ISSN:
0271-2091
Keywords:
curved pipe flow
;
variable cross-section
;
secondary flow
;
artery
;
Engineering
;
Engineering General
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
Notes:
This paper is concerned with steady, laminar flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid in curved pipes of non-uniform cross-section. During the past decade a number of numerical solutions for flow in curved pipes have been obtained using progressively improved computational methods and technology; see e.g. Soh and Berger (Int. j. numer. methods fluids, 7, 733-755 (1987)) and Green et al. (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 342, 543-572 (1993)) for relevant references. These results have been confined mainly to fully developed flow in pipes of constant cross-section. The present study deals with curved pipes of variable cross-section in which the velocity field is necessarily a function of the axial location along the pipe centreline in addition to the two cross-sectional co-ordinates. We use the finite difference method on a staggered grid with Newton's method to solve the Navier-Stokes equations. Results are calculated and presented for non-uniform pipe geometries with curvature ratios of 0ċ01 and 0ċ1. The velocity field for flow through curved pipes of non-uniform cross-section is compared with the corresponding results for flow through straight pipes of non-uniform radius and curved pipes of uniform radius, revealing important qualitative differences. The basic developments presented are applicable to a variety of flows in pipes, including those in arteries and piping systems.
Additional Material:
14 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
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