Steady laminar flow through thin curved pipes

Let R, τ denote, respectively, the radius of curvature and radius of torsion of the pipe (centre-line) and let a be a typical cross-sectional diameter.

The major part of the present paper addresses the case of flows through pipes of constant cross-section; (Re)²(a/R), Re(a/τ), (a/R) and (a/τ) all being small. Re is the Reynolds number for the flow. It is found that, even without further specifications of the details of the pipe, many important results can be obtained about the secondary flow which occurs and the pressure losses resulting from it. For example, it is shown that an important feature of such flows is valid for any corss-sectional shape; this was not obvious from previous works which treated only special cases having significant symmetries. Also, a new method for calculating the modified axial pressure gradient is presented which reduces dramatically the amount of work required therefor.

The remainder of the paper presents some results for similar flows through pipes of varying cross-section.