Steady Laminar Flow through Twisted Pipes: Fluid Flow in Square Tubes

Abstract

The Navier-Stokes equation in a rotating frame of reference is solved numerically to obtain the flow field for a steady, fully developed laminar flow of a Newtonian fluid in a twisted tube having a square cross-section. The macroscopic force and energy balance equations and the viscous dissipation term are presented in terms of variables in a rotating reference frame. The computed values of friction factor are presented for dimensionless twist ratios, (i.e., length of tube over a rotation of π radians normalized with respect to half the width of tube) of 20, 10, 5 and 2.5 and for Reynolds numbers up to 2000. The qualitative nature of the axial velocity profile was observed to be unaffected by the swirling motion. The secondary motion was found to be most important near the wall.