper numerically investigates the effects of buoyancy on fully developed laminar flow in a curved duct with an elliptic cross section. The flow of Newtonian fluids is assumed steady in terms of Boussinesq approximation. The curved elliptic duct is subjected to thermal boundary conditions of axially uniform heat flux and peripherally uniform wall temperature. The numerically generated boundary-fitted coordinate system is applied to discretize the solution domain of the elliptic duct, and the Navier-Stokes equations and the energy equation, including the curvature ratio, are solved by use of the control volume-based finite difference method. The solution covers a wide range of curvature ratios, and Dean and Grashof numbers. The results presented are displayed graphically and in tabular form to illustrate the buoyancy effect. It is further shown that buoyancy acts to increase both the Nusselt number and the friction factor and changes the distribution of the velocity and the temperature. The results for the curved circular duct with and without buoyancy are compared with the data available in the open literature for all cases. Also compared with the published data are the results of laminar flow in a curved elliptic duct, and very good agreement is obtained.


Author(s):  
Fayçal Hammami ◽  
Nader Ben Cheikh ◽  
Brahim Ben Beya

This paper deals with the numerical study of bifurcations in a two-sided lid driven cavity flow. The flow is generated by moving the upper wall to the right while moving the left wall downwards. Numerical simulations are performed by solving the unsteady two dimensional Navier-Stokes equations using the finite volume method and multigrid acceleration. In this problem, the ratio of the height to the width of the cavity are ranged from H/L = 0.25 to 1.5. The code for this cavity is presented using rectangular cavity with the grids 144 × 36, 144 × 72, 144 × 104, 144 × 136, 144 × 176 and 144 × 216. Numerous comparisons with the results available in the literature are given. Very good agreements are found between current numerical results and published numerical results. Various velocity ratios ranged in 0.01≤ α ≤ 0.99 at a fixed aspect ratios (A = 0.5, 0.75, 1.25 and 1.5) were considered. It is observed that the transition to the unsteady regime follows the classical scheme of a Hopf bifurcation. The stability analysis depending on the aspect ratio, velocity ratios α and the Reynolds number when transition phenomenon occurs is considered in this paper.


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