Theoretical and Numerical Investigation of Flow Transition in Rotating Curved Annular Pipes

Flows in rotating curved annular pipes are investigated by employing a theoretical and numerical method. The numerical results and the perturbation solutions confirm each other. The variations of the flow structure, including the secondary flow and the axial flow, with the force ratio (the ratio of the Coriolis force to the centrifugal force), the curvature and the radius ratio (the ratio of the radius of the inner circle to the radius of the outer circle of the annular pipe) are discussed in detail. The nature of the wall shear stress and the friction factor ratio are also shown. This study is the first to shows the flow transition of the flow in a rotating curved annular pipe and covers large ranges of parameters. Many interesting and previously unreported flow characteristics are obtained. Received 4 February 2002 and accepted 21 May 2002 Published online 30 October 2002 RID="*" ID="*" This research was supported by the Department of Energy under Contact Number W-7405-ENG-36. Communicated by H.J.S. Fernando