Numerical study of solution structure and nonlinear behavior of Dean flow with vortex structure in a bending square duct

Abstract

Fluid flow and heat transfer in bending channels are topics of much research interest because of increasing demand in various fields, particularly in the medical and industrial arenas. This paper presents a numerical study of fluid flow and heat transfer in a bending channel with a square cross section. Numerical calculations using spectral methods were performed for a curvature of 0.001 and a Dean number (Dn) in the range of 0<Dn≤5000. A temperature difference was maintained between the horizontal walls for a Grashof number of Gr = 1000, with the bottom wall heated and the outer and inner walls thermally insulated. Applying Newton–Raphson iteration and path continuation, two branching structures of steady solutions with two to eight vortices were obtained. The first branch comprises multi-vortex up to eight and it occurs at Dn≥3500 while the second branch comprises to multi-vortex up to a maximum of four. The first branch forms symmetric solution while the second branch for its complexity forms asymmetric solutions. For unsteady solutions, time-evolution calculations were performed to investigate the nonlinear behavior, and it was found that with increasing Dn, the unsteady flow experienced various flow instabilities. The time evolution was plotted in phase space to clarify the unsteady flow characteristics. Distinctive contours of the secondary flow patterns, streamwise velocity distributions, and isotherms were also obtained, and the unsteady flow was found to comprise two to six vortices. Finally, convective heat transfer was explored by obtaining temperature contours, and the secondary flow was found to magnify the convective heat transfer significantly. Because of the increase of several secondary vortices in the chaotic solutions, heat transfer occurred markedly in the flow.