Transient flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in a circular tube after a sudden point impulse

Abstract

The flow of a viscous incompressible fluid in a circular tube generated by a sudden impulse on the axis is studied on the basis of the linearized Navier–Stokes equations. A no-slip boundary condition is assumed to hold on the wall of the tube. At short time the flow is irrotational and may be described by a potential which varies with the square root of time. At later times there is a sequence of moving and decaying vortex rings. At long times the flow velocity decays with an algebraic long-time tail. The impulse generates a time-dependent pressure difference between the ends of the tube.