Motion of a fluid in a curved tube

Abstract

Dean’s work on the steady motion of an incompressible fluid through a curved tube of circular cross-section is extended. A method using a Fourier-series development with respect to the polar angle in the plane of cross-section is formulated and the resulting coupled non­linear equations solved numerically. The results are presented in terms of a single variable D = 4 R √(2 a/L ), where R is the Reynolds number, a the radius of cross-section of the tube, and L the radius of the curve. The results cover the range of D from 96 (the upper limit of Dean’s work) to over 600. From these it is found that the secondary flow becomes very appreciable for D = 600, moving the position of maximum axial velocity to a distance less than 0.38 a from the outer boundary, and decreasing the flux by 28% of its value for the straight tube. These calculations fill a large part of the gap in existing knowledge of secondary flow patterns, which lies in the upper range of Reynolds number for which flow is laminar. This range is of particular interest in the investigation of the cardiovascular system