Laminar flow separation in an axi-symmetric sudden smooth expanded circular tube

This paper concerns with the investigation of laminar flow separation and its consequences in a tube over a smooth expansion under the axi-symmetric approximations. A co-ordinate stretching has been made to map the expanded tube into a straight tube. The two-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are solved approximately by using primitive variables in staggered grid. A thorough quantitative analysis is performed through numerical simulations of the desired quantities such as wall shear stress, axial velocity, pressure distribution etc. These quantities are presented graphically and their consequences in the flow field are analysed in details. The dependence of the flow field on the physical parameter like expansion height d and on the Reynolds number has been investigated in details. It is interesting to note that the peak value of wall shear stress decreases with increasing height of expansion and also with the increasing Reynolds number.